I started planning the trip as soon as I booked for the conference in Montana. I started first, by looking for hostels in Billings and in other parts of Montana.
I like hostels. Hostels are probably the best place to meet other people and to reduce the cost of your travel .
Unfortunately, there are no hostels in Billings Montana. There are hostels in Bozeman Montana. Well… just one – the Treasure State hostel in Bozeman Montana. (Montana is known as the Treasure State. Thus the name. )
So with no hostels in Billings, I started to look at Airbnb’s. I usually look for Airbnb’s that are private accommodations and then sometimes will look at ones that are shared accommodations. I found a Airbnb about 3 miles from the convention centre. I have a private bathroom and bedroom. You’ll see from the pictures below what the AirBNB looks like. The AirBNB cost about $40 CDN per night in contrast to the cost of the hotel at about $150. So my 6 nights cost $214.59.
AirBNB adds some costs and taxes. In my case a cleaning fee of $13.06 CDN (pretty Good!) and taxes of $16.81 with an AirBNB fee of $29.37 CDN
I figured that was a good deal. If you would like to book an AirBNB, please use this link if you are a first time user. You will receive $45 CDN off the cost of your first booking and another $17 CDN to use towards an “experience” (more on that in another post)
https://abnb.me/e/HBp3PL3vZZ
In Bozeman I am staying in a Hostel for $31 USD per night. The photos of the hostel are shown below. I am in a 3 bed dorm. It is not the best hostel I have stayed in but it’s still not to bad. Photos of the room and hostel are below.
Next, I was faced with a few days in Yellowstone Park. I did not book anything because I may just book a campsite and sleep in the car. (Or cave and get an expensive room). I guess I will post about that later
For my last 2 nights, I had signed up with Couchsurfing.org and managed to snag a room with a guy in Red Lodge. (More on that later too)
In total, I am pretty close to spending only $315 CDN for almost two weeks in Montana. That will go up if I stay in a lodge.
Travel doesn’t have to be expensive. You just need to be a bit flexible.
