Unique digital nomad travel adventures from around the U.S.
My coworker’s husband has just left on his first international trip to London. And other than a couple of trips to Mexico, this is his first international voyage. His wife has not done a lot of traveling herself so she has been asking me a …
A few years ago in a Quito hotel, I forgot that I wasn’t supposed to drink the water in Ecuador and swallowed down a swig after brushing my teeth. In that moment, as I contemplated contracting giardia, typhoid fever and hepatitis, I realized just how …
One year ago today, I rolled through North Dakota. It was very exciting. Now normally, a trip to North Dakota is not necessarily worthy of any sort of celebration (no offense to the 750,000 people who live there). But this was no ordinary trip for me. You see, North Dakota was my last state. Once I crossed that state line, I could officially say I visited all 50 states.
Before heading out, I did a little research on the not-be-missed, hot spots of North Dakota. I think the locals must be very good at keeping their haunts under wraps because the internet yielded very few results. One clever commenter said that the best thing to see in North Dakota is the sign that says, “You are now leaving North Dakota.” With results like that, I struggled to make plans. Then it hit me: I could take the train.
A few years ago, I saw a good chunk of Canada via the rail line. I fell in love with train travel. Now the rail service here in the U.S. leaves little to be desired. But it is still a worthy way to see this country. For this particular voyage, I booked passage from Chicago to Seattle on Amtrak’s Empire Builder. I would have really liked to have booked a sleeper car, but it was just too damn expensive. So I booked a coach seat and hoped for the best.
The train leaves Chicago once a day in the afternoon and arrives in Seattle 46 hours later. Since I arrived in the city with a couple of hours to spare, I tried to explore a bit. But my pack got a little heavy and I headed to the station to settle in and wait.
They were offering some sort of special for those who wanted to try out the new lounge. Since it was only $10, I decided to give it a whirl. It probably does not cost $10 anymore, but I can almost guarantee that it is still worth whatever the new price is. The lounge has comfy chairs, drinks, snacks and free Wi-Fi. But best of all, you get priority boarding on the train. Me and about 15 other folks got to bypass the line and have our pick of seats. I sat across from a nice guy named Matt who clued me into the extra leg room in the first row of each train car.
The seats are not plush. But they are way better than your standard coach seat on an airplane and recline quite a bit. If you are lucky, you’ll have two seats. The train left Chicago full. But probably half of those people got off somewhere before midnight, including my seat mate. So I was one of the lucky ones (Matt, not so much). With a bit of help from some earplugs and a little Tylenol PM, I got decent sleep on both nights of the trip.
I woke up on July 4, 2015, just as the sun was rising over North Dakota. There was a fine mist covering the land and the light was muted. The view did not justify my level of excitement, but I could not stop smiling. When I planned this trip initially, it did not dawn on me until after it was booked that I would be celebrating Independence Day by visiting my final state. What a perfect way to celebrate!
I spent a good chunk of the day in the observation car watching the landscape pass by. It was more varied than I expected. It was also very, very rural (although I expected that). Some of the towns were quaint and I saw more than one 4th of July parade in the works. Others looked like ghost towns. We stopped at a couple of little towns so I was able to walk around and breathe in the air. But for the most part, I was just an observer. I never got bored and I never tired of looking out the window.
I did not see any fireworks that night. But what I did see was so much better: a colorful sunset somewhere near Glacier National Park.
Now here a couple of tips if you are thinking about taking a similar journey:
The US of A is big and vast and there is so much to explore. Taking the train is enjoyable way to see not only North Dakota, but many different pieces and parts of it. It helps to be prepared. If you are, you are in for a spectacular experience. Also, happy 4th of July!
One of the first things I do after we’ve booked tickets for a trip is make a beeline to the library so I can see what they have for me in the travel guidebook section. I LOVE guidebooks. Nothing gets me more excited about visiting …
This post about Iceland is written by our friend and fellow traveler, C. Enjoy! A year and a half ago, B, R and I went to Iceland for a long weekend. We spent a couple of days in Reykjavik and one day touring the Golden …
When I was in my 20s, I visited a back specialist and was told that I have the back of an 80-year-old. (Lovely, right?) What this means is that once or twice a year, I tweak it just right and go down for the count for about a week. This happened to me a few days ago and last night, as B and I talked about how glad I am that this hasn’t ever happened on a major trip, we thought sickness/medicine might be a good topic to discuss here. This post will recommend what travel medicine to bring with you on a trip and share some stories on how to cope mid-trip if something bad goes down.
I have had the same old ziplock baggie with my homemade first aid kit for years now. Before I go on a trip or long hike or whatever, I make sure to throw it in my backpack. Here’s what it contains:
If you commonly take something back home, you should also take some of this with you. For example, B sometimes gets heartburn so she will pack antacids (like Tums) with her when she goes on a trip. (It goes without saying that if you take prescription medication, you need to take these with you also.) You don’t actually need to take your whole pharmaceutical stock with you because countries around the world have pharmacies where you can buy whatever specialty item you need. For example….
When visiting Europe during the Spring, I was beset with an itchy throat and eyes, sneezing and a runny nose. I hadn’t ever really experienced allergies before, but they hit me hard while I was there. So I picked up some anti-allergy medicine and some tissues and was good to go.
In Peru, we went to a place where malaria was a threat. I didn’t want to pay for all of the choloriquin in the U.S. because I knew it would be dirt cheap in Peru. Once I arrived, I headed to a farmacia and got the rest of my series. I was surprised to learn that our pills in the U.S. are treated with stuff to make them not taste so gross. They didn’t do that with the pills in Peru so they tasted real bad. However, I stayed malaria free.
In Poland, C sprained her ankle pretty badly about an hour after we landed. We all packed some ibuprofen, but she pretty much cleaned us out over the course of the trip. We had to resort to the R-I-C-E technique as much as we could: Rest (This didn’t really happen. She was such a trooper!); Ice; Compress with our tightest socks; and Elevate (when she could).
In Morocco, part of our group got pretty sick along the way. We were fine until one day, B wasn’t. Our tour guide had recommended some medication to the others and they were nice enough to share with B. To this day, we aren’t sure what these magic pills actually were. But they stopped her nausea right in its tracks. Now I’m not advocating taking whatever medication people in a foreign country give you (100% not). However, we felt safe because our tour guide and a pharmacist recommended it. Plus, the others in our group had been helped by the magic pills for several days. If you have access to the internet, you can look up what medications are just to make sure you aren’t taking something crazy.
Another good option is natural remedies. I’m not a huge homeopathic cure kinda gal, but I figure if something won’t hurt and it might help, why not? In Ecuador, B and I left our resort to follow our guide, Patricio, and driver, Enrique, to the Napo River for a swim. (Yes, in retrospect, that is the plot for a news story where the dumb American girls are never heard from again.) Patricio and Enrique were perfect gentlemen, but we were assaulted by sand flies. And not just a little–we each got about 50 bites. Patricio recommended we squeeze lemon juice onto them and they’d be gone the next day. Well, the lemon juice might have helped…but we had those bites on our legs for the next few months. Maybe they just stuck around to remind us not to follow near strangers into the jungle.
The Napo is a tributary of the Amazon.
Sometimes the natural remedies really do work, though. B and I took separate trips to Peru, but we both experienced an easing of altitude sickness by using coca leaves. Coca leaves come from the plant that makes cocaine–let’s just get that out in the open. In the Andes, coca leaves are a traditional way to combat the headaches and nausea that come along with being 15,000 feet above sea level. You can use the leaves in a few different ways; the big two are by steeping the leaves in tea or by rolling them together and sucking on a wad of them. I much preferred the tea, although it wasn’t particularly good. It reminded me of green tea or yerba mate (neither of which I drink unless I have to). We both felt the leaves helped us feel better while we acclimated to the higher altitude. And no, Mom, you can’t get high from drinking the tea.
Luckily, we have never had to go to a hospital while on a trip. I can imagine that would be a pretty scary experience and I hope I never have to. We do make sure (as much as possible) to be careful with the food that we eat. In countries without potable drinking water, it is a good idea to stay away from anything that could have been rinsed in the water without then being cooked–a green salad for example. Another trick that we’ve read about is to eat some local yogurt as soon as you can upon arriving. The bacteria in the yogurt will help your stomach adjust to whatever differences are in the food that your body isn’t used to. I don’t know that this trick has worked for me, but I like yogurt and it can’t really hurt, so I usually eat some as soon as I can.
One final note of warning: my brother-in-law tells a story about when he was in South America with a native Peruvian who wasn’t feeling well. They went to a farmacia and the guy proceeded to get one of a few different kind of pills, all of which he took. He ended up with an allergic reaction where his lips swelled up, nice and big. It’s important to know that some pharmacies in other countries are not regulated like they are in the U.S. Red tape and bureaucracy can be a pain, but they can also protect you from swollen lips. Be smart when you are in other countries and don’t randomly medicate yourself just because you can.
Getting sick and hurt happens. It happens to me in one way or another on just about every trip (I call it my delicate constitution). However, you don’t have to let getting a little sick ruin your whole trip. By being prepared and knowing yourself, you can preempt a lot of uncomfortable situations. And after all, travel is all about getting out of your comfort zone and seeing how you do.
At my day job, we talk a lot about travel and the comparison of different locations. It comes up naturally due to the nature of our business. I work for an engineering consulting firm and we design projects all over the world (not me personally, …
Ahhhhh summer. While not my favorite season, summer weather does mean some pretty great things like rodeos, drive-ins and camping, to name a few. This post will discuss that last one, camping, since C and I recently camped out in just about my favorite place …
Are you new to Airbnb? Maybe wondering what all of the fuss is about? That was me about a year ago. I was as green as they get and had never tried any home rental service before. Oh boy, was I missing out.
Airbnb was founded in 2008 and claims to have 2,000,000+ listing in over 191 countries. It has excellent filters and unlike a lot of other home rental sites, Airbnb lets you just rent a room if that is your preference.
I decided to try Airbnb out after having a conversation with a friend of mine who had recently returned home from a trip to Europe. She and her husband stayed exclusively in Airbnb rentals and she was raving about both the experience and some of the places they stayed. I am embarrassed to admit that at that time, I had never heard of Airbnb (I know, I must have been living under a rock). Anyway, her enthusiasm was contagious and I decided right then and there that that was how I was going to do my next trip (good thing R didn’t mind and had heard good things as well). At the time, we were planning a trip to Europe with another friend of ours (shout out to C) and things like lodging had not been nailed down yet. So we decided to give it a go.
Below are my top 10 reasons why you should give Airbnb a try (in no particular order):
This may be my favorite aspect of Airbnb. No offense to places like the Double Tree (or to you if that is your sort of thing), but once you step through the front door, it is darn-near impossible to tell if you are in Boise, Idaho, or San Jose, Costa Rica (the cookies taste the exact same in both locations, by the way). Cookie-cutter, two-queen-beds-with-terrible-art-above-them rooms are real tough to find on Airbnb. It is fascinating to see how others live and with Airbnb, you won’t just be seeing it; you’ll be living it for a brief time. Which is very cool.
In Tallinn, Estonia, our place was a bishop’s chapel that had been built in the 1400s. A Finnish man purchased it and converted it into an apartment. There was even a sauna in the basement. It was hands down the coolest place we stayed in on that trip.
With Airbnb, you can stay in some really cool locations. Often, hotels in the old part of town or downtown can get quite expensive. But Airbnb offers more budget-friendly options in the locations you actually want to be.
Plenty of businesses offer incentives for “inviting” your “friends.” Airbnb is no different. For our trip to Europe, R, C and I all set up new Airbnb profiles. I set mine up first and then “invited” R and C to join. They received a credit to use on their first booking. Then I received a credit for inviting them. Taking advantage of that little incentive, we were able to save a little cash. If you are planning a trip with other Airbnb newbies, I highly suggest you do this.
We rented from a host in Hawaii who brought us fresh-cut pineapple the morning after we arrived and even offered us a ride back to the airport to pick up our rental car. Airbnb hosts often offer a personal and local touch that is missing from most hotels. Plus, they can give you really good advice on what to see and where to eat.
When R and I are searching for places to stay, we like to filter our searches so that we each have our own bed. (Note: on Airbnb there is a difference between the number of people a place sleeps and the number of beds.) This might limit our choices, but it also gives us a better sleeping experience. We also usually search on price, location and “entire place.” But feel free to get as specialized as you would like. For example, while searching for places to stay in Finland, we were able to filter and view places that had saunas (which is quite a lot in Finland).
Airbnb is growing like crazy. That means options. I am continually amazed at the locations that have Airbnbs available. Combine that with hotels, motels, camping, etc., and you’ve got more choices than you will know what to do with. Depending on the length of stay and the options available, I still choose a hotel a lot of the time. But Airbnb has opened up a whole new world when it comes to lodging.
One of the main perks to staying in an Airbnb as opposed to a typical hotel, is the near certainty that you will have a kitchen. This makes breakfast particularly easy and you can prepare a meal once in a while if you are tired of eating out or if want to save a few bucks. I also really enjoy grocery shopping in a foreign country and a kitchen makes it easy to pick up snacks and food to have on hand.
The first thing I noticed about Airbnb is that it is not as straight forward to book as a hotel and it can be a bit intimidating in the beginning. You will need to set up a profile and to do that properly it is going to take more than a couple of minutes. But make sure you do it properly. Airbnb is a two-way street and renters have the option to deny you. They can also give you a bad review if you mess up their place. (Note: if you enjoy living like a slob while staying in a hotel, you might want to rethink Airbnb.) I was a bit worried that my first Airbnb request might get denied because I did not have any reviews. Luckily, that was not the case. And I have not heard of anyone else getting denied either. After your first reservation or two, you will feel just as comfortable booking on Airbnb as you do on any other booking site.
Because Airbnb has that two-way street review thing going on, there is incentive to actually leave a review. When you stay somewhere and the host leaves a review for you, you cannot actually read it until you have also left a review (or until two weeks have passed). Once you leave your review, then you both can read what the other has written. I do not know this for certain, but I imagine this method prompts a person to go ahead and write a review when they might not ordinarily feel bothered to do so. And more reviews mean more information and first-hand accounts for us who are looking at a place to stay.
Now for arguments sake, I feel I should mention that not everything with Airbnb is all sunshine and roses. There can be challenges. Sometimes the pictures and descriptions for a listing are not entirely accurate.
There was a place in Warsaw that claimed to have three beds but in reality it just slept three. It was not a big deal, but it was not what we thought we had ordered and unlike a hotel, we could not just request a new room. So R and C got to share a bed on that one.
Be aware of any listings that do not have a review. They might be new on the market and looking for their first customer. They might also be illegally trying to sublease their place. If the owner catches wind of this and puts a stop to it, you might find yourself without a place to stay at the last minute. This has never happened to me. But it did happen to a friend of mine.
Communication can be difficult and you will definitely need to communicate with your host in a way you never need to communicate with a hotel. You will need to arrange a time and place to pick up and drop off keys, or get into the house, or receive special instructions, or report a problem, etc. You might not speak the same language and you might not have cell phone service.
We arrived to Krakow, Poland, a bit later than planned and then had a hard time finding transportation into the city. We thought we would have cell phone service but we did not. So we had to find a place with Wi-Fi so that we could email our host and let him know that we would be late. It was a bit of a disaster and there was some waiting on both of our parts (and a sprained ankle for C, unfortunately). In the end, it all worked out. But it was not nearly as smooth as simply showing up at a hotel and checking in.
Please, please, please do not let the challenges above stop you from trying Airbnb out. Just keep them in mind when you are planning your first (or tenth) experience.
Airbnb has grown considerably and in certain cities, unfortunately, is causing more harm than good. Do your research and try to avoid using Airbnb in cities where it is causing local problems (e.g. Amsterdam and Barcelona). In that situation, I recommend you either stay at a hotel or stay outside of the city. Be a respectful traveler and do not contribute to the problem.
Challenges aside, Airbnb is a worthy option for any Jane and one I definitely recommend trying. It may just change the way you travel.
Final note: My experience with VRBO is a bit more limited, but it is definitely a viable option. It combines the “home” experience with hotel-like booking. I have found the fees tend to be higher and the dual review method does not exist. For these reason, I definitely prefer Airbnb. But I also recommend VRBO as a good alternative.
2016 is the National Park Service’s (NPS) one hundred year anniversary. And anyone who knows me knows I love me some National Parks. As Yellowstone was the first of America’s National Parks, it seemed apropos that we added it to the ol’ list of things …