Travel hacking

If you would like to experience living in a part of Spain that is quite inexpensive, then I would suggest heading to the university city of Granada. It is located in Spain’s south-east. I’ll admit, I was surprised with the cost of living when I went there. If you want to live quite inexpensively and also experience some of the Spanish culture, then this is one city you can consider basing yourself in.

Tourist sites.

Alhambra

The city is prided on Alhambra. If you go to the centre of town, you will see it and you can walk up the hill amongst the nature to really get a closer glimpse of what it has to offer. If you do want to go inside, you will need to purchase tickets in advance. The landmark gets very busy with tourists.

Depending on who you purchase the ticket from, it will cost you anywhere from 18-25 Euros for a pass.

Albacin (Mirador de San Nicolas)

It offers the most scenic spot for looking at Alhambra. With the mountains in the background, it is an incredible wonder to visit.

Paseo de las triste

This is located en route to Alhambra, so you will see traditional architecture and roadways that lead into the heart of Granada.

Cue ras Sacromonte (Flamenco en directo)

Flamenco is a big part of the culture in Southern Spain. Tickets will cost you around 20 Euros to see a performance. If you want the the authentic Spanish experience, treat yourself to a flamenco show.

Booga Club

If you are in the mood for some dancing and partying, then Booga club is the place to go and enjoy yourself.

Plaza Nueva

This is just opposite Alhambra and is honestly one of the most beautiful places in the city. Go for a stroll around there and marvel at the unique architecture and street performers in the area.

Accommodation.

I stayed in a much cheaper place in the city. It was actually the cheapest place that I found on Airbnb. I rented a room for $16AUD a night. There were pros and cons to the accommodation. However, some of the massive pros were:

• It was in a secure building.
• I had a secure lock on my door.
• It had a hot shower.
• There were cooking facilities.
• I had internet access.

I stayed there for 7 days, but I could have easily stayed there for a month if I wanted to, since the accommodation would have cost me around $500 for the month.

Food.

There are several supermarkets in town. I would go to AlCampo, which is a large supermarket that has pretty much everything. You can buy things in bulk, so you get a discount on your items.

The food that is common in town is tapas and bocadillos (sandwiches). You can easily make your own sandwiches by purchasing bread (or baguettes) from the supermarket (supermercado) for 40-80 cents. Then I would purchase a packet of yogurt for 2 Euros, Camembert cheese, turkey salami for 2 euros for another 2 Euros and a bottle of water for 30 cents. The sandwiches would keep me going for about two days or so.

I would also eat out. The culture of the city is that tapas are provided for free when you purchase a drink. So you can easily eat out for a few Euros and have a decent meal with a drink.

To give you an idea, I went out for tapas for lunch and I got some nachos, a mini burger and a small quesadilla. I bought 1 drink that came with 1 tapas. I paid 1.50 Euros for the other two tapas. The bill came to 5 Euros and 20 cents. I know that if I ate out in Australia, I would never have received 3 dishes for less than $10. And I had an alcoholic drink. And I felt full.

Also, I’d often go to the cafe and order a coffee with milk (cafe con leche), which would usually cost me about 1.50 Euros. For relaxing in a cafe and using the internet to browse and do my errands, I felt like it was worthwhile.

Travel.

If you decide to travel within the city, it is actually easy to get around by foot. I was staying outside of the main area, but it was a 20-minute walk from where I was staying. There are trams and buses that you can catch, but to be honest, unless you decide to travel outside of the city, you will be ok commuting by foot.

To get to Granada, I took the bus. I managed to catch a bus from Malaga to Granada for approximately 12 Euros. I did book the ticket at the station, however you can also book your ticket through the ALSA website.

You can also get to Granada by train. I chose to leave Granada by train to Ronda, which is a city in the West of Spain. The ticket cost me just under 21 Euros. You can use the RENFE website to purchase tickets in advance.

Cost of living in Granada.

I think it is achievable to stay in Granada for less than $50AUD a day. However, I would be prepared to spend more on accommodation and have a nicer place to sleep. That being said, I was able to practice my Spanish alot with my host and I did improve my spoken Spanish whilst I stayed with her and her roommates, since they didn’t speak English.

Additionally, I think it is even more achievable to live comfortably in Granada if you travel as a pair. You can either rent a room, which is most likely to halve your cost. Or you can opt to rent an entire place, which is likely to cost you both the same (or slightly more) than if you were travelling solo.

Below, I have also shared a couple of Instagram videos that highlight my stay in Granada.

Exploring Granada in Spain as a digital nomad. Travel, work & play 😀

A post shared by @ lollivialiving on Apr 13, 2018 at 10:45pm PDT

Exploring the streets of Granada. Digital nomad life 😀

A post shared by @ lollivialiving on Apr 13, 2018 at 10:55pm PDT

Sunny weekend in Granada, Spain. Thank you for the memories. Next stop, Ronda in Spain. Loving the digital nomad life 😀

A post shared by @ lollivialiving on Apr 14, 2018 at 11:47am PDT

I hope that you enjoyed this article. If you have travelled to Granada before, please share your experience in the comments below.

I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to crack the code when it comes to travelling full time. I’ve always wanted to travel and at the time of writing this, I am in Ronda in Spain enjoying a Spanish Baguette and Spanish coffee. At the same time, I am talking to a friend online who is asking me how he can live this lifestyle. But he keeps on asking me one question.

What will I do for money?

This is a very valid question. To be honest, this is why most people don’t go ahead with travelling.

There are several different strategies that you can use to travel around the world full time.

Work in your local country and save. Then travel until the money runs out.

This is an easier solution and you can actually work in a country (preferably your home country) and earn an income that will allow you to travel without working. The great thing with this approach is that you will be able to travel without the need to work. You will only need to budget how much you need to spend per day and ensure that the money doesn’t run out before the end of your trip.

You can work legally in your own country and then travel on a tourist visa once you are in other countries.

If you go to a place where the cost of living is much cheaper, you may only need to save $12,000USD to live in a country for 6 months.

Earn an income in the country you are going to with a working holiday visa.

You can obtain a visa that will allow you to earn an income in the local currency and that will allow you to sustain your travels. You will need to check with the department of immigration for the country that you want to visit. In many cases, you will either need to apply for their working-holiday program or apply to be sponsored to work for a local company.

Earn an income online.

This gives you the most flexible travel option. One thing you will need to keep in mind is that you are not doing any online work that takes away income from the local economy. You can do things like run your own business from your official country of residence. Or you can freelance as a consultant or doing work for businesses based around the world.

There are actually several ways you can make an income that will allow you to travel around the world. You can see opportunities on this digital nomad job post.

I even detailed how I was able to earn an income in one of my past travel income reports.

If you are interested in earning an income through writing, you can actually buy my ebook, which shows you the exact steps for earning your first $100 through writing. This will allow you to start earning an income whilst travelling.

If you are in the position of earning a passive income, this is even more ideal as you can focus on enjoying the travel experience without the need to work. You can do this through affiliate programs, advertising income and even automated sales processes.

Don’t give into the excuses. See how you can make your travel lifestyle come true today!

There’s always a need to be as creative as possible when it comes to making your money stretch as a digital nomad. You want to be able to trade in a currency that will increase your purchasing power, so you can enjoy the quality of life that you are after whilst travelling.

One of the ways you can do this is by leveraging the reward systems that different credit card providers offer. I personally signed up to one a couple of years ago and can see the benefit if it is done in the right way. However, the wrong program can also set you back financially, while it makes you think that you are gaining financially.

In this post, I want to share some insights that you should look for so you can benefit from credit card use while travelling as a digital nomad.

My own experience.

I have a credit card rewards program with Australia’s Commonwealth Bank. The program is okay, but there are others that are better than it.

The program allows you to gain points, which you can use as cash towards travel, experiences or even a cash refund. My wife and I had actually planned to put the accumulated credit towards a cruise holiday that we wanted to take.

My strategy was the following.

Process any charges through an online payment system.

This could see accommodation charged through Airbnb, travel through online booking services, groceries and entertainment also through online booking systems. The key was to never pay cash.

Settle the balance at the end of the month.

At the end of the month, I would receive a statement advising me of the amount to settle and then I would settle everything in full.

The income that was using was actually the revenue from my business. I also ran any business costs on the card. Since one of my business’s is in client services, I would simply wait for them to settle their invoice and I would clear the debt. As long as I had clients pay their bills, I would accumulate the points.

The setbacks.

For a long time, I thought I was actually getting ahead with the credit card program. But I was actually losing out despite implementing what I thought was a clever strategy.

I was losing out on the per transaction fee.

Every month I would go through my credit card statement to find several per transaction fees. Some of the fees were quite high if payments were conducted in the hundreds or thousands.

It is easy to fall behind with creditors.

I’m fortunate that I run a business that has a positive cashflow. However, there were several occasions when I received ‘surprising credit balances’ that I had to settle. If I did not have my business or my cashflow management skill, I would have fallen behind and become one of the victims of the credit trap.

It’s really important to stay within your means and to only use a credit amount that you can actually afford.

The rewards program didn’t give me as much spending power as I’d hoped for.

It’s important to know what you want to get out of the program in the beginning. In my case, I’ve accumulated over 100,000 points which gets approximately $500 AUD in rewards and travel vouchers. Something is better than nothing. But considering that the calculation is based on 1-2 points per dollar spent, it means that I could have forgone the transaction and annual fees (the annual fee is $150-200 annually) and purchased the rewards item directly.

Are there other options that you should consider?

Definitely! I’m always looking out for alternative options and from what I’ve seen, alot does come down to the type of reward that you want to have. In the case of digital nomads, accumulating rewards for travel fares is interesting.

If enough points can be racked up to gain a one-way or return ticket to a destination annually, that will help ease the financial strain while travelling as a digital nomad.

Alternative programs

Velocity (Virgin)

Velocity is one of the interesting ones, however I’m not 100% convinced with their offer as to seems to put the credit card holders at a breakeven. Their offer requires the holders to pay an annual fee and in return, they will get a couple of flights a year and access to the Virgin Lounge. Points can be gained for travel, which can then discount their rates by booking directly on their website

That being said, you can easily find cheap fares by looking on Sky Scanner. But if you do find that you need to use a card frequently, then this is a handy one to have.

Qantas

The Qantas reward program is also interesting for frequent flyers. They offer an interesting proposition by gaining up to 100,000 rewards points if a certain spend is achieved in the first three months. This is enough to earn you a return ticket from Australia to Europe or the US. So it is actually quite interesting.

As with the Virgin velocity rewards, you aren’t always going to get cheaper fares. But if you do need to use a credit card, then this one can be a handy option.

There are a few useful resources that I recommend checking out.

How I earn 1 million frequent flyer miles each year – Nomadic Matt

How to pick the best credit card – Nomadic Matt

Points Hack

Make sure you check those programs that are ideal for the country that you are a resident in and find out how the program works. Don’t commit to anything that you are unsure about.

If you have any experience using credit cards whilst travelling as a digital nomad, please leave your comments below.