SMALL-TOWN GIRLS, MIDNIGHT TRAINS

— travel inspiration for small budgets and big dreams —

How Our Family Saved Over PHP20,000 in Dining Expenses in Sydney

The one thing that surprisingly made the most difference to our food budget: our choice of hostel (The Pod Sydney). – – If you read my previous post How to Have a One-Week Holiday in Sydney, Australia for PHP 50,000, you’ll know we budgeted 15 AUD per person per meal for our one-week family trip […]

How to Have a 1-week Holiday in Sydney, Australia for PHP 50,000

1 week in Sydney budget for PHP 50,000

My first impression of Australia — Sydney in particular — was that it was inexplicably expensive. I was planning a weeklong trip for a family of 5 and it didn’t take long for the travel budget to reach six figures (in Philippine pesos). Sydney, for some reason I couldn’t fathom, seemed more expensive than Paris […]

Don’t Borrow Money Just to Travel

…and other advice you may not want to hear but should. ♣ ♠ As happy as it makes me when someone says I’ve inspired them to pursue their travel dreams, I also have one great fear: that what I say, or do, or write, will inadvertently push someone to travel — to Just Do It — even though […]

How to Save $400 on Philippine Airlines Flights to London

SGMT —  Four words: fly through Hong Kong. Yep. Because of…reasons…a Manila-London-Manila ticket will actually be cheaper — and not just cheaper but cheaper by 400 US dollars — if you tack on a Hong Kong-Manila leg and a Manila-Hong Kong leg. –

How Much to Budget for El Nido (6 days, 5 nights)

How Much to Budget for El Nido (6D/5N)) | SGMT  — An El Nido vacation can cost as little as ₱5,000 to as much as…I don’t know…₱5,000,000 or more. This budget, which we used for our Palawan trip last June, is somewhere in between. It’s nowhere near luxurious but it’s not exactly cheap either. It’s […]