Unique digital nomad travel adventures from around the U.S.
Cruise ship travel is not for everyone. So “to cruise or not to cruise?” is the question I will try to answer today. Cruise ship travel may be perfect for you. Or it may be the worst idea ever for your travel style. Or maybe, …
Back in February, B and I headed off to Hawaii so I could join her in the Fifty States Club. (Meaning we had visited all 50 states.) We caught a quick hop to Seattle and then flew to Kona on the Big Island. I knew …
Having trouble choosing where to travel to next? Are you feeling overwhelmed and maybe a little paralyzed by all of the possibilities? If you are like me, then deciding where to travel to next is one of the hardest parts of travel planning. Because there are so many great places to explore in this big old world, it can be a little difficult to narrow down your options. Plus, for every destination I check off my list, I usually add three more before I even get home (big sigh). Wanderlust is real, people.
Anyway, back to the point at hand. If you are in the difficult position of trying to decide where to go on your next adventure, I suggest you ask yourself the following questions:
Now let’s explore these questions in greater detail. Also, I wrote a part 2 to this post that compares the following questions side-by-side and could help when choosing your next destination.
A long weekend? One week? A whole month? Let’s be real, you do not want the time it takes to get to a destination to be longer than the time you have to enjoy being there. The more time you have, the more options you have. So if you’ve only got five days, then you might want to cross South Africa off the list. We tend to leave the really long flights (think Asia) for those vacations in which we have two weeks or longer. But Mexico or the Caribbean, they can easily be enjoyed on a much smaller time frame. And science says eight days is the ideal length for a vacation.
We like to do things on the cheap. That way we get to do more. But that philosophy is easier to do in some places than it is in others. New York, Switzerland, Iceland: these places are not cheap and your money will not go as far. On the other hand, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Idaho (shout out!): these places are more affordable. You just have to decide what is a good value for the money you have available to spend.
This needs to be looked at for two reasons: weather and cost.
If you do not enjoy colder weather, then you are probably going to be a bit picky about where you go in say, February. And if humidity is not your thing, you may want to rethink Florida in August. (It will still be humid in January, just not stifling so.) Another thought to keep in mind: travel options can be very limited in certain places during a particular time (e.g. Morocco during Ramadan, Maine in the winter, Peru during the rainy season, etc.). It is critical that you do your research.
Also, certain times of the year cost more. Christmas is an obvious one. So is summer. But did you know that there is usually a significant increase in travel prices from February to March? We blame spring break (whether it deserves it or not). This comes back to the question about how much you have to spend. You’ll need to keep in mind that if you are planning to travel in July, you will have a harder time finding the good deals.
Side note: busy season means more people. If you want to minimize your interaction with crowds, you’ll really want to think about this question.
It is sad to say, but some places are just safer than others. Especially for women. That being said, each Jane is unique and a country/city’s safety is a bit subjective. There are places R and I are more than comfortable traveling to that our friend C will not even consider. And there are definitely places I am not planning on traveling to any time soon no matter how beautiful or exotic you tell me they are…most countries that end in ‘stan’ are a no-go for the immediate future. Deciding where you are and are not comfortable traveling to definitely needs to be considered when deciding where to go next.
This is always changing for us. One time on a particularly hot and humid trip (that had been proceeded by several hot and humid trips), R looked at me and said, “The next place we travel to has to be cold.” Pause. “And I want to be able to drink the water.” Guess where our next trip was to? Iceland.
Whatever your particular requirements are at the time, take them into account. They may really be able to help you narrow down your next vacation.
What if you have your destination in mind but for whatever reason, you cannot make it work? Maybe the cost is just too much or the flight times are not right. Get creative and see if there is a similar destination to what you are planning. R really wanted to visit Egypt a few years ago. But things have not been real smooth there for a while and it fell just below my risk threshold (as discussed above). So instead, we went to Morocco. We still want to travel to Egypt one day, but Morocco was a perfect alternative at that time.
A few simple questions can help narrow down your options and assist in choosing your next travel destination. I hope the questions above help and we cannot wait to hear where you decide to go next. Happy choosing!
Janes often get asked, “How can you afford to go on so many trips?” Well, the answer is simple: you don’t spend a boatload of money on every trip. If you can’t afford to go big every time (man, wouldn’t be great?), go little a …
Hawaii is easy. I mean that in the nicest way possible. If you are looking for a tropical destination with minimal worries, then Hawaii is a worthy place to consider. You can plan adventures and island hop to your heart’s content, or you can simply …
Global Entry and TSA PreCheck have changed the way we travel. As Michael would say, “Do you remember a time”……when you didn’t have to bring a ziplock bag with you to the airport? Or when you didn’t have to unlace your boots to walk through the weird, scanny machine? Well, with TSA PreCheck you can time machine yourself back to pre-2001 airport security. There is also the added bonus of feeling extra cool when you get to walk to the left instead of standing in the long line to the right.
PreCheck is a TSA program that allows certain passengers, previously deemed to be ‘low risk,’ to have an expedited airport experience. This means you do not have to take off your shoes or hoodies. And you do not have to pull out your liquids or laptops. As a result, the line moves much faster and you won’t be frantically grabbing things out of your bag.
In exchange for this swiftness, Big Brother gets a little more information about you. To become a member of the PreCheck club, you have to fill out an application that asks basic questions about where you have worked and lived for the past few years. For people like B, this was relatively easy. For people like me, with a bit more transient of a lifestyle, this took some thought and some mapping things out on paper. Once you hit ‘submit’ on the application, you can then set up an appointment to meet with a TSA agent for an interview. At the interview, you will pay the $85 application fee, answer a few questions and become officially prechecked.
B and I made it to the set-up-an-interview point in the process when—hold the phone—we were told about an even more magical program called Global Entry. With Global Entry, you get the TSA PreCheck status but with the added bonus of expedited re-entry into the U.S.A. This means that when you get off that awful, 15-hour flight from Australia and you stumble into the customs room with all of the zig-zag rows of other jet-lagged passengers, you get to bypass the never-ending line and instead go to the cool kiosk machine. There you insert your passport, scan your fingerprints, take a quick picture and you are on your way. It really is that easy.
The Global Entry application questions are similar to the TSA PreCheck application questions. You set up an account, fill out an application listing your past work and residential history, pay a $100 application fee, and then wait for an email stating that you’ve been ‘conditionally approved.’ This took no time at all for B. (I’m assuming it was an automated process because she submitted her application and received conditional approval over the weekend.) My approval took longer. This is most likely because I’m self-employed. But received an approval about a week later.
Once you receive your conditional approval, you log into the Global Entry website and select a location where you want to get interviewed. Note: some locations can be booked months in advance. Most of the bigger airports all have interview locations and the program seems to be expanding into new locations. Since completing our interview, our hometown airport is now one of the new locations. Out of the way locations are less busy and easier to schedule an interview at. Since we knew we were going on a trip to Hawaii, we went ahead and reserved interview slots at the Honolulu International Airport.
At the interview, have your passport and Global Entry conditional approval letter. I didn’t actually have my letter but was able to take a screenshot of my approval number and show it to the border patrol agent interviewing us. (Oh yes, I say ’us’ because in Honolulu they are very chill and let me crash B’s time slot so we didn’t have to come back later for my time slot. Recommendation: do your interview in Hawaii. As a bonus, you GET TO BE IN HAWAII!)
Before our interview, we hit the interweb to see how the Global Entry interview experience was for others. We also talked to some people who had gone through the process. There were mixed results. Some people had an all-out interview where they were asked about their history. Others had to have proof of residency, like a bill that went to their address. Our interview was simple; we gave the patrol agent our passports and our current addresses and showed him our conditional approval letter. He then took a picture of us and gave us a portable DVD player to watch a quick video about how to go through customs. Then he sent us on our way. They do a background check on you at this point, so if that’s a problem, Global Entry might not be the program for you.
A few weeks later we received our Global Entry cards (complete with seriously funny pictures of us on them—they made the DMV look like professional photographers) to take with us when we visit Canada or Mexico. On our last trip to Vancouver, Canada, we pulled out this handy little card and got to bypass the longer Canadian customs line for a much shorter line—much like TSA PreCheck in the U.S. Only select countries allow Global Entry passengers to do this from their airports, so you don’t need to take the card with you everywhere you go.
Along with the card you will receive your official letter with your PASS ID number. This is the same number you received in the conditionally approved letter. From now on, when you are booking or checking into a flight, you will enter your magic number into the ‘Known Traveler Number’ box. Then, when you get your boarding pass, it will have that awesome little TSA PreCheck icon on it. (By the way, it never gets old seeing that thing.) And that’s it! You will then be free to pass through security like it was 1999.
Cough up the money for Global Entry. It only costs $15 more than the TSA PreCheck program and you get to zip through customs when you return to the U.S. Doing this once might just be worth the extra $15 bones.
We have used Global Entry numerous times and have found it to be well worth the investment. When we returned to the states from a recent trip to the Azores, B opted to try out the Mobile Passport app. I made it through customs much quicker than she did. She concluded it was a better option than nothing, but felt Global Entry was the superior choice.
Hello! We are B and R. A couple of average Janes who love to travel. We are friends and roommates with normal, eight-to-five jobs that provide us with decent, but not extravagant, incomes and vacation time. During our time off, we enjoy exploring this great …