Exploring five continents on a budget
The summer before he finished his undergraduate degree at USU, Daniel Barello decided to take a trip. After summers of working and saving, Barello spent 85 days traveling around the world.
“I saved up all through school,” he said. “And then, I just made it happen. When you really want something, you just make it happen.”
Barello, who is now a graduate student in aerospace engineering, said he had only been out of the country three times before his summer trip, which included traversing 18 countries across five continents. The challenge of the trip was sticking to a budget that would allow him to continue his education when he returned, he said.
“We slept in hostels, we slept in our car,” he said. “We mostly ate food from the grocery store. You learn how to cut corners.”
Since his summer spent abroad, Barello hasn’t been able to resist the travel bug. His total travel included visiting 23 different countries. In the past few weeks, he spent time in India and Thailand.
“We were in India for the Festival of Colors. It was nuts,” he said. “We were in this town in the middle of nowhere, and we were the only white people. There were thousands of people, camels, vendors, all sorts of stuff. I felt like I was in a time warp. It was so far from my world. In one hour I learned so much more than I could have from a textbook.”
He said he enjoys sharing his adventures with others, and loves planning trips. On top of working on a master’s degree and traveling internationally, he said he recently planned a Spring Break trip to Maui for USU students.
Barello said he has always loved planning trips. In high school, when his soccer coach quit unexpectedly, Barello took charge of the team’s upcoming trip to the Utah Summer Games.
“I used my grandma’s credit card to book hotels,” he said.
This passion for planning trips helped Barello secure a job with Motley Travel, a web-based travel agency. His friends also turn to him when they need help planning trips because they know Barello has experience traveling on a student’s limited budget.
“You have to make sacrifices and learn to think outside the box when you travel,” he said. “But if you’re willing to do that, it can happen, even on a small budget.”
Bollero said students who are interested in traveling but are worried about budgeting can consult a travel agent before booking flights abroad. For his trip around the world, a travel agent helped him cut his flight costs in half. He also found it helpful to get a credit card that gave him flyer miles.
He also suggests students avoid Europe. Though it is one of the most desired destinations, it can also be one of the most expensive, he said.
“Most people want to do Europe, but at the end of the day, you can do Europe when you’re 60. Riding an elephant in Thailand or (taking) a three-week safari are things you can only do when you’re young,” Barello said.
He said students who want to travel should stay open to what the world has to offer them.
“There’s only so much you can prepare, because everywhere is so unique,” he said. “You really have to learn as you go and (have) to be open to what that place has to show you.”
Though Barello said he has had to make sacrifices to make his traveling happen, including extending his undergraduate studies and taking out student loans, he is confident he has gained a valuable education from his world travels.
“I became a better person,” he said. “I gained as much of an education from traveling as I did from being in a classroom. You learn so much about yourself. You just grow.”
In the future, Barello anticipates having to cut down on traveling.
“Traveling really isn’t encouraged when you’re a nuclear engineer,” he said.
Despite this, he said there’s a lot of the world he’d still like to see. South America is next on his list, as well as taking his mother outside of the country for her first time. They plan to watch his LDS mission companion compete in the 2012 Olympics in London, he said.
The most important skill he’s learned from traveling? How to beat jet lag.
“You don’t sleep at all the night before,” he said. “You just have to be as tired as you can when you get on that plane.”
– m.van911@aggiemail.usu.edu