A 6-year undergrad career has taught me a lot, including how to live in perpetual economic crisis. An area that I have a particular expertise in is cheap travel. I constantly read travel blogs and guides in order to afford that travel fix I needed. However, I often found that cheap travel tips panned out differently while abroad.

To start, here are a few cheap travel myths I have come across with many more to come. Please let us know your personal cheap travel tips and if you’ve had similar experiences.

Hostels are the cheapest accommodation – Although they are traditionally considered the cheapest bed in town, I will argue otherwise. We often believe that there are only two choices for travel accommodation – hostels or hotels. It’s quite true that if these are the only two choices, the budget minded traveler will usually be better off in a hostel. However, as the internet keeps aggressively invading your travel destinations, there is a new and more exciting option – Couch Surfing.

Couch surfing is the practice of staying on someone’s couch for free, and often with much less hassle than booking a hostel or hotel room. Along with a comfy couch, you often get amenities that are only featured in the most expensive hostels — private showers, a full kitchen, tranquility, and a friendly and willing tour guide. A couple websites I’ve found that do the best job of connecting travelers to couches are Couchsurfing.com and Hospitalityclub.org.

ATM/Credit Card fees are unavoidable – I always assumed the fees that banks and credit card companies charge for international transactions are unavoidable and a necessary evil for the weary traveler. To combat this, I would take out large sums of cash at home and personally exchange it, praying for a good exchange rate and taking on unnecessary risk. However, in my research I’ve found that there are a few travel friendly banks that offer very small and even no fees for international transactions and cash withdrawal.

Charles Schwab offers a ‘high yield checking account’ which is a standard on-line bank account with a few travel friendly features. They charge no ATM fees and even reimburse any ATM fee you are charged – worldwide! The only catch is that you have to open a free brokerage account; thankfully no deposit is needed to do so.

Although known as a subprime lender, Capital One offers great credit cards for travel. They waive the 1% Visa/ MasterCard international fee and don’t charge any kind of overall surcharge. Also, some of their plans offer cash back bonuses on international purchases!

Always book flights in advance – For the last 10 or so years, the mantra of the travel industry has been to book your flights in advance and save a little change. This practice is very beneficial for airlines because they love getting money up front, and they can determine what flights aren’t popular and potentially cut them. I too encourage people to book in advance if their life is on a set schedule. However, if you have some leeway on when you can travel and where you want to go, you can get unbelievable deals at the very last minute.

I’ve booked high-season tickets to Europe for less than $600 from Los Angeles, when a similar ticket would have cost me twice as much if booked months in advance. Oftentimes, if you’re willing to leave within the week and are not too picky about exact destinations, you can save a lot and keep your travel addiction going. To track these last minute deals, I rely on Kayak.com/buzz for research and specific route information, and Faircast.com (now bing.com/travel) for fare predictions.

Here’s a few other blog posts I found handy -

50 Best Web 2.0 Travel Tools
List of Credit Card International Transaction Fees
15 Tips for Cheap Travel

Please comment on these suggestions below. Also, share any stories, tips or awesome flight deals you’ve had while traveling abroad!