My 🇺🇸 bf was shocked how cheap I can travel

I’m a disaster at home. I never fully dry off after a shower and drip through the whole apartment. I leave coffee mugs in places archaeologists will one day puzzle over. I take three quarters of the bed no matter how big the bed is.

But I know how to travel.

Since we started dating, my boyfriend goes on twice as many trips for half his old budget, and somehow they got nicer. Or that’s how I pitch it to him :)

Here’s the thing I tell every Hidden Jam guest. I’ll drop 5000 euros on the right five days and refuse to pay 40 for a coffee that should cost 2. You can call me cheap. But I’ll pay for what I’ll remember and refuse to pay for a logo.

A few of my rules.

Mykonos, Monaco, St. Moritz. You’re paying for the name and a burnt coffee that comes with a 40-euro bottle of water. Real story from two years ago. And yes, I’m still traumatized.

Swap Mykonos for the Ionian and swim with pigs like it’s the Bahamas.

Swap Monaco for Cap Ferrat and get the actual French experience. We like the real deal, right?

Swap St. Moritz for Chamonix, better mountains and nobody wearing fur to lunch.

Your net worth doesn’t change whether that coffee is worth it. It isn’t.

My favourite trick: book a flight with a layover and just get off at the layover, because that’s where you were actually going. Saved almost 200 dollars flying Toronto to El Salvador this week. It’s called skiplagging.

Rules: one-way only, carry-on only, no frequent flyer number, or they cancel the rest and can close your account. I find them on Skiplagged, then cross-check on Google Flights. Technically against airline rules, so know what you’re doing.

Skip the hotels, use subletting apps.

Ciao lets locals rent out their own place while they’re away, at what it actually costs them, mostly founders and engineers, and you don’t have to list your own place to book.

Kindred is home swapping: you put up your apartment, earn credits, stay in someone else’s.

Just got a Paris apartment on Ciao for 70 euros a night that lists for 300.

I don’t want to make this endless, so reply with “lifehacks” and I’ll send you the full thing.

Kris

P.S. One more, since we’re on the subject of trips actually worth the money. One cabin left on the Croatia yacht trip in September and a few spots on the Chamonix ski trip. The 2500-euros-well-spent kind.

Details here.