Quote Originally Posted by SenorPatty View Post
So the first actual mandatory teleport that could cost you over 500gil, starting from Vesper Bay, is when you get the memorial quest (its part of the choosing your GC story here). Other teleports were not actually mandatory but rather necessities and/or interest points that I highly doubt anyone would ignore (hence the air quotes I put over the word). For example, to unlock the hair styles, you unfortunately have to travel to each state and pick up a package from an npc, then go back to Jandelaine. If you want to unlock your first dances of the game, that's another travel around the states, which once again, depending from where you tele, can get you close to 500. So the pattern becomes that if you're looking to unlock something in the game from early and you're in a preferred world where you level very fast and more unlock quests show up rapidly practically everywhere you turn, you could rack up quite the travel debt, especially if you're a complete newbie and you're trying your hand at just about everything. Like wereotter mentions, there are other venues to diminish those expenses and experienced players playing on alts may use those frequently but I just don't see a new person remembering those or making use of those frequently once they attune to an aetheryte.
I guess it must be because I'm a penny pincher in game and out, but I always take note of the cheapest ways to do things. For quests asking me to travel between the cities it just felt natural to use the airships with their 120 gil fee. I've even gone as far traveling from Gridania to Ul'dah for free by first going to the Gold Saucer and from there to Ul'dah. I've arranged my free and favorite teleport destinations so that I can get to any major city for no more than 499 gil (though Crystarium is on a 15 minute cooldown because of Return, but that's hardly ever an issue). My typical route to the Doman Enclave is teleport to Kugane (499 gil), take aethernet to Ruby Price (free) and teleport to the Enclave (250-ish gil - cheaper than to do it directly from Kugane because Ruby Sea is closer). This saves me about 250 gil which is an utterly insignificant amount of money compared to how much I own, but I still do it because savings.

Maybe there should be a travel planner which would show the best route to your destination.