A Student’s Diary: Traveling on a budget in Pakistan

All students, whether they are in school or university, at some point, plan to travel the northern areas with their friends. I, myself have planned numerous trips throughout my educational years. But also, like most students, I am too, constrained by a budget. It would be utterly preposterous to spend around Rs. 30,000 or more on a few days’ trip with friends, keeping in mind that school and universities fees already cost so much.

One ought to think that since a group of friends are going on vacation together, the cost might be less. However, with inflation increasing ten-fold, nothing is cheap nowadays! Certainly not any sort of vacation.

During my trip to the northern areas of Gilgit, it was remotely difficult to accommodate everyone regarding the final amount of the trip. This was because most students did not find the cost feasible as it was only a short trip and the costs of hiring transportation along with the living situation exceeded the estimated cost. Most of the expenditure was spend on the hotels even though we went as a group. After a lot of hassle and fickle decisions, we somehow managed to settle on an appropriate budget.

However, in my opinion, students should be awarded a discount when staying in hotels. But of course, these businesses need to earn as much profit as possible and would not budge their prices Hence, students, when traveling should explore other options of living accommodations such as an Airbnb, like that provided in the west.

Until a few months ago, this service was not available in Pakistan. However, Ghumo took the initiative and introduced a local system just as that which is seen in the west. This platform is just what the students need; Ghumo using technology to link students with local hosts (mezbans).

Students are always up to date with the latest technology related information and hence it would be an extremely stress-free process to book accommodation through an online platform, where the service-provider’s main aim is to provide the booker with low priced living situations on a temporary basis. The price range is such that it would offer the students a wide selection so that they can choose whichever lodging they deem suitable for their travel on a budget.

Being a student, it is quite apparent that even when we want to plan trips and have fun, we have certain financial limitations that bound to so with the setting up a local mezban system works entirely in our favour. Nonetheless, traveling to northern areas such as Gilgit is now a completely hassle-free task for students as mezbans are located in those areas as well. It’s time for all the students to have fun without having to worrying about their expenses. So head over to https://ghumo.pk and start booking!