Tips

My ideas for happy travels

I am no expert traveler.

Sure, I’ve done my share of traveling. I’ve taken tours, I’ve traveled independently, and I’ve traveled with friends and family. I’ve made mistakes and learned from my mistakes. So I suppose that qualifies me to offer advice.

But I am clear that there’s no one right way to travel. What has worked for me might not work for you. There are a lot of places people rave about that failed to impress me. When I post tips on travel forums, I’ve sometimes been contradicted; sometimes my knowledge of the subject has been called into question.

None of this will stop me from offering tips. But take them with a grain of salt.

  • Guidebooks

    Picking the right guidebook is always a challenge. On the one hand, any guidebook is going to provide useful information, so you won’t necessarily have a better or worse vacation by picking one guidebook over another. But some guidebooks provide advice and recommendations that fit a particular traveler’s interests, budget, and time constraints; others are more…

  • Anxiety

    I’m feeling anxious. I’ve had generalized anxiety before, nothing severe, but I’m feeling specifically anxious about this trip. I’ve got a nervous feeling in my gut and I’m not sleeping well, waking up in the middle of the night or much too early in the morning. I’m not sure what I’m anxious about, though there…

  • Planapple

    With just a few weeks until my Beltherway trip, I am spending a lot of time trying to get organized. That involves not just making final itinerary plans, but also making a checklist for packing and pre-trip preparations — things like remembering to stop mail delivery, turn down the heat, and notify my credit card…

  • As long as I’m there…

    When you travel a long way to see wonderful things, there is a natural impulse to squeeze in as many destinations and activities and great sites as possible. After all, you might not ever get back, and you’re so close, how can you not go to _______? I can definitely relate. Whenever I plan an…

  • Itinerary Advice

    I don’t think I’ve ever planned a trip without someone, either on a forum or in real life, suggesting alternatives to my itinerary. When I went to the Balkans, I heard from people who said I needed more time in Dubrovnik and others who said I needed less time in Dubrovnik. And no where did…

  • Sleeping in a pod

    I am now an expert on sleeping in a pod. For my trip to Istanbul, there is a direct flight from Mexico City departing at 10:05. I had to book a separate flight between Guadalajara and MEX, and the earliest flights in the morning were too tight for making my connection. So I flew here last…

  • 20 Top Topics for European Travel

    Are you going to Europe for the first time? Or maybe thinking about your first independent trip after a few tours? If so, here are some great European travel tips based on the Twenty Top Topics I’ve seen people ask about on travel forums, plus stuff I’ve learned based on personal experience.  Maybe you’re going…

  • My favorite “other” museums

    There is a long list of great museums (The Louvre, the Prado, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Rijksmuseum, the British Museum, the Vatican Museum, the Hermitage, and the Smithsonian, to name a few) that travelers, and even most non-travelers, know about. Many are destinations in and of themselves, reasons to visit the city where…