post your outside-the-box travel hacks here

[Gerard]

I just spent a week birding in Brownsville, TX, and many of the places I wanted to go had no transit service (I don't drive). Taxis were gonna run about 120 bucks total, if I could get them.

Instead, when I got there I bought a cheap box store bike. Rode it for a week, then left it with my airbnb host for her bikeless student friend. I guess I could have optimized this strategy (tried to buy a used bike, or to sell the bike at the end of my stay). But I still came out about 15 bucks ahead, and I also got in 60-plus miles of riding and saw the place better.

Anybody else have any strange travel strategies that have worked out well for them (and might work for the rest of us)?

[HenryDavid]

Many (Euro and Canadian) cities now have short-term bike rental programs. If you keep individual trips short, these can be free, since usually you don't pay for the first 20 minutes. Ride it, park it, walk around, ride back, park it. Paris does this with both bikes and cars, even.

Bike rental is hardly ever good value: but it's hard to be sure you can find a used bike to buy that fit and meets your needs, via Craigslist or equivalent, for a short stay. But even buying new and then bringing the bike home can be a better deal. One idea is to contact a bike rental place and ask if they can sell you one of their used rental bikes: buy it cheap, ride it, then sell it or bring it home to keep or sell.

I do know people who've lined up cheap used car ads, all the best prospects, then spent one day buying used and driving that car for a month or so before selling it and coming home. Takes a bit more paperwork though: license, insurance etc.. (This is one clear case where research and legwork, and language skills, can substitute for spending.) I bought a used Peugeot in France, drove it 1000k to Italy next day, then drove it on summer visits for over 4 years. No problems. Way cheaper than renting.

A lesson here is that longer trips might lend themselves more to such ideas than shorter trips.

[honeybbq]

I always try to use alternative transportation when traveling abroad. Usually it's a) cheaper and b) an adventure in itself.

Some of the favorites off the top of my head:

- biking around Ayutthaya, Thailand. It was a beautiful way to tour around and see the sites and get some exercise. Way way cheaper than some organized tour and we could stop wherever we wanted and spend as much time there as well.

- trains. I've taken many long (4-8 hr+) train rides in Peru, Thailand, and New Zealand. They are always a wonderful and interesting experience, plus you can chat with others on the train.

- buses. In Ecuador, I think we paid 50 cents (CENTS!) a piece to travel from Quito to getting dropped off outside a national park. It was probably an hour long journey.  That same trip we took another bus that had live chickens and goats and stuff running around on it. We were going to Umbato, Ecuador, and the driver would just drive around the city with his head out the window yelling UMBATO UMBATO UMBATO until the bus filled up and we were on our way.


My lodging hack is to stay in a tent and camp or backpack when possible. Although the rules have changed now, on the Big Island in Hawaii, we stayed at Volcanoes national park for a WEEK for either $10 or $15 total. The way the park rules read, you could stay from 1 to 7 days for one camping fee. Pretty amazing.  I think it is now that much per day. We had used miles to fly there, so other than a rental car and food, it was almost a free vacation. Which reminds me:

-food. I love eating at little fruit stands and street vendors. In Hawaii I think I ate my body weight in those little tiny bananas. GOD they were good! Also, in Buenos Aires we got the most amazing empanadas in my life from a dude who was carting them around in a wheelbarrow. I think I went back for another one TWICE. And they were cheap. Like a buck each. I had never had a pumpkin filled empanada before and it was so good and savory. I've also had real fermented corn called chica (Peruvian). Basically, some little old lady was brewing it in her house. It was so weird and good! If you are open to weird stuff, you can find some amazing goodies.

[Mezzie]

It's not really uncommon, but I stay in hostels, even in the U.S. Nearly everyone I meet is from another country, so I feel we're underutilizing them here. The low lodging rate plus access to a kitchen and often a free breakfast is hard to beat. Plus, I've made lifelong friends in the 20 years or so I've traveled this way. We can provide them free lodging here in the states and they do the same for us when we're abroad. Fun and frugal!

[Stachey]

This is not too "outside the box" but I always use local transit options when I'm visiting places rather than renting a car. 
If I rented a car I'd be battling traffic and be stressed out trying to navigate an unfamiliar city. 
On transit I have seen some spectacular vistas and scenery that I never would have seen in a car (the views from the top of a double decker bus are amazing!)  And someone else has the stress of driving.  Win win.

[Bbqmustache]

Bring or buy a crock pot at a thrift store.  Compose your meal in the morning, head out and do you things, and come back to dinner!

[Monkey Uncle]

I've done something similar to the OP's hack a couple of times.  I play guitar (poorly), and I don't like to go a week-plus without playing when I'm on a long trip.  But I really don't want to deal with the hassle of flying with my guitar, along with the risk that it might get damaged. 

Once on a business trip to Madison, WI, I walked across town to a little music shop and found an old beater guitar that the shop owner was going to use as a demonstration piece for an instrument repair class.  I paid him 20 bucks for it and spent the evenings that week jamming with the pot-heads out on State Street.  At the end of the week, I gave it to one of those guys hanging out on the street.

Another time on a vacation to the Everglades, I stopped by a pawn shop on the way from the airport down to house where we were staying and bought a cheap-but-playable guitar for 50 bucks.  My son and I played it for the week we were there, and on the way back to the airport, we stopped at the same pawn shop and sold it back to them for 30 bucks.  So we basically rented a guitar for a week for 20 bucks.

[Heckler]

Grab your bike and go meet the locals!  You'll likely make a few new friends as well. Basically, stay for free at someone's home in exchange for have other people stay with you at a different time.  Globally.

https://www.warmshowers.org