The Cost of Cheap Vacations

You can have your wine; I don’t want it.

You can have your fancy hotel rooms; I like them but I can do without.

You can have your gourmet food; I don’t need it.

I think there are more people like me out there. Maybe not more than in the gourmet category, but I know I’m not alone.

I can tell you from experience that the people set on having the finer things in life have a tendency to miss out on the finer things in life.

What I do need though is exhilaration: the feeling that I’m having an adventure. I need the views, the wind in my face, the excitement, animals..etc. Those things fulfill my needs. They make me feel safe to a certain extent.

Strangely, from a monetary standpoint, you can get those things nearly for free.

The other day, I was thinking back to a conversation I had with a military buddy of mine who lived in Wyoming. I was surprised to learn that he had never been to Yellowstone. He said he didn’t have the money. I politely informed him that while I respect that as a legitimate reason to not go somewhere, Yellowstone (especially if you already live in Wyoming), is amongst the very cheapest places to vacation. A lot of people don’t know that.

•Military get in free (at any National park). If you’re not military, you pay $50 for a whole car’s worth of people to get in for a full week.

•You can camp for anywhere from 0$-$50 per night.

•You can bring your own food

•The activities you do there consist mainly of siteseeing, which is also free.

So you pay very little, but what do you get to see and experience? Only the greatest sites you’ve ever seen in your whole life. Animals roaming around free in their natural environment as if it were Jurassic Park, incredible vistas, beautiful mountains, waterways, and canyons, you get to swim in hot springs…you get to experience real authentic life. Raw. Awesome. Real. And you can be with a loved one. That’s what I want. That’s my idea of a fun vacation.

This isn’t exclusive to Yellowstone. It’s the same at Teton. The same at Giant Sequoia. The Same at Glacier and Redwood.

Yellowstone doesn’t have moving ramps though. Teton doesn’t have escalators. Sequoia doesn’t have a cable car or something that whizzes you by all the sites and allows you to see them from above from the comfort of a climate controlled room.

These places all do come at a cost. A premium, if you will.

You have to be able to walk. You have to be fit enough to walk the trails.

I had a girlfriend once that DREADED the idea of going camping with me. She got over it the first night. I’ve had clients that couldn’t stand the idea of eating simple healthy food. They were fine once they got a full belly (at half the cost). I know people deathly afraid of being out in nature as if it is going to visciously attack them the second they set foot on a trail. They’re fine the moment a real mountain vista takes their breath away. They get over all that stuff!

What they don’t get over is not being in good enough shape to walk the trails. That can ruin the whole trip; then the cheap vacation turns very expensive very quickly. No one likes the feeling of being out of breath every second. A workout feels good. A week’s worth of burning muscles, wheezing, calf strains, knee pain etc…sucks.

The cost is that you get in shape. No one is asking you to become a bodybuilder. Just in shape enough to walk the trails. Is that too elitist sounding?

You’re body is already an athlete, although you might not identify as one. Your body already is (regardless of how it looks and feels). It can get in good enough shape fast. It doesn’t have to be hard. The shape your grandparents were in when they were in their youth is good enough. What is it going to take? Don’t overthink it. It’s not that complicated and it doesn’t demand that much discipline. I bet you can do it. Your body is already an athlete. Your body is already an athlete. Your body is already an athlete.

The lifestyle difference between being robust and healthy and out of shape is not that great actually. The difference between being a bodybuilder and out of shape is incredible. The cost of a cheap vacation is litererally another potato instead of a dessert and a nightly walk instead of scrolling on your phone.