I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion of Cyprus on the expat scene as my interest in the topic has grown lately. This appealed to me as I’ll be learning some Turkish this upcoming fall and am interested in Turkey, a neighbor with a large political influence on the somewhat odd island nation of Cyprus. Thus, I thought I’d do a little travel profile of the Greekish – Turkish island nation(s? - the plural from its political status)

Why go to Cyprus:

• Decent prices – as far as hot beach escapes on the Mediterranean go, Cyprus is a different and affordable option.
• Not yet fully in the EU – They have the Euro, yet with their inclusion in the EU just 2 years old, they haven’t been completely unionized in a sense of prices and entrance requirements that are a bit murky when compared to the free flow of people elsewhere through the EU.  So if ever, now might be the time when looking at price levels and ‘difficulty’ of entrance.
• Interesting Politics - Its current political state is, erm, interesting. Some may dislike the conflict, but I think it adds allure as compromised safety is nowhere near an issue. Stats show Cyprus is unbelievablye safe and content.

Why not go to Cyprus

• Greece – With Greece in the economic shit hole, you may be better off just going to Greece. Greece offers more diversity, islands, historical significance, and [probably] beauty. While Cyprus’ financial situation is very questionable at the time as well, Greece’s seems more likely to discount travel options only in the short term. Its dealing with the crisis seems likely to lead to an economic rebound in the next 5 years or so.
• Limited transit options – Cyprus is accessible only by plane and ferry from (drumroll) Greece, as services from Israel and Turkey are no more. For vagabonding budget travelers seeking a little passport stamp diversity in their travels, it may not be ideal to sit in one spot the entire trip.
• Tourism saturation – not everybody loves British tourist saturation. ‘Cyprus holidays’ is a prevalent British buzz word resulting from its status as a former British colony. So if you have an issue with stereotypical Brits, maybe more off the beaten path destinations are better worth your time.

The Lowdown:
The political issues stem from a few Turkish and Greek disagreements in the past. The North is a bit fractioned off with Turkish influence, while the South is predominately Greek, and more of the stable EU part, per say. You’ll be going to the southern part, atleast for entrance purposes. Holidays to Larnaca in southeast Cyprusare the most common method of visiting Cyprus due to the availability of cheap flights. Other airports include Ercan in the North and Paphos (another beach area)  in the southwestern part of the island. A journey between Paphos and Larnaca would be the obvious route of traveling. The coastal drive linking these two destinations along the beautiful azul waters looks spectacular and is the highlight of a few journals I skimmed.

Internal Cyprus Locomotion
Getting around within Cyprus can be done by bus, shared taxi, or car rentals. Obviously, bus it up if you’re on a budget.

Cyprus Lodging
The term “hostel” doesn’t seem too prevalent in Cyprus from initial research. No worries, however, as quick online searches yielded cheap private hotel rooms for 15 Euros and up. The supply of budget hotels seems a bit sparse, so booking ahead might be a good idea.

Off the Beaten Path
Going off the beaten path in Cyprus seems plausible. I’ve read a few interesting reports and commentary on expeditions, but nothing link worthy. With the prevalence of British tourists and the industry catering to the resort type traveler, you’ll have to search a bit harder. With that comes great potential for genuine Cyprus experiences as well, since low travel saturation in secondary non-resort cities could leave amazing experiences to be had.

Conclusion: I’m intrigued by Cyprus. It’s politics interest me, and hopefully with my future Turkish language skills, a trip to both southern and northern Cyprus is in the near term for me.

It’s nice to travel abroad just for the sake of traveling, vacation, or a little R&R - but getting abroad and “doing something” to facilitate international budget travels is an option worth considering. For the less wealthy westerners of this world, justifying a few grand for 4 weeks of ‘vacation’ is a bit more difficult. Thus, the options below that are more than just plain traveling might offer a medium to help you get abroad.

• Study Abroad
• International internships
• Volunteer abroad
• Language study
• Working

Study Abroad

University Partner Exchange

I always advocate for high school or university study abroad programs. Your best bet will be to go through direct University exchange partner. Coming from a big land grand university, it’s easy but somewhat naive to expect everyone has such opportunities. Doing so will ensure credits transferring and support so you don’t have to go another $10,000 semester of college to make up for a ‘lost’ semester abroad.

Directly Enroll Abroad

While there are 3rd parties that facilitate a lot of exchanges, I’ve heard some not ideal things about some operators. Maybe another option might be deferring a semester, finding a university you like abroad, and go off the grid to study for a semester. Your uni will probably frown on this since they won’t get a cut of the profits from unnecessary fees, but it’s a possibility. This way you’ll pay the local university rate which is likely much less than your current tuition.

For example, a colleague in Thailand directly enrolled into the college as an exchange student. While it was a research, credit transfer, and paperwork nightmare, he paid something like $1,500 for a semester, whereas most others paid their home university’s tuition (likely $5,000+). Definitely worth the hassle considering the savings in this case.

Conclusion: Look at direct university exchanges offered through your college, or target a country and google yourself into oblivion looking for universities and inquiring about exchange programs.

Internships

Tons of for-profit offerings. I call complete bullshit and would avoid them out of principal. Paying placement fees for low or non paying internships (in addition to flights, visa expenses, etc.) is ludicrous and I find it hard to believe that most are beneficial. I have no personal experience, this is just the strong vibe I (and most others who’ve been on the internet for more than 2 years) get.

AIESEC

A slight alternative to such internship-arrangers (can i make up that word?) is AIESEC, which is a very large, diverse, and reputable student run non-profit that arranges international experiences and internships from their large database. Unfortunately, there are annoying fees, but the wage for internships with business or technical focus is substantial enough to probably make it a net $0 type of program in the end after all is said and done.

As a student run non-profit, it caters to undergrad or grad students and requires you to be within 2 years reach of either study option I believe. To find out more, seek out a local AIESEC chapter and they can explain more of the details and possibilities. Or just email me.

Corporate

If you go to a good university or take your career seriously, you could have a chance at a real corporate internship abroad. Dual language speakers win at this as well. Probably best for business and finance majors, look at massive multinational companies like Siemens and Unilver, and also at multinational banks and investment banks if you have the resume and experience to land a great internship.

Nonprofit love

Finally, getting an internship in a NGO / nonprofit might be your best bet outside of AIESEC. Don’t expect to be paid much more than living expenses, if that. If you’re motivated here, look at grants available to those going abroad in case you qualify for a grant to go abroad and save the world through a good NGO.

Conclusion: If you have the skills, you can make mad money and build your resume going corporate. AIESEC is reputable, but be wary of other 3rd parties that act as middle men. nobody should need to pay to work, period.

Volunteering

Volunteering, like most for profit ‘internships’ can be a bit tricky to search for. I highly recommend not paying $3,000 to volunteer with babies in India for 2 weeks. There are plenty of organizations out there that would just love you to help out for free.

I’m no expert on the subject, but fellow travel blogger Nerdy Nomad has created a well-received ebook on the subject titled “The Underground Guide to International Volunteering.” I haven’t been able to read it myself, but the blogosphere seems to like it so far and she’s a great resource. I’d surely shell out $14 if I was in the market to volunteer abroad.

If you want to totally DIY, due dilligence is necessary. Here’s a quick list of reputable volunteer possibilities:

• Idealist - Authoritative volunteer search
• Peace Corps - Have 2 years? Tons of benefits upon return
• Red Cross Volunteer
• Kiva Fellows - For microfinance, Kiva rules. There are tons of microfinance programs out there if Kiva doesn’t work for you.
• UN Volunteer - its da UN, I’m assuming it’s legit
• WWOOFing - Work abroad on organic farms for room and board. This is legit.
• WorkAway - Similar to WWOOFing, but a lot more options here not limited to farm or outdoor work necessarily
• Matador Travel list of 44 International Volunteer Organizations
• Esacape Artist - Just another link list.

Language Study

Traveling slowly and learning the language along the way through private language schools is a great option for anyone. 123TeachMe is hands down the greatest resource I’ve come across that caters to those primarily interested in Spanish. There are a multitude of larger language learning companies that offer experiences around the rest of the world as well. Due dilligence will be key here though as quality can vary as the offerings have probably been commoditized recently.

Alternatively, if you’re an outstanding student you may have a shot at programs through the State Department. The Government sponsors several distinguished critical language learning programs that I’ve mentioned numerous times before.

Conclusion: If you have a shot at a grant to study or going through the State Dept, this should be your first choice. Otherwise, once again, due dilligence. Shop around and compare hourly rates. A place I found years ago with good rates was AppleLanguages - I have no experience, but 5 years ago they looked decent, so take that for what it’s worth.

Working

Teaching English

The last option is for those that actually want, or need, to work..most likely for financial reasons. Teaching English is your best bet. I’d even go so far as to say it’s a shoe in for all native english-ers. Anybody with a pulse can go to Asia and teach English, typically with just a Bachelor’s Degree. Some positions may require a TEFL beforehand, while others will offer training opportunities or sponsorship for the certification.

Teaching English is great in that it’s location flexible and/or is paid well in some areas of high demand. The possibilities are essentially endless if you’re into the whole teaching thing. Some resources to get started:

• Wikipedia TEFL - possibly information overload, but get used to it.
• JET Programme - competitive teaching program in Japan
• ESL Cafe - Active teaching forums at ESL Cafe as well
• TEFL Net
• Ajarn - Teaching English in Thailand resource
• Tealit - Teaching English in Taiwan Resource
• Footprints recruiting - Get recruited and let a 3rd party help match you.
• Teach English in Korea - Matador Travel resource
• Teaching in Japan - Matador Travel Post
• Matador ESL - All of Matador’s ESL resources

Online Entrepreneurship / “Lifestyle Design”

Lifestyle design, independent living, vagabonding entrepreneurs - whatever you want to call it, this is in. There are a ton of blogs on the subject and people to help inspire your own lifestyle designing abroad as an entrepreneur. My favorites, most definitely being AONC and Thrilling Heroics

Through the fluff, this is online entrepreneurship. Sell online products, offer online services, or run profitable advertising driven websites. Many like Cody at TH do this while living and traveling abroad where the cost of living can make online cash flow a lot more sustainable.

Multinationals & Executive search firms

If you’re a corporate executive type you should be in pretty good shape in our globalization environment. Get in touch with executive search firms and multinationals. I’m assuming that if this is you, you wouldn’t be reading my lowly budget travel blog.

Oh, India. Backpacking through India is a budget traveler’s dream I’ve been fortunate to have experienced firsthand. December – January 2010, I spent 3 weeks on a fairly typical route through India. I embarked from Bangkok, Thailand with a 1200 CL backpack (glorified school bag), US Visa, Traveler’s checks, bank cards, and a ragged out dated Lonely Planet: India from Khao San Road.

When I decided to spend a few weeks following my studies on a large trip, India was the only option in my mind. Its mystique, massive population, rapid economic growth and prowess, and completely foreign culture drew me in quickly.

When I tried reading up on India and getting started, I immediately realized I knew very little about the place and how manageable a solo trip would even be for 3 weeks. So here, I’ll quickly cover the main points and to help you plan and prepare for an extended trip through India and let you use my trip as a quick case study….the point you to a few resources to continue your due dilligence.

India Big Picture:

India is huge. A billion people, and pretty diverse landscapes and peoples. As a former British colony, everyone speaks English, so fear not knowing Hindi, Urdu, or one of the other 67483 Indian languages.
With a few weeks, you’ll likely wish to explore a combination of the following, major areas.

Dehli – Agra
Dehli is a likely entry point as it’s the capital and a huge city. Tons of typical urban things to do in the massive, ruthless urban center. A hop skip and a jump away is Agra, relevant because of a little attraction called the Taj Mahal. It’s worth the hype especially after escaping a big city.

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I’ve long wondered why there hasn’t been a comprehensive Travel Budget database of sorts with all the web app hype that’s come alive recently. Sadly, the developers of “2.0″ online travel apps have focused almost exclusively on social networks, “where i’ve been” and flight aggregation. Well, awesome. But really, an accurate, quick centralized database for travel prices and budgets has been a pipe dream of mine that I even failed at creating in Backpackability.com.

Sure, us backpackers and wannabees can sift through BootsnAll, Lonely Planet, and Trip Advisor for prices and then brag about how much time we spent [wasting] planning our trips, but why? Or better yet, we could definitely all order new copies of the recent Lonely Planet guides off of Amazon! not. that’s just silly.

I’m obviously not leaving you hanging with ranting post here shaming the big boys of travel for not developing a travel price database already. So Here comes BudgetYourTrip.com.

BudgetYourTrip is something of what I’ve described above. It’s a relatively new, but no soooo green, website that is alot of what I wanted to develop before I understood database powers. In their own words:

Estimate travel costs by country, city, and category. Use the Estimate Trip Costs search form to plan your expenses, or browse the list of countries. The trip expenses entered by other travelers help us calculate daily averages by location and category.

It’s straight forward, and a golden idea.  There’s no reason for me to sit around and talk about it anymore. Just check it out. Better yet, contribute!

Final Disclaimer This is NOT a paid post at all, surprisingly enough. I’m just a fan of truly helpful travel websites, unlike most of the gunk out there.

Some time back, I was contacted by the kind people at Broadway Books about an upcoming release of a new travel book, “The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World . . . via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes.” I took up their offer for an advanced copy to page through and upon its release a week ago I figured I’d give it a mention.

First and foremost, I’ve only wandered through its chapters aimlessly due to time issues, but collectively it seems like an interesting read Budget Globetrotters may be interested in. The book comes from an established National Geographic travel writer and chronicles his journeys world over on shitty forms of transportation. While perhaps slightly over dramatic at times, all in all I’ve decided it’s a book that, at some point, I will read front to back.

Mainly, I really admire Hoffman’s travel style which takes the comfort and luxury out of transportation. Having bussed around India for 3 weeks in more than hellish conditions, I can really relate to his stories, ideas, and train of thought. Taking 8 hour, public buses in less developed countries does something to you and shows you a more real side of a country that is otherwise missed. As I plan on using this strategy in more locales outside of India in the future, first reading his own distressed story will provide an entertaining source of inspiration.

For more information, go click around the Lunatic Express book site. If you’re looking at an entertaining account true budget travel, the Lunatic Express might be a good east read to check out for some of your own travel inspiration.

Spring Break is approaching and plans are a being made across all US campuses. From Key West Florida to South Padre, fellow students will be lining up to spend too much money on traveling and drinking, once again, this March. While I realize I have a somewhat different perspective on the world having traveled abroad, I still feel a slight urge to experience 5 days of the ‘American Spring Break,’ which is why I feel like I have the right to rant on why I won’t be getting involved after some temptatation avoiding, rational thinking.

Why Spring Break Sucks

1. Poor Excuse for a Break

First off, while I open a week off from my studies with open arms annually, (more…)