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Archive for the ‘RTW Travel’ Category
Archive for the ‘RTW Travel’ Category
« Older EntriesAsus Eee PC - This might be the ultimate traveling laptop at the moment
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Over the past 5 or 10 years, one of the most contentious debates for RTW travelers is whether they should bring a laptop computer with them or not. Many people, including me on my RTW trip, do use the hell out of them while traveling, but even if you use them a lot there are many obvious downsides. They are expensive, heavy, bigger than you’d like, and quite fragile as well.
Starting in late 2007, Asus came out with their famous Eee PC 700 model, with a 7-inch screen, starting at US$399. On May 12, 2008, they are rumored to be coming out with the new 900 model, with an 8.9 inch screen, which has been released in other parts of the world already, so this whole RTW laptop debate might be changing again.
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Stuff you should bring and stuff you should leave home
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
There is a really interesting thread on the RTW section of the BootsnAll travel forums about things you regret bringing and things you regret not bringing. You might even want to read it first if you haven’t already, because this sort of communication is invaluable for those planning their trip now. There are many things that people recommend we bring or don’t bring, because in theory there are good reasons behind the logic. But in practice sometimes things don’t work out the way the theory suggests.
I’d like to weigh in a few of the items mentioned, but my advice isn’t necessarily any better than the advice of those participating in the thread. If you aren’t actively reading the BootsnAll boards and specifically the Around the World and Vagabonding Travel forum, you probably should. (more…)
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Videotaping your RTW trip
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Only a few years ago the idea of bringing a video camera on your RTW trip would have been unthinkable unless you had a great passion for travel videos or you were that goofy dancing guy (AKA where the hell is Matt) on those sponsored trips. There were a few major reasons why this wasn’t a good idea, largely having to do with the cost of a decent camera, the size of the thing, and the amount of time it took to recharge the battery.
But now that things are changing technology-wise, it’s not quite as easy to dismiss the idea altogether. First off, the cameras are getting smaller and cheaper, along with everything else having to do with portable electronics. Only a few years ago it would cost US$1,000 for a decent video camera, and of course bringing expensive things on a RTW trip is something to avoid whenever possible. But now that better cameras are half that price the debate has changed a bit, and bringing a video camera in addition to your normal camera isn’t so crazy anymore. (more…)
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Local festivals and events don’t always mix well with RTW travel
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
When you plan your initial RTW route it can be tempting to try to schedule as many famous events and festivals as you can. Certainly a few things like this can and will be unforgettable, but there are also some downsides to trying to be in all the most important places at the absolute peak time while on your RTW.
Let’s say you’ll be going through Spain, France, and Germany, and you’ve always wanted to see the running of the bulls at Pamplona, the Tour de France bicycle race, and Oktoberfest. The first two are in July and Oktoberfest starts in mid September, so it may not be the best example, but the point is that as good as these things sound when you are at home, they can be overwhelming in more than small doses while you are on the road.
By trying to follow the schedule of famous events not only do you take much of the freedom out of your own journey, but you’ll also be spending much of your time moving with massive herds of other people. Worse still, you will be going to places at the absolutely busiest time of their busy season, so finding a hostel or bed might become nearly impossible, and when you find it you’ll have to pay a huge premium in many cases.
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Flights within Europe can be cheap, confusing
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
If you’ve spent much time in Europe in the last 5 years or so this will all be familiar to you, but if not this might be interesting information for your RTW trip, or at least the part that skips through Europe. Last time I wrote about buses being a good money-saving alternative to trains, but in certain cases short flights can be the cheapest transportation method of all.
You are probably aware that Europe has more than its fair share of discount airlines like easyJet and Ryanair. They can have extremely low fares, but there are two things you have to pay close attention to before you consider flying your way around Europe. One is that most of these low fares are only available long in advance, at least for the more convenient flight times on each day.
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Getting around Europe can be cheap
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Europe can be a real budget drainer of a continent, especially if you spend much time in the northern half on your RTW trip. For the most part, the further north in Europe you are the more expensive things are, and that goes for transportation as well. It’s not just that the distances in the north are farther between each city, it’s also that each kilometer is more expensive as well.
Should you get a Eurail Pass for your RTW?
Unless you will be traveling around the northern half of Europe for a while it’s probably not worth it, but if you are hitting Scandinavia, the Netherlands, and Germany it can be a big money saver. There are some cheaper ways of getting around, as we’ll discuss below, but in that part of Europe the train and a Eurail Pass are probably the best ways of going.
Buses in Europe are cheaper and better than you probably realize
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Don’t be afraid to go fast through certain places on your RTW trip
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
If you are at the stage of planning your RTW trip where you are putting together a loose itinerary and asking for advice from people who’ve done it before, beware of one common theme. People who’ve done RTWs before will almost ALWAYS say your itinerary looks like you are rushing and trying to see too much in too short of a time. That’s definitely something to consider, but don’t assume that advice is always right.
The ideal scenario is if you have an unlimited amount of time and an infinite budget, but obviously this isn’t ever actually the case. So there will always be sacrifices one way or another. If you plan on spending 9 days seeing the highlights of Italy nearly everyone will come back at you insisting that’s not nearly enough time to even scratch the surface. But you know what? They are wrong. You can see a hell of a lot in 9 days in Italy.
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Going east or west - There are some differences worth considering
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
If you have planned your RTW route already then this might just be an interesting phenomenon that you’ll encounter, but if you are still considering your route you might want to consider this when you do. Traveling around the world in one direction does have some significant timing differences to doing it the other direction. If you are going for, say, a year or more, this is all pretty meaningless, but if you are going for perhaps 6 months or less you’ll definitely notice the difference.
Specifically what I’m referring to here is the time-zone change thing. It’s probably not something you’d think of before you leave, but it will affect you on many of your travel days. If you are a “morning person” it will affect your differently than if you are a night owl. Okay, time to get specific.
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City bicycle tours are way better than you might think
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
This is less of a RTW and more of just a general travel tip, but one aspect of it does make it special for the RTW crowd. For many of us who arrive in a new city for the first time, a tour of some kind is the best way to size the entire place up quickly so we can decide which things we want to see in detail during our visit. Bus tours are definitely the most popular in big cities around the world, but if you find yourself in one of the increasing number of places that have regular bicycle tours, do it.This new trend may have started in Europe, and now many cities there have these small-time operations, but you can find them in pockets around the world as well. They tend to work like this: Interested people are asked to show up at a specific corner or landmark at an exact time of the day, and the rest is taken care of for them. In some cases a company will actually be ready with a truck full of bicycles, and other times the tour group is led a few blocks to a storage facility where all the bikes are kept. You usually don’t even have to make reservations, and they tend to be relatively cheap as well. (more…)
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Schedule contrast into your RTW route
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
We’ll file this under the category of Things that may not be obvious until you are actually on the road, so I thought it’s worth discussing for people who are still planning their RTW route. When you are at home with your maps and travel books or Web pages and whatnot, you can come up with an efficient route that will include the shortest jumps possible. This sort of thing works well at first, but what you’ll find after only a short time is that short jumps make places run together pretty quickly.
Let’s take Europe for example. You might fly into Amsterdam and then head into Belgium before entering Germany, which has at least a dozen worthwhile cities to visit. Even if you don’t plan on visiting all of them (and you shouldn’t), you’ll find that journeys of 100 or 150 kilometers will put you in a place that looks oddly similar to the place you just left. Nearly every European city has a huge main church of some kind as its tourism centerpiece, and each of them could be very impressive if you arrived from, say, Turkey. But if you see one church one day and a similar one the next you’ll begin realizing something like, “This is the 9th most impressive church I’ve seen this month.” And the same is true of Roman walls and main town squares. Each of them is impressive if you hadn’t just seen all the others.
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