Thanks to Jeremy and Eva over at forksandjets.com for inviting us to join the Trip Base 3 best kept travel secrets blog tag. You can check out their entry here!

Rather than give away our favorite hide-outs we decided to go another route and give you three of our secrets (or not so much secrets) to traveling happy and for less money. Without further ado:

You do not need a guidebook:

Oh yes, you heard me right. You do not need a guidebook. On this trip and previous ones, across 27 countries, spanning 13 months of combined travel (4 months to go), and we have not carried a single guidebook. Guidebooks are great tools for reference but that is all they are, tools. They are not to be used as a step by step itinerary. There is no need to carry it, literally, in your hand everyday all day. For every hotel or restaurant that is in the book there are thousands that are not and I can guarantee you that nine times out of ten they will be cheaper, cleaner, and nicer than the ones that are “in the book.” Countless times we have seen tourists walking kilometer after kilometer past dozens of restaurants, guidebook in hand, trying to find that one restaurant that’s “in the book.” But you know who eats at the restaurants that are “in the book”: tourists and only tourists. You know what (most of) the restaurants “in the book” serve: western food. If you want to eat bad spaghetti with a bunch of other foreigners that’s fine but if you are traveling to meet the local population, eat local food, and live in a different culture then leave your guidebook at home. (Traveling without a guide book can be a challenge sometimes which is why we are currently working on a in depth travelers tip post to explain the process a bit more in depth.)

Take local transportation:

For us, the travel is just as important as the destination. Traveling on local transport is the best way to meet, converse and mingle with the local population. Some of my favorite moments have came from a 10 hour chicken bus ride or hitchhiking in the back of a truck bed. Don’t miss these moments! Sure it’s not always fun. In fact most of the time it is hot, sweaty, smells bad, and you are pretty sure you will die at any moment, not to mention the allure of the nice air conditioned Volvo bus or the AC3 train. But when you take that kind of transport you are cheating yourself out of the very things you came to see. You did not travel to a far away land to sit in a nice air conditioned bus with a gaggle of your fellow countrymen. You came to see, feel, experience and live in another land. I’m not saying boycott the nice transport—we upgrade all the time, but don’t make a habit of it. Take the good with the bad and ride that chicken bus or horse cart or general class train. Good or bad, it’s always a good story in the end.

You do not need a guide:

Here you are walking into the Taj Mahal or Tikal or The Great Wall and there they are, an army of guides waiting to fill you head with non-stop useless facts and information for the low low price of $9.95. Sometimes a guide is great and we have had a few fantastic guides on this trip and others but we only get a guide when it is required (Tibet, for instance). Some people love going with a guide. They get tons of info and feel like they are learning something about the culture and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I argue the opposite. We hate having a guide. Nothing ruins a moment more for me than trying to sit and people-watch or enjoy a monolithic piece of architecture while someone is rambling random facts in my ear that I don’t care about or will forget in ten minutes anyway. If I am further interested in a place I visit, I will do a little reading about it before or after my visit but while I am there I just want to be there and soak up the history and presence without the constant interruption. Secondly, going without a guide gives you such freedom. The guides all have a schedule and they all run the same route but what about all the other stuff not on your guide’s itinerary? There are always hidden corners and alleyways, tiny back exhibits and small gardens. These are the beautiful places, not the bare meeting room that you and the 5,000 other tourists are climbing on top of each other to see. Sometimes a guide is a great idea but do take the time, even if it is after your guided tour, to see a place for yourself. I guarantee you will find something special.