My name is Micaela Bellopede aka the Miraclecatcher.
Over the last 25 years, I have been to about 50 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Central America, North America, Oceania, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. People always ask me how I travel to so many places for free. Well, here's how. Each week, I will be sharing my travel secrets with you. Are you ready?? Let's go!!!
Travel Secret #1:
***Get someone else to pay your expenses***
In 2001-2002, I traveled to 12 counties in Asia and Oceania on $5000 USD. Even better, I got the whole thing paid for by someone else!! Here's how I did it...
On www.eslcafe.com, I found a job to teach English in Korea for one month. For these jobs, you need to be a native English speaker and have a B.A. degree in any subject. The compensation included salary, travel, food, and a suite in a 5 star hotel! Since I did not have any expenses while there, I was able to use all of my salary toward traveling. Thus, one month of teaching paid for 6 months of travel, food, and expenses throughout South East Asia, where on average I spent $5 US dollars per day. After the first 6 months of traveling around Asia, I flew back to Korea for another month of teaching which paid for the next 6 months of travel through Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. 10 months of beaches, 2 months of work--what a wonderful life!
Next week, I will share more about jobs around the world that include free travel. Stay tuned!
You can see my pictures at www.miraclecatcher.com
Travel Secret #2:
***Buy Around the World Travel Passes***
Since many Asian companies will pay for half of your airfare expenses if you come to teach English for them, I suggest that you ask the company to give cash for your flight and purchase a "Circle Asia" or "Around the World" pass instead. This way you can use your ticket to fly to anywhere between 4-10 countries over the course of one year. So when you are done teaching, you can take the long, unbeaten path home.
"Circle Asia" passes are cheaper than "Around the World" passes because they allow fewer stops. These passes are usually sold by "consolidators" or "airline brokers". Try looking in the LA Times Travel Section in the back where the ads are.
Travel Secret #3:
***Frequent Flier Miles, Baby!***
All I can say is: enroll, enroll, enroll!! I am in every airline frequent flier program under the sun! When you travel, you rack up enough miles so that your next flight is free. How do you enroll? Go to the airline website and click on "Miles Program". Always keep your boarding pass stubs to get credit. On average I earn at least 2 or 3 free flights per year. An easy tip: keep your frequent flier numbers saved in your phone so can access them quickly at the airport. I will discuss how to generate more frequent flier miles in my next blog post. Stay tuned.
P.S. If you are not using your miles, please consider donating them to charity. Go to "donate miles" on your airline website. You can help children in need like the ones at
The Good Hope School in Uganda. www.goodhopeschool.net See video of my trip below.
If you would like to donate or volunteer at the school, please contact: miraclecatcher.foundation@gmail.com
Would you like to sponsor a Good Hope student?
