Drew Goldberg is only 24 years old, but he's already studied in Prague, taught in Seoul, and adventured to more than 70 countries.

He's also managed to turn his travel blog, the Hungry Partier, into a full-time career, making enough money to finance his round-the-world wandering.

Along the way, the Arizona native has picked up advice from other travellers, locals, and, of course, learned from his own fair share of mistakes.

As he gears up to try to hit the 100-country mark in the next two years, Goldberg is sharing the most important lessons he's learned on the road:

1. When planning a trip, ditch the guidebooks and get online

While well-known travel books can be a good starting place when planning a trip, Goldberg's favourite sources for advice are social media and blogs.

"People go to these cities and write these big guides but things change so quickly," he said in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca. "(Many books) are only good for six months, maybe, and then they get outdated."

Instead of buying a hard-copy book, Goldberg goes online, where he consults travel forums, and reaches out to his favourite bloggers, such as Stephanie Be (travel-break.net), and James Kelley (escapingabroad.com).

"Bloggers are 150 per cent approachable," he said.

On his own blog, where he writes about travelling, partying, eating, and his craziest international experiences, Goldberg says he responds to every single comment his readers leave.

"If (travel bloggers) are not answering your questions, then we're not doing our jobs," he said.

2. Don't be shy. Meet the locals.

"When I first started travelling I was pretty naïve and oblivious," Goldberg said. "I would pretty much get sucked into the tourist spots."

But a friend-of-a-friend, a local in the Philippines, soon changed his approach.

"He took me to all these local bars and underground hidden places that I would have never found," Goldberg remembers. "After that experience, I was like 'Dude,' I've really got to start making friends with locals."

Goldberg says he avoids only socializing with other travellers, who often "all have the same backpacking story."

Instead, he reaches out to friends to see if they have any contacts where he's travelling. He also searches Instagram and Facebook for locals or experts who might be able to meet with him and show him around.

"I've been meeting a lot of people through Instagram lately," he said. "Instagram is a good way for me to meet locals because I'll post a photo of myself in Korea and then my followers in Korea will comment (with suggestions or offers to meet up)."

3. Trim your budget by sticking to a $20-a-day allowance for food and accommodations

Aside from purposely travelling to cheaper countries, Goldberg's top budgeting strategy is to cut down on costs for food and accommodations.

"I would say 90 per cent of my meals are under five dollars," Goldberg said. And his accommodations allowance is $10-a-night.

To accomplish this, he sticks to a diet of street food and spends many nights couch-surfing (https://www.couchsurfing.com/).

And, he says, this budget-savvy travel style also has other perks.

"Street food is good and it's plentiful and usually you get a good sense of the local cuisine," he said.

As for accommodations, "Couch-surfing is a great way to meet locals and get that cultural experience."

4. Wherever you are, respect the people and culture.

While travelling and blogging has offered Goldberg many amazing experiences, he says his online popularity has also come with pitfalls.

In a recent interview with a U.K. daily, the newspaper reporter asked Goldberg to rank his worst travelling experiences.

But when he called London unimpressive and Egyptians "aggressive," his inbox became inundated with hate mail.

"Looking back, that was one of the stupidest things I've done," he said. "(You've) got to be careful what you say."

5. It only takes three steps to capture the ultimate travel selfie.

Goldberg has three tips for capturing share-able selfies:

First, he says, invest in a GoPro. The compact, disaster-proof cameras go for anywhere from $300 to $500 and can capture both video and images.

Second, buy a selfie stick. Some museums may have banned the camera accessories, but Goldberg swears that, when you're riding a camel through the Egyptian desert or standing on the Great Wall of China, you'll need the selfie stick's extra reach.

Third, set your camera to take continuous shots every 30 seconds or so. Goldberg says he'll take dozens of photos on each adventure, and then he has plenty of options to share with his thousands of followers.

Travellers can follow Goldberg online on his blog, Instagram, and Snapchat accounts as he tries to reach his 100th country.