Category: Travel

First rule of modern society: people are not nearly as perfect as their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles suggest.  Whenever we look at someone’s life through the #nofilter lens (we all use it), we see a whitewashed version of life free from any challenge, difficulty, or roadblock. When I post pictures of traveling the world online, I leave out the unpleasant parts, but I decided for this post I wouldn’t spare my readers from some of the more graphic details of the tough times I’ve been through so far in my travels around the world. Hopefully these stories below give you realistic expectations if you’re thinking of going off on global trip that it won’t all be sunshine as well as make you laugh a bit so you can get through the week.  Continue reading “The Funny, Crappy Stuff that Happens When You’re Traveling the World”

People are typically stunned when I tell them that I got my one way plane tickets to Europe for $300 total, and they were actually two separate tickets, the first to Iceland and the second to Norway. If you go the easy route and type in Point A to Point B on Kayak.com (I shudder to think if you’re typing that in on AmericanAirlines.com) you will probably pay way more than is really necessary to get to your destination. I don’t have any amazing tricks to get cheap flights to Latin America and Europe because I don’t use gimmicks, I use strategies that you can apply each time you look for a trip. Continue reading “How to Get Cheap Flights to Latin America and Europe”

 

My motto while I have been in Iceland has been “don’t fall for tourist traps, and explore everything around you.” My best source of information has been talking to random people in the street. If you follow that one piece of advice you will have an incredible time.  Here’s the list of what I’ve done to give you some ideas for stuff to do in Reykjavik on your own trip to Iceland Continue reading “Top 10 Low or No Cost Stuff To Do in Reykjavik, Iceland”

See all that food? It’s absolutely free for the taking in one of the most expensive cities in the world, Reykjavik, Iceland. While I was walking around the city yesterday I made a habit of checking out the different menus around the city, and the typical cost looks to be around $15 for lunch and $20 for dinner. Since my unofficial budget for food is $10-$15 a day (I actually don’t keep one. I just try to be frugal all the time), if I were to eat out for three meals a day I’d be spending my daily budget goal of $50 a day in food alone. I discovered how you can eat free food at Reykjavik hostels and still get a decent meal.

Continue reading “How to Get Free Food at Reykjavik Hostels”

The first stop on my European adventure is the tiny island nation of Iceland, home to about the same population as the state of Wyoming at 400,000 souls. The country turned into a major chess piece on the global stage during World War II when the British took over the island and built Reykjavik airport, which is used primarily for domestic flights. Since the Americans always like to build bigger than our cousins across the pond, we built Keflavik airport, the largest in Iceland and the one you will be flying into on almost any international flight. There’s only one problem, the airport is about 30 miles away from the capital. In a city The Economist magazine called the richest on Earth, how do you get from Keflavik airport to Reykjavik cheap?

Continue reading “How to Get from Keflavik airport to Reykjavik Cheap”

You know what’s ridiculous? Only being able to take two or three weeks of vacation a year. Now that I’m “retired,” I decided to buy a one-way ticket to Europe a few months back and I’m leaving in a couple days. I want to show you how you can get to Europe even if you’re working in a low wage job right now. To prove that you can do it, let’s look at what I’m bringing to Europe and how I’m getting there.

First: The Gear (aka Back Care)

The total weight of my pack is 11.6 lbs. When I wear my rain jacket as I plan on doing at the airport it comes in at 10.6 lbs, right under the 11 lb threshold for the airline I’m flying on which charges hefty fees for going over that amount (more on that later). I was really influenced by Life Reengineered and Tynan on the virtues of traveling light on foreign trips. I’ve been to Mexico, Peru, South Africa, The Middle East, and Europe before and each time I had way too much stuff. I found I was wearing certain clothes at least 80% of the time and that I’d only put on alternate outfits to avoid doing laundry.  I carried a 30 lb pack on a 100 mile backpacking trip once, and I swore I would never bring more than I needed on a trip ever again. 

Continue reading “What I’m Bringing to Europe and How I’m Getting There”