Lonely Planet: hostels, audio phrasebooks, and giveaways

Add another hostel booking site to the list. Except this one isn’t from a start-up, it’s from Lonely Planet, Expedia and Hostelworld. Not a bad combo, eh?

It’s definitely promising, but it only launched a few days ago on the Lonely Planet website, so we’ll have to see how it develops. Travelers can browse by city and date, read the hotel or hostel reviews, check the price per room type, and book their reservation. Seems like a win-win if we get the best of both worlds—the reviews from Lonely Planet and the inventory of Expedia and Hostelworld. Give it a whirl and let us know what you think of it.

And to celebrate their other new partnership, Lonely Planet is giving away free downloads of their Mandarin Audio Phrasebook through Sunday, August 24—convenient for those going to the Beijing Olympics. They're joining forces with Apple to launch their audio phrasebooks for the new iPhone and iPod touch. I don't have one of these gadgets myself, but I bet they'd make translating pretty easy—especially since you get both the written and audio translations. The audio phrasebooks are currently available for English speakers translating into ten languages—Mandarin, Cantonese, Czech, Thai, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Vietnamese—but they're looking to expand into other language combos (i.e. French-Mandarin).

Do you look for fellow countrymen when you travel?

One of the best parts of traveling to unknown lands is meeting people from a culture that is not your own. However, it is inevitable that I look out for people from my country, whether I want to hang out with them or not, I will always (if even on a subsconcious level) look out for them.

I do this especially in countries where I don't expect to see Indians easily; for e.g. Cuba, Jamaica, Czech Republic, or even Portugal, France and Spain. There are a lot of things that interest me about spotting Indians in random countries: What are they doing here? How did they land up here? What passports do they have? Do they speak Hindi?

After being in Madrid for 6 months, I couldn't believe that I hadn't met any Indians. Not travelers, nor residents. Some were found working in kebab shops, but other than that you can't really spot that diaspora. When I got in touch with the Indian Association in Madrid, I found out that there are about 5000 (extremely rich) Indians living in Madrid's suburbs, of which my generation were Spanish. I live in the center of the city, and 18 months into it, I still haven't run into any of these people. Where do they go? What's their story?

Same goes for other nationalities like for instance the Chinese. There's a Chinese run shop on every corner of Madrid, yet outside these shops, I've hardly ever seen a Chinese person in a bar, in a non-Chinese restaurant, or in a cafeteria. Where do they go?

I think the immigrants in a country, although foreign, also play a large role in the place's culture. What do you think? Do you look for fellow countrymen when you travel? If so, why?

For women travelers looking for other women travelers

Last week I wrote about how it's difficult to find the right person to travel with. I'm not a fan of online matchmaking websites, but for those people who need a travel-partner, both Buddies4Travel.com and ThelmaandLouise.com seem like a plausible option. However, they're only for women.

Unfortunatley, Buddies4Travel works like a "find-the-love-of-your-life" website, but is clearly geared towards helping you find the right person to travel with. Two of their main audiences are girls planning a gap year, single mums and 50+ ladies wanting to travel. For a fee of £20, you can register and then for another £25 and they will find you one match. Pay more, and they will give you 2, 3 or 4 matches. Should you have second thoughts about the "match" you have selected, for £15, you can reselect. Not cheap, but perhaps worth it.

Thelma and Louise.com on the other hand has free registration and a much wider range of services such as: search for your travel-buddy basis location, interests, type of holiday, age, marital status, etc. They also have travel offers, travel stories/features, recommended travel products, packing ideas, etc.

Other than the fee, the main difference between the two is that Buddies4Travel finds you a partner, whereas on Thelma and Louise, you have to find your own partner. Both are worth a look at if you are a women not wanting to travel alone. (These sites are not necessarily lesbian match making sites.)

If you are not keen on going through such sites, there are a handful of good travel-networks you can connect to and try finding a travel buddy.

Exploration is more a study of depth than distance

"Exploration is not so much a covering of surface distance as a study in depth: a fleeting episode, a fragment of landscape or a remark overhead may provide the only means of understanding and interpreting areas which would otherwise remain barren of meaning."
--Claude Levi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques (1955)

The bicycle: "A simple solution to many complex problems"

While browsing the website of the bicycle-maker Trek, I noticed the company's tag line touting not just their brand but bicycles in general. It read: "The Bike. A Simple Solution to Many Complex Problems."

Whether it's rising gas prices or carbon emissions or obesity, bicycles are a step in the right direction. Little known fact: Bikes receive infinity miles to the gallon. They're also incredibly fun to ride.

Bikes can be used not just for urban commuting, but also on long-term trips. Several trails cater to travelers who like to go at their own pace, see a little bit of rural America (or another country), and do it all on the cheap.

One of my favorite places to find such trails is at the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. This site tracks those trails that are created over abandoned rail lines, and as such, are mostly flat and without cars.

The longest of these trails is the 225-mile Katy Trail, which runs almost entirely across the state of Missouri, from St. Charles in the east to Clinton in the west. Along the way, you'll find charming bed-and-breakfasts, wineries, and historic small towns lining the trail, which has revitalized many of these little hamlets since its creation a decade ago.

Another trail that makes me tired just thinking about it is the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a 2,714-mile behemoth stretching from Alberta, Canada, to southern New Mexico. The impressing-people-at-cocktail-parties opportunities that trail provides are really astounding.

Long, mostly rural trails provide a fantastic opportunity to slow down from the break-neck pace of life. In a couple weeks, in fact, I plan to ride and camp along the aforementioned Katy Trail, and I'm really looking forward to some time away from the grind of daily life.

But boy, it'll be a hot one.

Find a trail near you here.

The benefits of off-season travel for vagabonds on a budget

It's winter where I am at the moment (in Cape Town) and everyone's response when they hear this is, "If you've been following the sun for the past 18 months why on earth did you go somewhere that's in winter?".

I've discovered however that the benefits of being here out of season (almost) outweigh the drawbacks of fairly rainy, occasionally very cold weather; and for vagabonders on a budget traveling out of season means you can often do what you'd never have been able to afford during silly season (or you could save even more money).

Some examples of this include:

• Upgrading your accommodation to stay somewhere you'd never have afforded normally
• Getting more closely acquainted with the locals who aren't over-run and fed up with hordes of other tourists and travelers
• Discounts on almost everything including tours, trips and attractions

Of course there are some places where it might be wise not to visit when it's off-season if everything shuts down and the things you want to see aren't open or accessible, but many places are more than bearable for visiting out of season if you want to make your money stretch further. Where would you suggest?

Slow down: take the train

I've been a big fan of trains for a long time now. (I'd say I'd always been a big fan, but that's not entirely true - in the early '90s there was a VIA Rail incident involving a breakdown, several hours spent in -30 degree cold, and me thinking my young life was going to end in a dark train compartment. But I got over that eventually.)

As I was saying: I love taking the train. It's spacious, comfortable, generally affordable, and you can't beat the views - train tracks are usually a world away from the sea of pavement most major highways have become. But taking the train is something I associate most strongly with travel in Europe, or maybe India. North America isn't exactly known for its rail network.

Still, this summer I'm going to give Amtrak a chance: I'll be making my way from New Orleans to San Francisco and back over several weeks, mostly using the train. Sure, it's slow at the best of times, and prone to major delays and technical difficulties at worst. But that's why it's perfect for a trip like this one: I'm in no huge rush, I don't have a set itinerary, and I'd like to take my time and see what I can along the way. What better way to meander slowly through the South West than on a train?

(Yeah, yeah - I know it's classic roadtrip country. But I'm not going to spend six weeks alone in a rental car. My bank account - and the planet - would never forgive me.)

Anyway, for anyone else who might be thinking of giving Amtrak a chance, here's a great, no-nonsense article from The Traveler's Notebook: 21 Trains That Are Cheaper Than Flying.

Big attractions, no entrance fee: priceless

A few weeks ago I looked at suggestions for saving on European travel. But what if the places you visited weren’t just cheaper, but free?

A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle reminds us how many great landmarks don't charge admission—and we’re not just talking about visiting the Obscure Museum of Mothballs.

Hawaii’s USS Arizona Memorial: free
Rome’s Pantheon: free
London’s National Gallery: free

The article gives us a short list of about 20 sights in the US and Europe, but it's easy to look for similar spots wherever you’re traveling. Just think of them in terms of these categories:

• Antiquities and ancient ruins
• Government monuments and memorials
• Natural wonders and scenic drives
• Urban parks and districts
• Major buildings and bridges
• Churches and cathedrals
• Museums and exhibitions
• Factory and industrial tours

This list of categories seems longer than I would’ve expected, and that’s a refreshing thought. It’s nice to be reminded that we have options, isn’t it?

Finding the right travel companion

I can't travel extensively with family members -- we often have different traveling ideals, budgets and temperaments. I love my best friend to death, but I cannot imagine doing a long trip with her -- we like different things, she prefers hotels to hostels, she is vegetarian, she talks too much. I love my brother, but he is 19 and in that "I want to party all the time" mode; on trips with him, I often become the party pooper.

In other words, it's not easy to find a good travel companion, and the biggest problem is that until you travel with that person, you really don't know how the trip will turn out. That many hours together, day and night, can often bring out sides of people you had no idea existed, which in turn could make or break any relationship.

Two of my best trips were with people I hardly knew on a personal level, but we had similar travel styles and obviously mature personalities. Just a few conversations made me want to travel with them. They were adventurous enough to be fun, and strangers enough for me not to have any expectations, and I had no fear of losing anything.

We did not share any emotional connection; what brought us together was the fact that we liked to travel on a shoe-string budget and were independent enough to do it on our own, so traveling together was companionship we were not dependent on.

Other than bus/train journeys, meals, and accomodation, we gave each other enough space to do our own things, allowing us to have the exact trip we wanted, and have someone to share it with at the end of the day.

However, it's not easy to find people like this, I was extremely lucky. There are a few tips you can keep in mind before you decide to take a trip with someone, well summarised in this article on Vagabondish.

Traveling solo is great, but having a good travel companion is pretty darn fun too.

Convincing your boss to allow you to telecommute

For those who have a desk job, the compulsion of being in a cubicle 9-5 often seems like an unproductive annoyance. You often wonder how you could be more productive working a few hours in the morning from home, and then having the rest of the day to do what you like.

If you can work from home, you can also do the same from Thailand or the Caribbean, but for now, home would be a great start!

Further to the 4-Hour Work Week analogy of freeing up your time to travel without quitting your job, here's a great article in the Traveler's Notebook that gives you some advice on how to convince your boss that you are capable working efficiently from home.

Books and articles as mentioned in this post just reinforce that it is totally possible to live your life the way you want to, you've just got to want it bad enough.