Who runs this site
Shoestring Drift is an independent travel publication written for people who want to see the world without spending a fortune doing it. Every guide here is built around a number a lot of travel sites avoid publishing: what a day actually costs.
How we research
We are an editorial team, not a travel diary, and we would rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. Prices in this niche move constantly — hostel beds, bus fares, visa fees and street food all shift with the season and the exchange rate — so every figure here is traced to a source you can check, and carries the date we checked it.
- Official published prices and rules. Government travel advice, aviation regulators, immigration authorities, transport operators and national park services. This is the backbone of the site: cited with a link and a date.
- Measured datasets. Where a figure can be taken from a source that publishes its own method — cost-of-living indices, historical weather records — we use the data rather than an impression, and we name the dataset so you can reproduce the arithmetic yourself.
- First-hand accounts, when we have them. We do not currently have any, and we would rather say that than imply otherwise: at the time of writing, no member of this team has travelled the routes covered on this site, and no article here contains a first-hand account. If that changes, the account will be labelled with a date and a name, and it will be clear which parts of the article rest on it and which do not.
What we will not do is fill a gap with a number that merely sounds plausible. If a figure cannot be verified, it is left out, and the article says so rather than dressing up a guess.
What that means for you: this is a data-driven publication rather than a first-hand travel blog. We think the distinction matters when you are deciding whether to trust a price, so we are stating it rather than leaving you to work it out.
What we will not do
- We will not claim to have visited somewhere we have not been.
- We will not present a sponsored property as an independent recommendation.
- We will not tell you a place is cheap because a press release said so.
How the site is funded
Shoestring Drift is funded by display advertising and by affiliate commissions. When you book through some of our links, we may earn a small percentage at no extra cost to you. This never changes what we recommend — see our Affiliate Disclosure for the full detail, and our Privacy Policy for how we handle data.
Corrections
Prices go stale. If something on this site is out of date or wrong, tell us through the contact page and we will check it and correct the article with a visible note. We would rather be corrected than be confidently wrong.