Many people in the world want to travel, for millions of reasons, it can be quite difficult for some to travel, perhaps they work 7 days a week farming, or they are locked inside a tyrannical government like North Korea. If you fall under these social/economic conditions, well sorry I can't help you, but if you are living lets say in China, urban areas of South East Asia/Latin America and your not exactly well off but your not desperately poor, you can travel!
Firstly, if you wanna go abroad..you will need your passport, the fees vary widely, and some countries restrict them but for the most part, apply+pay= receive.
Second, Where to go? Well that really depends....Can you get a Visa to that country? How much is train/Bus or Airfare? The more transport options, generally the lower the price to get there will be.
Third, What I can afford International hotels?!?
Join the club, I can't either and I used to work for Hyatt. I will cover this one deeply
Option 1. Local hotels: In most places, they have their own local hotels, I'd say for the most part they do not compete with International hotels. I mean not compete in the sense, they go after different people, not that they suck. Most local chains are for local businessmen, smaller level government people, lower end tourist companies. They can range from great to terrible and priced unevenly. I stayed in a local hotel in Shanghai for about 35 US dollars a night, for Shanghai prices, its fairly cheap. It was clean, had free wireless internet, hot shower, located next to the subway station and in a busy district. In smaller cities in Thailand, I have stayed in local hotels for about 10-15 dollars a night, similar services(internet/well located,etc).
I actually prefer a good local hotel, over the glitzy 5 star hotels for a few reasons. In the five star hotels, you can feel pretty distracted from what country your actually visiting, they are basically fortresses of Elite people from the US/Europe/East Asia and the host country. Yes, all the staff is very friendly, knowledgeable, speaks fluent English but the services are way over priced. When I stayed with Hyatt in Bangkok, the internet was over 20 dollars US a day. That was more then the next hotel's room rate I moved to after my free nights at Hyatt were over.
If your on a long trip, local hotels seem more willing to cut discounts, maybe its the smaller bureaucracy but I have always gotten a break.
Hostels:
Hostels can be great, in some places they are almost like hotels and in others its like a large room with 50 bunk beds and feels like a school trip. In any event, they are a great place to meet fellow travelers and exchange ideas/stories but maybe not the best place to meet locals. There are many different hostels, one is Hosteling International.
Hosteling International is a large international network, covering large splotches of the planet. There is a membership card, some of them require the card 100% of the time, some 0%, some in between. The very popular HI hostels in London, Paris/etc might have seasonal maximum stay limits or even age limits.
There are lots of private run hostels as well, so their standards are all over the board, I'd always check the room first, before you put money down.
Camping:
Obviously this one will vary widely on where you going, certain places you might be able to camp almost exclusively, Mongolia would be one example. In Mongolia, you can literally put your tent in 95% of the country, no hassle/no permits/no problems and you will maybe have some nomads show up to greet you with tea and vodka, great!!
If your sticking to urban areas on your trip, camping might be unsafe or not practical. But if your off in more remote places, I say go for it.
Couch Surfing:
What is a Couch surfer? Well its someone who literally sleeps on someones couch(or floor, or bed, or has a yard to put a tent) and its free. Why would someone give another person they don't know a place to sleep? Perhaps as interested you are in their culture/country/area, they are interested in you as well or they just want to meet people, be friendly.
Where will you be sleeping? Its all very different but most people will state "I have an extra bed, I have a couch, I have a floor space".
Alot of people worry about various safety issues and you should take a look on Couch surfers website to see how those are addressed.
After getting to a particular country whether its flying/driving/biking/walking, accommodation tends to be be biggest daily cost in a budget, whether you can spend 400 dollars a day or 15 dollars a day. That is why Couch Surfing rocks, saving money+making friends.
By the way, I have a floor space for Couch surfing, located in Busan, Korea:)
resources for peps
www.hihostels.com/
www.couchsurfing.com/
