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Hey everybody, it's Mariel.

In 2018, I went to Greece for two weeks.

I remember the trip vividly. The beginning was like a dream. We did a food tour in Athens, stayed on a gorgeous small island with crystal blue water and no cars. We went running by the beach, watched the sunset. But we reached a point about 10 days in when things took a turn. Our string of beautiful weather

ended. Now there was torrential rain every day. And our last stop was kind of a dud. We hadn't done

enough research on the area and there wasn't much to do. Also, I started having some digestive issues.

So I just remember being stuck in the hotel room watching American American political news on TV with an upset stomach, wishing I was home. And we still had four days to go. Changing our flights at that point would have just been too expensive. It was like we'd overstayed and overspent by half a week. Nishan Lanada is a financial advisor at Kraft Wealth Services.

And honestly, the worst feeling is going on a trip feeling completely dissatisfied or that you didn't hit the mark on what you wanted or that you overspent.

Or both.

And what I learned from that trip in Greece was, first of all, two weeks, usually too long for me to be hopping around from one international city to another.

Also, spending more time in a place and more money on the trip doesn't necessarily add up to a better experience.

The truth is you can have fulfilling, restorative, life-changing travels without draining your bank account, though your trip might not look exactly like the photos you've seen on social media.

Comparison is the thief of joy. So get off of social media and stop following travel bloggers that don't pay for their own stuff because that's a real trap.

That's Chrissy Whalen. She and her teenage son Zephyr have been traveling the world since

2019. They've traveled to 40 countries, including Argentina, Norway, Singapore, Morocco, Vietnam, France.

And they do it on a budget, spending maybe $60 to $80 a night on hotels and $20 a day on food in expensive cities like London.

Chrissy does have an Instagram account called single mom budget travel.

But she travels without the help of sponsors and pays for everything, flights, food, hotels, all of it.

She says social media can be part of the problem,

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