We both agree that the most difficult part of traveling is showing up in an unfamiliar location with a heavy backpack and trying to find a place to stay. Once this hurdle has been overcome, everything else is easy. Or at least, easier, since you can do it without a backpack on your shoulders. With 2 people we have found we can make this easier by having one of us sit in a cafe (or park) with the bags while the other scouts the town for lodging. You may wonder why we don't just reserve in advance. Unfortunately, we prefer to be able to check out our different options before settling on one place for sure. One of the few places we did make reservations at turned out to be so noisy we had to leave at night to find a place where we could actually sleep.

People often ask us about expenses. I suppose we fall somewhere in the middle: we do some self-catering but end up eating at cheap restaurants quite a bit, we stay at cheap hotels but avoid grungy skanky ones, we've taken a couple tours (though I think for both, doing the same thing on our own would have ended up about the same price), we don't spend a lot drinking in bars (though we do have a cafe habit which adds up). We want to have a full experience during our travels and sometimes this means spending a little extra (i.e. taking Spanish and art classes, paying admission fees for a site (Machu Pichu is not cheap but is definitely worth it)).