Before you hop that plane or raise that thumb, owner of The Budgetbackpacker, Matt Caskey, advises that "a backpack, no more than 3200 cubic inches, is essential. A sleep sack, money belt, and small stuff sacks are also something I utilize every trip.  A sleep sack ($ 20.00, Cocoon Cotton Mummy Liner, www.rei.com), like a sleeping bag but thinner, gives you the added comfort of being able to sleep in something you know is clean and can double as an impromptu picnic blanket.  I have always used a money belt ($20.00, Eagle Creek Passport Money Case, www.ems.com). The peace of mind of knowing where your most important documents and travel essentials are at all times is priceless.  Mini stuff sacks ($14.00 for a pack of 3, www.rei.com) help keep your belongings neat and organized within your backpack, so you can avoid emptying everything out to find something while you’re on the move."

Owner of The Budgetbackpacker, Matt Caskey, breaks the dollar signs down for us. "I advise each of our travelers to budget $60-90 U.S. dollars a day for personal spending. Including all expenses (airfare $700-900, lodging $50-70 per day, regional transportation $100-300 for 3-5 days worth of travel, trip insurance $60 and your spending money of $60-90 per day) a traveler going to Europe can expect to spend between $1700-2200 total for an 8 day trip. You can decrease your costs by simply planning ahead and getting better prices on things like flights and lodging."

"I’ve used many brands of backpacks over the years," says Matt Caskey, owner of The Budgetbackpacker.  "I have found that my Kelty Redwing 3100 ($109.00, www.rei.com) has worked and weathered the best.  It has a zipper that unzips the full front part of the pack down, so that you can access your belongs much easier.  I’ve tried using the types of backpacks where in order for you to retrieve your things you had to enter the backpack from the top down.  I think that’s one of the most inconvenient ways to design a backpack, since it causes you to have to remove many items to reach something that may be at the very bottom."

"My all time favorite city in the Czech Republic is the little town of Cesky Krumlov, " owner of The Budgetbackpacker, Matt Caskey shares. "Just walking through this small town in the late afternoon or evening with the cobble stone streets beneath your feet, castles looming on hilltops above, and the unmistakable smell of old coal stoves keeping the small homes heated.  You feel almost transported back in time, as if you’re a character in Czech writer Franz Kafka’s ‘The Castle'.  By day, this town hosts a local Brewery, the castle which you can tour, and in warmer months a small river that weaves in and out of the town on which you can rent canoes or tubes to lazily float down."

Traveling on an itty bitty budget? Not a problem, says Matt Caskey, owner of The Budgetbackpacker. Affordable destinations include "South America, Australia, Japan, and until as of late, Thailand. But, from my own experiences I have found there still to be a lot of untapped treasures in Eastern Europe. My favorite country lately that I like to explore is the Czech Republic.  So many small hamlet-like towns that escaped bombs, and for the most part heavy bullets, during WW II to visit and discover."