Real-world, road-tested ways to save money on travel, from a family who travels full time
After Business Insider published some insights from our family on how we travel full time without being rich, we got a note from the team at The Last Show. Next thing we knew, Anthony was talking about travel fulfillment, budget, tips, and more, with the host, David Cooper:
Listen to Anthony on The Last Show with David Cooper
The Last Show is a pretty fun listen, but if you want to skip to Anthony’s talk with David, it’s at timestamp 1:09:49, or about 70 minutes in:
Along with a few tips on family travel and saving money, David also asks Anthony about enjoying travel more, along with other insights about why travel isn’t just about going places, but another way to prepare kids for their adult lives.
More travel tips
Our family of four inspires people to travel more, their way.
About us
- Since we have kids, that includes showing families that they don’t have to limit their travels to theme parks, visiting family, or school sports.
- My wife Jodie is an above-knee amputee, so we also show people with mobility disabilities how they can travel in the can that works for them too.
- As of July, 2025, we were in Osaka, Japan and were coming up on 3 years of full-time travel
- We’ve been traveling in east and southeast Asia since October 2024
Fave places
- Japan, especially Osaka and Kumamoto
- Morocco, especially Fes and Rabat
- Italy, Bologna
- Pastry shop in Genoa
Tips
When possible, choose your accommodation based on proximity to what you want to do and what helps you be the most comfortable.
For example:
- We rarely stay in or near the main tourist areas, and we pick vacation rentals over hotel rooms.
- Rentals typically have kitchens, so it’s easier to cook and have meals in when we don’t want to be out and about.
- We also like rentals because we can be in neighborhood areas.
- Where we are in Osaka right now, for example, where we’re in a rental in a residential neighborhood.
- In a few minutes we can walk to a local kabuki theater, grocery store, multiple restaurants, a takoyaki stall, a bakery, and two train stations.
You don’t have to travel cheapo deprivation style to save money, and you don’t have to overspend on luxury to be safe and comfortable.
- Your travel budget and your satisfaction with your vacations suffers greatly from how media presents travel.
- At one extreme is all the super-budget cheapo type stuff. That often leaves people imagining cockroaches and dorm bunk beds stuffed with unwashed backpackers.
- At the other extreme is an impression that travel has to be luxury level and super-expensive in order to be fun and safe.
- The reality? Most travel is a budget-friendly middle ground.
- We eat street food, dine at mid-range restaurants, and use rideshare apps and public transporation to get around.
- We don’t need five-star anything to get ten-star memories out of our travels.
Underscheduling prevents overspending.
Work to the rhythm of your family. We are not crack of dawn people. When it comes to going out, we’re more crack of dinner folks.
We love activities, enrichment, and sightseeing. But we also love lingering over coffee and conversation in the morning, or enjoying a convenience store ice cream bar and streaming a few episodes of the One Piece anime in the evening.
If travel has taught us anything, is that’s you can’t do it all, do we don’t worry about trying.
We set priorities for activities and sightseeing, but we deliberately underschedule our days. Not only does that save us money, but it prevents burnout.
Leave the “do it all” mentality at home. You can’t do it all.
But you can do what matters to you. Build your trip around the things you care about. Skip the rest. You’ll finish your vacation with a healthier wallet and happier memories.
