Lessons from the NY Times Frugal Traveler

The frugal travel writer for the New York Times is retiring.  In this column, he ponders the definition of "frugal," and he shares the travel lessons he's learned over the years.


Three Things I’ve Learned About Frugal Travel (and the Things I Didn’t Do)  By MATT GROSS

Six years ago, I had a regular job, in an office. I was there 9 or 10 hours a day, made a decent living and even found the work occasionally interesting. But I was also bored. More than bored — I was restless. Perhaps like many of you, my readers, I lived for the week or two a year when I could venture out into the world to explore, and in the intervening months at home I’d live vicariously through other people’s tales of adventure.

Eventually, however, I couldn’t take it anymore. I saved up about $5,000 and quit my job to go to Cambodia and Vietnam, where I’d lived almost a decade earlier. My plan was to spend several months researching a novel there, then return and … well, I hadn’t figured that part out yet. Frankly, it didn’t matter to me. But, by a quirk of luck, I began writing for the Travel section and, a year later, I was asked to take over the Frugal Traveler column. The rest, as they say, is history.

And now my tenure is history as well. After four years, I’m handing in my Frugal Traveler badge. But before I do, I wanted to share a few of the things I’ve learned:

1. Frugality Is in the Eye of the Beholder

From the very beginning, this column has struggled with the question, what is “frugal”? When I started out, in the pre-Facebook, pre-Twitter era, this column was pretty narrowly defined: it was a print article about a weekend trip on $500, in a place where $500 would not seem to go far. “Frugal Newport, R.I.” was my first, an unstinting but anxiety-filled 48-hour romp through the posh town of yachts and mansions with my wife, Jean. From there, I toured a world of amusing headlines: “Frugal Palm Beach,” “Frugal Jackson Hole.”

By 2006, when I was planning my first summer-long Frugal Traveler trip – Around the World in 90 Days — the budget had to change. If it stayed the same, I’d end up spending close to $20,000! But what counted as frugal for 90 days in 12 vastly different countries? Rather arbitrarily, we settled on $100 a day — as an upper limit, mind you, not as a goal. Of course, my readers had something to say about that. Here’s a typical comment: “How dare you call yourself the Frugal Traveler? In 1983 my best friend from college and I took off with 6 month round the world plane tickets at $1700 apiece.” (In 2009 dollars, that would be $3,660 to $6,860 .)

Very quickly, I realized that every traveler has a different definition of “frugal travel.” To many, it means youth hostels and supermarket meals — and nothing else. To others, it means seeking out coupons, discounts and freebies. To me, frugal travel has come to mean two things. First, it’s about value. In general, I’m reluctant to spend money, but if something is a truly good value, I’ll open my wallet, whether it’s 50-cent roadside kebabs in Beijing or $88 for the world’s best bed-and-breakfast in Shanghai.

But more important, it’s about realizing that your budget — whether high or low — does not determine the quality of your travel experience. To travel well, you need to pack an open mind, a lot of energy, infinite patience and a willingness to embrace the awkward and unfamiliar. No amount of money in the world can buy those things — because they come free.