Travel Grants - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

courtney_leigh · 05-27-2004, 01:43 PM

Has anyone looked into getting a personal travel grant from the government? It seems that it is possible, but all the sites that offer information charge a fee, and I'm not gonna fork over 30 bucks for what could be a scam... Any help would be appreciated. I am planning my first 3 month trip, and I (like everyone, I'm sure) am not exactly sure how to come up with my $8000 budget. I work and go to school, but it's not enough! Help....how'd you do it?

CamiKay · 05-27-2004, 01:59 PM

$8000 bucks? I personally have gotten by on like, $30 a day, usually even less. Guess I dont know where you are going, but you prolly dont need $8000!
Good luck though! And let me know if the gov does give money for travel =)

courtney_leigh · 05-27-2004, 02:30 PM

where all did you travel with that budget? I'm just learning, so maybe it's too much..who knows...I'd love some of everyones opinion/experience!

CamiKay · 05-28-2004, 12:57 AM

I dont have a ton of experience either, but right now I am in Italy, and I've traveled quite a bit here. Oh, and I messed up, I meant €30 a day, which is more than $30 a day, but still close.
The €30 a day budget is if you really want to do things cheap, which is the way I do it

So what I do is find camping places near the city where I want to be- they are like, from €9-12 a night. They are usually kinda far from the center of the city and the service, lets face it, usually sucks...BUT, I have had better adventures at these places than I ever had at a hotel, or even a hostel- plus you usually get your own little cabin thingy. And its usually in the country kind of, which is nicer than being right by the bus station. And they usually have one free pick up and drop off, from and to the train station or whatever.
I find these places on Hostels.com (sorry travelpunk) and reserve in advance- I usually reserve 3-4 days of the week, then I just figure things out for the rest of the days, and it works out.
Then for food you dont have to eat out all the time, that kind of thing (most hostels have a fridge so you can keep food for a while there)
yeah, thats all I can think of now- oh, other than, instead of getting a guide at a major tourist site, just go into the bookstore and read up a bit first (haha I know Im awful) or kinda follow a random guide around for a while...
yeah.

**Somnambulation** · 05-28-2004, 04:08 PM

I briefly looked into travel grants from the government but they require you to be working on a project and you can be held responsible for fraud. So I decided not to pursue it any further.

**U2fan** · 05-28-2004, 05:57 PM

Planning on participating in some activities that could count as fraud? hehehe Or you mean you just don't want to try to pass off a trip as a project?

courtney_leigh · 05-29-2004, 03:18 PM

Interesting...So do you remember exactly what constitutes a project? I mean, it looked like a personal grant could be used for anything from home improvement to travel...whatever as long as you wrote your grant and got approved....elaborate on the fraud thing, please!

**Somnambulation** · 05-29-2004, 04:06 PM

I looked at educational travel grants and they require you to produce some kind of research or thing of that nature. If you don't and just take the money and run (which was my initial thought) they can snag you for fraud. What constitues an educational project seemed to be pretty narrow too, so it sounded kind of hard to BS it. I can't remember where I read this, but it was educational grants. I didn't even know they gave personal grants to the average person.

**blinkchick2134** · 06-11-2004, 12:42 AM

One of my cousin's got a grant from the government to go to South America to research for his senior thesis. I'm not sure how he got it or how it worked out but I do know he got one and only paid for some light touring he did while there.

Spike · 07-01-2004, 10:34 PM

can anyone help me with a link to do some research on getting grants for projects? im a student at the 'atlanta college of art' and im sure i can get a teacher to give me an oversea's project of sorts.

ive searched some on my own but searching the web is like going to the local garbage dump and trying to find something you didnt mean to throw away!

4 days till i fly into Paris!

dttraveler · 07-06-2004, 05:48 PM

Courtney, personally 8,000 dollars is way too much. I did my 3 month trip with half that and i partied every night in one form or the other. Start living a simpler life.

courtney_leigh · 07-12-2004, 02:29 PM

Thanks everyone for the help!
By the way though, it's not likeI just arbitrarily came up with my $8000 budget... I spent a long time researching and the most people who have traveled recently recommended a $70/ day budget...that's where i got 8000, pluys air and train tickets. It will be fabulous if I don't spend that much, or more appropriately, it will be a miracle if I even have that much to begin with! I'm going either way, and we'll just see how things pan out...