How realistic traveling without money actually is?
 

Hello, my name is Diana, I'm 19 years old and I'm from Colombia. I want to take a gap year and start traveling the world, yet I'm still a student and have little money. Colombia is pretty cheap so you don't spend much but you don't gain much either, and low skilled jobs are very hard to find, so even if you have one the amount of money you can save won't be enough to survive anywhere else. Still, I keep hearing that traveling is not as expensive or hard as I think. And also about these people that go to New Zealand or Australia (where people get paid more) and find a job kinda easily, live really cheap staying in hostels, housesitting or using Couchsurfing and save enough money to afford their travels (to cheap places at least). Is this actually possible or this only happens to a bunch of lucky people?

The basic answer to your question is it IS NOT realistic to travel without money. What you are contemplating is a pipe dream.

First, in most countries have immigration laws which prevent you from just showing up one day and expect to take up residency and then work.

You'd have to research the Immigration and Work Permit requirements for the countries you intend to visit.

What makes you think low skill jobs in other countries will be any easier to find then they are in your home country of Columbia?

You'd be much better off completing your education and perhaps gaining some work experience in your chosen field to make yourself more marketable to prospective employers.

Let me put it in basic math terms:

A decent hostel in most modernized countries will run you $30 a night. Less in SE Asia, more in United States.

One month of that is $900. That's more than I pay in rent. And then you have to factor in sightseeing. At home, all you do is laundry or go to the park or grocery store. In a major city such as Tokyo or Paris, you need a transit pass (money) and entry fee into museums or historic sights (money).

So let's say you get a minimum wage job somewhere like the US (even though you legally can't). Working 40 hours a week would net you 1200 in one month. Take out 900. That's 300 for one month for every thing else and that is not a practical backpacking budget. Not just because I don't think I could survive on 10 a day but also because you have no time to actually travel when you work that much.

The only people I know who do that successfully are Australians and that's because they can get holiday work visas in other British colonies and even those individuals are usually 25-28 because it took them years to save up their "starting money"- usually $5-10,000.

So in other words, the people you hear about are almost certainly not from Colombia nor do they start out with no travel money at all. It is easier and less expensive to travel than most people think. But it's still super expensive (in comparison to just staying home) to travel for long periods of time.

Young people working in Australia and NZ are taking advantage of a special work permit, which is unfortunately not available to citizens of Colombia.

See: https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/462-

You can find budgets for various countries at lonelyplanet.com under Destinations. That site also has a gap year forum, and more young posters than this one.

You can also consult this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_holiday_visa

However, marvelmouse's cost estimate is high for places like Thailand, where Lonely Planet estimates you can get by on 30 USD/day.

See: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thailand/money-costs

All your works while traveling could be considered as a illegal job. So you have to really be careful for that. There is no method you earn money officially when you are traveling with tourist visa.

I think traveling on the cheap can be done. I don't think actually traveling "without money" is something most people are able to pull off safely and comfortably.

The job is the hard part. If you can't work legally, you would have to be willing to run the risk of working illegally, and you would have to be savvy about it. What will you do if you get stuck in a foreign country without a steady source of income?

It is possible and plenty of people do do it. However, you are not going to find any of them here on Fodors where the average age of participants is probably three times your own.

Yes it is generally illegal to work without the proper visa/permits in many countries, but plenty of people do it. Whether you want to accept that risk is your decision.

There are some other , not insignificant, risks involved and you should appraise yourself of those risks. I did something similar when I was your age (many, many years ago)travelling in the Middle East and North Africa. The world was a very different place back then and there were some very harrowing times but I survived - just!

I suggest you ask the same question on Lonely Planets Thorntree.