Priorities

The Secret to Europe Travel

     As in…the secret of being able to travel in Europe, no matter your age / circumstance

We love to travel.

We are so excited for our upcoming trip to Europe. So excited!

When you are excited about something, you want to talk about it. It’s natural! That’s why you want to tell people about your new gadget, your favorite restaurant. Heck, random strangers on the street knew about it when my oldest daughter was potty-trained. So, of course, it makes sense that we would tell people about our upcoming trip to Europe that we are so excited about.

We were a little taken aback at some of the responses we got. Most of our friends were excited for us, but some were a little taken aback. “Europe? Really?” Honestly, we got the impression that by traveling to Europe we were setting ourselves on a different level than our friends that live in starter homes and drive older cars.

But here’s a secret of life. You will always have enough money to do what you want.

Think about it, because it is absolutely true. If something is important to you – truly important – you will make sure that it gets done.

Our friends have money. Not tons of money – none of us do, at least in our social circle. They just have different priorities.

Europe travel is not our #1 priority – it falls well behind family and church, among other things  – but it is important to us. By making it a priority, by following our passion and basing our decisions around that priority, we make it happen.

What decisions do you make that show how important travel is to you? Leave your thoughts in the comments below! Remember, no negative judging – we’re all willing to go to different lengths for our passions, but sharing the sacrifices we make we might give you some ideas.

Welcome to Affordable Europe Travel by TLC!

They say that you should follow your passions.

Well, I love to travel.

I should say “We” love to travel. My wife will be an integral part of this blog as well. But I find myself alone in the house as she’s off getting a start of rhubarb (strawberry rhubarb pie = delicious), which means I get to start. You’ll hear many more insightful things from her.

Anyway, we love to travel. You probably do, too. The problem is, we can’t spend all our time travelling. We live in the real world. Real life, real family, real careers, real mortgage, real need to put food on the table. We can’t just leave all of that behind.

Not for long, anyway. But for some precious time, we can leave real life behind and find ourselves through walking new streets, discovering new tastes, surrounding ourselves with foreign languages, and connecting with other cultures. Doing it together, as a couple, has brought us closer together and built a foundation of memories to start our family on. It is heartening to look back – and forward – to those memories after a long and hectic day.

Here’s what we’ve discovered. Yes, travel does cost money. But with some advance thought, goal-setting, and preparation, it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. You don’t have to be a mathematician or personal finance guru to understand that thrifty and affordable travel = more possible travel. In our experience we’ve found many ways to fund, enjoy, and take advantage of time abroad for less.

For our blog, we are going to focus on Europe. Certainly the world is filled with tons of other places to go and visit. However, in our opinion, you can’t beat Europe when it comes to ease of travel, safety, and variety.

To conclude, welcome to our blog. Hopefully we can be a resource and part of a community where equally frugal and travel-dedicated friends can come together and discuss ways to get out and connect with other cultures, and do so without breaking the bank.