Sounds like a great idea for a graduation gift! I live in central Europe now, but I've also lived in the U.S. and the UK, and travelled throughout Europe, the US, and Canada. My first international vacation was travelling to British Columbia, Canada with a friend when I was 19, and I just basically saved up my money and headed on up there. We stayed in youth hostels so it was super cheap. The next trip was to England. I had a friend there so I just stayed with him and his family and that saved on expenses. I think I used a tax refund for that plane ticket.

Travel here in Europe is easy because everything is right here. My husband and I just save up our dough and hit the road 2 or 3 times a year. This year we're heading back to Croatia, gonna do our wedding anniversary trip down to Italy, and I dunno, somewhere else fun, we haven't decided yet.

As far as saving money, we have basic guiding principles we live by. We very rarely eat out; we cook most of our own food. We don't buy coffee at shops; we make our own. When adverts and things come in the mail I just chuck it out right away so we don't get tempted. We make purchases when we've decided we will, not because we were tempted to. When we think about handing out €10 and €20 there we ask ourselves if we really need/want that item, because those little amounts add up. We buy things in bulk on Amazon subscription and we have a set limit for how much we'll spend on groceries each week. Oh, and we pay ourselves first. Money flows straight from paycheck to savings and retirement accounts automatically, so we never really see it or have to think about it until it's time to access the money.