Featured Articles

In a recent post on this blog we talked about the importance of considering travel insurance for a RTW trip, especially travel medical insurance. We talked about a couple of tummy ailments that can end up being serious medical issues if they’re left untreated, and the fact that they’re relatively common when you’re traveling to unfamiliar places makes planning for their eventuality even more important.

But beyond the dreaded “Delhi belly,” there are other common travel disasters that could impact your trip – not to mention the lives of the people in the places you’re visiting – and although it may seem like they’re less likely to happen, it’s never good to be caught without a plan. The news has been full of stories of earthquakes, tsunamis, and tornados in recent years, and you just never know when you’ll be in the wrong place at the wrong time – especially when you’re on a long-term round the world trip.

In some cases, there’s very little you can do to avoid a “travel disaster.” Predicting things like tornados isn’t possible more than a few minutes or maybe hours before they hit, so it’s not like you can alter your travel plans to get out of a storm’s way in that amount of time. What you can do, however, when you’re researching (for instance) where to go in June, is look up when tornado season or hurricane season is for the parts of the world where those are regular issues. Yes, it’s likely that you’ll find more cheap tickets available to the Caribbean during hurricane season, but the fact that anyone visiting the Caribbean at that time of year is at risk of getting caught in a hurricane is the reason those tickets are so cheap. It’s a matter of weighing risks like that and, if possible, taking measures to protect yourself from potential problems.

As mentioned before, getting travel medical insurance is a good way to make sure you’ll be able to get the medical help you need if you’re hurt while you’re traveling (either as a result of a natural disaster or some extreme sport you’re trying for the first time), but there are other types of travel insurance that you may want to look into as well. Trip Protection insurance will help you get your money back on non-refundable travel purchases (such as a tour that’s cancelled due to a strike), and there are also insurance policies that will help you get reimbursed if your luggage is lost or stolen.

Planning for the worst isn’t nearly as fun as expecting the best when you’re thinking about a RTW trip, but it’s far better than assuming everything will be fine and then getting caught with your proverbial pants down.

photo by taigasylvan

Tags: travel health, travel insurance
Posted in Featured | No Comments »

Travel Insurance: An Important Component of Trip Planning

With almost any task, there are fun parts and tedious parts – and that goes for planning a RTW trip, too. The fun parts include planning a route (it’s easy to see why this is one of the most popular topics on RTW forums) and getting new gear. Perhaps the most un-fun part of trip planning is making contingency plans for all those “what if” scenarios.

Of course, it’s decidedly more un-fun if something bad were to happen and you weren’t prepared.

You may have family members who are terrified at the idea that you might break a leg while scaling a mountain or get mugged at knifepoint by bandits. These things can happen when you get out into the world, but these kinds of things are far less common than the simple illnesses that are bound to come up. Just as you’re unfamiliar with your surroundings, your body is unfamiliar with whatever’s in the local water and food. Ailments are often referred to with names like Delhi or Bali Belly or Montezuma’s Revenge, but they boil down to the same kinds of gastro-intestinal issues – diarrhea, vomiting, etc.

Generally speaking, these are things that qualify as annoyances that will slow you down for a few days but won’t be life-threatening – unless you don’t take care of yourself. It’s very easy to get dehydrated on top of whatever stomach ailment you’re suffering with, and from there it’s easy to end up in a situation where you need to get to a hospital for fluids.

You might be thinking that if the worst you’ll deal with is the potential to spend a few days curled up in bed eating plain rice or pasta and recovering from your tummy troubles then do you really need travel insurance? If you could be guaranteed that Bali Belly was the worst you’d suffer through, then perhaps travel insurance wouldn’t be necessary – but of course there aren’t any guarantees, so getting travel insurance is a very good idea.

There are many types of travel insurance, but the main ones that RTW travelers tend to focus on are travel medical insurance and (depending on the type of activities you’re planning to engage in) things like emergency evacuation or accidental death insurance. The good news is that these types of insurance are far cheaper than you might think, and they offer peace of mind – not to mention critical assistance if something terrible happens. It might be the least glamorous part of trip planning, but don’t put it off – get a travel insurance quote today.

photo by nicocrisafulli

Tags: travel health, travel insurance
Posted in Featured | No Comments »

Last Minute Travel Gift Ideas to the Rescue

With only a few days left until Christmas, anyone left with shopping to do is likely looking for easy and quick gift options. If you’ve got a traveler on your list, that’s actually not as hard as you might think – and you don’t even have to buy them cheap airline tickets, either.

>> Did you see our article about gifts for RTW travelers already?

These last minute gift ideas for travelers are both good ideas in and of themselves and also good jumping-off points for other potentially great travel gift ideas. For instance, perhaps it’s not a magazine subscription the traveler you know wants, but maybe there’s a travel e-book out there that would be the perfect gift. You’re one click away from getting a great gift, and you don’t even have to wrap it. The same goes for things like new books or music if the traveler on your list already has an iPod or a Kindle. All it takes is a gift card to iTunes or Amazon for your traveler to stock up on exactly what they want, without you worrying about whether you got the right CD.

New gear is always appreciated, especially when it’s a gift, but gear can be a very personal decision. If you know the traveler on your gift list well, then you might be able to pick out the right bag or piece of equipment – but keep the receipts just in case. There are great gifts for the techie traveler, gift ideas for the backpacker,

Although most frequent travelers are always learning more about how to travel lightly, only the most die-hard (or crazy) souls travel with no luggage – so here are some ideas for the best carry-on bags out there that don’t cost a fortune.

What are your favorite gift ideas for travelers? As a traveler, what’s your favorite gift to receive?

photo by Karen Apricot New Orleans

Tags: travel gifts
Posted in Featured | No Comments »

Fitness & Health on a RTW Trip

For many people, going on vacation is an excuse to indulge more than they do at home – and this is especially true in the categories of eating too much and not exercising. Dieting and working out, after all, are things that all but the die-hards think shouldn’t follow you on a break from your normal routine, right?

Well, if you’re traveling long-term, you can’t exactly abandon the idea of watching what you eat or working out entirely, or pretty soon you won’t fit into the clothes you’ve brought with you. Sure, you’re likely to be more active on a long trip than you would be if you were at home sitting in a cubicle all day, but it’s still a good idea to keep your health in mind when you’re making travel plans so you can make sure you’re spending most of your travel time traveling and not recovering from the latest sickness.

There are many schools of thought when it comes to how to stay fit on the road, and one of the biggest dilemmas to start out with is finding a way to work out and eat right that suits you. At first blush, you’d think that keeping up a jogging regimen would be the easiest way to get exercise, considering you can run anywhere and you don’t need special weights or equipment. But running while traveling isn’t as easy as you’d think, because not everyone totes proper running shoes with them on long trips. It’s important to consider whether you can maintain a running program while you’re traveling before you assume that will be the best option.

Whatever you decide upon for your exercise plan, the other component of staying healthy is watching what you eat. To a certain extent, people who work out regularly do so in order to eat what they like without repercussions – but if you’re more concerned about your diet then you won’t be content to just eat what the locals are eating without asking questions. If this describes you, then coming up with a traveling fitness and meal plan before you leave home (and then sticking to it) will be important parts of your trip planning process.

What are your best tips for staying fit and healthy while traveling long-term?

photo by AlphaTangoBravo/Adam Baker

Tags: diet, exercise
Posted in Featured | 1 Comment »

Gift-Giving for RTW Travelers Made Easy

As we’re going into Thanksgiving weekend in the United States, we’re also going into the time when most people start thinking about doing their holiday shopping. Of course, many stores have been trying to get us to part with money for a few weeks, but in the U.S. anyway they’ll be starting their full-court press as of Black Friday.

Holiday shopping can be challenging enough, but if you’ve got a RTW traveler on your gift list it can be even more difficult. Most people planning a round-the-world trip are actively trying to get rid of “stuff,” so the last thing they want is yet another item gift-wrapped under the tree with their name on it. But every long-term traveler has things they could likely use for their upcoming trip.

Whether you’re the traveler who’s trying to keep from accumulating more “stuff” while still getting much-needed items for your trip, or you’re the gift-giver struggling to find the perfect present for a traveler without contributing to their pre-trip woes, we have some ideas for you.

• These gift ideas for RTW travelers include several things that long-term travelers may need for their trip, in several price ranges. The traveler on your list may not need everything on this list, and you may want to ask them before you buy anything, but this is a good place to start (and may give you some ideas for other gifts not on this list, too).
• Looking for something small? There are lots of options for travel gear stocking stuffers that travelers love and that won’t take up much room in a backpack (or remove much money from your bank account).
• And if the traveler on your list has everything they need for their trip, there’s still something you can gift-wrap (sort of) – travelers with iPhones or iPod Touches will certainly love an iTunes gift card so they can easily get a few iPhone apps for travelers or load up their playlists with some new songs before their trip.

photo by Mobile Edge Laptop Cases

Tags: travel gifts
Posted in Featured | No Comments »