The Ultimate Travel Bargain!

Or . . . what to do if you don’t have enough time or money to travel this year.

Are you too busy or too broke to take a trip this year?  Here are some alternatives.  Contact your local Chamber of Commerce for a directory of all the museums, parks, and other attractions in your area, and/or check the Internet.  Then go to the ones that interest you!  Treat your home town the way you would any new city you’d be visiting.  For example, how many New Yorkers have never seen the Statue of Liberty?  Yet they’ll fly to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower!

Find out what plays and concerts are being offered by local talent.  See what lectures are being held at your local library or college or are being presented by some local organization!  What about local sporting events?  Speaking of sporting events, try a new sport!  Rollerskate, ride your bike, learn how to play tennis or golf or how to swim at the local YMCA; or take dancing or piano lessons!

Attend a religious service of a denomination that you know very little about.  (Check first to see if there are any restrictions for non-members.  There might be a particular place to sit and observe; or a particular type of dress code required, such as a hat.)

Go to court . . . as an observer!  Attend a town meeting or a legislative briefing.  It can be an educational and eye-opening experience.  Plus you might meet some really interesting people!

If you live near a college, pick up the campus newspaper and see what’s going on (e.g., events, speakers, sports).  Sit in, for free, on a class that interests you.  (With the professor’s permission!)

Go to a nearby campground or national forest and pitch a tent for the weekend!  Take a canoe or kayak ride down a nearby river.  Attend an auction or art show.  Take a tour of a local manufacturing plant, brewery(!), newspaper, etc.  Most tours are FREE!  Join a club.

Plan your ideal future trip in detail!  Let your imagination run wild!  Write to all the tourist offices for FREE literature, talk to a travel agent and get more literature, check books out from the library, print information from the Internet; then create a poster that shows each step of the trip you’d like to take someday.

Planning is half the fun.  And once you have crystallized exactly where you want to go, chances are you’ll figure out a way to make it really happen, eventually.

Study a foreign language at inexpensive adult education classes through your local high school or college.  Go on line for classes, or use your library card and check out instructional language CDs for FREE!

Volunteer to help the homeless or the Red Cross or an environmental organization or a political candidate that you believe in.

“Travel” doesn’t have to cover hundreds of miles to be a mind-expanding adventure or relaxing escape.  Just think of all the undiscovered things there are to see and do right in your own back yard.


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