A lot goes into a successful journey. Here are my favorite apps, books, sites, services and more for helping ensure your first big one goes well.
Essentially everything on here is something I’ve read, watched or use regularly. On the off-chance I haven’t tried something — HolaFly, Allianz or Blue, for example — it’s been thoroughly vetted in the public sphere and also by people I know personally.
• TimeBuddy for planning across time zones
• XE for currency conversions
• AllTrails for nature walks + treks
Booking directly gets you the perks, but you lose on convenience. Cancelation policies are generally the same when you book directly, if that’s of concern.
For hostels, I always check both to compare prices:
• Booking.com
• Hostelworld
For homestays, I first check VRBO then the big ugly Airbnb:
• VRBO
• Airbnb
For more niche properties, like ryokans or riads, I actually look on Google Maps and book directly.
If you need a place to crash, love meeting locals and aren’t picky about sleeping on foldouts, couch surfing is awesome. Make sure you host some people before you travel to pay it forward and build up reviews.
• Couchsurfing
These are best booked on arrival through your hostel, but even the best hostels don’t offer everything. Some won’t help you with guides or excursions at all.
• Get Your Guide
• Klook
• Peek
• with locals
Meals in the homes of locals are always the best, and the support really helps them.
• EatWith
• ByFood
• World Nomads
• SafetyWing
• Allianz
• Workaway
• Worldpackers
• WWOOF for volunteering on organic farms
• HippoHelp + LiveAbroad
You’re not packing books, but a few are worth reading beforehand or downloading to your e-reader from somewhere other than Amazon, please.
• Lonely Planet
The paperback guides are a bit workmanlike and joyless (more pictures, Luis!), but the website is excellent. Create an account and live by it. Their goliath books The Cities Book (out of print, but easy to find as an e-book or used) and The Travel Book.
• 1001 Places to See Before You Die
This is basically Cliff’s Notes for planet Earth. It’s a little wordy (not enough pictures here either, Patricia!), but it’s incredibly thorough. Keep your computer nearby and Google anything that sounds cool.
• Atlas Obscura
Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras and Ella Morton are bloodhounds for the fascinating, bizarre and too-often overlooked. I suggest you buy the ebook and read it. Then bookmark the site and visit it each time you arrive in a new place.
• Taste Atlas
Their Instagram might go off the rails when they post the results of audience surveys like they’re exhaustively researched journalism, but the website is superb. I check it before I every arrival.
While the books in the previous section help guide your travels, these will teach you how to be a better traveler. Those are for looking things up; these are for reading as proper books. Key difference there. Buy the book or rent it at the library. Either way, reading, as RuPaul says, is fundamental.
• Europe on $5 a Day
Arthur Frommer’s original classic is still relevant today. Most of the hostels and restaurants he mentions have likely closed, so skip those parts. Frommer will force you to question unnecessary amenities though and teach you how people traveled before the internet.
• A Cook’s Tour
The effect of Anthony Bourdain’s travel philosophy cannot be overstated and this is his best book on experiencing places through food. Read it. And while you’re at it, watch his show too.
• Vagabonding
No one has penned a more inspiring love letter to long-term travel than Rolf Potts. Vagabonding is equal parts knowledge and philosophy so inspiring that I prescribe this book like Xanax when friends tell me they can’t cope with the bullshit that is life in the US. I challenge anyone to read it and not be changed by it.
• No Reservations and Parts Unknown
Again, Anthony Bourdain, the godfather, had an unmatched ability to mine the essence of a place and share with an delicious balance of elegance and vulgarity. He left an enormous legacy: 238 episodes featuring most of this world’s most fascinating destinations.
• Rick Steves’ Europe
Rick Steves is the nerdy-cool geography teacher we should all wish we’d had. He’s chronicled Europe like no one else, which has graced him with the supernatural ability to find a superb meal and a clean bathroom in any city between Iceland and Istanbul. Despite the name, he’s done a few episodes a little farther afield in places like Egypt and even Iran.
• An Idiot Abroad
Watching Karl Pilkington witlessly fumble through foreign places is comic schadenfreude of the highest order. Through it all though, the show torments viewers with a valuable sense of “don’t be that guy,” which every traveler should mind.
• Drew Binsky
Drew has been everywhere — like, literally everywhere — and demystifies places you might be too nervous to visit, such at North Korea (currently impossible), Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia or Papua New Guinea. It ain’t fine cinema, but he was an ordinary person who just wanted to see the world, just like you, so his is a good example to follow.
Reviews sites are generally only good for one thing: lodging. I use two, and even those I approach skeptically.
• Trip Advisor
Indispensable for lodging, especially the Traveler Photos. I also check out the top 10 or 20 highest-rated attractions in each place to ensure I haven’t overlooked something big. I find it particularly helpful to find people whose reviews I trust and follow them. If you want to follow me, I write a lot of reviews on there.
• Google Maps
This is unscientific, but the reviews on Google Maps generally tend to align with my experience. I can think of a few hellish exceptions in places like Puerto Vallarta, where the reviews were pure bullshit, but it’s still pretty good.
All reviews sites are a minefield of fake profiles and hysterical tourists that bury trustworthy voices. Legit people tend to:
• have many reviews
• post reviews over time
• review in multiple cities
• review in a non-manic way (not all 1- or 5-stars)
Big red flags:
• Reviewer’s name and/or hometown is inconsistent with the locations of their reviews.
• Misalignment between one’s hometown and English proficiency. For example, the profile photo looks American (that’s a pretty wide swath of people) but their words sound like they have foreign syntax.
• A name that’s old fashioned, like Cecil or Prudence but a photo that looks like Lil Nas X or Aubrey Plaza.
Some people dismiss places with very few reviews, but check to see if they’re just new businesses. One big caveat: If a hostel is new, find the profile of the one that was there before to see how different the place is. Also, if the newest reviews for the old one and the oldest reviews for the new one are too closely dated, the place just changed its name.
New hostels rarely book solid, so you can reserve a couple nights, test it out and extend if it’s good.
My privacy policy is simple: I don’t share your information.
Yea, it’s just a name, email and nationality, but I’m sure there are people who would pay for it. My thoughts on that: fuck those people and fuck those fuckers who sell personal information to them. You’ll find none of that monkey business here.
If I get hacked and your info get stolen, I’ll shoot you a note to let you know. I don’t deal in passwords, credit cards or anything like that though, so there’s almost nothing for anyone to take.
To see the full privacy policy — it’s pretty boring and cost me a lot of money — you can follow the link at the bottom of the page or in the confirmation email.
Domestic American air travel is a racket run by three major companies and a few smaller ones who effectively collude on prices to screw passengers and support their bloated executives and corporate structures.
Even regional jets, which are technically independent, are fucking death traps that I literally never, ever fly.
It’s not this way in other countries, because most people are sensible and see transportation as akin to a public utility. It’s therefore common to find flights on foreign carriers for under $100. I frequently see fares less $50.
Booking far in advance is therefore unnecessary, except of course in places where tickets sell out. Avoid the temptation to book months or weeks out if you’re just trying to save money. Not only will doing so lock you into dates you might regret, you may end up paying. Why? Booking sites now sniff for your computer’s location and display higher prices for foreigners.
Rude, right? Blame the mirror. We invented that.
First, some bad news for most Americans: automatic transmissions are as rare overseas as manuals are in the US. Unless you want to seriously overpay, make friends with someone who owns an old Miata and learn.
Second, anyone who wants to rent a car should obtain an international driver’s permit. This is easy — just 30 minutes at AAA.
When it’s time to rent, don’t get tempted by lower prices with small, local companies. Go with a big multi-national.
Understand your insurance situation through-and-through. Know the limits of your credit card’s automatic coverage and have a printout of the policy. If you can get a translated copy, even better. If you’re still in doubt after all that, just pay for their coverage.
Research the scams. Before you drive off the lot, walk around the vehicle and video record it. When you return the car, do the same. Also record yourself locking it and depositing the key in the night box if you return after hours.
If you get a notice from the rental company later saying you owe for damage or not returning the car, you can send them those videos with an E-vite to go get fucked. You might also copy tourist law enforcement, so they get fined to oblivion.
It’s tricky, but you need to basically study each country’s road laws and signs like you’re getting your student driver’s permit again. Most places have tricky rules, and they love to fine gringoes like us for violating them.
In Cyprus, for example, you can be fined for eating or drinking anything behind the wheel, even a Snickers. In Denmark, you’re legally required to look under your car before you get inside to ensure no one is underneath. In Spain, drivers with poor vision have to carry a spare set of glasses. Dirty cars are illegal in Russia, as is splashing pedestrians on a rainy day in Japan.
In some places, driving is really difficult. I pity any fool who tries to drive in Cairo. You can also very swiftly kill yourself on a German highway if you’re untrained. Driving at 120 MPH is far more complex than simply pressing the accelerator further.
Fare classes are highly inconsistent.
First class in one country is generally different to first class in any other. The same is true of second, third and so on. They vary wildly by country and system.
If it’s fiscally reasonable, I choose first for early mornings and overnights. They really are better, even just for security of your belongings.
The one time I settled for a second-class overnight, I had to physically fight a mouth-breathing Russian girl who was sweating vodka and wouldn’t stop burying her face into my lap to huff my underpants like Whip-Its. I wish I was making this up, but it’s true. I arrived sleepless, angry and ugly. It ruined my first day in Lisbon and I only had five. First class would have been worth the cost. Second class is my usual go-to. For shorter trips or anything after 9 a.m. I go second.
If I want an adventure, I go even lower. Some agents won’t sell those tickets to tourists though unless you insist.
Nomads and backpackers who don’t do the travel hacking thing usually buy cheap flights. Be careful of taking that too far.
For starters, you need to observe weight limits on baggage. In the US, no one gives a shit, but elsewhere they care. The care deeply. Never buy a ticket that forces you to pay weight overages.
Seats are also important, but not for comfort. I never take bulkhead or exit-row seats unless I pay for early boarding. Both offer less (or zero) under-seat storage, so being in a later boarding group puts you at risk of having nowhere to put your carry on — or as you’ll hear them called “cabin bags.”
I’ve even been on a flight where the attendant nearly made me check my personal item. I shut that down by threatening to create a scene and de-board, but I could have avoided it by paying $8 for priority boarding.
Countless people have asked if I used an around-the-world plane ticket for my first trip.
My simple response: Don’t ask dumb fucking questions. Also, no, I didn’t.
ATW tickets are nearly useless. They typically require you to book your stops in advance, so there’s too little flexibility. The fine print is also brutal and changes constantly.
Last time I researched them, the price was based on allotments of miles. The number of stops also changed the equation. All of them required you to choose a direction (east-to-west, for example) and none permitted travel in the reverse direction even slightly. Some airlines even insisted all departures had to occur from the same point as arrival, meaning if you traveled by land elsewhere, the airline penalized your mileage allotment.
I said airline there, but ATW tickets come come from a single carrier. Instead, you buy into an alliance, of which I believe there are still only three. Quite the lack of competition there.
ATW fares do lend themselves marvelously to itineraries where you go to a different city each month and make it the base from which you explore the region. This is something we’ll talk about later when we discuss hub-and-spoke travel.
If you have status with a particular airline, you may want to consider their ATW option — emphasis on ‘may’ — but be warned that flying everywhere robs you of some great experiences.
Domestic American air travel is a racket run by three major companies and a few smaller ones who effectively collude on prices to screw passengers and support their bloated executives and corporate structures.
Even regional jets, which are technically independent, are fucking death traps that I literally never, ever fly.
It’s not this way in other countries, because most people are sensible and see transportation as akin to a public utility. It’s therefore common to find flights on foreign carriers for under $100. I frequently see fares less $50.
Booking far in advance is therefore unnecessary, except of course in places where tickets sell out. Avoid the temptation to book months or weeks out if you’re just trying to save money. Not only will doing so lock you into dates you might regret, you may end up paying. Why? Booking sites now sniff for your computer’s location and display higher prices for foreigners.
Rude, right? Blame the mirror. We invented that.
The beauty of hub cities is the slow pace. How slow you take it will vary according to the number of side trips as well as your pace. If you commit to a month though, this introduces the possibility of renting an apartment. Even if you don’t plan to stay the full 30 days, apartment rental is generally very cheap. It can also make cooking easier, which also saves cash.
Cooking for yourself doesn’t have to mean eggs for breakfast and chicken dinners. You can dial up the adventure full throttle if you sign up for a greenmarket food tour and a cooking class right after you arrive. Not only will you know what to do with the local ingredients, you’ll eat better. Plus if you know what you’re doing, the vendors may screw you less, which will offset the price of the guide.
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