Woodstock Hostel (Paris, France) - Patrick T Power (flickr)

In some travel destinations, hostel choice isn’t a big deal. All you really need is a bed in a safe and convenient location, as you’ll be spending 99% of your time elsewhere.

However, in other destinations where the allure is the small local area itself, hostel choice can become very important. Consider the quaint fishing village that has grown into a travelers haven of cheap eats, beachside bars, and epic surfing. In this type of location you are much more likely to spend a large part of your time in or near the hostel, and consequentially should take the time to pick out a place that best meets your needs.

1. Beware the Salesman: Not always a concern, but most of us have seen it before. You take one step into town and all of the sudden you’ve got 1 or more hostel owners/workers swarming you with offers to take you to their hostel. In my experience, these folks often have very nice hostels, and despite their pushy sales tactics you may be very interested in their product (the hostel). However, DO NOT commit to their establishment simply because they were the first to “catch” you. There are surely many other nice hostels around town, which is why these are willing to spend their time trying to sell you on their local, before you have a chance to see the competition.

2. Use a recommendation or guidebook: Some people don’t like using guidebooks or recommendations from other travelers while on the road. They feel it takes the adventure out of travel. However, if you are like me, and don’t share this particular sentiment, there really is no better way to choose a hostel than to ask other travelers for recommendations, and see what the guidebooks have to say. These resources understand what the traveler wants, and can give you immediate access to all the information you may need in choosing a hostel.

3. View the Room: Westeners are often accustomed to choosing hotel accommodations by brand. You basically know what to expect when you rent a room at the Hilton or Marriott, and rarely feel inclined to see the room before purchase. Not the case in an individually owned hostel. Always ask to see the room before you commit to anything. Foreign language vocabulary for this type of task is very easy, so don’t be afraid to ask.

4. Split up: If you are traveling with a friend or group of friends, a great strategy for checking out a few different hostels in a short period of time is to split up. Decide on what aspects of hostel accommodation are most important to you, split up for 15-20 minutes, then meet back at a local cafe to discuss the options.

5. Don’t feel obligated: Travelers often feel bad about passing on a hostel. It’s a difficult situation, as you have to ask to see the room ahead of time, forcing hostel workers to take you around the place, then often feel too awkward to say “no” if it’s not what you’re looking for. For some people it’s not an issue, however others feel bad about turning down friendly hostel workers, as if it insinuates they are “too good” for the establishment. My recommendation is just don’t worry about it. Everyday travelers view these hostels, some say yes, others say no. There is no reason to feel bad about looking for something that better meets your needs. Saying “no, thank you” to locals is also a necessary skill for a traveler, and one that gets much easier over time.

6. Look for other people: The traveler grapevine is a powerful force that should not be underestimated. If you see a hostel buzzing with people, odds are that it’s a great place to stay. Obviously, you may want to be weary if there are too many people around, but in general hostels are just like restaurants. The best one’s fill up first.

7. Never settle on the first spot: You’ve just gotten off a 16 hour train ride, and arrived at that perfect little beach town where the bodies are tan, the waves are always perfect, and the rum flows like water. It’s a common but understandable error to just throw your things into the first hostel you find. IHowever, if you get right down to business, hostel searching should not take more than 20-30 minutes, so don’t ignore this step. Walk around town, check out the options, and make an informed decision. You’ll surely be thankful for the time you spent when you find that little gem with perfect sunset views and hammocks strewn across the sand.

8. Don’t forget the common areas: A tip that I often forget about myself. For many travelers, a big part of the travel experience is meeting and hanging out with other travelers. Don’t forget to view the common areas of the hostel where you will likely spend a decent portion of time sipping on beers and/or coffee with fellow travelers. Rooms are often basic, and offer little more than a bed, so the common areas can really make or break a place.

9. One night at a time: If at all possible, I try to only commit to one night at a time. This is a judgment call that you will need to make on the spot, and should always be weary of a place selling out. However, if it does not look like your hostel is likely to sell out it’s rooms for the following night, only commit to one night. If you like the hostel, you can extend your stay the next day, however if something unexpected happens and your hostel isn’t as great as your first impression, or you want to try something new, you can just move on to something else the next day.

Where the heck’s Rob been? Sorry guys, I haven’t made a post to the blog in almost a week now. I’ve been doing some work in very rural coastal Ecuador for the past 5 days, and was mislead as to what my internet capabilities would be in the area. Apparently “sure you can connect there” actually means “No, that community doesn’t even have telephone service”… But as any seasoned traveler knows “asi es la vida”, so I’m just rolling with the punches and getting back up-to-date with the blog.

Regarding the $500 Travel Getaways Contest, I have just started to get a few submissions which will be posted to the site by early next week. I hope these are just the first of many submissions to the contest, so if you haven’t already thought about making an entry please consider it. It’s an opportunity to win $500 USD, get a link to your site/blog, and share your travel expertise with the rest of the travel community. A win-win situation for all involved.

Last of all, I’d like to share a couple funny photos that I have been looking for an excuse to post to the blog. Both were found via other blogs, and do a good job reminding us the funnier lighter side of travel.

Tightest Jeans in the World - Found via Mike at Vagabondish.com. Click on the photo for an enlarged view that does it more justice…

Sounds Tasty in Eng(r)ish - Look at the second to last dish, found via Travelhappy.info. Click on the photo for an enlarged view.

Shira Golding (flickr)

Yesterday I was looking through the NY Times’ online Travel Section, and ran across a feature article entitled “An Air Travel Activist is Born”. The article is about a middle-aged women named Kate Hanni, who was stranded aboard an American Airlines flight, on December 29, 2006, for 3+ hours. Apparently there was some confusion amidst American Airlines and the flight was not cleared for take-off. Instead of letting the passengers off the aircraft, they were forced to stay in their seats for over 3 hours (as is airline policy).

The article the continues on to tell how this event lit a fire under Kate Hanni, who supposedly “had never even written a letter of complaint in her life” (NY Times). She compared the entire ordeal to “imprisonment” and went on to form an activist group to promote airline customer rights (Flyers Rights.com).

My Thoughts:

While I applaud Ms. Hanni’s pro-activism in the matter, and the fact that she is getting out and fighting for what she believes in, I have to question the perspective of the group. The NY Times article provided statistics that roughly 1200 flights have been delayed for 3+ hours from January-July (2007). There are an average of 28,537 commercial flights per day (2005) which would come to roughly 5,992,700 flights from January-June 2007 (a low estimate, as flights have increased since 2005). From these numbers we can conclude that about 0.02% of all US flights over this period (January-July 2007) have experienced 3+ hour delays.

Again, I don’t want to condemn Ms. Hanni for fighting for what she believes in, but I do wonder if this cause is really worth all the time and effort she and her supporters are putting into it. We all know there are thousands of pressing issues facing humanity both internationally and at home. Global warming, genocide, HIV/AIDS, abysmal human rights practices, and poverty to name a few. It’s also no secret that for pretty much all of human history we have tended to ignore the plights and struggles of others, as well as the long-term threats facing humanity. In general we as humans are more interested in tending to our own short-term affairs than taking on global issues in the name of others or even ourselves.

However, Ms. Hanni and her group are NOT guilty of this affliction to indifference. They are not out in search of personal gain, money, or fame. The NY Times article even states that:

“Ms Hanni, 47, essentially put her life on hold to take on the airlines, leaning on her husband to earn more and spend more time looking after their children so she could battle the lobbying might of the airlines”

This kind of devotion is truly commendable, but in my opinion the cause is not worth a fraction of the effort they are putting into it. I remember hearing it all through school, “fight for what you believe in”. But in today’s world, all activism is not equal. Our neighbors around the globe are dying everyday, environmental degradation has the potential to completely transform the world we live in, however Flyers Rights and so many other organizations like them are working day and night so that the average American doesn’t have to worry about the minute chance they will be stuck on a plane for an extra 3 hours.

I can only hope that SOMEDAY these will be the most pressing concerns facing humanity, but for now I think it’s important to put activism in a global perspective, and encourage tireless champions like Kate Hanni to collaborate their efforts on arguably higher priority initiatives.

When I visit a new travel destination on a short-term trip, I like to be prepared. If I’m traveling for an extended period of time I don’t mind, and actually enjoy, the adventure of figuring things out on my own. However, for short-term travels it is much more practical to have some kind of a plan ahead of time so you don’t end up wasting precious time.

To accomplish this task of preparing for a travel destination before arrival, many travelers use guidebooks. However, the problem with guidebooks is that they are always out of date, they are the opinion of just one or two writers, and are read by millions of travelers (meaning everyone visits that quiet, pristine beach, and it’s no longer quiet nor pristine).

I’m not saying I’m too good for the guidebook, because I’m not. In fact I use guidebooks pretty consistently during my travels for advice on transportation, hostels, and restaurants. However, for the big planning decisions, like where to spend most of my time, what’s overrated, what’s truly off the beaten track, etc. I find it much more valuable to talk to actual human-beings that have a lot of recent experience traveling through the areas I’m interested in. While guidebooks have to be written with one travel audience in mind, a human can respond to questions and tailor their advice to your personal travel style and preferences.

It’s usually quite easy to find an experienced traveler willing to share her expertise when you arrive in country. But that means you lose precious days wandering around trying to get advice. So, how do you find reliable tips and advice before you even get on the plane, train, or bus?

Finding Travel Experts:

When looking for destination-specific travel advice before I arrive in-country, there are basically 3 places I look:

1. Online forums: I’ve talked about them before, and I’ll mention them again here. Online forums are my favorite places to start looking for destination-specific advice. Post a couple questions in the morning (general, specific, or somewhere in between) and usually you’ll have at least a couple of responses by dinner time.

The big problem with online forums is it’s hard to tell who actually knows what they’re talking about, and who just wants to hear themselves speak. That’s why I use online forums as a starting point. The information is often VERY helpful in beginning your planning, but don’t take it as undisputed fact.

Popular Forums:

• Lonely Planet’s “Thorntree” forum
• BootsnAll online forums
• Tripadvisor

2. Tour operators, hotels, restaurants: Basically any destination-specific business or company that targets travelers as their clients. This is one of my favorite resources because they pretty much have to talk to you! Usually what I’ll do is call up a tour operator or hotel in the destination I am interested in visiting, start with a question about their services, prices, whatever, then try to go off on a tangent about the things I’m really interested in.

For example, last year I organized a trip to Machu Picchu, so I called up a well-known hotel in Cusco, Peru and asked a simple question about their room prices. After the receptionist finished quoting prices, I got her off the topic of hotels and was able to pick her brain on a variety of other activities available in the area. She told me what was popular, what was overrated, what was less well-known, and even emailed me a number of online brochures which proved very valuable in planning my trip.

The downsides to this option are first of all that you have to be weary of salesmen and women talking things up in an attempt to sell you on their services. Usually it’s very obvious when this is happening, but not always. The second downside is that most people you talk to are locals not travelers. As locals their personal preferences and recommendations are not always inline with the desires of an international traveler.

3. Hospitality exchanges: My last tip is one that I’ve just recently begun to take advantage of. When people think of a hospitality exchange they usually only consider the in-country benefits. Having a friend and place to stay when you arrive in-country. However, hospitality exchange networks also offer an incredible collection of travel minds that are available to pick even before you arrive in-country. There are members all across the globe from developed countries like France or Germany to lesser-known and often forgotten countries like Uzbekistan and Myanmar.

Every user in a hospitality network is a member because they are interested in meeting fellow travelers, so all you have to do is sign-in, and contact someone already living or traveling in the destination you are interested in. They are usually more than willing to help you out with loads of tips and advice (afterall that’s why they joined the network), and their advice is usually very reliable. They know the area well, as they live there, but they’re also international travelers themselves, who understand the lifestyle and can work with you to develop the best itinerary to meet your travel interests.

.Zickie. (flickr)

The $500 Getaway Contest is a contest I have decided to put together as a way to share regional travel expertise among all members of the traveling community.

Unfortunately, most people have to balance their passion for travel with other responsibilities like work and family life. This means that extended long-term travel just isn’t much of an option, and that they must make due with the 2-4 weeks of vacation they are allotted each year to appease the voracious “travel bug”.

That is why I have decided to put together this contest, as a way for experts around the globe to share their destination specific knowledge with short-term travelers looking for interesting and inexpensive, short-term getaways.

Prize:

The winner of the contest will be awarded $500 USD, in the hopes they will use that money to take advantage of one of the $500 Getaways (however it is up to them what they actually use the money for.

Payment will be made through Paypal.com

Other benefits:

Aside from the $500 prize to the eventual winner, this contest is a good opportunity for travel bloggers, tour operators, and other travel enthusiasts to show off their favorite corners of the globe. Related links to personal blogs and websites are encouraged, and will likely yield high amounts of traffic.

Upon completion of the contest, all travelers will have an extensive list of exciting and inexpensive “getaways” that they can reference to plan upcoming vacations and world trips.

How to Enter:

A contest entry involves writing up a short description of an interesting “getaway” to anywhere in the world that costs under $500 (NOT including airfare). The getaway must be for a minimum of 5 days, and cannot include any inappropriate, illegal, or unethical activities (I’m talking about really bad stuff. Gambling, cock-fights, etc. are fine with me).

The description must include the following (Example Submission):

1. Original Title
2. Destination
3. Time
4. Cost not including airfare (must be under $500 USD)
5. Total cost including sample airfare from New York, Miami, Los Angeles, London, Sydney (please use dates from June 2008 for sample airfares)
6. Short Description (max. 100 words)
7. Daily Itinerary (including cost break-down for each day)
8. Any extra or important information you want to include.
9. Optional but recommended: 1 original or properly referenced photo related to the “getaway”.
10. Optional but recommended: Links to any related content on the web. These can be back to your site or blog, or anywhere else related to the “getaway”.

***Please send all contest entries to GoBudgetTravelGetaways@gmail.com

Important Submission Information

• Format should follow as closely as possible to this sample entry: Ecuador Budget Travel: Andean Peaks
• If possible, please follow the html format given below the sample page: Ecuador Budget Travel: Andean Peaks
• If you are unfamiliar or confused by this html format, please just send the necessary information in the body of your entry email, with photos included as an attachment (please note that this will delay posting of your entry, as I will need to format it personally in html).
• By entering in this contest you are giving all content rights to GoBudgetTravel.com, and guarantee that submitted content is not and never will be duplicated online or in print format.

How to win:

Once your entry has been received I will post it to GoBudgetTravel.com on the page $500 Getaways.

From that point on, visitors to the site will be able to vote for their favorite “getaways”. The entry that accrues the most votes by October 31 at 5pm EDT will win the contest.

In the event of a tie, top entries will be entered into a drawing, and the ultimate winner will be chosen at random.

This contest will last a little under 6 weeks, so there is plenty of time to get your submissions entered. However, due to the nature of the contest, the first submissions will have the longest period of time to accrue votes giving them a better chance of winning. So, don’t wait too long before submitting.

Zen Rock Garden in Portland, Oregon: orclimber (flickr)

All to often in life we find ourselves rushing to meet deadlines, forgetting the now to consider the future. It’s almost an inevitability in our society that we live in this way.

But what about travel? Time on the road is what you make of it. If you want to rush around the globe, and never hear a word in between, so be it.

However, for most of us this is not the way, so it’s important to recognize that travel can be a time to consider the things that really matter in life.

A time to learn about yourself, and about others. A time to truly open up to your surroundings without bias or opinion, and absorb.

You may not be able to do it at home, that’s reality; but you can consider it on the road, that’s life.

Proverbs from:

• OneProverb.net
• The Quote Garden

Flickr: lotusutol

One of the best and most rewarding things you can do for yourself as a lifetime traveler, is build a travelers network. A travelers network is nothing more than a network of traveling friends around the world that you have met during your own travels, during their travels, in the supermarket, anywhere! People that you get along with well, and that have similar travel interests and goals as you.

Why Build a Network?

To be honest, you will probably never see the majority of the people in your travelers network ever again. Of the dozens of friends I have met on the road and still keep in touch with today, I have probably only seen about 15 of them again. However, it has proved quite valuable having so many friends and contacts around the world. As a world traveler you never know where you might be 10, 20, 50 years down the road. If I decide to retire in Fiji 50 years from today, it’s nice to know that a good friend I met in the Caribbean 5 years ago lives on Fiji. Assuming he’s still around 50 years from now, I’ll already have at least one friend to show me around, help me get settled in, and have a drink with. Some other benefits of maintaining a strong network of travel buddies around the world are:

• A place to stay: Having a place to stay all around the world is truly invaluable. It saves you money, it’s more fun, it gets you away from tourist traps, and gives you a head start on understanding what it’s like to live as a local.
• “Insider” tips on what to do: Nobody knows a travel destination better than someone that actually lives there. What sites are actually worth seeing, what’s the best time to go, where can you find the most authentic food, the best bars/clubs, the cutest girls or guys, etc. Guidebooks are okay, but locals are great!
• A guarantee: Having a friend that you know you get along with in a new travel destination, is like having a guarantee for a good time. You never know what’s going to happen when you arrive in a new travel destination, but with a good friend waiting for you, at least you know you’ll have fun with them!
• An “in” to making new friends: Each traveling buddy in your network is also a key into their whole lifestyle. You become accepted into their group of friends, and have the opportunity to experience life as a local.
• Safety and security: As a traveler it is always important to be mindful of safety. However, this can be quite difficult in a new city or town, where you don’t know the layout, and can easily find yourself in a dangerous situation. In this case a local friend can be extremely valuable by just watching out for you, and making sure you don’t do anything stupid or dangerous because you don’t know any better.

Building a Travelers Network:

Building a travelers network does take time, but just take it slow and remember that every new traveler you meet can be a friend for life.

There are basically two different ways to meet fellow travelers.

1. While you’re on the road:

• Spend time in bars, cafes, hostels, sites, etc. that are popular with travelers: Meeting fellow travelers on the road is not a difficult task by any means. Just spend some time where fellow travelers hang out, and make friends. In general, travelers are a very open and friendly bunch that will befriend virtually anyone with a pulse. So take advantage, find some people with similar interests, and have fun!
• Contact information: Making friends is the easy part. The hard part (which is not all that hard) is to remember to get contact information for people you enjoy hanging out and traveling with. Just an email address and city are plenty, but you have to remember to ask, write it down, and don’t lose it!

2. Back home:

• Stay in touch: This is probably the point people have the hardest time with. For some reason most of us are pretty bad at staying in touch, especially with someone that lives halfway around the world. My recommendation is to just do the best you can, and don’t try to over do it. While I have a few friends I keep in touch with on a weekly basis, the majority of the travelers in my travelers network only hear from me a couple times/year. Most of the time that’s enough to remember one another, and get caught up on each other’s lives. We’re all busy and nobody has time to write daily emails to every person they’ve ever met on the road. Just making the effort is enough, and when one of you is in town you can take the time to really catch up again.
• Host travelers: Between trips, a fantastic way to meet new travels is by hosting them in your home. There are a number of online hospitality networks available that connect travelers with locals willing to host them in their spare bedrooms, couches, floor, whatever! Click here for more information on hospitality networks and how to get involved as either a host, traveler, or both.
• Be mindful of foreigners: As locals we’re often perfectly happy ignoring tourists and travelers passing through our hometowns. However, as a fellow traveler, it’s often worth making a small effort to get to know a few tourists passing through your neck of the woods. They may be completely obnoxious, in which case you can just end the conversation with an excuse and continue on your way. But you may also find that many others are quite interesting and fun to spend time with.

Other Video Posts

• Travel Tip - Drying Fruit

The other day I eived an email from Markus at “In a Van Down by the River”. That’s right, the name of his blog is “In a Van Down by the River”. The blog is about Markus and his girlfriend Angela’s upcoming trip around the continental US in a custom van. Currently they are just looking for a van, which they will then convert into some kind of living quarters, and drive it around the continental US, to really see America, one roadside diner at a time.

As I looked over their site, which is still very new, I was struck by the beautiful simplicity of the idea. It isn’t even an original idea, people have been cruising the US in camper vans and VW mini-buses for decades. However, for most of us, the idea never becomes a reality.

Practicalities

I have long wanted to take a multi-week roadtrip across America. The problem is that when you add up fuel costs, food, and the real kicker - accommodations, a trip across the US can cost a small fortune. Hotel accommodations can easily cost $100 a night, so over a short 3 week trip, you’ll find yourself spending over $2000 on just hotels.

This is where the beauty of the van comes into play. With your own van, customized with a bed you can completely cut out hotel costs. Throw in some electrical cooking appliances, a TV, and your laptop, and your van can function as a bedroom, kitchen, living room, and office.

If you don’t actually have a van, as most of us don’t, you simply do what Markus and Angela are doing, buy one! Why not? You buy a cheap van, put 10,000-20,000 miles on it, depending on the length of the trip, get the oil changed a few times, and you can turn around and sell it after the trip. According to Kelly Blue Book, the van won’t depreciate by more than a few hundred dollars (assuming it’s already a few years old). Below I have charted the Kelly Blue Book reduction of value for one “van” option: a 1998 Toyota Sienna (one of the more reliable mini-vans on the market), starting at 90,000 miles:

1998 Toyota Sienna

Miles	Value	Depreciation from 90,000mi
90,000	$4,635
95,000	$4,535	-$100
100,000	$4,310	-$325
110,000	$4,110	-$525

In this example, the vehicle will only lose $525 in value after adding 20,000 miles. Please note that the Toyota Sienna is just an example. You certainly don’t need to take the “soccer mom” approach to touring America if you don’t want to. An SUV, full-size van, truck, or even retro VW bus would all work, and have similar depreciation trends for sales after the journey.

You still have to consider fuel costs and food, but if you move slowly, and cook a lot of your own food from the van, these don’t have to be much more than your average daily cost of living. Overall, I think Markus and Angela have a great idea here. They are going to see more of America than most US citizens do in a lifetime, have an adventure they will remember for a lifetime, and do it all for a very low final cost.

Related Posts

• Kerouac 2000: Roadtrip USA on a Budget

Long-term work or volunteer work in developing countries is an opportunity most people overlook. Obviously, it’s probably not much of an option for folks who have already settled down and committed to a career path. However, for the rest of us, recent college grads or anyone contemplating a career change, it really is an underrated opportunity to pick-up some incredible work experience.

My Story:

As some of you have already come to know, I have been working with an Ecuadorian NGO for the past 2.5 years. Right out of the gate I was put in charge of a project that works with over 300 impoverished Ecuadorian families. I had a team of 30 foreign volunteers working for me, and inherited about a million problems that needed to be fixed. The long-term goal of the project was to transform it from a simple daycare service, to an organized and effective supplementary school program. Not to mention, I had to accomplish all of this in Spanish.

Overall, it has been a lot of work, but the experience I have gained proves itself invaluable every single day. No sane company or organization would have ever entrusted me with 1% of the responsibility I have been given in Ecuador. I have certainly made mistakes along the way, but overall I have learned more in these two short years than I did over 16 years of formal schooling.

Endless Opportunities:

My experience here in Ecuador is not at all uncommon. There are literally thousands of jobs available with grassroots development agencies all over the developing world. The majority of these agencies are under-funded and work under harsh environments. The pay is minimal to non-existent. But if you have a year or two (or more) you would be willing to devote, the work experience you will gain is incomparable to any entry-level position available in a developed country.

The opportunities themselves are also extremely varied. You can find positions in everything from social/educational work, to health related fields, to agriculture, to business and technology. If you’re in search of solid practical work experience, and a way to really beef up your resume and make a small difference at the same time, I highly recommend considering long-term development work abroad.