21 Reasons to Travel Around the World with Kids…From Those Who Have Done It .

Informing friends and family members about plans to quit your jobs, sell all your stuff, and travel the world is usually met with quite a bit of skepticism. Eventually, most come around and accept your decision, albeit with questions and hesitation. One overarching comment we received when telling our loved ones about our RTW plans was that it was good that we were “getting it out of our system before starting a family.”
We agreed, and that was a major reason for deciding to go at the time we did. We knew what everyone else did. Once we had children, traveling long term wouldn’t be possible.
With me having turned 30 and Megan nearing that age, we expected to be the old ones on the road and in the hostels amongst the college kids. Then a funny thing happened. We noticed people older than us. We would come across people in their mid-late 30’s, 40’s, 50’s even. And who is that traipsing around behind these people? Is that? Wait, it couldn’t be. Are those their kids? Families…in a hostel…in South America? I thought once you have children, your travel days are over until the kids are off to college?
How naive we were. Here we were, bucking the trend and doing something that society deems to be irresponsible and reckless. But we didn’t care what society thought. We were doing this for us, to see the world and better our lives. How was it possible for us to be so closed-minded about the possibility of family travel? Suddenly our thoughts changed. Of course you can travel as a family! And it doesn’t have to just be week-long jaunts to Disney World. It is possible to take an extended, RTW trip even if you have kids. Your life doesn’t have to end when children enter the picture!
While we are yet to start our own family, rest assured, when we do, travel will still be a huge part of our lives. While many may think traveling the world to developing countries with a child is impossible, there are countless families out there who have done it, are doing it now, and are planning to do it in the future.
For those people out there who think that long term family travel is impossible, it’s time to be inspired by some amazing families who are doing just that. Following are several myths ready to be debunked, straight from those who have done it or are doing it right now. In fact, when you are finished reading this, you may start to question why you haven’t yanked the kids out of school to travel the world already.

Your child’s education won’t suffer if you take him/her out of school

People from many western countries, particularly the United States, like to think that their county offers the very best in education, despite what the numbers tell us. Yank your kids out of school for a year, and they’re surely to suffer the consequences by never being able to get into a good college or further their education. As you can tell from the quotes below, nothing could be further from the truth. Traveling the world provides children of all ages an education that simply can’t be matched.

“No book, TV show, movie, or story could have taught us what we would learn in the months of travel through Central and South America, Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. A textbook would never give you the experience of watching the sunrise atop a Mayan pyramid set deep in a jungle or teach you how to make coconut curry while overlooking the ancient ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. There is absolutely no substitute for travel and having those experiences firsthand. As my mom and dad like to say, “Travel is the ultimate education,” and my brothers and I are living proof that this statement is true.” – from Morgan at Cooney World Adventure.
“The language learning happens so fast! We´re in Costa Rica for three months now and Luísa’s been attending a bilingual kindergarten (Spanish and English) for two months. Her English and Spanish are so developed already….Having her learn another language (or two other languages) was what pushed me to take this extended trip now, while she was still three. I knew this was about the best age for her to learn, so that’s why we are here.” – from Marilia at Tripping Mom
“He is a sponge and remembers so many tiny details, even from our previous holidays. It’s been amazing to have the time to appreciate how effortlessly he soaks up new knowledge regardless of whether it’s how to add and subtract, geography, obscure facts about dinosaurs with hugely complicated names that only children and palaeontologists can pronounce, or the workings of a Buddhist temple. Watching your child accept children of all cultures and backgrounds, without preconceived ideas or prejudice is something every adult should take the chance to see and learn from.” – from Tracy at Our Travel Lifestyle
“The young Bedouin kids she met there seemed to really like the fact that she was dressed traditionally and it’s a fun way for a child to immerse in Jordan’s culture as well as a perfect hand-made souvenir to keep forever”  – from Jeanne at Soul Travelers 3

Your kids can live without a room full of toys

Many of us have become brainwashed into thinking that children need every single toy on the planet. Video games and cell phones have become common for kids in grade school, and filling multiple rooms and basements of houses with toys is not unusual. When taking off to travel the world, taking the opportunity to pare down and get rid of a lot of useless crap is very empowering. Getting out on the road and realizing that the vast majority of our stuff just ties us down and is unnecessary is a powerful thing, and it’s a great teaching moment for your children. Making them realize that life is not all about material possessions, and that one can live on much less, is a life lesson that parents and children alike will take with them forever.

“For M, having her own camera (any old digital will do), to take shots, make videos, is priceless. To me, gadgets that foster creativity are better than games and such that are just for killing time. Low tech “Tablet”: colored pencils and a notepad. Dollar store, enough said. If you can’t afford to buy souvenirs, then don’t! Teach your kids that the experience in itself is a gift, and you don’t need to get a “We came all the way to Thailand and all I got was this lousy T-shirt” shirt, to prove that you went there. Your memories, photos, and videos can be sufficient. Buy postcards instead of the more bulky, pricey gifts.” - from J. Bubba at Got Passport

Other cultures are not as scary and dangerous as you might think

No matter if you’re setting off to travel as a 22 year-old straight out of university, a married couple, or a family with children, you will hear this same concern time and time again from loved ones, and it’s usually from those who have never left the country. The media and government likes to inform us that the world is a very scary place , and if we leave our comfort zones, something terrible is surely to happen. For anyone who travels regularly, nothing could be further from the truth. As long as you are smart and use common sense (just like at home), the chances of something bad happening are slim. And the education your entire family can receive from extended travel will open their eyes and change their perceptions forever.

“I think each of us needs to have a healthy fear of the unknown – it keeps us safe. But I also believe we can’t allow that fear to paralyze us into inaction. Why should I (or anyone else) think we are more likely to run into problems in Portland or Bakersfield or Mazatlan?” – from John and Nancy at Travel with Bikes
“We’re looking forward to uncomplicating our lives, stealing back a year and showing our kids how the rest of the world lives. Hopefully we’ll all come back with bigger minds and smaller egos.” – from Paul and Amanda at 6 Out of Oz
” I’m going academic on you here. Yes, things will be different from home, so use that as a teaching moment with your kids. Role modeling is essential, and teaching kids that there’s more than one way to do things, is priceless in our book.” - from J. Bubba at Got Passport
“We want our daughters to grow up to be travelers, to be open to change, to act on their curiosity, and to make their dreams a reality.”   – from Dee at Travel and Travails.
“We returned more thankful. More tolerant and respectful of differences. More aware of the things that bring people together and drive them apart. More appreciative of other cultures and other ways to live your life.” - from Craig at The Wide, Wide World

Your kids might be as eager to explore as you are

Many think it’s selfish to take kids on a whirlwind tour of the world. Detractors state that parents are clearly the ones who want to do this, and no child in his or her right mind would ever want to do something similar, particularly if they are school-aged. While taking a child out of school and away from his or her peers is something that many kids would hate, you would be surprised at how many children would be excited and ecstatic about this proposition. Obviously dynamics are different in each family, but unless you actually broach the subject with your child, you’ll never know what his or her thoughts might be.

“One night we got Chinese take-out. Over dinner I asked Caroline how she felt about the idea of the trip now. She would be heading into high school, and it would probably impact her more than anyone else. She said, ‘Dad, I’ve thought a lot about this. And the way I feel right now, I’m scared to go. But I also know I’ll be really disappointed if we don’t go.'” - from Craig at The Wide, Wide World
“The trip I took with my family was the best time of my life; we followed our dreams of travel and I encourage everyone to do the same! In fact, the dream is still alive and kicking inside of us. My twin brother and I are leaving in September for a three month expedition to Costa Rica and perhaps will visit a few adjacent countries as well.” – from Morgan at Cooney World Adventure
“Cam, our very reluctant traveler, has started talking about ‘doing a trip like this with some of my buddies when I’m older’ and ‘when I’m telling my kids stories about this trip, I’ll tell them about …‘” - from Michelle at Wander Mom

You’ll never know if it’s right for yourfamily until you try

No one knows your family better than you, but sometimes we sell ourselves and our loved ones short. “That would never work for us,” we say. But what better way to bond with your family than by living your dreams together? The memories that families build when they travel are ones that last a lifetime, and the traits and skills people learn when traveling in foreign lands for long periods of time are those that you just can’t get anywhere else.

“Living your dreams with children is a rewarding, exhilarating experience, and will build unforgettable memories for both you and your child.” - from John and Nancy at Travel with Bikes
“Things that used to drive us to madness now just make us laugh. Not all the time, mind you, but enough to know that perhaps we’re a little more buoyant that we used to be. More buoyant, more brave, more resilient. More together, more happy, more healthy. More accepting of ourselves, of each other, and of the world.” - from Bob and Brenna at From Here to Uncertainty
How can you not be inspired by the above quotes? After perusing so many family travel sites, I was amazed at the sheer number of families from all over the world who have thrown caution to the wind and taken off on epic adventures. For those who have been inspired to do the same, here are some tips and more inspiration for traveling with children, from babies to toddlers to teenagers.

Traveling with babies and toddlers

Traveling with a baby or toddler may seem a bit crazy and extremely daunting, but there are plenty of people out there doing it right now. While your child may not have any vivid memories of their travels as babies, they will get used to the travel lifestyle. Parents can also learn from this experience, as different cultures have different customs when it comes to younger children, and it certainly takes some getting used to.

“I recently added up his total travel since birth: 4 continents, 8 countries, over 30,000 miles and 21 flights. That sounds impressive and worldly, but the reality is more tame. It’s less international jetsetter and more naps and snuggles with mom…However, I have noticed little things. He’s become a better traveler. He can sit on my lap in a car for 12 hours. He’s calm and accepting when it’s a travel day, in a way that he isn’t usually (he’s impatient if he has to wait more than 10 seconds for me to get my shoes on and follow him out the door). It’s like he knows about these intermittent disturbances in the routines and accepts them. It’s the way it’s always been for him since we left the US when he was four months old.”  - from Christine at Almost Fearless
“In Vietnam, the biggest baby snatchers are waitresses. They crowd around discussing the cuteness of the baby, the length of her eyelashes. If they spot her dimples, they nearly start screaming. They hoist her up and carry her about the restaurant as if she’s a religious relic…Those are the positives of living and traveling in Asia with a baby. There’s a whole new world of interaction. It’s not terribly deep or meaningful, and it really does make me feel like I’m just a manager of a rock star.”   - from Barbara at The Dropout Diaries
“She has developed an immense sense of home as wherever her family is, rather than it being a place. She’s had more time to be shaped by her parents than most children her age (we hope this is a good thing). We’ve been there to see her learn to hop and jump, read her first words, learn how to draw recognizable objects and people, and interpret the world in her own unique way.”  - from Tracy at Our Travel Lifestyle

Learning from your children and traveling differently

Your kids aren’t the only ones who will be getting an education during a long-term family trip. Giving your family the chance to spend so much time together increases those learning opportunities. Yes, your children will learn a ton throughout a trip of this magnitude, but parents can learn just as much. Traveling as a family forces both adults and kids to travel in a completely different way. Museums and famous sites get boring to kids after a while, while going to only kid-friendly destinations and restaurants can get old for mom and dad, so changing it up is a necessity. Many parents are surprised at how much they enjoy this new style of travel, while their children are exposed to many new and interesting things that they aren’t during the course of a normal vacation.

“Her view of the world and her openness in exploring it has led us to stop and pay attention, to focus on where we are, and who we’re among. Her curiosity about people, places, and things has brought the world home to our family. Having an entrée into the local kid culture (having our own child) was a blast – we made new friends at playgrounds and children’s museums, saw fantastic theater productions of children’s plays, and explored a variety of libraries (and activities there). This way of traveling was an eye-opener for us, since we didn’t focus on art, museums, and gourmet restaurants (my favorite things!). Instead, we learned what it was like for families with children in different areas.” - from Jessie at Wandering Educators
“Our family dynamic has shifted; thankfully, for the better. We spend a lot of time together, and bloody battles are mostly kept to a minimum these days. We have so many lessons to learn from each other.” – from Bob and Brenna at From Here to Uncertainty
“Our daughter always asks for sushi, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Thai, or anything with noodles. This early exposure to cuisines is critical to a child’s developing palate. And, the attention of the adoring waitstaff is a good thing. She’s learned to ask for help, understand people from different cultures, and have a sense of safety and love.” – from Jessie at Wandering Educators
There are many families out there who view travel together as a giant hassle. Visions of screaming kids in the back of the car and “Are we there yet?” questions dance in the heads of parents. Snarky looks from airline passengers and voices of doubt from loved ones prevent many families from ever hitting the road for a vacation, much less something long-term. Ingraining a sense of travel and adventure in your child from the get-go could help the entire family dynamic. Many families would be surprised at just how well they could adjust to life on the road. And the bonding and learning possibilities are endless. Just check out those who have already done it, and a world of possibility may open up that you never knew existed.

 

 

By: go viral On 8:23 AM

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Adventure 101: Shore Diving in Bonaire

 Adventure 101: Shore Diving in Bonaire

Magnificent Bonaire stands firmly on a pinnacle, reigning supreme over all other shore diving destinations in the world.
With a decidedly rugged character, this charming Dutch island in the southern Caribbean skips chain hotels and instead woos dedicated divers with easy access to underwater wonder. More than 50 shore dive sites dot the coastline, whose fringing coral reef and aquamarine waters are protected as a national marine park.
When Captain Don Stewart first dropped anchor in Bonaire’s bay in 1962, he wrote, “Bay like glass, a spectrum of shimmering blues, extraordinarily clear. Brilliant tropical fish of all varieties. Looks to be a fantastic underwater island.” Inspired, he went on to spearhead efforts to protect Bonaire’s coral waters and establish the island’s first dive operation.
To experience the glorious wonder of shore diving in Bonaire, just follow the yellow brick road. Each dive site is marked with a yellow rock on shore and a buoy in the water that indicates where to descend, making self-guided diving relatively safe and easy—and ideally suited for beginners.
> When to Go:
Bonaire is alluring at any time, with abundant sunshine and daytime temperatures that hover in the mid-80s (F) year-round. And, importantly, Bonaire sits south of the hurricane belt, so tropical storms aren’t a concern.
Not surprisingly, high season and higher prices coincide with cold weather for much of the rest of the world. But with relatively few (for the Caribbean) visitors per year, Bonaire always promises a relaxed vibe. However, it’s worth noting that most of the desert island’s scant rain falls between October and December.
> Getting Started:
To get the most from your trip, take a SCUBA certification course before you arrive so you can dive into Bonaire’s waters right away. Even better, chalk up enough experience that you’re comfortable heading into the deeps without a guide.
If you’re not certified, you can still experience the island’s underwater bliss during a half-day Discover SCUBA course. Or get certified while you’re in Bonaire with a four-day course that includes classroom instruction, pool practice, and four open water dives.
Before heading out solo, visiting divers are required to attend an orientation with one of Bonaire’s professional operators. This will give you the lay of the land—er, sea—introducing you to dive sites and marine park rules. It also includes a checkout dive in a controlled environment to ensure that all of your gear is functioning properly.
> Essential Gear and Tips:
You’ll need to pony up a $25 Bonaire National Marine Park fee—money well spent for protecting the reef, which will get you a tag that’s good for the calendar year. (Note: There’s a day pass available for $10.)
Bring your own gear or rent everything you need from one of the island’s dive shops. Gear rentals are by the day or week, allowing you to dive as much as you like, while unlimited oxygen tank refills will run you about $30 a day.

• Tip: Rent a pick-up truck for driving to dive sites. Throw your gear in the back, head to a spot, and you’re ready to go—whenever you please.

> Primo Dive Sites on Bonaire:
Bonaire’s dive sites are as abundant as the fish that dart among the reef’s vibrant coral gardens. Most are just a few kicks from shore (though Bonaire also offers dozens of world-class boat dive sites), with bottom depths that slope from about 30 to 130 feet.
A Few Top Spots:

• Angel City: This is one of a string of southern sites that feature a double reef. Slowly fin your way along the deeper edge, then return via the inner reef, marveling at the stunning coral formations and vibrant schools of tropical fish.
• Hilma Hooker: The highlight of this dive is encountering a shipwreck at 55-100 feet. Detained for drug smuggling, the Hilma Hooker sank in 1984, creating a fascinating dive site rich with lore. You can often spot giant tarpon lurking near the sunken ship’s hull. 
• Karpata: A somewhat tricky entry is worth the effort at Karpata, the last stop on a narrow one-way road that winds north. Sea fans, sponges, and elkhorn coral gardens abound, some growing around abandoned boat anchors. Turtles can frequently be spotted lingering in the shallows.

> More Shore Diving Hot Spots Around the World: 
Grand Cayman: Wall dives, caverns, and the Babylon pinnacle are all accessible from the shore of this Caribbean island gem. At Lighthouse Point, divers enter from a jetty and follow navigation lines out to a deep drop-off that teems with life.
Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras: Reef that hugs the coast makes it easy for divers to swim out from resort grounds on their own time. The Prince Albert is a tanker that was intentionally sunk close to shore, creating a spectacular shipwreck dive site.
Lady Elliot Island, Australia: Divers can sink into life on the Great Barrier Reef from this idyllic coral cay 80 miles off the coast of Australia. Explore the crystal-clear water and pristine reef around the tiny island, then plunge into the pelagic deep.
Avery Stonich is a freelance writer based in Boulder, Colorado, who has traveled to more than 40 countries in search of adventure. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @averystonich.

By: go viral On 8:21 AM

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The world's 50 best travel apps

Essential add-ons to make your smartphone smarter

 By David Clack

All great travel apps have one thing in common: they all solve a problem you didn’t even realise you had. That said, with app stores bulging at the virtual seams with software claiming to make your life easier, being simply useful is no longer enough for app developers aspiring to greatness. Whether they’re cutting down journey times, pointing you in the direction of authentic local nosh or simply showing you how to ask after a toilet in Swahili, each and every one of our 50 best travel apps has earned its place in this list by virtue of being innovative, quirky or – in a few cases – downright space-age. So browse well, take your pick and get globe-trotting – because with a few of these in your pocket, you may never look at the world in the same way again.

Plan

FlightTrack

Follow the path of thousands of international flights on slick, zoomable maps, with detailed information on departure gates, delays and (heaven forbid) cancellations. Great for those anticipating the arrival of loved ones, or particularly nerdy train-spotters looking to up their game.
Available on iPhone (£2.99), iPad (£2.99), Android (£2.99) and Windows Phone (£3.99)

WeatherPro

An intuitive app offering weather reports for well over two million geographical locations, feeding in everything from cloud formations and atmospheric pressure to wind speed and humidity, all in enough detail to leave Michael Fish clammy-palmed with excitement. It’s also accurate to the point of clairvoyance, so if you’re travelling to Berlin and it predicts rain, pack your best umbrella.
Available on iPhone (£2.49), Android (£1.99) and Windows Phone (£2.29)

JetLag Genie

There are plenty of theories floating about concerning the best methods for beating jetlag, very few of which come backed up with any serious scientific clout. Still, it’s generally agreed that gradually altering your sleeping habits before a trip is beneficial, and this clever app will help you do just that. Input your travel dates, destination and usual sleeping times and it’ll come back with personalised alarm clocks to soften the blow when you wake up on Tuesday afternoon convinced it’s still Monday morning.

Available on iPhone (£1.99)

M25 Cams

Sadly, for London’s motorists, embracing the great English countryside usually involves grappling with the terrifying Tarmac gauntlet of the M25. Make life easier with this – a searchable selection of 150 live video feeds of the notoriously troublesome motorway. Certainly not the most thrilling app you’ll ever download, but you’ll feel more than slightly smug when you spot trouble in advance and shave an hour off your journey.
Available on Android (£0.99)

XE Currency

Don’t bother paying up for one of the many currency conversion apps out there in the digital hinterland – this freebie is slick, easy to use, and – best of all, since it uses live currency rates – completely accurate. It’s been downloaded more than five million times to date, so don’t even think about hopping on a plane without it.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Packing Pro

Anyone who says there’s no exact science to packing has obviously never tried to cram a pair of Jimmy Choo stilettos into the same suitcase as a giant inflatable beach ball. Thank the lord, then, for this. Tell it where you’re going, how long for and who with and it’ll spit out a suggested list of what you might need, split up into essentials (passport, currency), clothes, gadgets and more, with separate lists for additional family members.
Available on iPhone (£1.99)

Sunscreen

Until the bashful lobster look finds its way into the style zeitgeist, this is a crucial piece of kit for those venturing to sunny climes. Having detected the UVI rating of your current location, this nifty little app sets a countdown timer to alert you when you’re due your next slathering of sunblock. All you have to do is input your skin type and the SPF of your lotion, then kick back and soak up some worry-free rays.
Available on iPhone (free)

Tipulator

Leave 10% on the table after a meal in Tokyo and your generosity will cause offence; do the same in New York and you’ll be called a skinflint. Thankfully, wherever you go, there’s this – a nifty tip calculator to help the mathematically challenged split bills and tips while neatly sidestepping social embarrassment.
Available on iPhone (£0.69)

Air Sharing

In the cut-throat world of business, time is money, making a seven-hour trans-Atlantic flight a lot of wonga indeed. Thankfully, just because your laptop’s packed away, doesn’t mean you can’t keep your eyes on the prize. Essentially, this (admittedly pricey) app turns your iPhone into a wireless hard drive, allowing you to quickly and easily load it up with documents at the airport, then browse and amend on the move throughout your trip.
Available on iPhone (£6.99) and iPad (£6.99)

EHU

Not the most thrilling addition to your tech arsenal, this one, but essential all the same. Designed for campers and caravanners, the app provides a simple and effective way to keep track of the electrical output of your various travel gadgets, meaning you’re less likely to burn your pride and joy to the ground by overloading the circuit. Requires a little bit of preparation before you set off, but the resulting peace of mind makes up for it.
Available on iPhone (£0.69)

Onavo

Anyone who’s ever accidentally downloaded a large email while on holiday will attest to the ridiculousness of data roaming charges, and though there’s no indication from the networks that they’re working on putting things right, there are measures you can take to avoid an end-of-month sting. Once installed, this app drastically reduces the amount of data required to perform everyday tasks, such as retrieving email and posting to Facebook. We’re not entirely sure how it manages such a feat – we just know that it works and we’re not about to complain.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

Perfect World Clock

Does pretty much what it says on the tin, this one, providing easy access to the time in hundreds of cities and therefore averting arithmetic-induced stress your jetlagged brain could really do without. Nothing revolutionary, but still an essential download, especially considering the rather nifty option of adding several clocks as home-screen widgets.
Available on Android (free)

TravelSafe Pro

A potentially life-saving database of emergency service numbers for just about every country you’d ever care to visit, plus plenty for those that you wouldn’t. There’s also embassy details should passports go missing and – for the truly paranoid – the option to pin certain services to your home screen as widgets, for one-touch access to police, ambulances and fire engines.
Available on Android (£0.99)

The Snow Report

As much as we hate stating the obvious, it’s a simple fact of physics that you won’t have much of a skiing holiday without snow. Keep this on your home screen and you’ll never be more than a chilly-fingered prod away from the latest ski reports for your local pistes, and there’s even detailed trail maps to guide you back to the lodge should you snowplough-turn your way into trouble.
Available on iPhone (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Tidealist

Okay, so smartphones don’t particularly complement the gnarly surfer aesthetic (can you imagine Keanu whipping out an iPhone in Point Break? Because we can’t) but still – it’s good to be prepared. Though it could admittedly do with feeding in data from a few more wave stations, the current version still provides comprehensive information on tides and weather conditions for plenty of the world’s biggest surf spots.
Available on Windows Phone (free)

Book

Skyscanner

While flight-booking apps are fairly plentiful on other mobile platforms, Windows Phone marketplace boasts a meagre handful. Thankfully, this clean-looking solution does everything you’d ever need it to, aggregating fares from airlines and the big travel sites to bag you the best deal. For those really keeping an eye on the purse-strings, there’s also the option to pin your search to your start screen and keep an eye on price fluctuations. Neat.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Hostelworld

Not everyone who rocks a smartphone can afford to stay at The Savoy every night, so thank heavens for this – a geo-tagged directory of 25,000 listings for budget hotels, right at your travel-weary fingertips. The app also provides access to over 3.5million user reviews, minimalising the likelihood of you signing up to a night in a flea-infested hell-pit.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

WorldMate

The closest thing most of us will ever have to a personal assistant, albeit a hell of a lot cheaper. All you have to do is forward your various confirmation emails for flights/hotels/hire cars/restaurant bookings etc. to trips@worldmate.com and the app instantly generates an itemised itinerary covering your entire trip. Better still, upgrade to the premium version and the app will keep you in the loop in real time, generating alerts to let you know when flights are delayed or gates change.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

BlackBerry Travel

Much like WorldMate on iPhone and Android, this indispensible tool scans your various travel documents to piece together a personal travel itinerary, which it follows up with alerts and updates when disruption rears its ugly head. Like its rivals, it’ll also give you the chance to fill in any gaps by booking hotels and transfers on the fly.
Available on BlackBerry (free)

iCampsites

A great value guide to more than 8,000 campsites in the UK and Europe, backed up with user reviews, pictures and inch-perfect GPS coordinates. Looking for a little more than just somewhere to bed down for the night? Simply filter local results by facilities and you’ll soon be en route to a patch that’s right for you.
Available on Android (£1.99)

Navigate

AA Parking

There are stacks of apps out there that’ll show you a map of nearby car parks, but none that do such in as much detail as this market-leading marvel. As well as tracking down spaces in their vicinity, users can also see at a glance how much they’ll have to pay to stay per hour and, for some car parks, the exact number of spaces available. Bank Holiday road trips just got slightly less stressful.
Available on iPhone (£1.99), iPad (£1.99) and Android (£1.99)

Hailo

Of course, before you go gallivanting around the globe, first you’ll need to get to the airport and with cumbersome bags to deal with, schlepping through the capital’s streets to find a Hackney carriage isn’t really an option. This neat piece of software uses your phone’s GPS to make the cabs come to you – simply tap the big ‘pick me up’ button and one of the little cab icons on the map will start heading towards you. And if the wonders of modern technology don’t get your cabbie chatting, nothing will.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

Waze

GPS navigation meets social networking, with surprisingly effective results. Tap in your destination (there’s also speech recognition if you’ve got your hands on the wheel) and user-submitted traffic reports make sure you’re offered the quickest route for the current road conditions. Even if you’re not digging the whole sharing and caring vibe, it’s still a good £39.99 cheaper than TomTom’s sat-nav app. 

Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free) and Android (free)

New York Subway

As with our very own Tube, there are hundreds of apps that promise to make your journey on New York’s subway system less stressful, but none as highly rated or widely used as this slick and intuitive piece of software. As well as the usual maps and route planners, there’s also a natty augmented reality mode that uses your camera to overlay nearby stations onto your view of the city. Pretty neat, even by a hardened Noo Yoiker’s standards.
Available on iPhone (£0.69) and Windows Phone (£0.79)

AlpineQuest GPS Hiking

Go up a mountain without the right kit in your backpack and we’d be mighty surprised if you ever came back. And while sturdy shoes and some sort of stick (for fending off bears, naturally) are a given, GPS tracking software is another potential lifesaver. On this comprehensive orienteering app, maps come complete with contour lines, so you know what you’re getting into. They can also be stored on your SD card, meaning you won’t be left in the lurch should your mobile signal drop out. And if you’re doing some proper hiking, it definitely will.
Available on Android (£3.99)

Marine: Europe

Richly detailed, downloadable charts for the continent’s lakes and coastlines, powered by the seafaring stalwarts at Navionics. As well as plotting you a hassle-free course for your aquatic adventuring, the app will also keep you abreast of potentially dangerous changes in weather and water conditions, all the while feeding in tide predictions, data on currents and much more.
Available on iPhone (£17.49), iPad (£44.99) and Android (£16.99)

Banksy Bristol Tour

While recent years have seen street art’s enigmatic pioneer take his daubings global, you don’t know squat about Banksy till you’ve been to Bristol. This geo-tagged map guides you to the sitex of his early works – including the iconic bomb-hugging girl and the masked gorilla – with detailed notes on their history and suggested interpretations. Pack your camera and get spotting.
Available on iPhone (£1.99) and Android (£1.99)

HopStop

Public transport information covering 68 (and counting) of the world’s biggest, busiest metropolitan hubs. So whether you need to pick your way across downtown Denver or catch a bus out of Norfolk, you should never be more than a few taps away from a neatly displayed, stop-by-stop itinerary.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

PinPin ATM finder

Nothing quite matches the sheer, sobering terror of suddenly realising you’re in a moody part of a strange town with no money for a cab ride back to the safety of your hotel. Not to worry though – chances are a cash machine is just around the corner, and with this in your pocket, you’ll always be able to find one with minimal fuss. Over 220 countries are listed, meaning you ought to be covered for even the most exotic of jaunts.
Available on Windows Phone (free)

Explore

Pin Drop

There are two schools of thought when it comes to exploring a new city – you either sit down with a stack of guidebooks the week before setting off and research your socks off, or you take a leap of faith and enjoy a weekend of spontaneity. This app caters to the latter, allowing you to drop GPS pins onto a map when you stumble across something interesting, or browse user-made lists recommending the best sights, sounds and flavours in town. Available on iPhone (free)

Schemer

Currently in a phase of invite-only beta (have a sniff around forums for a free invite) this is Google’s experimental take on a massive, crowd-sourced travel guide. As tech mash-ups go, it’s fairly straightforward: users leave recommendations for things to do in their city, which visitors can then add to a to-do list and check off as they go. Given the app’s youth, content is fairly sparse outside of the US at the moment, but should you find yourself on a business trip to Chicago with a couple of hours to kill, it’s a reliable alternative to coughing up for some out-of-date paperback companion.
Available on Android (free)

Foodspotting

While apps that aggregate crowd-sourced restaurant reviews may be ten-a-penny, those that focus in on specific dishes are a far rarer species. Luckily, this one works a treat, responding to your every gastronomic whim with user-generated recommendations from your local area. In downtown Madrid with a penchant for paella? Prod around a bit and within seconds you’ll be en route to the best in the city.
Available on iPhone (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Museums Mobile

A pocket-sized database of thousands of the world’s biggest museums, brimming with information on permanent and current collections. But this is more than just a comprehensive companion to your favourite halls of history; using your GPS location, it’ll also point you in the direction of museums in your area, so don’t be surprised if your Sunday morning culture stroll turns into a full-on city-wide knowledge crawl.
Available on Windows Phone (free)

Google Goggles

Stumbled across an important looking building? Want to know more but fear striking up conversation with the locals? Fire up this bad boy, direct your phone’s camera lens at the source of your befuddlement and – as long as what you’re pointing at is famous enough – it’ll return relevant Wikipedia articles filling you in with everything you need to know. After a slow start, recent updates have seen the app’s recognition mechanic and database become really rather impressive, meaning that if it draws a blank, it’s probably just a nice-looking car park.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

FourSquare

Though it shot to fame as a social networking tool, this location-based app has become a godsend for curious travellers. The way it works is simple – fire up the app when you arrive at any given place (everything from restaurants to churches are listed) and you’ll see a list of tips from those who’ve been before you (‘try the cheeseburger’, ‘arrive by 9am for a good pew’, etc.). Check in regularly enough and you’ll claim virtual mayorship of that particular venue, with some venues even offering perks (a free pint, discounts, and so on) when you claim the crown.
Available on iPhone (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Heritage App

A comprehensive guide to over 400 English Heritage sites and National Trust conservation areas, featuring facts, figures and directions from your current location. So the next time a bank holiday rolls around, ditch the Sky+ marathon, pack some sarnies and go revel in the underappreciated brilliance of good old England.
Available on iPhone (£0.69) and iPad (£0.69)

Wi-Fi Finder

With data roaming charges still laughably high, knowing where to find a decent wi-fi hotspot is essential if you’re to keep the twitterati up to date with details of your latest sojourn. No need to charge through the city waving your handset around like a fly-swatter, though – simply fire up this handy app and follow directions to your nearest source of wireless internet. Best of all, the offline mode means you can download maps before you go, thereby dodging a massive bill.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free) and Android (free)

TripAdvisor

Stripping away the glossy magnificence ladled on by just about every online travel agency out there, this is the place to find brutally honest reviews of hotels, restaurants, attractions and more. The user-base is notoriously hard to please, so be warned that you’ll most likely find exclamation mark strewn rants next to your favourite spots. Still, on the flip side, touch down in a strange city with nowhere to stay and you’ll only ever be a few prods away from the warts-and-all opinions of travellers just like you.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

HearPlanet

Handy though they may be, the trouble with guidebooks – and indeed their digital equivalents – is that digging through them to find the information you’re after invariably means less time appreciating the thing you actually came to see. This innovative bit of software solves the problem by reading the information (farmed from Wikipedia and its own database) directly into your ears. It’s a bit like one of those audio guides they hand out at museums, then, only better for your street cred.
Available on iPhone (£2.49) and Android (£2)

Localipedia

A tasty mash-up of your handset’s native maps app and millions of Wikipedia articles, meaning you’re rarely more than a scroll and a click away from stacks of useful information about your surroundings. A fairly academic way to explore the world around you, but with a flask of something hot and an afternoon to kill, we very much doubt you’ll be inclined to complain.
Available on BlackBerry (free)

Time Out city guides

Our apologies for the somewhat self-important trumpet-blowing, but we just couldn’t let you go without a little cheeky reminder about our own fleet of painstakingly researched, expertly written travel apps. There are editions for more than 20 of the world’s biggest cities, each stuffed with comprehensive insights into the finest restaurants, bars, shows and exhibitions on Earth. Best of all, each and every one of these indispensible digital marvels is absolutely free. What can we say – we’ve got big hearts.
Available on iPhone (free) and Android (free)

Communicate

Word Lens

Now this is real sci-fi stuff – an app that instantly translates foreign text via your phone’s camera. Though the download itself costs nothing and comes bundled with a couple of demo settings, you’ll need to shell out £6.99 (via in-app purchase) for one of the language packs, with English and French currently on offer. A tad pricey, but worth it purely for the expressions of awe you’ll draw from bystanders.
Available on iPhone (free) and iPad (free)

Better Translator Pro

The best-rated translation app on Android, and for good reason. More than 50 languages are supported in text-to-text mode, while an impressive 11 work with the app’s voice recognition function. As for accuracy, it’s plugged in to both Google and Bing’s translation services, meaning results are very rarely nonsensical. Don’t expect to be bantering the night away with the natives or anything, but it ought to at least mean the end of ineptly miming ‘ou est la gare?’
Available on Android (£1.95)

WhatsApp Messenger

A cross-platform messaging system that’s slowly but surely rendering the text message obsolete. Data (that’s pictures, videos, sound clips and GPS tags as well as text) are sent using either wi-fi or your phone’s web package, so even if you’re sending a message to someone on the other side of the globe, there’s nothing to pay. Absolutely essential for keeping in touch with overseas chums, and, providing you can find some wi-fi, great for sending off-the-cuff holiday snaps back home.

Available on iPhone (£0.69), Android (free) and Windows Phone (free)

Touchnote

Remember postcards? Those rectangular, papery things you used to scrawl down tales of your far-flung travels on back before the world went digital? This app-cum-print-service allows you to hark back to the analogue era by creating and sending physical cards bearing your own travel snaps and text to anywhere in the world, for a thoroughly reasonable £1.49 a pop.
Available on iPhone (free), iPad (free) and Android (free)

Lost in Translation

There are plenty of translation apps knocking around for Windows handsets, but this well-put-together freebie is – until voice recognition comes along, at least – the only one you need. There are 36 languages currently supported, plus a useful function that allows you to quickly and easily forward translations as texts or emails.
Available on Windows Phone (free)

Swearport

Ever wanted to call an Ethiopian a maniac, or approach someone on the streets of Helsinki and suggest they do something improper with themselves? Well now, thanks to this neatly indexed catalogue of international expletives, you can. Just remember to wipe it from your phone before the cops show up.
Available on Android (£1)

Document

PhotoSynth

While your phone’s on-board camera may be just the job for immortalising otherwise hazy memories from a night on the town, it simply wasn’t designed to do justice to the likes of the Grand Canyon or Mount Fuji. Thankfully, with this ingenious app bolted on, awe-inspiring panoramic shots can be created in an instant – just choose your scene, press the magic button and it’ll handle the rest. Naturally, it’s fully integrated with Facebook, so get snapping and watch those ‘likes’ rack up.
Available on iPhone (free)

Trip Journal

If you’re the sort to never bother organising your holiday snaps and souvenirs into something tangible to be whipped out at dinner parties, download this one on the double. But this is more than just a virtual travel scrapbook – as long as you’ve got your GPS switched on, it’ll also create maps of your various explorations, geo-tagged with pictures, videos and notes. 21st Century traveloguing at its finest.
Available on iPhone (£1.99) and Android (£2.99)

iMovie

18 months on since its iOS release, Apple’s movie-studio-in-your-pocket is still the best option for itchy-footed techies looking to shoot and send tantalising snippets of paradise back home. Especially impressive is the pared-down editing suite, where soundtracks and shot transitions can be dragged and dropped to create moving postcards with serious production values.
Available on iPhone (£2.99) and iPad (£2.99)

 

By: go viral On 8:14 AM

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20 Things I Learned From Traveling Around the World

20 Things You should  Learn From Traveling Around the World

Travel for long enough and one day you wake up to realize: This is no longer a vacation, it's your life.
Over one year ago I quit my job and decided to travel around the world. This was both a dream 10 years in the making and one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Night train from Belgrade to Sofia. In the last 12 months I learned a lot about long-term travel, what I need to be happy, and how to survive outside of the U.S. Many of these things can't be learned at home or in a book, and while reading about them on the internet can only get you so far, a lot of people have asked me to explain how I've done it.
Well, here's part of the answer.

"There's no substitute for just going there."

-Yvon Chouinard

My trip hasn't been about sightseeing (although I've done that) as much as just being somewhere. The simple challenges of daily routine can be overwhelming: trying to eat, drink and sleep in a place where nothing makes sense, you don't speak the language, and where none of the basic comforts of home are available. It's not easy, but if you want a fast-track to personal development, get on a plane.
When I was younger my dad often said, "The hardest part is just getting out the door." And that may be the most important lesson of all: it's too easy to get complacent at home and if you aren't at least a little uncomfortable, you probably aren't learning anything.
If you've already traveled extensively, you may get a kick out of this. If you haven't, here are some reflections, tips, and advice about long-term travel on my one-year anniversary of life on the road:

#1) Most of the world's people are friendly and decent.

Except for the French*.
Some stereotypes really hold up, but on average, most of the people I've met around the world are extremely polite, friendly and helpful. They are generally interested in why I chose to visit their home. They are eager to assist if it's obvious I'm lost or in trouble. They'll go out of their way to try to make sure I have a good stay in their country. And, contrary to what most Americans tend to think (see #3 below), they often don't know much about the United States (or necessarily care).
Don't be convinced before leaving that "everyone there is _______". Show a modicum of respect to people and their culture and you'll be blown away by what you get back. Try picking up a little of the local language. Just learning how to say "thank you" can make a huge impact.
* Sorry, I couldn't resist. To be fair, France is like everywhere else: most people are decent. It's just that France has a particularly large proportion of bad apples that give the place a well-deserved reputation. I've met a lot of wonderful people in France, but also a disproportionate number of a**holes (not travelers generally, but residents of France). This isn't based on a single trip nor is it restricted to Paris. Almost every non-French local in Europe agreed with me on this one.

#2) Most places are as safe (or safer) than home.

I remember confessing to my mother recently that I had a big night out in Budapest and stumbled back to my apartment at dawn. Her reaction was: "But don't you worry about being drunk in a foreign country?"
Ha ha, not at all mom! I've never felt so safe!
The only place I've been violently mugged was in my home city of San Francisco. Many of the people I know there have been robbed at gunpoint, and on more than one occasion there were shootings in my neighborhood.
In one incident just a block away from my apartment (Dolores Park), a man was shot five times and somehow escaped, only to collapse about 10 meters from our front door. You can still see the blood stains on the sidewalk.
Turns out we actually live in a pretty dangerous country.
In over 365 days on the road, staying mostly in dormitory-style hostels and traveling through several countries considered 'high-risk,' the only incident I had was an iPhone stolen out of my pocket on the metro in Medellin, Colombia. I didn't even notice and deserved it for waiving the damn thing around in the wrong part of town. Most people think that in a place like Colombia you'll still get kidnapped or knocked off by a motorcycle assassin, but that's not true. According to the locals I talked to (who grew up there), things have been safer there for at least 10 years.
Caveat: This doesn't give you a license to be stupid, and some places really warrant respect. Guatemala and Honduras, where there are major drug wars going on (and the Peace Corps recently pulled all of their volunteers), or Quito, Ecuador, where everyone I talked to had been robbed, are reasonably dangerous (I had no trouble in any of them).
In reality, based on the sort of mindless binge-drinking that happens in most travel hot spots, you'd expect travelers to get knocked off a lot more often. But if you pay attention and don't do anything stupid, you'll be fine.

#3) Most people don't know (or care) what America is doing.

I think the whole America vs. the rest of the world debate has been summed up perfectly in this post:
=> 10 Things Americans Don't Know About America
I couldn't have said it better:

Despite the occasional eye-rolling, and complete inability to understand why anyone would vote for George W. Bush, people from other countries don't hate us either. In fact -- and I know this is a really sobering realization for us -- most people in the world don't really think about us or care about us.

I've met people that didn't even know that San Francisco (or California even) had a coastline (now there's a sobering conversation for you. So much for thinking that's the center of the world eh?).
One thing is true: Americans are not well represented on the travel circuit. It just doesn't seem to be culturally important to us, unlike say, the Australians, who never go home.

#4) You can travel long-term for the price of rent and a round of drinks back home

My favorite question from friends at home has been: "how the hell are you still traveling?"
Well, for what you spent at lunch I can live on for a whole day in Indonesia. That's all there is to it.

- Monthly rent for a shared apartment in San Francisco could be: $1,100 per person.

- My average monthly expenditure during the last year of travel: $1,200 / month*.

That's $40 / day, and includes some ridiculous and totally auxiliary expenses. For example:

• 10 days of Scuba diving in Utila, Honduras - $330
• Kitesurfing gear rental in Mancora, Peru - $100 for two days
• Flight to Easter Island (50 percent subsidized by my dad) - $400
• Acquisition of 4 Surfboards, + Repairs and Accessories over the year - $750
• Purchasing a bunch of gear, like a new netbook ($380), wetsuit ($175), boardshorts ($55), camping gear ($100), a SteriPen water purifier ($125), summer sleeping bag ($55)
• Riding the NaviMag Ferry through the lake district of Chilean Patagonia from Coyaiquhe to Puerto Montt ($200).
• Taking a total of seven nearly cross-continental flights (like Brussels=>Greece) during my four months in Europe.

And so on. I also went out, a lot, and spent way to much money on alcohol.
Before I left home, my original budget projection was $50 / day, which I would consider lavish in many parts of the world. In some places, I spent as little as $20 / day (including lodging, all meals and booze) while living in relative luxury right on the beach. Generally, I shot for $30 / day which gave me a buffer of $20 for travel and miscellaneous or one-time expenses.
Countries visited on this budget: Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Easter Island (Chile), Argentina, Uruguay, Santa Cruz (California), North Shore of Oahu, Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Turkey
Totals: Six months Central/S. America, two months U.S., two months Western Europe and two months Easter Europe).
Obviously, some places are cheaper than others, like Guatemala, where you can get a room for $4 per night. You have to be a lot more careful in Western Europe, where I got a little bit loose with my budget and spent $2,000 per month for two months. But I also spent less than $900 in the month that I biked (pushbike) through France.
You might be blown away by how cheap some "expensive" places can be. The second cheapest hostel I stayed in (after Guatemala) was in Berlin, Germany, at €6 / night (~$7.43 USD). Beer in Prague was as cheap or cheaper than any other country I've been to (it was $1.43 for 0.5L in ultra-touristy downtown Prague). You can rent a decent downtown apartment in Budapest for $200 / month.
Bottom line: If you're careful, you can travel on $1,200 per month or less. Rolf Potts, the author ofVagabonding (highly, highly recommended whether or not you're planning to travel) claims to have circled the globe for years on $1,000 per month. Budget $1,500 per month and you should be totally covered. You can do this even in Europe if you go slow, stay with friends or in cheaper hostels, fly on discount airlines (as opposed to taking the train), cook or eat street food, and don't buy booze at the bar (which I did and somehow survived).
The best budget rule of thumb I've learned (can't remember the source) is to take the price of your nightly accommodation and triple it. That will be about your daily minimum to survive, so $30 per day where a hostel runs you $10 per night.
*Note that my monthly total budget does not include transcontinental airfare (like U.S. to Europe) which was free (see How I flew around the world for $220). Since I typically travel overland and all flights are one-way tickets I haven't flown as much as you'd expect.

#5) Saving for a big trip is not as hard as you think.

Most people think I'm rich because I've been traveling for a year. What they don't realize is that, although I didn't leave at the time (this was five years ago), I was able to save enough money for this trip within a year and a half of graduating college.
My first salaried job paid $29,000 per year -- not exactly ballin' by U.S. college-grad standards. But by pretty ruthless budgeting , I was able to save $1,000 a month for the 15 months I worked there.
Guess what? That's $15,000 or 12.5 months of travel at $1,200 per month.
Are there sacrifices to be made? Of course. But it's worth it.
Btw, I am by no means the first person to discover or write about travel budgeting. This post is from 2009: Travel full-time for less than $14,000 per year. Don't think it's just us either, because all of thesepeople are writing about it.
I plan to write more about how to save money in the future

#6) In most places, moving around is incredibly easy.

I rode buses from Honduras all the way to Uruguay. With a surfboard. And it was a cinch.
Unlike the independent car culture of the U.S., people all over the world rely on some kind of bus service to get around.
In most places you can get from anywhere to just about anywhere else, and most of the time it doesn't take more than a few minutes to figure out. Generally (outside the middle of peak tourist season in popular places) I haven't bothered with reservations or pre-planning transportation routes. I just show up at the bus or train station and go.
I've ridden buses for hours into the middle of the Costa Rican jungle as well as through BFE in the Northern Chilean Andes. There's almost always a group of locals who needs to get to where you're going too. And if there's no bus you can always hitchhike (this only happened once or twice on my entire trip).
It's an eye-opener to see how some of the poorest countries on earth can still provide better public transportation than San Francisco.
In places like Europe and South East Asia you also have the opportunity to take advantage of discount airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet. I flew across Europe seven times in two months for less than $120 that way.

#7) Every pound over 20 makes life worse.

There is virtually no reason to carry more than 20lbs (~9kg) of gear unless you're going on a major trek or you have some serious sporting event in mind (like multi-day backpacking or cold weather sports). If you're traveling in the summer you can get by on even less.

Here's the first key: Try only to do one thing on your trip. If you are hiking, just hike. If you are surfing, just surf. If you're party backpacking and staying in hostels, just do that. Packing for every possibility is suicidal. You just can't carry street clothes and backpacking gear in the same pack and expect to not have a million tons of crap.
I've traveled the last year with a carry-on sized 30L day-pack made for climbing (this means it's made to properly handle weight). Right now, it's only 2/3 full and loaded with exactly 20lbs of gear (which in my opinion is still too heavy). But I have some serious accessories in there including 3lbs of surfing equipment (for Indonesia), a 3lb laptop, as well as a GoPro video camera (0.5lb).
When most people pack for a trip, they make a list of things to pack and then try to figure out how to fit it all in. But the best way to choose a backpack is to find the bag you want to carry and then see what you can fit inside. Make sure the pack doesn't weigh more than 3lbs by itself.
If you can get to less than 15lbs (~7kg) it will change your life. Imagine getting to a location and being able to walk around and site-see with all your gear. Incredible.
This is the other key: pack the 20 percent of gear and clothing that will cover 80 percent of possible travel scenarios (yet another manifestation of the 80/20 rule). If you end up saying "I might do _____" then get rid of it. Don't take anything you won't use with relative frequency unless it's really expensive or hard to find on the road.
Get rid of everything you possibly can before you set out, and don't be afraid to donate things or send them home along the way. Oh, and the easiest way to figure out your pack weight? Buy a cheap fish scale from Amazon.com.
A small pack also allows you to have a carry-on bag, even on super small planes. I can't understate the importance of this.
Bottom line: Trust me, the longer you travel the less you want to carry.
Bonus: Here is my 2013 Round the World Trip pack list.

#8) Long-term travel is not a vacation (it's a full-time job).

After my first six months of traveling I went home for a break. To the surprise of my friends, I was completely spent, exhausted, and didn't want to do much of anything.
"But you've been on vacation, you should feel great!"
Right. I guess you missed the 22 hour bus-ride where we took turns puking in the back because of altitude sickness and pisco-induced hangovers. Or maybe you didn't make it to the last 15 hostels where sleeping before being black-out drunk is just not an option. (Sounds glamorous, doesn't it!)
Planning and logistics also take an incredible amount of time and effort. Most downtime spent in a place when not sight-seeing is typically sucked up in researching the next destination, making reservations, planning logistics, and going through the dreaded 'time budgeting' process where you decide what you can reasonably see in the time available (and what you have to cut out).
Overall, it's exhausting, and a great reason to consider traveling slowly (more on that later).
If you move quickly, don't have any illusions about all the things you're going to "get done" in your down-time. Take a good book and just travel, that's it.

#9) 'Travelers' and 'Tourists' are different.

You know what I mean.
Tourists exchange money for pre-packaged experiences. They consume experiences and move on without engaging with the local culture.
Travelers are there to see things, not buy them.
Travelers tend to be more involved. They may stay with locals, hang out with locals, try to learn the language, or just plain move slowly enough to really live and be where they are.
Sometimes I play "tourist" but that doesn't mean I see myself as one.

#10) Don't worry about traveling alone (it's better).

Although I'm a solo traveler I haven't spent much more than a handful of days on the road alone. That's because you meet people everywhere: in hostels, on buses, trains, planes, restaurants, trail-heads, monuments, etc. If you're doing a standard travel circuit you'll see the same people over and over again (most people don't leave the Lonely Planet itinerary), and it isn't uncommon to fall in with a large group of people who are all going the same way.
It's so easy to meet people that I'm often stuck with the opposite problem: trying to get away from everyone. While I love all my new friends I need some downtime every so often.
Most travelers are uncommonly interested in meeting new people. That's one of the big reasons they're on the road. A simple "where are you headed" has often turned into a new travel partner for weeks. And when it stops working you simply set off on your own again.
Afraid to go it alone? Don't be. Go the the first big city in your destination country and hang out in the hostel lobby for a few days. I promise you'll make new friends. This is why you should also stay in hostels. Don't be afraid of sharing a room. It's a small trade-off for the amazing people you'll meet.

#11) Movement can be addictive (and this is not necessarily a good thing).

The "traveler's rush" that hits you upon arrival to a new place is like a drug. And like a drug, the more you expose yourself to it the more you want.
This can mean moving too fast or skipping out on places just to experience the ecstasy of arrival again. The results are obvious: less time in places you thought you wanted to see and ultimately, burnout. The tendency to try to cram more places into an overpacked schedule is often hard to control.
One trick I've found to deal with this is to have a minimum stay: Three nights in every destination. This is enough time to see the place, relax, and get sorted before the next stop. It also means you'll have to cut out some places if you're tight on time. While I've had great one-night stops before (I'm looking at you, Belgrade) it isn't sustainable or desirable to do too much of this.
Of course, some places aren't what you expected either. If that's the case, get the hell out of there and spend more time in a place you want to be.

#12) Don't bank on paradise.

Keep your expectations in check.
This isn't easy, since you really want that place you've been dreaming about to be paradise. But like anything else, high expectations are a recipe for disappointment.
I spent five years in office jobs dreaming about getting back to Utila, the magical Scuba party-island off the coast of Honduras. When I finally got there, I was ready to leave after a week.
Turns out I didn't really care about Scuba-diving as much as I thought, and there's only so much you can do on a tropical island before you go nuts. At that time I also had new aspirations and a new skill: surfing. I ended up heading to El Salvador to surf some of the best waves of my life.
Expectations can also make or break a place. Most of the places I knew nothing about before arriving blew my mind. Most of the places I had high expectations for utterly failed to impress me (except for Chicama, the world's longest wave, and Rome).
The other thing is that as you go through life the rules are always changing. By the time I arrived here in Bali -- which has been a dream and one of the pinnacles of the trip -- I had a small but growing online business that had become my number one priority. Instead of rushing off to some deserted beach hut and surfing all day I'm obsessed with trying to find a place to live where I can get to fast internet at least a few times a week. Say what you will, but my priorities have totally changed (at least for the moment).
It also turns out that a lot of Bali is a tourist nightmare from hell. Or maybe it's just getting harder for me to be as impressed by anything.
Also: Take recommendations with a grain of salt. Another person's paradise might be your personal hell, and vice-versa. A close friend of mine thinks tropical beaches are the reason for existence. Well, unless there is wind or waves on them I'll crack up after three days. Getting stuck on a deserted tropical island is my definition of hell-on-earth.

#13) Traveling doesn't get 'traveling' out of your system.

If you've got this bug, it's not going away (sorry), but the obvious question is: why are we trying to get traveling out of our system, anyway?
Rolf Potts did a great job in Vagabonding of justifying not just travel as a lifestyle, but also a lifestyle that makes travel a non-negotiable ingredient. Whether that means saving for a big trip or just taking a few weeks a year the important thing is to make room in your life to keep traveling.
I was actually told on this trip (if you're reading this) that I needed to stop screwing around and: grow up." I think in our culture that means going back to the "real world" of office jobs, succumbing to general complacency, and trying to enjoy two weeks off a year.
If that's the case you can count me out.
The world is just too big and interesting to not be exploring.

#14) Eventually, you will need something real to do.

Most people think that I've spent the last year sipping Mai-Tais on the beach somewhere. Well, I tried that and after four days I started to lose it.
The sad and somewhat surprising truth about the myth of the deserted tropical island paradise is this: there is nothing to do on a deserted tropical island. As Harrison Ford drunkenly slurred once in that terrible but entertaining movie, 'Honey... it's an island. If you don't bring it you ain't gonna find it here."
Despite popular belief, most people can't just sit around doing nothing for an extended period of time. Especially Type-A American folks who I've been told are "goal-oriented"and always trying to "get things done." It might be a cultural thing, but it's more likely just human nature to want to be involved in something larger than yourself. (This also, by the way, is the death knell for the whole concept of retirement, as articulated so well in Tim Ferris' 4-Hour WorkWeek).
The point of quitting a job to travel around the world is also not to do nothing; it's to do something else. As Tim Ferris points out, "idle time is poisonous," and believe me, when you've cut your ties with conventional society you're going to have a few moments of serious self-flagellation. The endless 'what I'm doing' and 'why am I doing this' loop.
It's true that the feeling of wanting to build/create/be a part of something can be deferred since traveling itself is a full-time job, and that simple fact can keep you satisfied for a long time. But after six months of moving around I was astonished to discover I was actually bored. I mean, really bored. There are only so many days that you can walk around looking at things, go to the beach, and party all night without starting to think that something's missing.
For more on working on the road, see the 22 things I've learned as a digital nomad.
What it boils down to is that eventually you'll need need a project. Whether that means studying, concentrating on a sport, volunteering, working somewhere, starting an online business, or whatever, eventually you'll have to find a creative or intellectual outlet to keep yourself sane. Which brings up the next point:

#15) Long-term happiness is a pretty complicated emergent property that has little to do with money.

I will probably kick myself later for publishing this, but what the hell, here goes:
If you studied any chemistry in school you may remember the concept of emergent properties: the difference between the dining-room table and this computer screen is simply the right mix of a bunch of elements. Put together the right pieces and the product spontaneously emerges from the matter it's composed of.
Similarly, in my experience happiness is not derived from a single point source (although it can be temporarily) like a sudden infusion of cash or arriving at your dream destination. Instead, it takes a lot of things working in concert to keep me happy: it's really the emergent property of a network of variables..
Unfortunately, most people seem to forget the network effect and focus on a single variable, like money. Sure, money can allow you to do things, but once basic needs are satisfied the correlation between money and happiness seems to drop off a cliff.
A lot of people defer things they might otherwise pursue for the big payout dream. The "if I only win the lottery" or "when I sell my company for $10 million" routine. The problem with the fantasy, besides the obvious deferral of really having to come to terms with what you want to do in life, is that while a big payout would certainly increase the options available to you, but that is not necessarily a good thing. I won't elaborate on this too much further here, but having more options has actually made me less happy in the past, as was so well articulated in The Paradox of Choice.
And here's another punchline: most people whose luck or life-stage has allowed them to not be required to work seem to choose to anyway. I know a guy who retired at 26. What does he do now? Runs a firm for fun.
Think $10 million in the bank is going to make you happy? Well, good luck with that.
While I can't speak for everyone, I've learned that I need the nearly perfect concert of three to four major variables before I can say that I'm "really happy."
These have very little to do with money:

1. Health: Not just injury or disease-free but fit and functional for everything I want to do. That could mean anything from just feeling good in the morning to being able to easily run five miles.
2. Wealth: I'm not talking about money, but the reinterpretation of wealth as the free time and means to do what you want to do. In my experience, control of my time is the key, and as long as I have enough money to cover basic expenses I'm happy.
3. Relationships: In major cross-cultural studies published by the WorldWatch Institute, happiness has often been primarily attributed to breadth and depth of social connections.'Nuf said.
4. Productive/Creative Outlet: As discussed above, I need something to learn, to do, or to build.

If this sounds cliche or too simple, try sitting on a beach somewhere and wonder why you're not happy for a few weeks. It's easy to forget the most basic things in life.
(The funny thing about having four simultaneous requirements is the violation of Sun Tzu's Art of War: Never fight a battle on multiple fronts. Maybe you've figured it out already, in which case I'd love to talk to you about it, but whenever I get two things in order the third one drops out of the sky.)

#16) When you challenge a person's assumptions it can really piss them off.

People get angry when I tell them you don't have to buy into the system, that you can travel the world and do anything you want if you're up for it.
The problem is that this statement challenges the basic assumptions that people have invested in over their entire lives-every decision, every action, every goal has depended on the stability of this conventional framework.
As I understand it from my limited study of neuroscience, these kinds of assumptions are firmly rooted in the brain's neural network, and our cognitive framework (borrowing heavily from George Lakoff here) really doesn't like being fucked with.
Just think about how hard it was the last time you tried to change a serious habit. The first day you try something new it can be physically painful because there's a strong emotional response to resist change. Think also about the last time you had an argument about politics. Why is so much anger involved? Because you're both challenging thought patterns that are too well established to change easily (it's not air in there, but a real physical network of cells) .
Lakoff at one point wrote that the neural framework is like a net: if you offer something up radically different from what a person expects it might just slip through. It's almost like they can't even process what you're saying to them.
It's also hard for people to imagine anything different from their experiences. Take the notion of precedence (hat tip to Dan Andrews): before the four-minute mile was broken it was thought to be physically impossible. That is, until Roger Bannister ran a mile in under four minutes. Within two months two more runners had achieved the same feat, and whole slough of runners soon followed.
When you defy the status quo (even when you don't make a big deal out of it. *cough*) you implicitly (although unintentionally) suggest to people back at home that their lives are based on a faulty assumptions. Don't expect people to take this well, or to care or understand what you're doing if you decided to cut out. They might get pissed off, the might act like you don't exist, or they might actively call you out.
You can't convince them that it's the right thing to do either, because in all honesty, we all have a different idea of what the good life is.

#17) Travel slowly: Save money, avoid burnout, do more.

Going slowly is the key. The more time you have the more money you can save, for two major reasons:

1. Large expenses like airfare get averaged out over the course of cheap days staying in one place, and
2. You can take advantage of special opportunities, like cheap flights or sleeping on a friend's couch.

I talked to one girl who flew around Europe just on discount airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet. She'd simply log in and see where the cheapest flight next week was. "Guess I'm going to Romania!" Not something you can do easily on an itinerary.
The most expensive part of traveling for me has typically been moving from point A to point B. Traveling like a maniac can be a lot of fun, but you'll save money and get to really know places if you take your time.

#18) You can't work and travel at the same time.

For the remote-work inclined...
Ok, you sort of can, you just won't ever get nearly as much done as you want to.
Let me clarify this for the uninitiated: obviously, you can work in the places you travel to, e.g. working as a SCUBA Divemaster or a Kiteboarding instructor, but my focus here is on location-independent internet work.
At this point I've worked all over the world on my laptop, and in order to get shit done I have to hunker down in one spot for at least a week. Try building/fixing things/growing an online business on the road and you're going to just get irritated when you can't finish anything in the two to four hour block you've set aside.
You also have no continuity if you're constantly moving around. Dan Andrews of the Lifestyle Business Podcast nailed it when he said 'you've got to find your 5 hours.' All 4-Hour Workweek fantasies aside, if you want to build something you'd better find that five hours (or more) each day.
If you're going to travel, then just travel. There are sights to see, spontaneous adventures to be a part of, and all kinds of unexpected things that happen. Aren't you traveling to take advantage of those?
But when you're going to work, just work. I think Tim Ferris really hit it with the concept of mini-retirements: the idea of focusing 100 percent on one thing at a time is the only way to make significant progress. Work for one to three months, then take a mini-retirement for one to three months (depending on what you've got set up for yourself. More on this later).

#19) When everything gets irritating, it might be time to head home.

I've had this experience more than once: a nice local is trying to help me but can't understand what I'm asking for. I can feel my impatience rise and I notice my voice gets that "what the fuck is wrong with you" tone.
Then I remember: this isn't home. People don't speak English. Don't expect anything to operate on your schedule. It's not your country anyway, jacka**.
This is usually the first sign of burnout, and usually means it's time to find a cheap place to relax or time to book a flight home.
If you start really missing hot showers, strong coffee, Mexican food, or climate control, it might just be time, but....

#20) Long-term traveling can teach you more than almost anything else

About yourself, about life, about what you need to be happy. It also really highlights just how different home is from everywhere else, especially when you start to get a large sample size to compare it to.
For some, this can mean going home with a heightened perspective. For others, it may mean never going home. For everyone though, long-term travel will change your life.

By: go viral On 7:59 AM

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