Posts from ‘Travel Tips’
It sounds like a country-western song, but you need money to make it on the road. Food, lodging, transportation, activities, each require you to pay and pay alike. Unfortunately, to best know how to spend your money practically requires a degree in economics. With fees, limits, percentages and acres of fine print it’s extremely difficult to avoid being nickled and dimed.
Here’s your how-to for avoiding the dreaded “fee fatigue”:
If you’re someone who thinks you can’t do anything fun for free, let me be the first to tell you otherwise. While the activities may not be as white-knuckle inducing as zip-lining across a jungle canopy or tumbling down a hill inside a giant plastic ball, there are a host of different things you can do that are completely free of charge and will make you smile at your good fortune for finding them.
Here are some of the best free enterprises to be had on any standard round the world trip. Take THAT budget woes!
Image credit: Ghost of Kuji
Working with travelers over the years helping set up their trips-of-a-lifetime, I’ve managed to pinpoint some of the more problematic issues they subject themselves to before they come to us. Most of the time their research is been spot on and the trip looks wonderful – they have realistic goals and are honest about their expectations. Other times a little work is needed to get a solid, cost-effective itinerary, one that won’t end up driving them crazy in the long run.
In order to avoid itinerary problems before they come to the fore, here are a few of common mistakes people make during their trip planning stages and how to see yourself out of them:
Image credit: nosha
There’s little doubt it’s a great time to be a traveler. With so much available to the modern nomad it’s amazing everyone’s not dumping their possessions and flagging down the next nonstop to Points Unknown.
Because travel is currently so accessible and cost-effective, you may want to take advantage of this time. But being among the new traveling masses, it should also be important to be as sensitive and considerate as possible while on your journey. Being a courteous traveler is the new standard, and it says a lot about your character just how you travel. You owe it to yourself, and the world, to be as thoughtful as possible in the face of the unfamiliar.
So how do we do it?
Photo credit: leoplus
The sluggishness, the twinkling stars in your vision, the flying pink elephants. You may have jet lag. If it’s something you dread, or even if it doesn’t bother you, many long-distance travelers consider it a bane to their traveling lifestyle.
The worst part about jet lag is, because so many factors affect its severity, you never know how bad you’ll get it. Some will defend their jet lag-free reputation, some will admit to being steamrolled by it for days or even weeks after the fact, but certainly no one can deny it exists. They’ve probably been there before.
An around the world trip is quite possibly one of the most important thing you will do in your life. This may seem like an exaggeration, but even the mot cynical Washington insider can bet on a 
life-altering experience. It’s a proven way to change your attitude, your worldview and your karma forever.
What’s also true is that a big trip costs money — sometimes lots of it. But it doesn’t have to break you. So how do you cut yourself a piece of pie in the sky without having to settle for a life without an around-the-world experience? Make it cost less, that’s how. Here are the 10 best ways to make your trip more affordable without having to let go of the dream.
A handful of optimists out there are saying the Great Recession is winding down. But for many of the penny-pinching masses life still isn’t all caviar and yachting. Quite the contrary—budgets are still very much in fashion. But since travel never seems to be far off the lifestyle radar, how people 
travel has been angling more toward the new era. To help those who are augmenting their travel funds with ramen-noodle and tap-water dinners, I’ve put together a list of top places where the US dollar will make the most noise, the ones with the highest bang-for-buck quotient.
Generally speaking, your first-world money tends to deliver best results in developing nations, places like Central America, South East Asia and destinations such as Eastern Europe and India, where the local economy must support people who make less money. Of course some will argue that traveling to these places creates an ethical disparity since you may be contributing to the economy only to take advantage of it. I tend to disagree – most of these places are downright stunning. But even with the uneasy philosophical arguments echoing, in terms of traveling experiences, they really can’t be beat.
It’s always good to memorize a few words of a country’s language before setting off on your trip, if not only to appear polite when your visiting.
Mandarin Chinese is arguably one of the world’s most difficult languages to learn as an English speaker. Fortunately The Travel Linguist has taken it upon themselves to help untangle your tongue just in time for your trip to China. Included are such time-honored classics as “hello”, “goodbye”, “thank you”, “do you speak English” and the always timeless, “where is the bathroom?”
While the electricity conversion problem has mainly been solved for modern travelers — most electronics these days have plugs that convert voltage within the plug itself automatically (check your manual) — there’s still the dilemma of physically fitting the plug into the outlet. This isn’t likely to change any time soon.
There are five configurations of outlets throughout the world, some being more common than others. But when on a round the world trip, you’ll likely run into several variations, making it all but impossible to charge batteries or use electronics once you leave a region. Be prepared, bring an adapter with you. Here’s a recommendation for a good one to throw in your bag.
The map below shows plug variations around the world. Compare this to your route and see what you’re up against.
There’s a lot to be said for Number 2. It can even outshine Number 1 simply because it’s passed over by those looking for “the best”. Number 2 is your own private experience, the choice without the noise and chaos that comes from being on top.
Okay, the title of this post may be a little misleading. I certainly don’t mean to say that the common stops should be omitted because they’re popular. The reasons for going there leap out at you in full color from brochures and posters everywhere. But while the Number 1s may have time-tested reasons to visit, those looking for authenticity may end up disappointed. Expectations are tough to live up to when cutting through the masses of other travelers—the mobs and the industry built to accommodate them can taint your experience pretty quickly.
I’ve put together a list of commonly requested cities in RTW itineraries, followed by those you should visit as an alternative (or even an addition).
While these recommendations may be more expensive to have in your itinerary (major cities tend to have least impact on price) the experiences gained by visiting these alternatives can be priceless and should make any added expense completely worthwhile.
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