Bed Hopping

Accommodation is the biggest expense (after flights) when travelling, particularly if you are doing it solo.

Sticking to a shoe-string budget means that finding a cheap nights sleep will be a priority, and often a lot more time consuming than you would first expect.

When arriving in a new destination the first thing you will need to do is find somewhere to dump your backpack and rest your head. Generally speaking the cheapest accommodation for a solo backpacker will be a bunk bed in a dorm room of a youth hostel and it's really easy to compare prices and book online- www.hostelworld.com, www.hostelbookers.com. If you have booked a hostel in advance all you will need to do is find it (not as easy as it sounds) however not many South East Asian destinations have youth hostels, in this situation your best option is to resist booking accommodation in advance and find somewhere to stay when you get there. Waiting until you arrive at your destination will mean that you can walk around and compare prices to get the best deal (the cheapest options are unlikely to advertise online) it will also give you the opportunity to negotiate a cheaper room rate.

Another money saving option I used a lot was to share a room (and even a bed) with a fellow backpacker. I would make an effort to be-friend other travellers on the bus/ boat/ tuc-tuc to a new destination and suggest that we share a room when we got there, which saves money for everyone. I realise that this sounds pretty crazy to a non-traveller but backpackers are a really friendly bunch of like-minded people and sharing a room with a virtual stranger is quite normal and a great way to make friends to explore your new destination with. This also applies to camper vans, when road-tripping in New Zealand I advertised for a travel partner on gumtree.com as I could not afford to rent a van on my own, plus it was great to have some company on the journey.

Sleeping while you travel is also a good way to make the pennies stretch. When travelling long distances in countries like Thailand and Vietnam there is often an option to take a sleeper bus or a night boat which are equipped with bunk beds, pillows and blankets to allow you to sleep during the long journey. If you plan cleverly you will be able to travel over night and sleep on the bus arriving at your destination in the morning, this way you save the cost of a nights accommodation.

A free accommodation option is couch-surfing (this is more likely to be available in Western countries and bigger cities). Couch surfing involves sleeping on a sofa/ spare room/ air mattress of a person's house for free for a few days, the website www.couchsurfing.org helps to connect travelers looking for accommodation with people who have something available. This is a great way to meet local people and have an authentic experience of a new destination. I didn't do any couch-surfing on my trip, but I did get in touch with friends that lived in the countries I was travelling to and arranged to stay with them while I was in the area.

My last cheap sleep suggestion is to be prepared to bed-hop. On various occasions I moved rooms or hotels in the same destination because a cheaper option came-up part way through my stay. For example a fan room is cheaper than an air-con room, if a fan room was not available when I arrived I would stay in an air-con room but move as soon as a cheaper fan room became available. It's a bit of a faff, but every penny counts when travelling on a shoe-string.

During my six month trip I slept in 64 beds, 1 sofa, 1 night boat, 4 night buses, 1 indigenous tribe village, 1 camping bed and 1 camper van. The most expensive bed I stayed in was at Christmas in Koh Samui, Thailand which cost £37 per person in a twin room and the cheapest bed I slept in was in Chaing Mai, Thailand which cost £1.80 per person in a triple room!