"Find Out Why You Want to Bargain When You Travel in Foreign
Countries!"
Copyright 2006 John Navata
The reality of traveling is that it is quite expensive relative
to most people's incomes. Unless you're fairly well-off, you
won't be able to travel regularly throughout your life until you
master some discount travel techniques. The art of discount
travel is more then simply one quick trick, it is an overall
approach that you can, and should, apply to every element of
your trip. For example, you should explore charter flights and
last minute deals, etc. to get the cheapest possible airfare.
Once you arrive in a foreign country, you should meet some
locals and establish where the cheap places to eat and stay are.
Discount travel involves a lot of small things that when applied
together result in big savings, and allow even those on moderate
budgets to travel regularly and enjoyably.
An important concept to get used to if you want your money to
last while you are traveling in a foreign country is that of
bargaining. In most foreign countries, and especially those of
the second world, barging plays a big part in everyday life, and
you will find yourself continually overspending if you don't
participate in it.
Most North Americans are terrible at bargaining, which is not at
all their fault: bargaining simply does not play much of a role
in our everyday transactions, and except for large purchases
like buying a car, and maybe to a lesser extent a house, most of
us aren't used to it - we certainly aren't used to haggling over
small items.
The first thing to understand - and a great discount travel
technique - is that in the second world, everything is
negotiable, and usually very heavily negotiable. If you start to
bargaining, you'll soon see that the type of bargaining that
goes on in other parts of the world is very different from the
North American style: people often start with figures that are
double or more their desired amount.
The first step in bargaining is to not be in any kind of rush to
get in a taxi, or in a hotel room, or to purchase your item.
Take the time to ask around, and if you can, find some locals
who will (hopefully) give you an idea of a good price. The
second thing to keep in mind is you have to be willing to walk
away, or at least good at pretending that you're willing to walk
away. Oftentimes you'll find that by simply showing a lack of
interest and willingness to avoid the transaction the price will
be lowered, without any need for specific bargaining on your
part.
Once you get the hang of bargaining you'll find it rather easy,
and in some cases fun. The main thing to keep in mind when
you're in a foreign land is that your status as a North American
will usually label you as rich to locals, even if it doesn't
seem that way to you. If you don't want to get charged double -
or more - for every single thing you do while traveling you'll
have to get used to the idea of bargaining - a key component in
an overall strategy towards discount travel.