You Can Travel Free

Rating:
Summary: Not for the typical traveler
Review: Almost 500 pages of mostly unconventional methods for securing free or nearly free travel. Topics include home exchange, house and boat sitting, tour hosting, auto driveaway, hitchhiking, bicycling, volunteering, working, scholarships and awards, travel careers, and much more. Excellent section on free travel resources. Air strategies are frequent flyer benefits, bumping, contests, and asking (and perhaps find a private pilot that will let you hitch). Highly recommended.

Reviewed October 2001 by Charles McCool on LowerAirfares.com

Rating:
Summary: This book helped me save so much money!
Review: I read this book thinking that I might gain a few ideas that might work. I later learned I totally underestimated its powers! Being a young person I don't have a lot of money, and the money I do have has to be stretched, and this book had excellent ideas on how to do just that. I went to Europe last summer for three months and only spent $3000 (including airfare). If you enjoy traveling and aren't afraid for a little adventure, you should definately look into this book, it's a traveler's greatest companion!

Rating:
Summary: This book helped me save so much money!
Review: I read this book thinking that I might gain a few ideas that might work. I later learned I totally underestimated its powers! Being a young person I don't have a lot of money, and the money I do have has to be stretched, and this book had excellent ideas on how to do just that. I went to Europe last summer for three months and only spent $3000 (including airfare). If you enjoy traveling and aren't afraid for a little adventure, you should definately look into this book, it's a traveler's greatest companion!

Rating:
Summary: Pay nothing for your next vacation!
Review: If you paid anything at all for you last vacation, you probably paid too much, states "You Can Travel Free" author Robert Wm Kirk.

At this very moment, tens of thousands of people are out there seeing the world at little or no cost. And they're doing it safely, comfortably, and legally. As Kirk demonstrates, just about anybody can roam the globe with little or no money.

Hike the Andes, ski in Switzerland, cruise the blue waters of the Caribbean ... once you know the secrets of free travel, your imagination is your only limitation.

Every strategy Kirk has uncovered through three decades of hands-on research is now available here:

-exchange programs that allow students and nonstudents to sample life in foreign countries-free -complimentary cruises, including posh around the world voyages -vacation-time jobs abroad that pay you while you sightsee in your spare time -home exchanges -anywhere from the Riviera to Maui to Paris -scholarships for travel -tours with your friends and neighbors to fabulous destinations of your choice -short term yacht crewing positions that allow you to see the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, or the fabled isles of Polynesia -strategies for seeing the very best sights without buying a ticket -careers that offer free vacation travel among their perks -volunteer opportunities that take you to other continents -hosts who will welcome you with open arms, give you a bed and meals, adn show you the local sights ... while charging you nothing -au pair jobs that allow you to babysit your way around Europe -organizations that want you to teach your own language for board and room, airfare and substantial pay.

This single, affordable volume offers all that and much, much more, including hundreds of addresses, phone and fax numbers, and Web sites. Don't let a tight budget stand in the way of your dreams. Find the valuable travel strategy that's just right for you and you can travel free.

Rating:
Summary: "Most of us like "freebies" when it comes to travel!"
Review: Most of us like "freebies" especially when it comes to travel. However, how do you travel for free or for very little money?
Robert Wm Kirk's guidebook, You can Travel Free, is an extremely comprehensive and fact filled guidebook presenting useful strategies and methods that have been employed by those who roam far and frequently-without paying.

The book is divided into seventeen chapters featuring tips, ideas, reference sources, experiences, and guidance. Within these chapters we are introduced to such topics as free accommodations, free ship cruising, hosting group tours, free land transportation, airline freebies, volunteering, working vacations, sightseeing for free, and how to receive scholarships and grants to travel free.
Each chapter begins with a brief quotation that the author appropriately refers to as, "McCheap's" laws.

The author's first law of travel is "the less money you spend at any destination, the more enjoyable the experience." If you think about this rule for a moment you will probably immediately remember that your most enjoyable vacations were those you had incurred the least expense.
The second law introducing the "Free Accommodations" chapter states, "if you paid anything at all for your last vacation you may have paid too much."

Reading these rules, you pretty much get the idea of the book's major theme. A combination of ingenuity, information and the right strategy are all that is required to travel the globe without having to go into debt.
As a concrete example, in the chapter dealing with free accommodations we are informed as to how we can vacation without paying for the cost of a hotel or motel. Immediately the reader is hooked? Is there such a thing as a "free lunch" when it comes to accommodations?

We are not only informed of the possibility of house swapping that many of us are aware of, but we are also provided with a very extensive list of sources where we may be able to find individuals willing to swap their houses with us.
Did you know that there are empty farmhouses, fishermen's dwellings, and deserted boathouses available for public use in Norway? Are you aware of an organization named Seniors Abroad and by joining, travelers who are 50 and over can be guests of seniors in other countries? These are a tiny miniscule of the invaluable tips and secrets found throughout the book.

Apart from free or low cost accommodations, we are also informed of the many free or inexpensive attractions scattered throughout the world. Have you ever heard of free bikes? The author tells us that in Copenhagen bikes can be used without paying. One thousand "city bikes" are available.

Finally, an added feature is the last chapter entitled "A Wealth of Free Information" where we are presented with over twenty five pages of names, addresses, phone numbers, and web addresses of many organizations as well as publications that reinforce McCheap's seventeenth law of travel: "learning as much as you can about your destinations costs nothing, and can make your free travels a success." The book is well worth its money for anyone who is desirous of knowing how to travel on a very low budget. You Can Travel Free

Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com

Rating:
Summary: "Most of us like "freebies" when it comes to travel!"
Review: Most of us like "freebies" especially when it comes to travel. However, how do you travel for free or for very little money?
Robert Wm Kirk's guidebook, You can Travel Free, is an extremely comprehensive and fact filled guidebook presenting useful strategies and methods that have been employed by those who roam far and frequently-without paying.

The book is divided into seventeen chapters featuring tips, ideas, reference sources, experiences, and guidance. Within these chapters we are introduced to such topics as free accommodations, free ship cruising, hosting group tours, free land transportation, airline freebies, volunteering, working vacations, sightseeing for free, and how to receive scholarships and grants to travel free.
Each chapter begins with a brief quotation that the author appropriately refers to as, "McCheap's" laws.

The author's first law of travel is "the less money you spend at any destination, the more enjoyable the experience." If you think about this rule for a moment you will probably immediately remember that your most enjoyable vacations were those you had incurred the least expense.
The second law introducing the "Free Accommodations" chapter states, "if you paid anything at all for your last vacation you may have paid too much."

Reading these rules, you pretty much get the idea of the book's major theme. A combination of ingenuity, information and the right strategy are all that is required to travel the globe without having to go into debt.
As a concrete example, in the chapter dealing with free accommodations we are informed as to how we can vacation without paying for the cost of a hotel or motel. Immediately the reader is hooked? Is there such a thing as a "free lunch" when it comes to accommodations?

We are not only informed of the possibility of house swapping that many of us are aware of, but we are also provided with a very extensive list of sources where we may be able to find individuals willing to swap their houses with us.
Did you know that there are empty farmhouses, fishermen's dwellings, and deserted boathouses available for public use in Norway? Are you aware of an organization named Seniors Abroad and by joining, travelers who are 50 and over can be guests of seniors in other countries? These are a tiny miniscule of the invaluable tips and secrets found throughout the book.

Apart from free or low cost accommodations, we are also informed of the many free or inexpensive attractions scattered throughout the world. Have you ever heard of free bikes? The author tells us that in Copenhagen bikes can be used without paying. One thousand "city bikes" are available.

Finally, an added feature is the last chapter entitled "A Wealth of Free Information" where we are presented with over twenty five pages of names, addresses, phone numbers, and web addresses of many organizations as well as publications that reinforce McCheap's seventeenth law of travel: "learning as much as you can about your destinations costs nothing, and can make your free travels a success." The book is well worth its money for anyone who is desirous of knowing how to travel on a very low budget. You Can Travel Free

Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com