Author name: Alex Mercer

I’ve eaten rice and beans for eleven straight days in Guatemala. I’ve split a single banh mi three ways in […]

The first time I took an overnight train across Europe, I paid eleven euros. Not for a coffee, not for

I’ve hauled a 65-litre backpack up a mountain in Nepal. I’ve dragged a wheeled suitcase across cobblestones in Lisbon. And

Six dollars a day. That was my real average across three weeks in northern Laos in 2019, and no, I

Six months. That’s roughly 180 days of not knowing where I’d sleep next week, of counting coins on hostel beds,

Sixty-seven countries. Eleven years on the road. And people still tell me South America is expensive, dangerous, impossible on a

I saved $4,200 for a six-month trip across Southeast Asia earning $19 an hour at a hardware store in Ohio.

I’ve slept in 200-plus hostels across 67 countries. Paid £3 for a bunk in rural Laos. Paid £28 for a

Thirty days in Europe on a budget sounds like clickbait. Fly for free, sleep for nothing, eat like a king

How I Beat Travel Anxiety on a Budget: A Scaredy-Cat’s Guide to Seeing the World In 2017, I sat on