Jonathan has an interesting request for Get Rich Slowly readers. He wants to make a month-long cross-country road trip next summer, and he wants to do it on the cheap. But how? He’s hoping that you can help. Here’s an abridged version of his e-mail:
I’m trying to figure out how to save money on vacation. My girlfriend and I have always had a dream of spending a month driving out to the Grand Canyon then to DC for the Smithsonian and back and stopping at all sorts of interesting sites on the way. We’re in Michigan, so the trip will probably be about 6,000 miles making room for all our random stops.
I’ve done some work in figuring out how to make this affordable, but everything adds up fast. The worst expenses are obviously gas and lodging, followed by food. We plan on camping, since it is a lot of fun and a lot cheaper than hotels. If we’re good, lunches for a week could stay under $30 — mainly sandwich stuff and snacks, but fast food will probably be tempting some days. Dinner will probably be even more expensive.
So far, I’ve added up over $1000 in expenses and we haven’t done anything yet! I would love any suggestions in lowering those expenses, and in what sort of things we could do along the way that are low budget. We hate normal touristy locations, which will hopefully help a lot in keeping the price down.
p.s. I’m considering getting some sort of mobile internet card for my laptop so we can take lots of pictures and blog the trip as we go. Any suggestions on getting a month worth of internet cheap would be great too!
I’m envious. I’ve always wanted to do this sort of thing. The older I get, the less likely it is to happen, though, so I’ve begun to live vicariously through the adventures of others. In the past, for example, I’ve enjoyed reading about The Frugal Traveler’s American road trip.
Though I don’t have any first-hand experience with this sort of travel, I have discovered a few related sites over the past year or so:
Trips like this used to be commonplace, but they’ve become much less popular since the rise of cheap air travel and “destination” vacations.
.jpg "Another strip from Gasoline Alley of the 1920s")
Click the strip to open a larger version in a new window.
Have you ever made a cross-country sightseeing trip? Do you have experience camping for days on end? Are you an expert at eating cheaply while traveling? Do you have recommendations for low-cost points of interest across the United States? Are Jonathan’s projections realistic? How much would you budget for a trip like this?
译文:
对读者的咨询：如果规划一次节俭型假期旅行
乔纳森对《理财》的读者们有一个有趣的小要求。他想在明年夏天进行一次长达一个月的越野旅行，而且这一旅行不会花费很大。但是，需要怎么做呢？他希望你们能给点建议。这里有一封他的邮件（有所删节）：
我正在计算，在旅途中我所能省下的钱有多少。我和我的女朋友一直在考虑用一个月的时间开车去大峡谷，然后去华盛顿的史密斯索尼，之后再返回来，同时我们也会在沿途各种有趣的地方停歇下来。如今我们居住在密歇根州，所以这次旅行有6000英里的空间任由我们停歇。
为了使我们支付得起这次旅行的费用，我已经做了不少工作，最麻烦的要数汽油和住宿了，接着就是食物。我们计划露营，因为这样会有很多乐趣，同时也要比宾馆便宜得多。如果可以的话，我们一个星期的中餐花费可以少于30美元——主要是三明治和一些零食，但这类速食用不了多久就会腻了。而晚餐可能还要花更多的钱。
.jpg "Kris doesn't get this joke. It's highway robbery, see? Dig the old-style hand-pumped gas!")
目前，我只筹集到了1000美元的费用，但我们什么都还没有准备。所以非常欢迎你们的关于削减花费，关于我们可以如果在沿途中减少预算开支的建议。我们也并不喜欢观光景点，这样也有利与于我们降低花费。
我正在考虑为我的笔记本电脑找一辆移动互联网汽车，这样有利于我们在沿途上拍下许多照片和写下一些关于旅途经历的博客。如果你们有什么关于廉价互联网的建议，那真的太好了！
我满是羡慕，并总是想做一些这类事情。虽然我已经开始与其他人的冒险经历产生共鸣，比如说，以前我曾经沉浸在阅读The Frugal Traveler’s American road trip中，但随着我慢慢长大，这越发变得不可能。
虽然我没有任何关于此类旅行的直接经历，但去年我发现了许多有关的旅游点：
去年六月，纽约时报刊登了一个列表。这一列表列出了31个适合今年夏天旅游的地方（虽然这些建议也适用于其他季节）。请确保读完268位读者的评论，以便找到其他有用信息。 《美国之旅》会有许多专家发表的关于节俭型旅途技巧的帖子。 在《明智的面包》中，杰西卡有许多关于如何在旅途中生存的建议。
我并不是百科网的忠实粉丝，但他们关于美国旅途的101篇文章的确含有了对帖子和链接的收集，包括如何找到免费无线互联网连接的建议。 诸如此类的帖子曾非常普遍，但自从对低廉的空中旅行和“目的地”假期热情的上升，它们不再那么流行。
请点击以上连环画，在一个新的窗口看到它的放大版。
你是否进行过越野观光旅行？你是否有连接数日的野营经历？你是否是研究旅途中节俭伙食的专家？你是否有什么关于美国廉价旅游景点推荐？乔纳森的方案有可实施性吗？像此类的旅行你的预算会是多少呢？---