Live Life Like Lori Harvey (Travel Edition)
Lori Harvey’s past three quarters involved traveling cross-country and on two continents. Meanwhile, the average Black woman travels internationally once every 24 months. It’s likely less than that for African or Afro-Latina women due to financial and paperwork restrictions.
Is living a life like Lori’s even possible without the same PJs, vacation days, and disposable income she has access to? We can at least try, starting with these three strategies.
Tip #1: Access premium or convenient travel at low costs
Buying premium economy at the right time is a safe, yet slightly bougie, place to start. Unfortunately, you’ll miss out on the dopamine hit from booking flights on a whim like Lori. However, you’ll get a close enough luxury experience at a lower cost.
First, plan to purchase your ticket 2-3 months in advance, and, second, book a Tuesday or Wednesday departure date. Third, book your vacation days for off-peak travel seasons, typically between April-June and September-March (except Christmas). By doing this you’re already saving a minimum of $435 per ticket for international flights (according to travel booking app Hopper).
For example, a round trip ticket from New York to London in premium economy using this price strategy is as low as $1,118 compared to $1,500 or more without discounts.
The perks of premium economy are limited to more legroom, priority boarding, and increased baggage allowance. Technically, it also offers better food menu options, but that varies by airline.
If you’re ready and willing to upgrade a notch, business class can be an affordable option. Just be sure to book using the same strategy (i.e. midweek flight, avoiding peak travel seasons) and your costs usually come to 50-70% off the usual ticket price (based on websites like Kayak).
Finally, it’s ideal to pick travel destinations with exceptional ground transportation. That way, you can use car booking sites like Uber or Blablacar to move between different cities and countries with a personal chauffeur. Depending on how much you’re willing to spend, you can use Uber Black in Italy or the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Blablacar typically runs like old-school Uber, where ordinary people going the same way as you get a small fee for allowing you to join their trip.
In Latin America, ground transporation between Paraguay and Bolivia has also been touted by several traveling blogs as relatively safe. For Africa, ground transportation is a relatively safe alternative to flights for the following countries:
Botswana and Namibia;
Zambia and Malawi; and
across Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.
Several countries offer visa-free travel to most African countries, like Georgia, Indonesia, Japan, and Barbados. Otherwise, you can travel to Bolivia, Laos, and Nepal, which have the most affordable visa fees worldwide.
Tip #2: Maximizing available vacation days
As with Tip #1, this strategy involves saving up vacation time for periods less in demand from other colleagues. If your position allows you to exchange shifts with co-workers, it’ll be ideal to work during the months they are more eager to use their vacation days (i.e. those peak travel months).
It may mean you miss out on fully enjoying days off during key holidays like Christmas or Easter. In exchange, you get time off during the most affordable travel dates. The cost savings from flights and hotels can go towards luxury dining and excursion experiences once you arrive at your destination. Avoid taking sick or personal days off as much as you can during peak travel seasons to accumulate as many days possible for your time away.
Tip #3: Increasing disposable income sustainably
The best way to ensure all your travel comforts are met is to increase your spending. Frankly, this is not the easiest goal to achieve, especially when politics and other world events disrupt the job market.
Earning extra income through a freelance or remote job would be the perfect option. Since most freelancing and remote roles allow you to work from anywhere, you could set aside some days abroad to complete tasks for cash. Occasionally, articles like this guide you to where new job opportunities are available. Set up Google Alerts as well, such as “[COMPANY NAME] AND [SPECIFIC ROLE]”, for companies that label themselves as “remote-first”. Alternatively, sign up for this newsletter to get weekly updates on remote and freelance jobs near you.
Less consistent but optimal options include stock trading for additional weekly income. Advice is available here on how to use options trading responsibly to increase your cash flow.
Finally, pursue more humbling side hustles now so you can live lavishly later. Low lift ideas include:
2-5 hours cleaning apartments or corporate offices weekly
offering dog-sitting, child care, or elderly care services on weekends
renting your car to tourists or those who need it temporarily on websites like this
This doesn’t cover all it takes to live life like Lori Harvey, and more insights will come soon! For now, share videos and pictures showing how these tips helped you by tagging these TikTok, Bluesky, and Instagram pages.
