Nomadic Matt has become one of the top travel bloggers (as measured by traffic), by just doing what he loves, traveling the world and writing about it. He published a book based on his area of specialty: traveling on a budget. And in 2015 he released an updated version of this book, prompting his current road trip promotional tour of the U.S.
I attended Matt’s book promotion event in San Francisco. He tells a charming story about being in a boring desk job and discovering his love for travel on a vacation (that landed him in the hospital with food poisoning for several days, among other adventures). He took some time off to travel the world, and discovered he didn’t want to stop. Ten years later, Matt’s made a life out of travel.
While not specifically about sharing economy travel, Matt does talk about using the sharing economy for savings in a number of ways: ridesharing, meal sharing, couchsurfing and other peer to peer lodging options. I picked up a copy of his book to see what I could learn.
How to Travel the World on $50 a Day is a good introduction for people who want to travel but don’t have a lot of money to spend. It’s also a very good resource for people who are thinking about quitting their jobs and traveling. Matt includes information on budgeting and saving up for your trip, preparing for your travels, saving money on travel expenses, and specifics tips about traveling in various popular regions. He even includes packing lists and info on vaccinations. (I’m particularly impressed by his claim that he travels with only one pair of pants and one pair of shorts!)
The book is an easy read and a nice how-to guide for anyone who wants to make their travel dollars go further. If you are already a serious travel hacker you probably won’t find a ton of new info in this book, but for the other 95% of travelers, it’s a good investment.