You’ve heard of girl math, but what about travel math? It’s kind of similar, only instead of applying unique reasoning to justify buying expensive shoes or Taylor tickets, you use it to travel more. As we’re really good at travel math at Karryon, we’ve got everything you need to know to apply it so you can travel with Journey Beyond. You’re welcome.
Girl math has been making it big on social media recently, offering humorous accounts of the mental gymnastics applied to justify purchases. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard about it; you only need to know how to use travel math to book more trips!
Inspired by Journey Beyond’s amazing array of 2024/25 tours, rail journeys, and day trips, we’ve got 8 fabulous examples of travel math logic to use at your leisure.
Travel math #1
Travel math is booking an all-inclusive tour, knowing you’re saving money instead of dining out at restaurants and drinking at bars.
Think about it: dining out on holiday is expensive. And getting tipsy at the bar? It can be excruciating to look at your bank balance the next day.
When you travel with Outback Spirit, however, you save because they offer all-inclusive tours to some of Australia’s most remote destinations.
Those savings don’t just apply to every delectable meal and beverage, but all entry fees, their idyllic lodgings (like Ngauwudu Safari Lodge), and all transport – even choppers and private planes! Read our all-inclusive Kimberley tour experience with Outback Spirit here.
Travel math #2
Travel math is calculating the cost per day between now and your future trip so you can see it’s costing you less than one of your daily habits.
Say you’d like to book a 2025 solo getaway trip on the Great Southern, travelling from Brisbane to Adelaide. Your me-time single cabin is currently $3,199 per person (with the 10% Advance Purchase fare).
The Great Southern only runs in The Ghan’s off-season (did you know it’s the same fancy-as train?). Therefore, if you travel between December 2024 and February 2025, it’s 400-ish days between now and then. That makes it only $8 per day for pampering and rejuvenation! Bargain.
Thanks travel math, for showing us how affordable it is to splurge.
Psst: there’s still availability for Platinum cabins on the Great Southern this season (hint: see travel math lesson #6).
Travel math #3
Travel math is booking a tour in your home state because if you don’t fly anywhere, you’ve saved money, therefore making it free.
If you live in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth or Darwin, you can thank Journey Beyond for your upcoming ‘free’* day out.
Are you a staycay-seeking Sydneysider? Journey Beyond Cruise Sydney invites you aboard their luxury 78ft cruiser to see the harbour in style! And Darwin Harbour Cruises says ahoy matey, welcoming you to gaze and graze at sea with Darwin’s spectacular sunsets.
In Melbourne, see your home on a whole other level at the Melbourne Skydeck. Check out the Southern Hemisphere’s highest observation deck, the high-tech Voyager Theatre (the largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere), and Bar 88 for snacks and drinks.
In Perth, book the affordable Rottnest Express ferry and Discover Rottnest bus to see your quokka neighbours.
Travel math #4
Travel math is booking a trip this year for travel in 2025, therefore making it free by the time it comes around. Because you paid for it in this year’s budget, yeah?
Sounds like the perfect logic to book a trip from Journey Beyond Rail’s 2025 soft launch.
Whether it’s nabbing a stylish cabin on the newly extended Indian Pacific journey from Perth to Sydney, grabbing a ‘free’ (ahem) seat on an Outback Spirit adventure (like this one), or booking your luxe stay at Sal Salis Ningaloo Reef, travel math makes it all add up to ‘book now’.
Travel math #5
Travel math is booking escorted tours to remote destinations knowing that if you booked it yourself using your hourly rate, you’d spend way more money. Thus, your escorted tour is practically free.
Think about it. How much do you get paid per hour? And can you remember how long it takes to research a trip, read reviews, talk to an agent, and book it all in? Hours! Now multiply the sum by at least four because remote destinations are far harder to plan and coordinate.
The total you get? That’s the value of your time (your most precious commodity). And with that logic, you’ll see that the Outback Spirit Arnhem Land Wilderness Adventure or that life-giving trip on the Canning Stock Route is probably saving you money and time. Yeah!
Travel math #6
Travel math is booking a train because if you don’t pay for a hotel on your trip, it’s free.
It’s the perfect logic you need to finally book that cabin on the iconic Ghan, right? Especially as it’s all-inclusive, so you’re not only saving on hotel costs but paying zilch onboard for delectable Australian meals and wine, too!
Seeing The Ghan is a rite of passage for Australians, and thanks to travel math, you can justify booking it now. Plus, if your cabin is likely fancier than the hotel you would have booked, you could even be making money!
With this kind of logic, why is everyone not travelling on the Ghan RIGHT NOW?
Note: this same travel math reasoning applies if you want to spend the night enjoying a unique Reefsleep experience under the stars with Cruise Whitsundays.
Travel math #7
Travel math is booking back-to-back trips because if you don’t have to fly home between tours, you’re saving on airfares, and therefore one of your trips is free.
This is perfect travel math logic for Journey Beyond Rail and Outback Spirit tour packages.
Travel and save when you book a 2-for-1 on the Red Centre Spectacular, Scenic Sip and Sail, or any other Journey Beyond rail + tour adventures that expand your mind and probably save you money (because travel math).
Travel math #8
Travel math is knowing that tours with luggage restrictions limit you from splurging on trip outfits, making your tour practically free.
Outback Spirit tours remote Australia, sometimes with a private charter flight. They, therefore, have size and weight limits, restricting their passengers to a medium-sized case each.
Now, if you were travelling to a tropical island, you’d likely be out shopping for new swimwear, cocktail outfits, sunnies, etc. It’s costly! But when you have a luggage limit, there’s no space for extra pre-trip purchases. Depending on your shopping habits, travelling with Outback Spirit could even make you money!
Especially as Outback Spirit gives their first-timers a huge Explorer Pack full of goodies for the tour, saving you even more money.
The travel math is mathing.
From travel math to travel bookings
Forget algebra and trig, travel math is the only mathematics you really need when you love exploring Australia (and the world).
Practice applying travel math to Journey Beyond’s full suite of products or talk travel math with the experts on tradesales@journeybeyond.com.
Agents, help your clients with travel math and help yourself with marketing tools from the Journey Beyond Experience Hub.
*Disclaimer: only your logic alters with travel math; you still have to pay the cost of travel, and it’s not actually free.
Written by Zoe Macfarlane, a KARRYON contributor.
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