Unique digital nomad travel adventures from around the U.S.
A few weeks ago, B and I went and visited the North Cascades National Park, via the Spokane, Washington, airport. Upon landing, we made our way to the rental car desks. As you can imagine, the rental car section of the Spokane, Washington, airport is …
Traveling can be a scary concept, but that doesn’t mean you should do it. This post highlights tips to help you stay safe while traveling. But first: Know that things can go wrong anywhere The world can be a scary place. And with the bombings …
We may not travel full time, but we sure spend a good chunk of our free time planning our next trip. For every week of actual travel, there are months and months of planning. I can scarcely remember a time when the internet did not play a big role in that planning process. Below are some of my preferred websites for planning a trip.
I have been referencing and using the sites listed below for many years. R too has sites she prefers to use for travel (although I am sure we have some overlap) but we always appreciate a good recommendation. So if you have any good suggestions for travel planning sites, we would love to hear about them.
Now onto the list.
I rarely visit a destination (even cities within the U.S.) without first reading about it on Wikitravel. The sections I find most useful are the “Get around” and “Stay safe” sections. Like everything else “wiki,” you need to take the things you read with a grain of salt. But I have gotten a lot of good information from this site over the years.
You would pretty much have to be living under a rock not to have heard of Travelzoo. (If you have not heard of them, I apologize. But geez, get out from under that rock already!) Their Top 20 is something I look forward to every week. And they have great deals on shows, spa treatments, activities, etc. A word of warning though: it is real easy to get excited about a particular deal and feel the need to purchase it right away! Although I see nothing wrong with that kind of enthusiasm and spontaneity, I tend to use the site more as a go-by; it gives me a good understanding of what a trip to a particular destination could cost me.
When I first started backpacking, I found Travel Independent and instantly fell in love with it. The information was very pertinent to the way I was traveling at that time. And even today, I still use a lot of the tricks I learned from them. This site, more than any other, taught me how to pack light. As I have gotten older and my style of travel has changed a bit, I find I do not visit the site as often. But it is still a great resource, especially if you are into backpacking or want to learn how to pack a little lighter.
Because plane ticket prices have such a profound effect on where and when I travel, I tend to do a lot of research on flights and use several sites to do so. My two preferred sites are Airfarewatchdog and Google Flights.
With Airfarewatchdog, I can view deals either from a particular airport (e.g. Boise) or to a particular airport (e.g. Sydney). I also receive alerts from this site.
I like Google Flights because they make it easy to see a snapshot of flight prices every day of the month for as many months as you would like to look ahead. Other sites offer flexible search options, but none are as easy to use as Google Flights. Granted, Google Flights does not include every airline (e.g. Southwest). But once my plans are a bit more definite, I make sure to check airline-specific sites and even crosscheck with sites like Expedia. I also really like Google Flight’s “Explore Destinations” that highlights flight prices in a map view. If you know your dates but have not settled on a destination yet, this is a great comparison tool.
A couple of other sites I like to check periodically are Hopper and fly.com. I check Hopper for ballpark pricing and predictions—although I am not yet convinced their predictions are remotely close to accurate. But I like seeing what other people have recently paid for a flight. I use fly.com for searching international flights. I also really like their “Today’s Best Fares” section.
It is generally a good idea to have at least some idea of how much a trip is going to set you back. I confess: I am not always very good at this although I have improved since planning and saving for a trip to Australia. I track plane costs very carefully and I always look for the best deal on lodging. But I can be a bit remiss on researching the cost-per-day of my chosen destination. When I do remember, there are two sites I use for my research.
My personal favorite is the Price of Travel. It is geared towards backpackers so it’s a bit on the low side for me. But I feel it is accurate and I love the comparison it offers among different cities.
Option two is Lonely Planet. It always feels a little on the high side to me. But by comparing the numbers offered on both sites, I feel like I can get a rough idea of how much I will spend. And that rough idea is better than going in blind.
I really, really like Rome2rio. When it comes to getting from point A to point B (whether those two points are between countries or within the same country), this site gives you a nice overview of your options. The types of transportation available (e.g. bus, flight, car), costs and amount of time it takes are just rough estimates. But for planning purposes, those rough estimates are great. Once your itinerary is more set, then you can nail down the details.
My other go-to is Google Maps. This site works great if you want to map out a route with multiple stops and I feel like it was made for planning road trips. It can also help you find restaurants, museums, etc. that are nearby. And who doesn’t love the street view or Google Earth? Both are helpful in addition to being fun to play with.
Ah, the weather. All too often, it can make or break a vacation. And while you cannot control it, you can certainly prepare for it. There are plenty of sites (and apps) that provide you with weather conditions/predictions. When it comes to a general overview, my personal favorite is Weather2travel. Not only does it have a clever name, but in addition to discussing the weather, it also provides information on things like the amount of daylight you can expect during a particular time of year—which I find very helpful.
Finding out you’ve arrived in Venice during Carnival can either be a delightful surprise, or a royal pain in the ass (I will save that story for another time). It is best to do a little research ahead of time to see if you will be in a location during some sort of holiday/celebration/festival. That way you can be prepared for things like closed stores, longer lines and inflated prices. I recommend Time and Date’s holiday calendar for a nice overview. If something pops up on there, then you can do more research to see if it may affect your travel plans.
Knowing if it is safe to drink the water is kind of a big deal. The appropriately named, Is the water safe to drink, is the best website I have found for a quick reference on this topic. I like its simple layout and ease of use. I do have to note that it does not necessarily cover every location you may be researching. In that case, I rely on old Google for assistance.
When it comes to travel, research and the internet, there are a lot of options available. It may be a challenge to weed through it all, but the benefits of having such a surplus of information far outweigh the hassle. Plus, you can save yourself a lot of that hassle by using suggestions from someone else’s list. 🙂
Last year, R, C and I did a little traveling through Poland. Below are a few do’s and don’ts from our experience there. The first “do” is, of course, go to Poland! After that, you can worry about the specifics below. Do’s and don’ts of …
Do you know how to plan and save for a trip? Travel funds and budgets are not something I am terribly good at. However, I have recently been working on them in an effort to prepare myself for a trip to Australia. As a child, …
This morning was rough. After a series of most unfortunate events, my shiny new iPhone ended up taking a swim. The friendly IT guy at work gave me a baggy full of silica gel packets and told me to put my phone in there and leave it for 24 hours. So today I’m kickin’ it phoneless–and let me tell you, friend–I feel more than a little out of touch. It reminded me of the ol’ days of travel, before we could bring our technology along with us. Those days are behind us now, but most times when I travel internationally, I do not have cellular data. Here are five ways to survive with no cellular data for when you can’t use your phone, whether you are in a foreign country or you just accidentally submerged your phone in water.
B and I (and most other people we know, really) are Apple fans. Apple has a handy-dandy messaging service that allows you to message (essentially text) other Apple users when you are connected to WiFi with an Apple device. This means that if you carry around an iPad or an iTouch and connect to WiFi, you will be able to send texts back and forth. For instance, when I got home today and picked up my iPad, I saw a bunch of messages people had sent me. And since my phone is currently turned off, they showed up on my iPad.
This is another slick app that Apple users can use to communicate with each other. Facetime is a lot like Skype; you connect over the internet and videoconference with other Apple users. In Morocco, B was able to Facetime her nieces and nephews back in Idaho over the WiFi connection at our hotel. It seems a little crazy that this can all be done for free, but it is crazy in a good way. As long as you have WiFi, you can Facetime people. As WiFi becomes more prevalent, this will be a fun way to virtually take people with you as you are exploring the world. These first two strategies really highlight how you can use WiFi to survive with no cellular data.
Way, way back (you know, in the 2000s) we didn’t have smartphones. We would get dropped off at the airport and in order to let our families know we made it to our destination, we would track down an internet cafe, pay a few dollars and send people emails–probably using a dial up connection some of the time. Luckily, technology has progressed since those days, but internet cafes still exist and can still be very handy in a pinch.
Last year when we got to Krakow, Poland, we had trouble meeting up with our host for AirBnB. None of us wanted to use our cellular data, so one option was to go find an internet cafe so we could send a message. Luckily, C found a WiFi network on the way to the cafe so we were able to connect. But the humble internet cafe would have got the job done also.
As mentioned in other posts, I’m a big fan of guidebooks. One reason why is because they list the names of attractions you are trying to locate. When trying to communicate with a local in a language you don’t know, it is MUCH easier to show them something written down to get directions rather than trying to explain what you are looking for.
This goes along with the same rationale as guidebooks; if you have a map, locals will have a much easier time showing you where you need to go. They make pocket maps of major cities and some apps on your phone will allow you to use GPS and not cellular data to track where you are. I have had a good experience with the app called ‘CityMaps2Go.’ It takes up some space on your memory, but I loaded a few cities before we went to Europe last and thought it was a good way to get around.
Google Maps has improving its offline functionality; in Australia we used this quite a bit. While we had WiFi (usually at McDonalds) we would pull up Google Maps and enter where we wanted to go and hit Start. When we left the WiFi connection the G.P.S would keep telling us where we are and what we needed to do to get to our destination. The trick was you couldn’t veer off course or do any rerouting.
In a time where ‘nomophobia’ has its own page on Wikipedia, it can be difficult to feel disconnected from the world. Hopefully if you are, it is by your own choice and not because of a technology (or in my case, personal) fail. Cross your fingers my phone will turn back on tomorrow!
How often do you go out exploring your own backyard? This past weekend, we headed to the mountains. Our goal: huckleberries. I am happy to report that we were successful and came home with a nice little haul. R had family visiting from another state. …
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 …
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 a place than to see all the cool things that are available for me to do. This post will discuss the merits of the humble travel guidebook and recommend some things to look for as you use a guidebook to plan your next trip.
The single most important feature in a good travel guidebook is its publishing date. Think about it–you’ve just read a review of a 5-star restaurant that only cost $2 per plate, but when you get there you realize the place closed in 1965. Not very helpful. When I am contemplating which guidebook to buy for a trip, I will compare the dates of a few books to see which was published or edited most recently.
A lot of guidebooks are written a while ago but are updated with current information. (This would be the best job ever. You wouldn’t even have to do that much–just go to the places that have been previously recommended and make sure they are still good. Sigh…if only.) I try to get guidebooks that have been published in the last few years.
Most guidebooks can be grouped by the type of travel they are appealing to. Lonely Planet and Rough Guide cater to a traveler with a smaller budget and Fodors and Frommers are written for folks with a few more dollars in their bank accounts. I personally, am probably not going to be buying a Fodors or Frommers book anytime soon. I’m just not that big of a baller.
Travel guidebooks can come in hard copy or electronic format. I prefer a hard copy book, but that’s probably because I like having something tangible in my hands. I like to tag pages that have things I am interested in and I think it is easier to find what I am looking for later. However, e-books don’t take up any space in your bag and are always at your fingertips if you keep them on your phone. I recently found deal on Travelzoo where I was able to buy three Lonely Planet e-books for $25. I will be able to give a more thorough review of that after we visit Australia next year.
Once you have selected a guidebook, you want to make the most of it. Below are the features that I find most useful.
This section is typically at the beginning of the guidebook and most people probably skip right over. This is a big mistake though (and I’m not saying that just because I have a history degree). It is always, repeat, always, a good idea to have a background of the country you are going to. Americans have a bad reputation around the world for being arrogant. Sure, English is the universal language. And sure, U.S. dollars are accepted in a lot of countries. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the world is an extension of America. A little background on a country will help you understand the country’s culture and might prepare you for how it is different than what you are used to.
There is a section in pretty much every travel guidebook that has colorful pictures of the places, things, experiences that the author deems most worthy of your time. These will most likely be the things that the country is most known for, but there are sure to be some gems that you haven’t heard of and might not want to miss. It would be challenging to be able to check off all of this list in your visit, but it is a great place to start to build your itinerary.
Speaking of itineraries, your travel guidebook should have a section that builds an itinerary for you based on a few criteria. Some do this by time (like Rick Steves) and some do it by interests (like Lonely Planet). When we travel, B and I do a little research independently and come back with the things we most want to do. Sometimes these are the same, but more often than not, they are different.
Since it is impossible to fit everything in, we pick our highest priorities and use the itinerary section of a guidebook to help us determine our own itinerary. I haven’t ever taken a trip where I follow an itinerary exactly as it listed in a guidebook. But it can be really useful to help you figure out the length of time you need for certain places, or mapping out how long it will take to get to other locations.
Peppered throughout the main part of the travel guidebooks, authors will insert boxes with interesting tidbits of history, culture, etc. These are fascinating little reads and shouldn’t be skipped. For example, in Rick Steve’s Guide to Portugal, you can learn about a unique style of building that lasted for about a hundred years in the 15th century called Manueline Architecture. Portugal was wealthy at that time and decorated their buildings to the 9s. Go figure.
Several books offer walking tours of towns/museums/etc. These are great (and free!) ways to learn all about whatever you are visiting. There are times when taking an organized tour is a great way to spend some money. Other times, you might not be feeling up to a tour group. A travel guidebook’s self-guided tour will give you all the important information you need to know as you walk along.
Travel guidebooks are an excellent tool to help you prepare and enjoy your trip. If you are heading to Europe, Rick Steves is my go-to with solid information albeit a little kitschy. In other countries, I recommend Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, or Moons. Make sure to get one with the most recent published date. Also, do not forgot that your local library is an excellent resource for finding these and others.
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 …