What’s On My Travel Radar
via |
via |
via |
I’ve been wanting to make it to Quebec for a while but due to weird flights from the West Coast, it’s a lot harder to get there for us than I had originally anticipated. It’s still high up on the list though and hopefully we’ll be able to make it there sometime soon. With the French influence, gorgeous scenery and food that sounds delicious, I think Quebec is a place I’ll love!
via |
Istanbul has been on my list for a long time and due to random things it just hasn’t happened yet. But more recently other areas of Turkey have moved further up my list to see and hopefully we’ll get there sometime in 2015. Capadoccia and Bodrum are two places that have caught my eye recently and I can’t wait to experience them.
via |
After our trip to the Taj Mahal, we started researching some of the other “wonders of the world” and Petra immediately jumped to a place we want to get to soon. I love the Middle East and the mix of old world and new Middle East in Jordan is something I really want to experience hopefully next year!
How to See Bangkok in a Day
I ended up really liking Bangkok and Thailand in general, something I wasn’t sure would happen before hand. Due to the nature of our trip, we ended up only having one day to explore Bangkok (as we used it more as a stopover en route to SE Asia from India). But we saw a lot of the city and here’s my suggestion to see the famous Thai city (as much of it as you can at least) in a day, if that’s all you have.
When you’ve watched the sun set and as the temperature cools as night falls, grab a tuk tuk and have them take you to the nearest light rail station. It’s a great way to see the city, especially at night when it comes alive. You’ll also be immediately cooled down as you speed (often very very fast) through the chaotic streets of Bangkok. When you arrive, jump on a train back to the Sathorn district.
*Make sure to agree upon a price before you get in the tuk tuk.
Traveling to Thailand?
See all of my posts on the country!
Travel Tips : Balancing a Home Base & Traveling
Lately I’ve been coming across a number of travel bloggers that have all but given up having a home base and try to constantly travel, seeing as much as they can without a home to go back to in between. And while that may work for them, as much as I love traveling, I also love having a home to come back to, a place that’s all mine, where I’ve picked out the furniture, that I’ve painted the walls. I love the feeling of knowing that at the end of those long plane rides and missed connections, I have my own bed on the other end, that I have a home where memories are made and that holds pictures of our adventures and Nick’s photography hangs on the walls.
And while Nick and I travel a lot more than the average couple, what may not come across as much here on the blog is that we have a very normal day to day life in Portland in between our trips. We have definitely put down roots here in the Pacific North West; we own an apartment here, we own furniture in said apartment, we own 2 cars and we work normal day to day jobs. We have months where we’re replacing dishwashers and washing machines and getting new tires on our cars and I think from the outside, it often looks like all of our money goes to travel. While a large percentage of our income does indeed go to travel, we also live a very normal life here which does require our salaries and our income as well and we’ve, over the years, come up with ways to be able to balance our budget to include the travel we do as well as to be able to live an interesting and fulfilling life at home too. So over the years, here’s what I’ve come up with for tips to balance both a home base (which is incredibly rewarding) and traveling the world.
1. Discuss finances openly.
This one might just be the most important and without this tip, none of the others below will be able to work. It’s really easy to overspend on travel because once you get in vacation mode, it’s easy to justify spending more on items that you wouldn’t otherwise. Be honest about how much money you can afford to use for traveling and how much you can realistically save in your day to day budget.
A great way to be able to save more money for travel is to go through your monthly bills and try to cut those down as much as possible. Call your cable provider and ask for current deals or make sure you’re on the best cell phone plan for what you use. There are ways to cut a lot of your monthly costs just by making the effort to call and see if you can get better deals from your providers. Another way to save more money is to get a second job or do freelance work on the side, to be honest, that’s how most of our travels are funded, through our side work.
Another note on this tip, make sure and discuss finances for your home as well. There is always something that needs to be done or paid for when owning or renting a home and it’s important to know that while you may want all of your extra income to go toward travel, that’s not really realistic. Make sure to budget for what your home will need as well and any unknown expenses that might come up too.
2. Set aside money for travel and don’t touch the account until you’re booking your trip.
A few years ago when we decided we wanted to travel often, we set up accounts at our banks just for this reason. Set up a separate account for travel finances and only add to it until you have enough for a trip. Having a specific savings account for a trip is a great way to divide out your money and not be able to the touch the money until you need it for your trip. I do this still to this day and whatever goes into this account isn’t touched until I need to pay for trip items or I get cash out when we leave.
3. Use points and credit cards to your advantage.
Credit cards and loyalty points can be a huge help when saving for a trip. Nick and I have finally gotten to a point (granted it took us a few years) to really figure out how to best use points to our advantage. Any more, probably half our large trips are bought on points or credits, as well as many of our smaller USA trips as well. Between air miles and credit card points, we spend about half as much on trips as we did in the first few years. At the end of the day, this means we can travel more because we’re spending less.
Just a few tips on this note to take advantage of include booking hotels and airfare with points from credit cards or miles, using sign up bonuses on new credit cards to supplement your accounts and researching different options using points that can work to your best advantage.
*You can read about some of my favorite travel credit cards here.
4. Be honest about what you need. Sell items that aren’t important and use the money for additional things you’ll like more.
I’ve always been the type of person that sold things I didn’t use, but this is a great way to make a little extra cash and savings. I regularly clean out my closet and sell clothes I don’t wear at local resale shops. I do the same thing with books that we don’t want to keep or furniture that we replace. It also helps that we just don’t have the room to keep things we don’t need (we live in a 500 square foot apartment), but it’s also a great way to make some extra money aside from your daily income to put away for travel. Every little bit helps and over time, being honest with what you really need in your daily life can help you narrow down what’s important and what’s not.
5. Don’t expect everything to come at once, building a balanced home and travel lifestyle takes time.
I see this one time and time again with friends of ours, they get jobs, apartments/homes and suddenly they want everything at once. To get to the point Nick and I are at now, and by no means are we even still experts on this, it’s taken 5+ years. We’ve updated our apartment over the years, purchased furniture piece by piece over the years, learned how to travel more and more economically, saved money for travel and other things but it’s all taken years to do it.
Realize that realistically to be able to have both a lovely home to come home to and travel the world can be an investment over time but when you get there, it’s such a fulfilling feat!
Confessions of a Traveler
When I read articles or blog posts about traveling, there are always a number of things that I kind of laugh to myself on, things that never happen the way they say they are going to happen or things that you suggest doing that really can’t be helped most of the time. And with the amount that I travel, I’ve come to learn that sometimes you just have to “live and let live” while on the go. Whether you are running through airports to catch flights or embarking on a road trip, there are some things that just can’t be helped, hence, here’s my list of my own confessions as a traveler.
It’s totally ok…
To eat super unhealthy while traveling.
I’m not saying throw everything you know out the window about eating healthy while traveling, but on the other hand, sometimes it’s almost impossible to do everything you’re supposed to with your eating habits on airplanes or in airports. I go with what’s available and don’t worry too much about it.
To not look like a celebrity when you land.
You know those paparazzi pictures of the stars when they land in an airport and their outfits are impeccable and their makeup is amazing? Yea, that doesn’t happen to the rest of us. My outfits are usually wrinkled and my makeup and hair definitely look like I’ve been on a flight for 10 hours. Don’t worry about it, that’s life.
To ask the flight attendant to move if there is something wrong with your seat.
Seat doesn’t recline, even though they said it would? Large neighbor next store taking up your arm rest? Screaming baby right next to you? Believe me, I’ve been there. It’s totally ok to ask the flight attendant nicely if there is possibly another seat you can move to. Often times, even if it’s a full flight, they might have some options, so it never hurts to ask.
To ask at the gate if there are any upgrades available.
99% of the time they are going to say no, but you never know, you might get lucky. But be nice! The nicer you are, the better chance you have of getting one.
To not disinfect your entire airplane seat.
I’ve read countless articles about everything you’re supposed to do when you get to your seat on an airplane. You’re supposed to wipe down the seat, the armrests, the window shades, and believe me, I’ve been on flights where people do this. But seriously? You get on a plane full of people and can barely move most of the time anyways, this is one of those things I say “live and let live.”
To laugh at the “gorilla bags” people come on the plane with.
Nick and I have come up with the term “gorilla bags” to explain the bags people come on the plane with. They have so much luggage they look like they might have brought their entire wardrobe with them. I get it, it’s costly to check bags and everyone wants to bring everything on board with them, but for the hassle of how long it takes for them to get those massive overfilled bags into the overhead bins while everyone watches, either get a better bag that holds all your stuff or take out half and don’t overfill it.
To ask for an extra snack or refill of your drink.
There are certain airlines that I love their particular snacks or sometimes want a refill on my diet coke after the flight attendant comes through. Most of the time, if you ask nicely, they will be more than happy to comply with your request. I’ve had flight attendants give me all sorts of free food and drinks on flights when I’ve gone back and asked for it. They are more than happy to help you if you ask nicely!
To not always have an amazing experience.
It’s ok to not enjoy every trip you take or every experience that comes your way. Believe me, I’ve had some trips that I look back on now and am not sure how I survived them. But those are the travels that make you stronger, that push you further and that you aim to not repeat. It’s ok to have places that you don’t love or trips that you wouldn’t wish upon anyone, but at the end of the day it’s what you take from those experiences that matters most.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 213
- 214
- 215
- 216
- 217
- …
- 246
- Next Page »