About The Cheap Route Travel Site

Hi! My name is Mike, I'm a 29 year old traveler from Southern California. I created this website in 2010 because I got frustrated not being able to find photos of some of the landmarks the guide books and websites were talking about while visiting Ankara, Turkey. I always tend to trust pictures more than words, especially those of a stranger, and I thought it would be cool if a travel site focused on posting real life photos and videos rather than carefully crafted (and sometimes sponsored) write-ups. I'm far from a skilled writer, and I'm not a professional photographer, but I hope I provide a realistic portrayal of what a destination is actually like.

I also try to surround my photos, videos, and tips by other useful travel tools like maps, festival & event guides, recipes for cooking cheap meals on the road, and hot travel deals. These portions of the site are slowly being built as I travel and collect more data, but I'm constantly adding to them and one day hope to create a mobile phone app for you.

My favorite types of places to visit are those I never heard of until I was in the region. Generally these are the places passed around through word of mouth between travelers, but they're getting harder and harder to discover as travel becomes cheaper, easier, and more popular. I'm not the type of traveler who is anti-tourist, I enjoy seeing the iconic tourist destinations as well.

I've got a couple friends that write for the site from time to time, you may have read some of their articles. I'm also open to anyone who would like to guest post, go ahead and let me know your idea and we'll go from there. I love talking about travel in general, so never hessitate to contact me or leave me questions and comments on any post, positive or negative.

I consider myself to have well rounded travel interests, I can generally see the positives anywhere I visit, but if I had to settle down in one place it'd have to be on a beach. Growing up in Southern California I love being in the water, whether it's swimming, surfing, diving, or on a boat somewhere. I also like to conquer my fears and test my limits, although as I get older I find it gets harder and harder. However, I'm still open to try new things, especially when it comes to strange foods.

How do I afford to travel so much? I worked for several years programming websites from a cubicle in Orange Country, California. I didn't take a day off (other than the sick days which were "use it or lose it") for 2 years so I could go backpack Europe for 3 weeks in 2006. A couple years later I had saved up a chunk of money for a house. Having caught the travel bug already, I decided I could save up again later, and went traveling around the world for 6 months in 2008. Life was never the same when I returned. I went back to my old job, worked for a little over a year, and decided to find a way to travel full time. I negotiated a contract situation with my company and have been working full time while traveling around the world since January 18, 2010.

Because of my work situation, my travel style varies. I always travel light with only a medium sized backpack and a daypack. I prefer to stay in hostels or guesthouses for the social aspects, but if I'm with friends on vacation looking to stay in hotels, I'm fine with that too. I love mixing with locals, my best travel experiences have generally involved making or meeting up with local friends. Even though I don't always have to, I prefer using public transport wherever I am for the adventure and experience of it.

That's enough about me, I'd love to hear more about you though. Feel free to drop me a line, let me know where you are in the world, how you like it, if I should check it out, etc. Click Here to contact me. I'd also like to hear how I'm doing with the site, good or bad. If you want, please friend me on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or stay up to date by following my RSS feed. If you like the site, it would also help me a lot it if you linked to it, shared it with your friends, posted it on facebook, stumbled it, digged it, google+'ed it... anything you can do to help spread the word is greatly appreciated!

I really do hope you enjoy and find this site useful, thanks for stopping by!

- Mike