Who we are
We started BoyceAbroad because every travel blog we found was either written by someone with a corporate sponsor or so vague it was useless. We wanted something different, real prices, real places, and the honest version of what it's like to travel on a student budget.
Two people, one blog. Both go by Boyce on the road.
Finds the good hostel by accident, befriends everyone in the dorm, eats street food for breakfast.
I started traveling at 19 with a debit card, a 40L backpack, and absolutely no idea what I was doing. I took a €19 night train to Krakow, ate pierogi for three meals a day, and came back knowing I'd spend the next few years doing exactly this.
My job at BoyceAbroad is the narrative. I write the stories, the missed trains, the best ruin bar we stumbled into at midnight, the hostel that turned into a week-long stay. I want you to read these and feel like you were actually there.
Knows the cheapest train, the free museum day, the market that actual locals go to.
I'm Dutch, which means I grew up with budget travel as a cultural value rather than a choice. A €7 FlixBus from Vienna to Budapest isn't "rough", it's efficient. I approach every city the same way: what are the free things? Where do locals eat? What's the hidden neighbourhood that's not in the top 10 list?
My job at BoyceAbroad is the practical layer. The budget breakdowns, the tool recommendations, the transport comparisons. I want you to finish reading and actually know how to do the trip, not just feel inspired.
We met at a hostel in Prague, the kind of place where you end up talking to strangers until 2am and sharing tips about where to get the cheapest beer. We both had the same frustration: every travel resource we'd used was either written for people with money, or was so generic it could have been written by a robot.
We started comparing notes. One of us had the narrative, the story of the Budapest ruin bar, the Lisbon hostel accident, the Berlin-to-Krakow night train. The other had the spreadsheet, actual costs per day, transport comparisons, which cities are genuinely cheap versus which ones just feel cheap.
BoyceAbroad is what happens when you combine both. We're not trying to be an authority or a brand. We're two students sharing what we know, so you can travel better than we did when we started.
"The point isn't to be the most frugal person in the room. It's to stay long enough to actually get a feel for a place."
Our baseline is roughly €50/day per person, including accommodation, food, transport, and activities. Some days go over, some days we spend €20. The point isn't the number, it's the approach.
Mostly hostels, dorms when we want to meet people, cheap privates when we need sleep. A social hostel with an €18 dorm bed is often better than a €40 Airbnb with no context.
Local spots, not tourist restaurants. Street food. Market lunches. One sit-down meal per day at most. We eat where the workers eat at noon.
Trains and buses over flights when the route makes sense. Night trains when possible, you save a night of accommodation and wake up somewhere new.
We don't skip things because they cost €10. But we also don't pay €25 for a walking tour when a free one exists. Mostly free museums, parks, walking.
The best place to start is the blog or the Start Here page. For anything else, drop us a line.