Travel is the movement of people between relatively distant geographical locations for any purpose and any duration.  Usually, the type of travel can be defined by how much money is being spent on that experience. Travel is impossible to do if no cost is involved. People do think about the cost before traveling. Budget travel is suitable for those who willing to go for a travel with low budget. However, some people choose to travel in a luxury way to enjoy a trip to the fullest. There are some differences between budget travel and luxury travel. Comparison between budget travel and luxury travel are shown through different angles, which are accommodation, transportation, food and drink, places to visit and quality of travel.  http://travel2mongolia.com

Accommodation

Accommodation is one of the important aspects to think of during travel. To have a pleasant journey, first, traveler must have enough time to rest. The comfort ability of accommodation may influence the travel mood of a traveler. However, for budget traveler, they choose to spend less in accommodation. How could budget traveler do that? With limited budget, traveler can either choose to budget tour though the Mongolia, overnight in house or Ger of local residents, guesthouse & hostel or even camping.  Ulaanbaatar has many hostels linked with travel platform, those hostels are usually cheap as youth hostel is purposely designed for backpackers who have low budget. During the tour, sleep local family’s extra Ger and local guesthouse, also some place don’t have shower and electricity no wifi, you can use public wooden toilet and shower, who have low budget in travelling in Mongolia. Although it may not be as comfortable as we stay in hotel, camping is definitely a different authentic experience.

On the others hand, during the tours-for luxury travelers, they may choose to stay in luxury accommodation, such as hotels, tourist luxury Ger camps every day in Mongolia. They tend to spend more in accommodation so that they able to rest in a more comfortable place. Hotels and Ger Camps with higher ranking, their services and facilities for sure are better. A high class hotel usually provides services and facilities such as shower, ball room, golf club, gym, sauna, massage room, swimming pool, shops and also restaurants. When big families go for travel, hotel’s family room and private Ger are more preferred because hotels and tourist Ger camps contain more rooms and bathrooms and have their own compound. Staying in luxury accommodation like hotels and tourist Ger camp is much more relaxed and pampered compared to staying in budget accommodation as everything is well-prepared in luxury accommodation.

Transportation

Transportation is important during travelling. However, what form of transportation can lower the budget of a traveler? Firstly, train can be considered as an ideal transport for those who plan for a budget travel. Trans Siberian Train has a large capacity; it can fit in more people once. People who travel for a long period are advised to take train as it safe money and time of driving. Besides, domestic busses are an economical option to travel too.  Domestic bus travel is the cheapest means of transportation across the Mongolia but it will be spend time lot and uncomfortable long driving because Mongolia is one of the vast country in the world. If you choose package tours you will drive vans, (mostly recommended Russian van) set by 5 to 6 each car when you travel. Cheap domestic airfare can be purchased in order to lower the transportation expense. Lower airfares usually require a weekday stay and advance purchase time of at least two to three weeks. Travelers are advised to read through the rules and regulation clearly when purchasing airfare if there is any add-on fees needed. Or else air-line company may offer you a cheap airfare, but charge you a high baggage fees. To avoid high baggage fees, one should online search the information of baggage fees and read through it to avoid any unnecessary payment.

People who travel luxury don’t really care about all these charges. To enjoy the whole journey, they can choose to take private 4×4 driving comfort jeeps, cozy vans or even domestic flight and private helicopter. Plane will always be the first choice for those who go for luxury travel because plane takes the shortest time to reach a place. Cost of airfare is definitely higher than jeeps or vans.

Food and drinks

In addition, budget travel and luxury travel do have differences in terms of the food and drinks. In budget travel, the food or the way of eating is definitely more economical, such as self-catering, street foods, and after-hours eating (after the operational time, some food will be discounted or even free. For example, after 9pm, the foods will be free for public). Thus, public can enjoy cheap dinner or cheap foods and drinks. It’s such a great deal for tourists who are undergoing budget travel. For self-catering, tourists will spend special moment with their family as they cook together and enjoy it just like in their own house. Street foods are great and cheap too. Street foods usually reflect the food culture of a place. For example, street foods in our country such as ‘huushuur’, ‘ buuz’, ‘shashlik’, and etc reflect the food culture of our local citizens. Street foods are such a temptation for tourism. After-hours eating is the precious time for those budget travelers because they can enjoy their meals with a cheaper price. However, the disadvantage of budget travel is that they cannot enjoy expensive foods. They cannot have what they actually want as limited budget prevent them from having extravagant meals.

During luxury travel, foods that preferred are usually hygienic, nicely set, high class, perfect and also expensive. Tourists that do luxury travel will never concern about their expenses on foods, as money is not their main problem. A great food is the priority for them. In fact, their stomach capacity is the main problem as they can have whatever they want. That’s what we call as extravagant meals. They also enjoy buffet which required much money in order to enjoy it. Moreover, they usually not prefer drinking mineral water or tea. In fact, they choose wine as their drinks.

It seems like luxury travel is better than budget travel. However, those who do luxury travel, can’t really enjoy those street foods. They used to enjoy their meals under air-condition instead of queuing up in the crowd.

Quality of travel

The very last angle for the comparison is quality of travel. Quality of travel can be seen by many different views. The first view is the level of comfort. By comparing budget travel with luxury travel, luxury travel seems to have the higher level of comfort. Budget travelers will usually stay in a low cost guesthouse or hostel. Staying in low costs hotel usually will lacks of amenities of home. The beds are not comfortable, communication is limited because they don’t understand English, and utilities provided are bad. While for luxury travels, travelers usually go for a four star or five star hotels. Most of the four stars and five star hotels provide a spa service; the travelers can enjoy the services. Other than this, luxury travelers have the opportunity to shop in the shopping spots. In these shopping spots, they can purchase things that are with high fashion and designers’ label.

The second view is the level of cleanliness. The comparisons between budget travel and luxury travel shows that luxury travel has the higher level of cleanliness. Budget travel normally shows us the ugly side of a country. As budget travelers usually visit to rural areas other than developed city, they can truly experience the surrounding environment.  Luxury travel shows a better condition and this will lead to a better health.

The third view is the safety of travelers. From this view, luxury travel is having more advantages. Budget travelers will choose to be home stay rather than staying in hotel. There is a risk of staying in a stranger’s home, who identifies that entering the home of someone that you don’t know means that you are taking the chance to let this person to have ulterior motive of attacking you. Home stay required self care; it won’t be the same compare to own home. They need to care about their luggage, healthy and wealth. While luxury travels have more facilities. In discussing the issues related to airport facilities, airport provides services such as charters, security service, overnight parking, refueling service and cleaning service. Most of the passengers are highly concern on the security. High class airports will corporate with international standard of security service so that the passenger will trust them more.

The forth view is efficiency. The budget travelers have to go through many processes that are slow and inefficient all the time. This identifies that purchasing a plane ticket requires travelers to get number from ticket machine, wait in a lobby for 1.5 hours and then watched the clerk shift the plastic credit card hand held machine over the carbon copy and our credit card. This was for a major airline in Mongolia. However, the budget travelers must used to it. While for luxury travel, travelers will receive a special offer; once they register themselves under the hotel, they will have the opportunity to enjoy all the facilities at the first time. For example, most luxury hotels do help travelers to settle the transportation matters.

The last view is experience gained during travel. Different ways of travel will definitely have different kind of experiences. Budget travelers will have an authentic experience while luxury travelers will have an extraordinary experience. The budget travelers have the chance to know more about a country’s culture, eating style and habits. For budget travel, travelers will have a simple breakfast served with tea or coffee, own paid lunch and dinner which recommended by the citizen. Foods recommended by local citizens are usually cheaper. During luxury travel, travellers will have the chance to enjoy a quality services and superior experience.

Conclusion

Travel can be classified into two types, which are budget travel and luxury travel. Different people prefer different ways of travel as different experiences can be obtained through both budget travel and luxury travel. Both of them have their advantages and also disadvantages. Budget travel allows people to visit different places in low costs but with some limitations, whereas through luxury travel, people keen to enjoy a trip without bothering the costs. In general, travels do have a lot of benefits. People get to explore to more new places, reducing stress level which lead to a better health and learn the way people live and their traditions.