Why I'm okay with booking a one-way ticket to Who Knows Where by myself

These past few years I have traveled to a lot of new places. Usually, I don't speak the language. And more often than not, I'm by myself. People tend to assume that these circumstances automatically create a stressful, scary situation. In reality, however, everything usually turns out just fine.

To make sure things go smoothly when I'm arriving in a foreign land, I usually follow a few basic guidelines:

How to get a job at a hostel

 

Option 1: Show up and ask

When I first met Miranda, she was trying to check me into Hostel Casa del Parque in San Jose, Costa Rica. I say “trying” because she was being trained, and had literally started the job an hour earlier (but by hour three she was a pro and had already left me a detailed

Thanks to McDonald’s, you don’t need to pre-plan your accommodation in Europe




As a vegan, I don’t generally find my way into too many McDonald’s. However, in this post I’d like to point out a certain use I found for them on my recent trip backpacking across Europe.

This fall, an Argentinian and I took several long-distance trains in Europe. Each time we were ready to move on to our next destination by rail, we promised ourselves we’d take the day train so we could see the

Managing your Frequent Flyer Miles

Everyone should have a frequent flyer mileage account with every airline they might possibly fly...ever. There are absolutely no excuses! It's completely free to set up an account, and even if you don't foresee yourself flying with a certain airline, you may be able to rack up miles anyway by flying with one of their partner airlines. A few years ago I paid for a rather expensive flight from San Francisco to Johannesburg to

Finding cheap flights

People always complain that they can't travel because airfare is too expensive. But, as long as your plans are somewhat flexible, you should never have to pay much for airfare. The thought of paying over $1,000 for a trans-Atlantic flight makes me cringe - and unless I'm planning to spend several months there, I'd rather go somewhere else and go for free. In Choosing where to go I briefly introduced a few good flight search engines. Some things to note:

Free Accommodation

After airfare, most people feel financially constrained by the cost of accommodation during their travels. This is in fact a an easy problem to get around and there are a plethora of ways to avoid paying for accommodation.

Welcome to Travel Bumming!

I have been travel bumming (read: backpacking, studying, working, living...) around the world for the past few years. Pretty much everywhere I go, people ask me the same question: "How can you afford to travel for so long?" You'll be surprised to learn that it's actually not too complicated.

Choosing where to go

If you’re a travel bum like I am, sometimes you don’t really care exactly where you’re going next. You just can’t wait to go somewhere new, and you know that traveling is always better than not traveling.

But how do you decide exactly where to go? A little research never hurts.