I once spent 11 days living out of a backpack in a small town in western Siberia.

I traveled for two weeks across Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia – for corporate meetings and writing assignments – with just a black roll-a-board and a backpack.
Indeed, just about everywhere I venture in the world – whether it’s a high-end resort or an inexpensive vacation, or whether it’s on a major airline or a low-cost carrier for budget travel -I rarely have anything with me expect those two bags. It is, I like to believe, something akin to an art:
Getting to, and learning to live comfortably, anywhere in the world with a modicum of clothing and gear.

As someone who’s picked up more than three million airline miles traveling through some 63 countries, I know how to travel cheap.

Even if you don’t earn a lot of money, and even if you have debt that you think prohibits you from seeing the world, the fact is that numerous budget-travel options exist for you to travel to your dream destination.

Credit cards these days come with tons of travel perks beyond the simple accumulation of miles. Choose your credit cards wisely, and you can earn an abundance of rewards including hotel upgrades, free airfare and airline upgrades to business or first class that will allow you to book inexpensive vacations.

And even if you can’t travel completely for free, you can still collect and use travel rewards to radically reduce your travel costs.