How to Travel the World on $50 a Day

Have you ever dreamed of quitting your job, packing a bag, and seeing the world—only to tell yourself it’s impossible because travel is just too expensive? In "How to Travel the World on $50 a Day," Matt Kepnes (widely known as Nomadic Matt) destroys that myth. He argues that long-term world travel is not only accessible but often cheaper than staying home if you know how to think differently about money, comfort, and what real travel means.

Drawing on nearly two decades of experience backpacking and working abroad, Kepnes offers a practical roadmap for making global exploration affordable. His message is simple yet powerful: travel is not reserved for the rich but for the resourceful. By learning to use money intelligently—through travel hacking, smart budgeting, and tapping into global networks of generosity—you can see the world on less than what you spend on daily life at home. This book challenges cultural norms around work, spending, and the meaning of success.

Breaking the Travel Cost Myth

Kepnes begins by confronting the biggest barrier to travel: fear. For most people, fear of the unknown is wrapped in practical excuses about time, money, or responsibilities. He shares how his own first trip to Thailand in 2004 shattered his belief that travel was only for the wealthy. After meeting backpackers who had been traveling for years on modest budgets, he realized that experience—not income—determines possibility. The book encourages you to take that leap by reframing travel not as an escape, but as a lifestyle experiment in living with less and experiencing more.

He shows that Americans, in particular, tend to saddle travel with unnecessary costs—high-end hotels, short vacation windows, and expensive tours—when other cultures embrace slow travel and budget living as a normal part of life. Kepnes’s mission is to show you how to reject the “two-week vacation mindset” and adopt the global backpacker’s philosophy: maximize value, not spending.

From Mindset to Map: Planning to Go

In the first part of the book, Kepnes helps you prepare for long-term travel in practical ways. He walks readers through how to create a realistic budget, choose the right bank and credit cards, and manage savings in advance. His argument: if you track everything you currently spend—rent, groceries, entertainment—you’ll realize you might already spend far more at home than you would living globally. With a $50-a-day travel budget, a full year abroad costs roughly $18,000, which is less than what many Americans spend just existing.

He also discusses the psychological shift required to begin. The hardest part of travel isn’t logistics—it’s courage. Citing examples from his life and others he met on the road, Kepnes reassures readers that the world is safer, friendlier, and more affordable than fear-based media suggests. This attitude echoes other travel writers like Rolf Potts in "Vagabonding," emphasizing inner readiness over financial perfection.

Mastering the Tools of Budget Travel

The book’s middle sections teach the tactics that turn “impossible” trips into real journeys. Kepnes introduces travel credit cards and points hacking, explaining how sign-up bonuses alone can yield thousands of free miles and hotel nights. He shows how to choose cards with high bonuses, low spending thresholds, and minimal fees—then teaches you how to leverage them safely without damaging credit. For instance, he details how he’s traded points for first-class flights and free nights in luxury hotels through loyalty systems like American Airlines AAdvantage and Hilton Honors.

From booking cheaper flights to using round-the-world tickets effectively, Kepnes gives readers insider strategies. He explains why checking multiple booking sites (Momondo, Skyscanner, Google Flights) leads to better fares, and why flexibility in dates and destinations often matters more than luck. These concrete tools are the backbone for anyone wanting to stretch a small travel fund into a global adventure.

Living Cheaply, Living Well

Kepnes dismantles the idea that frugality ruins fun. He dedicates extensive sections to saving on accommodations, food, and activities—showing that spending less often means connecting more deeply. Instead of luxury hotels, he recommends hostels, hospitality exchanges like Couchsurfing, house-sitting programs, or even WWOOFing on farms for room and board. Instead of restaurants, he advocates for street food, local grocery shopping, and shared kitchens. He encourages engaging with local life—riding buses, joining free walking tours, and taking advantage of museum discount days—because these experiences yield authenticity rather than austerity.

The result is a holistic philosophy: budget travel isn’t about deprivation; it’s about value and immersion. When you travel frugally, you live more like a local, meet more people, and discover more meaning than the insulated tourists paying for comfort they rarely need.

A Global Blueprint for Affordable Adventure

Part three of the book applies his methods region by region—from Europe and Australia to Southeast Asia, India, and South America. Each chapter gives specific budget ranges, average costs, and cultural context. You’ll learn how to spend $30 a day in Peru, $25 in Vietnam, or $70 in Japan. For each place, he offers realistic examples of how to balance comfort and cost. In Australia, where prices soar, he explains how renting camper vans or joining WWOOFing farms can keep you under budget. In Southeast Asia—his “sweet spot” for affordability—he shows that paradise can literally cost less than living at home.

Finally, Kepnes teaches how to maintain this lifestyle long-term—from travel insurance and health safety to minimalist packing and even managing bills back home digitally. His tone throughout is friendly, practical, and deeply optimistic. As he writes, the goal isn’t to escape life—it’s to stop postponing it. Many think travel is an indulgence; Kepnes reframes it as a financial and personal education found nowhere else.

Key takeaway: Travel is not a product to be bought; it’s a craft to be learned. With the right knowledge, you can live richly anywhere on Earth—even on $50 a day.

Kepnes opens by addressing what truly stops people from traveling: fear. Fear of the unknown, of being unsafe, of losing stability. Most people, he argues, hide that fear behind practical excuses like ‘I can’t afford it’ or ‘I have bills to pay.’ But he challenges readers to ask themselves if those fears are really worth giving up an entire dimension of life.

Courage Is the First Step

The hardest part of traveling isn’t booking a ticket—it’s convincing yourself it’s possible. Kepnes recounts his own moment of surrender on a beach in Thailand, when he told a friend he was going to quit his job and travel the world. He was twenty-three, broke, and afraid, but made the leap anyway. “You aren’t the first person to travel abroad,” he reminds readers. Millions have gone before, from teenagers to retirees. Columbus may have had reason to fear the unknown, but modern travelers walk well-worn paths.

The Myth of Danger

Kepnes takes aim at the fear-mongering media that portrays the world as violent and dangerous. In reality, he insists, people in most countries are just like you—they want stability, safety, and connection. Instead of imagining every destination as a threat, he urges you to see it as a home filled with people living normal lives. He compares American newscasts that obsess over foreign crises to the reality he sees on the road: hospitality, curiosity, and daily kindness.

Learning to Let Go of Security

The author doesn’t dismiss real responsibilities—like mortgages, families, or careers—but shows that nearly every obstacle has a solution. Families can travel together (he cites real examples like the James family, who took their children on a yearlong journey), and homeowners can rent out their houses. Even debt or work doesn’t need to stop you from taking shorter or more creative escapes. He introduces stories of travelers who found ways to work remotely, teach English, or freelance from anywhere. For Kepnes, courage grows when knowledge replaces ignorance.

Travel truth: The world isn’t waiting to hurt you—it’s waiting to host you. Your biggest enemy is hesitation.

Kepnes turns to the most common excuse for inaction: not having enough money. His response is direct—you probably do. It’s just being spent in ways that don’t align with your goals. By reframing saving as “buying time” rather than losing comfort, you can start building your travel fund without increasing your income.

Tracking and Trimming Expenses

He encourages you to audit your existing expenses: rent, debt, entertainment, subscriptions, and discretionary spending. When most readers add these up, the number often exceeds $1,500 a month—the same $50-a-day amount that could fund a full year abroad. He then lists practical strategies for trimming daily costs: cook instead of eating out, make coffee at home, cut unused subscriptions, or sell unnecessary stuff. As he puts it, “Little leaks sink big travel dreams.”

Building a Smart Savings Plan

Kepnes shares his own experience saving $16,000 before his first round-the-world trip while working a full-time job. He created a separate savings account, tracked progress every week, and visualized the goal in small milestones. He even clipped coupons and sold old possessions to fuel the dream. (This strategy mirrors those found in Vicki Robin’s Your Money or Your Life, which also links mindful spending to greater freedom.) To grow savings faster, he suggests side gigs—like TaskRabbit or renting out belongings on Zilok—to keep increasing your travel budget passively.

Balancing Frugality and Fun

Kepnes isn’t a minimalist preacher. He believes in mindful enjoyment: knowing when to cut back (cancel cable) and when to invest (a travel credit card with major bonuses). He calls it “frugality with purpose.” Saving isn’t punishment; it’s preparation for a richer life later. As he writes, “You sacrifice now for rewards later.”

Core idea: If you can afford to live, you can afford to travel—the only question is your priorities.

The next step in Kepnes’s formula is mastering your financial systems. Travel involves frequent payments, withdrawals, and transfers, and fees can quietly erode your budget. He shows how to create an international-friendly setup before leaving home to minimize losses and maximize rewards.

Bank Smart: Avoiding Fees Overseas

His top recommendation: open multiple bank accounts, including one dedicated to travel. He singles out Charles Schwab for refunding all ATM fees and offering fair exchange rates globally. He also suggests pairing it with HSBC or Capital One for additional security and easy online management. By maintaining at least two active accounts, you protect yourself from frozen cards or fraud—a lesson he learned firsthand after his ATM card was cloned in Bangkok.

Using Currency to Your Advantage

Kepnes goes beyond basic safety and teaches how to watch exchange rates. When a foreign currency drops, he advises withdrawing or converting more cash to gain extra travel funds, citing how he saved hundreds by exchanging Thai baht when the Australian dollar dipped. He also urges travelers never to use airport exchange booths or ATMs in convenience stores, as those take hidden margins. (His go-to tool: the XE currency app.)

Leveraging Credit—Without Getting Burned

In a section that borders on financial art, Kepnes champions “travel hacking.” He shows how opening strategic credit cards with big sign-up bonuses (40,000+ points or miles) can yield free flights and hotel stays—without harming your credit if handled responsibly. He quotes Brian Kelly of ThePointsGuy.com to calm fears about ruined credit scores: applying for cards judiciously has only minor short-term effects. The key is paying balances in full and timing applications months apart.

Money truth: The bank shouldn’t travel with you—it should work for you wherever you go.

Airfare is often what makes people believe travel is unaffordable. Kepnes unpacks why ticket costs fluctuate and how to game the system. He distinguishes between the myth of last-minute deals and the reality of strategic flexibility.

Understanding Why Flights Cost So Much

He explains how airline consolidation, fuel prices, and route reduction have driven ticket prices upward. With only a handful of major players controlling most routes, competition is thin and fares fluctuate by the minute according to demand and load factors (the percentage of seats filled). Instead of random luck, cheap flights are the result of timing, competition, and algorithms.

Tools for Travel Hacking Flights

To beat this system, he recommends combining multiple strategies: searching routes on Google Flights or Kayak Explore to find cheap destinations, clearing cookies before searching, and signing up for alerts from TheFlightDeal, Airfarewatchdog, and Holiday Pirates. Flexibility is essential: traveling midweek, avoiding peak holidays, and being open to alternate airports can save hundreds. He shares examples like flying to Dublin instead of Paris to cut costs, then using a $60 budget flight onward.

Point-to-Point and Round-the-World Tickets

Kepnes compares round-the-world (RTW) airline alliance tickets to booking individual legs. RTW tickets can be rigid but useful for those with fixed itineraries, while budget travelers gain more by mixing cheap local flights and using miles. When his first world trip cost roughly $3,100—including flights across six continents—it was because he used miles for the longest legs and budget airlines for the rest. His point: flexibility beats planning perfection.

Lesson: Cheap flights aren’t found—they’re built through flexibility, points, and patience.

Where you sleep is often your biggest expense—but it doesn’t have to be. Kepnes outlines a spectrum of strategies, showing that free or ultra-cheap stays are entirely possible with creativity and community.

Hospitality Exchanges and House-Sitting

Using platforms like Couchsurfing (stay with locals for free) or HouseCarers (swap home care for lodging), travelers can eliminate accommodation costs entirely. Kepnes highlights hospitality exchange pioneers like Servas—founded in 1949—and reassures safety-concerned readers that modern verification and reviews make these options reliable. He calls Couchsurfing both a social and financial tool: free housing, instant friends, and cultural immersion.

Hostels and Apartments

Hostels remain the backbone of budget travel, especially in Europe and Australia, offering dorm beds for a third of hotel prices. For groups or longer stays, apartment rentals through platforms like Airbnb or 9flats can be cheaper and give access to kitchens, slashing food costs too. (This mirrors Rolf Potts’s idea of “slow travel,” where living like a temporary local replaces hotel convenience.)

Work Exchanges and WWOOFing

Kepnes also lays out creative stay options like WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) where travelers trade a few hours of labor for food and lodging. From vineyards in Italy to farms in Australia, these opportunities offer cultural experience and zero lodging costs. Similarly, he suggests volunteering or teaching English as ways to subsidize longer travels.

Essential idea: Every roof has its price—and with creativity, that price can be $0.

Once accommodations are handled, food becomes your next major expense. Kepnes argues that cuisine is both a cultural immersion tool and a budget challenge—solved by shifting how you eat rather than what you eat.

Cook More, Experience More

The author recommends cooking as often as possible, even while traveling. Grocery shopping at local markets offers a window into everyday life—what ingredients locals use, how they prepare them, and what matters to them culturally. He often spent $50–60 per week cooking his meals abroad versus $20 or more per day eating out.

Smart Dining and Street Food

Eating lunches instead of dinners, refilling water bottles, and dining outside tourist zones make a big difference. Kepnes praises Southeast Asian street food as cheap, safe, and delicious—a philosophy shared by travel writers like Anthony Bourdain, who also celebrated local vendors. He suggests you ask locals not “Where should I eat?” but “Where do you eat?”

Shared Meals and Social Dining

Finally, the book highlights the emergence of meal-sharing networks such as EatWith and COlunching, where travelers join locals for home-cooked meals at low costs. These platforms blend savings with cultural authenticity—a recurring theme in Kepnes’s philosophy: value over luxury, connection over isolation.

Food for thought: Taste the culture, not the tourist menu.

Financial survival is important, but safety and sustainability keep you on the road. Kepnes concludes with practical direction on travel insurance, health, security, and adopting a long-term traveler’s attitude.

Insurance and Preparedness

He emphasizes that insurance isn’t optional—it’s protection against disaster. Travel medical policies like World Nomads or IMG cost a few dollars a day but can save you thousands after injury or theft. Drawing from his own experiences (like a popped eardrum while diving in Thailand), he details the specific features to ensure: comprehensive medical limits, evacuation coverage, and baggage protection.

Minimalism and Logistics

Packing light is more than convenience—it’s freedom. Kepnes lists his essentials: one bag, multi-use clothing, toiletries, and small first-aid items. He reminds travelers that missing gear can be bought locally. When it comes to dealing with home life—mail, bills, storage—he explains how automation and trusted contacts make long-term travel manageable.

A Sustainable Mindset

Ultimately, what keeps people traveling for years isn’t money but mindset. The author urges you to live frugally but not fearfully—to engage with people, stay adaptable, and remember that every challenge becomes part of your story. His closing chapters balance inspiration with accountability, reminding you that adventure is a choice renewed every day.

Final reminder: Freedom isn’t free—but its cost is far less than regret.