archives: Travel Tips

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6 Simple Ways To Travel Without Your Guidebook

Ditch the safety net and travel for real. [...]

The Gutsy Girl’s Guide To Drinking Alone

Break the ice with these tips. [...]

The Ultimate Guide To Planning A Destination Wedding

Planning a destination wedding can seem like a daunting task. Here's what you need to know. [...]

How To Reconnect With Your Friends After The Journey

Life isn't on pause when you leave town. [...]

5 Ways To Protect Your Essential Travel Documents

Losing your passport or bank cards on the road sucks. Don't be a casualty. [...]

7 Ways To Thank Someone For Staying At Their Home

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Give thanks to your hosts with these tips from Theodore Scott. [...]

5 Tips Every Traveler Should Know About Internet Security

Internet cafes can be dangerous places. Here's how to keep your information safe. [...]

7 MORE Common Mistakes Of First-Time Backpackers

For newbies and veterans alike. [...]

The Joy Of Traveling Unplugged

Are you a slave to technology miles away from home? Here's how to break the chains. [...]

5 Simple Ways To Conquer Your Fear Of Flying

Christopher Cook reveals 5 simple ways to fly free from anxiety. [...]

What Every Parent Should Know About Traveling With Their Kids

The decision to travel with our children was not one my husband and I took lightly. We both had always wanted to travel, but I was too scared to take [...]

10 Intrepid Travel Tips From Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus set off to discover The New World about five centuries ago. Today, Virgin Airlines is looking to offer galactic tours. Can an [...]

4 Lessons Learned From The Camino del Santiago Pilgrimage

Over the past millennium, thousands of people, from all over Europe and all over the world, have made the pilgrimage to Santiago. Laurie Pickard is [...]

How Did The Backpacker Cross The Road?

How did the backpacker cross the road? Care, Caution and Confidence are key. Follow the tips in this traveler’s guide to pedestrian safety a [...]

Found In Translation: Why Travel As A Teenager Is The Best Education

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When I first arrived in Tokyo, I was sick, lost, and alone. I was also fifteen years old. This was my first of many extended trips for work (I̵ [...]

6 Essential Items To Pack If You Want To Meet The Locals

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There are six things to have in your bag that can help break the ice and make an introduction. Many of my best travel experiences have been shared wi [...]

13 Ways To Avoid Jet Lag

I travel often, and in many of those trips, I have crossed three or more time zones and suffered from jet lag. When I finally manage to fall asleep, [...]

What Every Backpacker Should Know About Self-Catering

Self-catering is an essential element in any backpacker’s budget strategy. You can control how often you move from city to city and where you s [...]

8 Free Online Resources For Learning A New Language

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Perhaps the most useful skill you can carry is knowledge of the local language. It can open up a startling range of opportunities, ease the strain of [...]

7 Secrets For Eating Like A Local

Cuisine is intricately woven into the tapestry of life the world over. Food is just as much a part of culture as language. Eating local is a big co [...]

Road Wisdom: 7 Life Laws From A Long-Distance Cyclist

Editor’s Note: Alvaro Galvis is a 26 year old carpenter in the midst of a long-distance bike trip from his hometown of Popayan, in the far south [...]

Tripping Out On The Road: Drugs, Alcohol And Travel

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Travel is a drug. Travel hooks you with a mainline shot of adrenaline on that first mile of highway and takes you on a rollercoaster of mental and sp [...]

One Traveler’s Quest For The Ultimate Backpack

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Illustration by Jacob Bielanski The single greatest piece of advice I heard prior to my first vagabonding excursion was to pack my bag, then remove [...]

Honeymoon Registries: Because You Already Have Enough Bath Towels

Every day, thousands of engaged couples and newlyweds find themselves in a predicament: They have all the cutlery, bath towels, photo frames, and kit [...]

How To Survive Dangerous Border Crossings

Border crossings in dangerous countries can be a pain in the backside, and sometimes pretty scary. With a few precautions one can travel around the g [...]

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To Hitchhiking

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My mother always said she had only two rules for me in life: “Never ride a motorcycle and never hitchhike. That’s all I ask. Everythin [...]

Do You Have A Death Grip On Your Travel Plans?

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Kim Greene reveals why holding too tightly to rigid travel plans may hurt your journey. Travel is one of the rare circumstances in life that reveals [...]

8 Ways To Stretch Your Short Vacation Days

Like millions of others, I have been plotting my round-the-world journey and absolute cultural immersion for years. Sometimes, a lengthy trip just is [...]

Solo Travel: 6 Reasons To Wander Alone

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Buckling my seatbelt on the flight from New York to London, it finally struck me that I was going on this trip to Europe alone. Call it a delayed rea [...]

Why Smart Backpackers Bring Their Dancing Shoes

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You’re packed and ready to go, prepared for every conceivable travel scenario. You have malaria and stomach tablets, enough DEET to eradicate t [...]

The Ultimate Vegan’s Guide To Finding Food On The Road

“You’re vegan? What do you eat? Can you eat rice?” I try to imagine a universe where rice isn’t grown, but hunted - the wild [...]

6 Tips For Pain-Free Train Travel

I am a sucker for train travel. What other transportation alternative offers ample leg room, no security lines and no traffic jams? In fact, the mere [...]

How To Actually Meet Locals On The Road

I am often involved in discussions with people eager to share stories about their latest adventure of a lifetime. One question that I tend to ask is & [...]

How To Respectfully Visit Holy Places Around The World

Churches, temples, mosques, synagogues - whatever faith they belong to, and wherever they are in the world, these holy places almost always make it on [...]

Laptop Travel: To Bring Or Not To Bring

A laptop can be a handy tool to have on the road, especially if you’re blogging about your adventures or attempting to become an LIP (Location I [...]

The 4 Stages of Culture Shock (And How To Beat Them)

Culture shock.You’re lost, standing baffled in new surroundings with a heavy pack on your shoulders, unable to tell left from right, up from dow [...]

Have Dog, Will Travel: Tips For Taking Your Pet On The Road

In his short life, my dog Norman (a.k.a. “Norm”) has marked his territory in two foreign countries and almost all the states east of the M [...]

10 Tips For Managing Your Online Life While Traveling

The internet has totally changed travel. It has made it easy to keep in touch with people back home as well as keep up with what is going on around th [...]

How To Learn Chinese: Student Versus Teacher

During my first class teaching English in Taiwan, my student Christine came up to me with an armload of Chinese books, and hand-calligraphed New Year& [...]

Laptop Travel: Practical Tips To Protect From Theft, Damage, and Loss

This is Part III of a four part series on laptop travel. When traveling with a laptop, there’s a significant risk that it could fall victim to o [...]

7 Tips For Learning A Foreign Language On The Road

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In this day and age it’s possible to travel around the world - from Ushuaia to Ulaan Baatar - and speak nothing but English the whole time. W [...]

Laptop Travel: 16 Essential Items To Include In Your Pack

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This is Part II in our series on Laptop Travel. Read Part I here. So now that you’ve got your perfect travel laptop picked out, what are you go [...]

10 Common Travel Scams (And How To Avoid Them)

“Congratulations! You’ve won a free trip!” It’s no secret that travelers are targets for any number of scams. At home it̵ [...]

5 Ways To Avoid Embarassing Cultural Mishaps

Until lately I liked to think that, as a seasoned traveler, my days of cultural misunderstandings were a thing of the past. After all, I’m cle [...]

How To Make New Friends On The Road

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As your first backpacking trip approaches, you can’t help but feel the excitement. You’ll be tempted to pack and re-pack, study maps of yo [...]

Laptop Travel: How To Pick Your Perfect Laptop

This is Part I of a new series on laptop travel. Many people choose to travel with their laptops these days. And I’m not talking about business [...]

The Art Of Long-Term Travel: An Hour With Rolf Potts

Rolf Potts recently gave a talk at the Google Offices in New York, explaining the finer details of long-term travel. It’s an action-packed hou [...]

7 Must-Know Personal Safety Tips For Solo Women Travelers

Most single women avoid traveling alone abroad. I know I did. Until I got a job that involved traveling alone every month, at which point I had to fa [...]

5 Common Mistakes Of First-Time Backpackers

I spent my first long term backpacking trip making backpacker mistakes that seem all too obvious in retrospect. Yet judging by many other travelers I [...]

7 Tactics For Dealing With Dangerous Strangers

You’ve all had that moment when you’re sitting next to a stranger on a bus, standing uncomfortably in an elevator, or many other travel si [...]

6 Must-Have Playlists For Common Travel Situations

There’s no excuse for not having a playlist ready for any travel situation you find yourself in. Remember back in the old days, when music was [...]

7 Reasons Why Working Abroad Is Your Best Career Move

Upon graduating university the last thing I wanted to do was talk about career fairs, interviews and networking. I had no interest in leaping directl [...]

10 Steps To Buying Real Estate In Your Dream Destination

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Learn how to beat the land rush if you invest early in up and coming destinations. Photo by Wandering Angel Four years ago I visited Nicaragua and d [...]

10 Travel Lessons From A Wanderer

A lot of people ask me about my frequent travels and how I do it. Before I was 21 I hadn’t even left New Zealand; now I’ve been lucky eno [...]

5 Gifts For The World Traveler Who Needs Nothing

When buying gifts for a seasoned traveler, one tends to get stuck on all the things they don’t need. It’s almost the traveler credo to s [...]

6 Convincing Reasons To Try A Home Exchange

Chances are, if you’ve spent some time traveling the world, you’ve visited some pretty amazing locales. These exotic cities or destination [...]

How To Find An Internet Cafe Anywhere In The World

Picture this: you arrive in a foreign city, the promise of adventure at your fingertips. You disembark from your train, bus, rickshaw, or glider and [...]

How To Avoid Unwanted Conversations

Sometimes when traveling, it’s nice to strike up conversations with strangers. Other times, you just want to write in your journal, listen to y [...]

How To Manage An Online Travel Journal

While browsing around Youtube I came across this great video tutorial from Lee LeFever of TWINF and the previous RSS tutorial, who put this together [...]

Beginner’s Guide To Teaching English In China

Teaching English overseas is the dream job of many - just make sure you do your own homework first. Within minutes of departing the plane in Shangh [...]

The Secret To Avoiding Beggars

You too, can avoid beggars with this simple, effective technique. The question is…will you? On a sidewalk in Delhi, I passed a man with no h [...]

4 Ways To Remember Your Pet While Traveling

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Leaving your pet behind can be the most heartbreaking part of a trip. A few days before embarking on our two month trip to Southeast Asia, Karen an [...]

The Traveling Morans’ Guide To Video Podcasting

I like to tell people that my wife and I are among the first people to produce an independent travel podcast. No one is ever really that impressed. [...]

Budget Travel Tips You’ll Never Read In A Guidebook

Well, maybe if it was a really good guidebook… Previously, I wrote about working abroad and I offered many helpful and practical tips (if I do [...]

5 Reasons The Lost Girls Can Afford To Travel The World

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Think spending a year abroad is beyond your grasp? The Lost Girls explain it’s easier than you think. On the road, we’re frequently asked [...]

The Pros And Cons of Working Abroad

Working abroad usually means low-paying, temporary jobs — like bartending. One of the biggest obstacles standing in the way when people begin t [...]

3 Secrets To Planning Your Next Big Adventure

It may appear that money is the biggest barrier to accomplishing your next adventure, but it isn’t. I remember the first time the trip became [...]

The 7 Secrets Of Independent Travel In Europe

Karen Bryan, a UK based travel consultant, offers her wisdom on how best to see Europe through independent eyes: what to look for, what to avoid, and [...]

7 Reasons To Travel With One Bag

When planning for our 2 month trip to Southeast Asia in winter 2005, my girlfriend and I decided we would only take a single bag. And no, this would [...]

Beginner’s Guide to Flashpacking

What’s a trip these days without a few tech toys to share it with the world? That’s what BigTripBlog.com is all about. I recently came [...]

MP3 Players and Other Tech Toys for Travelers

Forbes recently published a story about a few various electronic devices that travelers are starting to pack with their luggage, from Blackberry’ [...]

The Budget Traveler’s Guide to Sleeping In Airports