I realized this morning that I haven't really given an update since I was smack-dab in the middle of our lockdown here in Spain. Most of us here spent 98 days essentially locked up in our apartments, only venturing outside to quickly get some groceries or to go to a pharmacy. It was one of the most intense and invasive lockdowns of any country anywhere, and many people here really struggled to cope with it. While I didn't mind being at home, especially since I had many renovation projects on the go, the inability to even go for a walk or to get exercise was really difficult mentally, and most ...

I used to proactively write about every upcoming travel adventure I had, but I tend not to do that much these days. One of the reasons is that sometimes my plans change, and then I end up with a post that's no longer accurate. Another reason is that people, while well intentioned, tend to sometimes aggressively give advice on how I should change my trips around, which ends up putting me on the defensive regarding my choices (most of which are well thought out in terms of what I want to get out of that trip). That said, this next three month trip of mine is pretty exciting, so I wanted to share ...

It's 7am in the morning, and the trail in front of me is barely lit by the LED headlamp I'm wearing on my head. I'm up earlier than I have been over the last few days, mainly due to the orchestra of snoring in my albergue room throughout the night. Yesterday I limped my way into town, hobbling in pain due to sore knees and a pair of star-crossed blisters on my feet. I had been chewing ibuprofin for the last 12 hours, hoping it would take away some of the pain in my knees and allow me to continue on today. But after only about 10 minutes of walking this morning, both of them are once again screaming ...

In about ten days I'll be jumping in the vehicle with my girlfriend and driving across North America, yet again. We moved out to Ontario last year from the British Columbia-area to spend a year in Hamilton, and were forced to do the drive in four days due to commitments that were waiting for us. Thankfully we are going to do the drive back in about nine days, which should be a lot more enjoyable. This is actually my fourth time moving across the country, and I've done this song and dance enough times that I thought I would give some advice on the subject. First, moving across the country doesn't ...

In about ten days I'll be jumping in the vehicle with my girlfriend and driving across North America, yet again. We moved out to Ontario last year from the British Columbia-area to spend a year in Hamilton, and were forced to do the drive in four days due to commitments that were waiting for us. Thankfully we are going to do the drive back in about nine days, which should be a lot more enjoyable. This is actually my fourth time moving across the country, and I've done this song and dance enough times that I thought I would give some advice on the subject. First, moving across the country doesn't ...

My girlfriend left the other day to spend three weeks in Italy and Hungary. I have to say, I'm more than a little jealous. I spent three years basically up and travelling whenever I felt like it, but currently we're too busy at work for me to slip away. But the thought of sitting around a patio, nibbling on a wood-oven pizza and sipping a beer sure sounds appealing right now. As people may remember, Luciana and I moved out to Hamilton, Ontario last year to spend a year working in the new office. It's been a great experience, and it will be hard to say goodbye to everyone we've spent time with ...

As much as I love travelling to new places, you'll often hear me complaining about how much I dislike the process of travelling - the airports, customs line-ups, security line-ups, crappy airport food, turbulence, jet-lag and many more. For new travellers, these things are somewhat exciting in their own right, but after a while they grow old and tiring. With that in mind, I was recently reading Anthony Bourdain's travel tips via a link on Facebook (most of which are great) and thought I would follow up with a point-by-point comparison of some of my tips. The first thing I do is I dress for airports. ...

One of the first things I did when I committed myself to travelling around the world was to set up a blog. Indeed, I recently just assisted two other people in getting theirs up, one for a trip around the world, and one for a yearly RV trip down to Arizona. This post will give you easy instructions for how to set up a blog using WordPress. Part of the motivation I find with most people is the desire to share some of their experiences, both positive and negative, with others. Since so much of travel research is done these days via the Internet, the desire for most people to contribute to that wealth ...

As I pointed out previously, I'm in the process of moving to Hamilton to spend a year working out of BraveNewCode's new offices. I flew out and spent some time out there in April and May, mainly just to find a place to live. But now that I have an apartment lined up, I'm back in British Columbia getting ready to do a road trip across North America with my girlfriend. My Car, a Mazda 3 Sport Most people really have no appreciation for how large of a country both Canada and the United States are. I once had a friend fly into Toronto and email me to see if I could drive out to see him from Vancouver ...

I started my long-term travel adventures in January of 2011, almost 2.5 years ago. Looking back, I really had no idea how the airline systems worked: I wasn't really collecting any sort of air-miles, didn't know how to fly for free, nor was I trying to get to any type of elite status (I didn't even really know how to be honest). Iguazu Falls, on my first trip to Argentina in 2011 After 2.5 years though, I've finally hit my travel groove. So lately I've been dedicating efforts towards taking advantage of some of the cracks in the system to make the most of my travel adventures and to fly for free ...

One of my main strategies for earning free airline travel that I discuss in my eBook is leveraging a travel rewards card. For most people simply using a travel reward card for day-to-day purchases is enough to earn a free vacation each and every year. I've been using a few different cards for three years now, and I've earned a full return trip to Machu Picchu in Peru, a free return trip to Auckland, New Zealand, and enough for another trans-continental trip already accumulated. And all I had to do was sign-up and use it monthly. Almost all travel reward cards include health-insurance for short-term ...

Over the past few years I've flown to many exotic destinations New Zealand, Brazil, and even Peru. Normally those trips would costs thousands of dollars, but I managed to do all three trips for free thanks to several of my travel reward credit cards. Most seasoned travellers already know this, but many credit card companies offer travel products that help their customers earn free travel. For every purchase you charge to your credit card, the credit card company will give you a credit for future travel in the form of 'mileage'. That mileage is usually tracked on your credit card statement on a ...

There are a few privileged travelers that you encounter from time to time who don’t really seem to have any sort of budget. Often they have saved for several years and intend to continue traveling until it simply runs out. But for the rest of us, traveling for more than a week or two often means that we have to stick to a pre-defined budget for a particular trip. I know personally that spending money is the one main aspect of traveling that causes me stress, more so than worrying about theft or how to get to and from places. That’s why I try to set aside a certain amount of money beforehand ...

There are a few privileged travelers that you encounter from time to time who don’t really seem to have any sort of budget. Often they have saved for several years and intend to continue traveling until it simply runs out. But for the rest of us, traveling for more than a week or two often means that we have to stick to a pre-defined budget for a particular trip. I know personally that spending money is the one main aspect of traveling that causes me stress, more so than worrying about theft or how to get to and from places. That’s why I try to set aside a certain amount of money beforehand ...

Whenever a person goes to a new destination, one of the first things they need to decide is what they are going to bring. And for most people, that depends on the duration of the trip and likely how far they will be traveling. If I go anywhere for a month or more, I often take one of my larger suitcases to minimize laundry. I figure since I am allowed to check a bag on the plane, I may as well take advantage of it. And since I usually rent a full apartment in a new location, I have room to store the suitcase. But when you have a suitcase it’s often hard to be spontaneous. If you go sightseeing, ...

Whenever a person goes to a new destination, one of the first things they need to decide is what they are going to bring. And for most people, that depends on the duration of the trip and likely how far they will be traveling. If I go anywhere for a month or more, I often take one of my larger suitcases to minimize laundry. I figure since I am allowed to check a bag on the plane, I may as well take advantage of it. And since I usually rent a full apartment in a new location, I have room to store the suitcase. But when you have a suitcase it’s often hard to be spontaneous. If you go sightseeing, ...

One of the hardest parts of working remotely and traveling is the need to find reliable internet from time to time. In some countries free internet is almost as ubiquitous as beer, and often advertised as prominently. But in some countries (I'm looking directly at you Australia and New Zealand) almost all the internet you will find in the wild is either time limited or bandwidth limited. It's not unusual to be in a coffee shop on only be given 10MB or so, which is hardly enough to check your email or Facebook feed. The Solution If you're using a Mac computer (and I'm sure the procedure is fairly ...

It's November 1st, which means that shortly we are going to start seeing Christmas lights, trees, and of course all the great sales leading up to Christmas. It's only about 7 weeks away now, and I'm sure that time will go by quickly. Christmas Presents for Travel After travelling the world for almost three years now, I thought I would share some of my best ideas for Christmas presents for people like me. If you have someone in your family that loves to travel, or is thinking about taking a big trip, then hopefully this list will help you. I've ordered it by price, lowest to highest, so hopefully ...

Con-Sonar: CRAZY IVAN! In the movie The Hunt For Red October the Russian submarine captains use a technique called a Crazy Ivan by the Americans. Basically every once and a while the Russian captains will make the submarine do a complete circle, startling any potential followers behind them. Unless the other submarine is extremely careful, the Crazy Ivan is meant to detect them since it will likely catch them by surprise. I have a similar technique I use for keeping safe while traveling, in that every so often, usually every few minutes, I do a full scan of everything and everyone around me. ...

Con-Sonar: CRAZY IVAN! In the movie The Hunt For Red October the Russian submarine captains use a technique called a Crazy Ivan by the Americans. Basically every once and a while the Russian captains will make the submarine do a complete circle, startling any potential followers behind them. Unless the other submarine is extremely careful, the Crazy Ivan is meant to detect them since it will likely catch them by surprise. I have a similar technique I use for keeping safe while traveling, in that every so often, usually every few minutes, I do a full scan of everything and everyone around me. ...