Frogwatch wrote:
My almost 23 yr old daughter is feeling restless as she approaches the
end of her BS degree in biology. I think she knows her time to travel
is limited by needing to go to grad school and knowing her BF will ask
to marry her. Unfortunately, it is somewhat harder for a girl than a
young man to travel cheap. A guy can simply sleep in whatever place
he happens to be in whereas a young woman needs a little more safety
A guy can ride with strangers whereas a girl should not. So, any
suggestions for cheap travel options? Her cousin is in Italy for the
summer teaching English to kids, two weeks in each place in the
country and has been to 3 diff places.
Last night, she asked if she and her bf could take my 28' sailboat for
a few months and I said "yes". Any other ideas?
When I was that age (actually a year younger), I hitched across the
USA, hiked all the big national parks from Rocky Mt up to Jasper and
Banf, hitched back to Colorado for a temp job and then across to
Chicago and back to FL. It cost nearly nothing and I only had one
questionable ride. I stayed a few nights in youth hostels but
normally saved my money by camping in the woods. Kids cannot do that
today cuz hitching is seen as the way serial killers travel and hardly
anybody picks them up. Any similar options today?

My oldest is the Queen of cheap, great travel.. She has taught in Japan
and during that time took off into th emountains of Thailand to live
with native tribes and has also done some solo backpacking in Turkey and
Indonesia, all done on the cheap. Some of the tripl like the one to
Thailand was somewhat scripted where she paid a company in Bancock which
set pu the meetings in the jungle where she met the tribal leaders after
hiking a while and lives with them for a week or so, doing what they do
to survive, none of them spoke English, it was a trip. She milked the
livestock and worked in teh fields, lived on floors and ate what they
ate. Then she walked a while and met another tribal group, three in all
over a period of a month... In Turkey she traveled from town to town in
the mountains but had places set up in advance by a friend in Istanbul.
She also visited some "tourist" places on that trip here and there. She
also did a solo thing in Indonesia, she is quite the adventurer If
your daughter really wants to do something like that, my daughter has
connections all over the worldand I am sure she would be happy to make
suggestions or point yours into the right direction.. Send me a private
email if you think she might be interested in doing some globe hopping
as a young single, it is possible, and safe if set up properly...