Ok, so your hotel won’t look like this, but we want it to feel like it does.

Things were look­ing rather bleak. Our attempts to buy air­line tick­ets from Siem Reap, Cam­bo­dia to Hanoi, Viet­nam online had failed mul­ti­ple times, and we wanted to fly out the next day. Nick and I trudged back to our guest­house to see if the man­ager, Meang, could pos­si­bly help. His response?

“Sure, let me text mes­sage a friend who works in a travel office, she’ll reserve the tick­ets, and we can go over tomor­row to pick them up. It’ll be cheaper if we do it for you any­ways. Does that sound ok?”

The next morn­ing, Meang per­son­ally drove us to the travel agency to pur­chase the tick­ets at a 33% dis­count, waited until the trans­ac­tion was com­plete, and then drove us to a restau­rant he rec­om­mended for break­fast. After hav­ing the door opened for us to walk in, we were greeted by three smil­ing servers. The omelettes proved excel­lent, and each included a bowl of per­fectly ripe exotic fruit, which wasn’t even men­tioned on the menu.

The Bet­ter Side of Bud­get Travel

The cost of the meal, includ­ing a cap­puc­cino? $4.00.
The cost of the guest­house includ­ing the five-star concierge ser­vice? $7.00 per night.

Our tick­ets were pur­chased, a refresh­ing break­fast eaten, and we were free to get a relax­ing $4.00/hr mas­sage before we left for the airport.

The increased pos­si­bil­ity of tourism in many coun­tries in the devel­op­ing world has led to stiff com­pe­ti­tion with the usual des­ti­na­tions in terms of cus­tomer ser­vice and ammeni­ties offered, all at a frac­tion of the cost.

Many devel­op­ing coun­tries pro­vide supe­rior ser­vice to the West, whether the loca­tion is con­sid­ered high-end or “bud­get” by the travel guides. Also, these coun­tries are rapidly mod­ern­iz­ing, with new restau­rants and hotels going up seem­ingly every day

From per­sonal expe­ri­ence, Nick’s recent busi­ness trip in Tan­za­nia showed that even a Hol­i­day Inn is bet­ter abroad, with its Indian man­agers, great local food (along with the req­ui­site burg­ers and club sand­wiches), and help­ful staff.  But still, for $140/night, you don’t get what you pay for at a cor­po­rate chain and locally-owned places are always bet­ter, plus you’re sup­port­ing the local econ­omy as well.

Don’t Skip Town with­out Expe­ri­enc­ing the Best

No one guide can stay on top of the changes occur­ring every­day in the tourism indus­try (espe­cially in the devel­op­ing world), so a com­pos­ite solu­tion proves the most suc­cess­ful. A qual­ity country-specific tourism book, along with read­ily avail­able and free Internet-based sources ensures you can enjoy the best a place has to offer, and not spend much in the process. And in the off chance you are dis­sat­is­fied, the empow­er­ment of writ­ing an hon­est review to a pop­u­lar web­site can help oth­ers avoid mak­ing the same mistake.

Cheap, Pleas­ant Vaca­tion Steps

1. Scope out a des­ti­na­tion. Try Lonely Planet, and specif­i­cally look at their “Prac­ti­cal Infor­ma­tion” sec­tion, which gives cur­rent infor­ma­tion on daily costs for a des­ti­na­tion, the cur­rent exchange rate, and other use­ful information.
2. Get a travel guide to bring with you. Con­sider a tour book like Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, or Rick Steves. Even though they make you stand out as a for­eigner (though your appear­ance might do that already in some areas), for under $20 they give you all of the infor­ma­tion you need on find­ing a cheap, great place to stay, the best tour oper­a­tors, and the process for book­ing a seat on a train, plane, or bus. Another option is to use Ama­zon to find a good-selling, highly rated tour book.
3. Get around cheaply and eas­ily. Travel cheaply between des­ti­na­tions by using Wikipedia’s list of low-cost air­lines, and using a local tour oper­a­tor or gov­ern­ment tourism office to book a train or bus ticket. Most of East­ern and West­ern Europe are ter­rific by train, whereas in other coun­tries it might be bet­ter to plane or bus it.
4. Don’t for­get the web. When you arrive at your des­ti­na­tion, con­sider cross-checking the infor­ma­tion in your book with sites like Wik­i­travel, or Virtual-Tourist as they’re user-generated con­tent tends to be cur­rent up-to-the-minute, and you won’t have the prob­lem of show­ing up the crowded hos­tel every­one else found in their Lonely Planet.
5. Google Maps is in the devel­op­ing world, too. For spe­cific reviews on a spe­cific guest house, tour com­pany, etc., don’t for­get to search for it on Google Maps, as you’ll be sur­prised at just how much of the world they’ve already cov­ered. (insert screen cap of our guest house’s bubble)

Keep an Open Mind

Though it’s tempt­ing to go with the brands you know, like Mar­riott or Enter­prise, real­ize that you’re pay­ing an arm and a leg for that name recog­ni­tion, and with their huge size, these com­pa­nies may be more inter­ested in not upset­ting you than with cater­ing to your every whim.

Also, by cast­ing your net just a lit­tle fur­ther, you’re sup­port­ing local busi­ness­peo­ple, pro­vid­ing funds to send kids to school, and cre­at­ing tax rev­enue for bet­ter infra­struc­ture. So while you’re get­ting your dis­count mas­sage, be proud of the fact that you’ve lefts the cookie-cutter chains behind.