SMALL-TOWN GIRLS, MIDNIGHT TRAINS

— travel inspiration for small budgets and big dreams —

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 […]