Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

Taking a Delicious Food Tour in Madrid

2013-05-23T19:57:44Z

While I was in Europe earlier this month, I finally managed to visit Madrid. Years ago I went to Madrid but was deathly sick and didn’t do much while I was there. So as I spent spent a week riding the rails around Europe, I made Madrid a definite stop on my tour.

Since the city is famous for food, I decided I wanted to take a food tour and numerous people pointed me to the Madrid Food Tour, which turns out to be run by a fellow blogger I met at a conference last year (small world)!

So Lauren and James, who run the food tour, took me around Madrid and taught me the history of food in the city (warning: excessive ham eating occurs in this video):

I ate my way around Madrid during the four days I was there, moving from market to market and tapas restaurant to tapas restaurant. Regardless of whether you go on a food tour or explore for yourself, Madrid is full of delicious offerings and I hope this video helps you find them the next time you’re in the city.

Disclaimer: Lauren provided the food tour to me for free.

The post Taking a Delicious Food Tour in Madrid appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

A Guide to Traveling with Technology

2013-05-22T02:39:44Z

This is a guest post by travel tech guru Dave Dean of Too Many Adapters, a site devoted to technology for travelers.

Wondering what to take on the road when it comes to electronics? You’re not the only one. Long gone are the days where a cassette player and film camera were the height of travel gadgetry. Walking into a hostel common room now you’d be forgiven for thinking you had accidentally stumbled into the local electronics store. You’re likely to be surrounded by laptops and tablets, smartphones and DSLRs, and more softly-glowing Apple logos than you can shake a stick at.

Often unsure of what they really need, people end up carrying a lot more tech gear on the road than they should. After several years of travel and working online though, I’ve figured out what works, what doesn’t, and what you really need.

Laptop

With the slow disappearance of internet cafes in favour of WiFi hotspots, a laptop is something that is definitely worth considering. It is the easiest method of staying in touch, backing up photos, and wasting time.

I use mine to work from the road, so I went for something relatively powerful, but for more typical use a thin and light laptop like an Ultrabook (eg: Asus Zenbook Prime) or a Macbook Air can provide everything you need at a lower weight and, potentially, cost. Things that matter include:

Size – Nothing larger than a 13” screen or that weighs much over 1kg, and less is definitely better. Consider the size and weight of the power adapter too – those things can be huge!

Strength – Something made well that won’t fall to pieces the first time it gets knocked in your bag. Get a protective sleeve to prevent scratches and cushion minor bumps, and read the reviews of its durability.

Battery life – Five or six hours is the minimum, 8+ is much better if you plan to take long overnight buses or trains.

Storage space – Don’t skimp on the amount of storage you have – 128Gb really is the minimum, and more is much better. All of those photos and downloaded movies take up more space than you think!

SD card slot – It’s not an absolute must, but having an SD card slot built into your laptop is very handy. Assuming your camera uses SD cards (most do), an inbuilt card reader makes copying your pictures super easy. All you do is insert the card and transfer!

Cost –The less you spend, the more money you have to spend at the bar, right? Not to mention the computer will be cheaper to insure and replace and less of a target for theft. Don’t spend much over $1000.

If your budget doesn’t stretch that far or your needs are more basic, you could go for a tablet instead. Older technology like netbooks could also do the job, although they’re becoming increasingly hard to find.

Tablet

If I didn’t work online, I’d ditch the laptop and carry a tablet computer instead. Smaller, lighter, cheaper and with better battery life than a laptop, the most well-known example is Apple’s famous iPad (mini or full-size). While either of those will do the job for a traveller, the best value for money at the moment is in the Android range – a Google Nexus 7 or larger Nexus 10 would be my recommendation.

There is a lot to be said for choosing a tablet if your main use is consumption (ie, reading web pages, books and emails or watching movies) rather than creation (writing, editing video, etc). Again, choose one with plenty of storage (either built-in or via microSD card).

To back up your photos, both Apple and Android devices let you plug in an external SD card reader – pick one of those up as well.

If you have absolutely no other choice, you can also use the camera on your tablet to get that must-have shot. Just be aware you’ll look rather silly doing so.

Mobile phone

I carry a Samsung Galaxy S2. It has rapidly become an indispensable piece of travel technology, with all of my music, photos, apps and entertainment stored on the microSD card, and was both cheaper and easier to customise than the iPhone I used to use.

I made sure to buy the unlocked version of my phone, meaning that I can use a pre-paid SIM card anywhere in the world and take advantage of much cheaper calling and data rates. Your mobile company at home will charge incredibly high rates if you use your normal number overseas, making roaming calls and data prohibitively expensive for most travellers.

Switching to a local cell company when you arrive in a country can save you a small fortune – I personally know people who accidentally left data enabled when on vacation for a week and came home to a several thousand dollar bill. If you can’t unlock your phone and absolutely have to use it while travelling, at least turn the data connection off to lessen the pain

I use literally dozens of travel apps, but three of the best are:

Skype: As a general rule all of my international calls take place via Skype over WiFi or 3G. It’s quick and easy, and buying a few bucks worth of SkypeCredit means I can call any phone in the world for hours.
TripIt: I’ve tried all sorts of ways to keep track of travel bookings, but TripIt is the easiest. Many confirmation emails can simply be forwarded to add them to your list, and it doesn’t take long to manually add the others. With the Pro version, I even get notified of timetable changes and delays. Having every detail at my fingertips has saved me more than once at airport check-ins and bus stations around the world.
Google Translate: Google just updated the Android version of its translation app, now letting me download language packs for offline use. Even before that, the app was handy for figuring out what on earth was on the menu, or saying/displaying a few words in the local language to get my point across. Now that I can use it anywhere, it’s indispensable.

E-book reader

I resisted buying an ebook reader for a long time – I’m a ‘physical book’ kind of guy. Now that I’ve made the leap to a Kindle, however, I’m very pleased with it.

It’s incredibly small and light – more so than even a little paperback – and can store hundreds of books, travel guides and whatever else I might need. I picked up the Keyboard 3G – it cost more than the WiFi-only version, but the ability to download new books from anywhere with cell phone coverage is invaluable.

An unexpected benefit lies hidden away in the ‘Experimental’ section: a slow, clunky web browser. Why is that so great? Because with the 3G connection I have free access to email, Facebook, etc. in over 100 countries.

I’d never want this to be my only way of getting online – it’s too painful for that – but in a pinch it’s fantastic. This is the only Kindle model that has this feature – all the other 3G versions only let you access Wikipedia and the Amazon store.

I considered a tablet instead, but for reading on the road there was really no contest. The Kindle is cheaper, smaller and lighter, the battery life is measured in weeks rather than hours, the screen is so much better in sunlight and I can happily lie on the beach without worrying about it.

Thanks to a cheap case I bought off eBay, it looks like a plain notebook if I need to pull it out on the street to check directions. There’s no way I’d even think of doing that with any tablet – I’d be far too much of a target.

Backup

I worked in IT when I wasn’t travelling, so data backup has long been a concern of mine. I just know too many travellers who have lost irreplaceable data due to hard drive failures and theft among other reasons. Do you want to lose every single photo from your US road trip, your cruise on Halong Bay and everywhere else you’ve been? Probably not.

I copy photos to my laptop each night, then use Crashplan+ to do the rest. For a few bucks a month it automatically manages backups to both online storage and a portable hard drive that I keep in my pack, all without me having to think about it. Before splashing out on that subscription I backed everything up manually, but found that I was forgetting to do it too often for my liking.

Although I use a Seagate portable drive and it works fine, I’d be looking at the rugged Transcend version if I was buying a new one.

For the small amount of hassle involved, the peace of mind is more than worth it. Don’t risk losing all of your digital memories.

Miscellaneous

Other than the chargers and cables that always seem to tie themselves in knots overnight, the only other gadgets I put in my pack are a universal power adapter and a 4-way power box.

You’d struggle to spend more than $25 on the combination if you tried, and they take up very little room in my bag, yet are worth their weight in gold every time I get to a dorm room with one power socket for the 12 people staying in it. I plug all of my devices into the 4-way box, connect it to the wall socket via my universal adapter, and I’m done. Easy.

Choosing the right gear to travel with doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Making a few smart choices and limiting yourself to what you truly need will give you all of the benefits that technology can bring while avoiding most of the downsides. Spend a bit of time and money getting it right before you leave – trust me, it will save an awful lot of frustration once you’re out there on the road.

Dave is one half of the team at Too Many Adapters, a site devoted to technology for travellers. A geek as long as he can remember, he worked in IT around the world for fifteen years, combining his love of all things nerdy with an overwhelming travel addiction. Now based out of a backpack long term, Dave writes about travel and tech from anywhere with half-decent internet and a great view. You can also find him talking about the life of a long-term traveller at What’s Dave Doing?

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My Favorite Cheesy and Overrated Tourist Activities (And Why I Love Them)

2013-05-15T15:06:25Z

Here’s a secret: I love being a cheesy tourist. As much as I love getting off the beaten path and learning about local cultures, sometimes I love the artificial world the mainstream travel industry has created. I think a lot of people think too deeply about travel, as if every moment on the road has to have profound impact and meaning. They are too quick to write off mass tourism. I’ve always found travelers who shun anything “cheesy” to be some of my least favorite. By thinking of their travels as one long romantic novel, they tend to become snobs and can’t just enjoy the moment. Sometimes you just need to take attractions and experiences for what they are – a crowded, overrated, commercialized, mind-numbing, and/or enjoyable escape.

Sometimes travel’s just about having a good time in a different place with new people.

Last year I went on a cruise and partied at Señor Frog’s in Mexico.

And I had a blast.

So today, let’s indulge the cheesy tourist in all of us that we don’t want to admit we have and share some of our favorites. Here’s mine:

Cruises

Last year, I went on my first cruise in over half a decade and I had a phenomenal time. To me, it wasn’t travel – it was a vacation. It was a way to relax and decompress. There was nothing authentic about Royal Caribbean’s “private beach” in Haiti or the cheesy dance parties on the boat each night but gosh, was it fun. While seven days on a ship were too much for me, there are going to be a lot more cruises in my future. Because sometimes life is about sitting by the pool with a piña colada in hand while listening to the band cover Bob Marley for the umpteenth time.

Disney World

I love Disney World. I love the rides, drinking my way around the world in Epcot Center, the haunted house, Space Mountain, and just feeling like a kid. Being a kid is all about playing pretend and at Disney, it’s not just welcome but encouraged. Disney is overpriced and artificial, but hey, what’s wrong with simply enjoying yourself in a make-believe fantasy land for a bit?

Pub Crawls

Pub crawls aren’t the place to find local watering holes, nor are they the place to meet many locals. Instead, you’ll find touristy bars (filled with tourists, of course) and watered-down welcome shots, but I love pub crawls because part of the fun of traveling is meeting other travelers — and pub crawls are an easy way to do that. Maybe we won’t see each other ever again but for that one night over a few drinks, we’re the best of friends.

The Louvre

The Louvre is one of the most famous, crowded, and popular museums in the entire world. Walking through here is like walking through a Tokyo subway station during rush hour (i.e. crowded). To me, there are far better museums in Paris, but heck, it’s the Louvre. Why miss out? Even if the Mona Lisa is the most overrated painting on the entire planet, you have to go see it.

Venice

Venice is a beautiful city filled with important historic significance but it feels like a caricature of itself. I have no concrete data to prove this, but a number of people who are experts on the region said there are very few true Venetians who actually live in the city. But that being said, getting lost in that maze of tiny streets is incredibly fun, the city makes for an amazing backdrop to a romantic vacation, and even though a gondola ride is 100 Euros, you only live once, right? Let’s live the Venetian fantasy.

Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Wait, what? This is overrated? Yeah, it is! The diving in the reef (at least where the day trips from Cairns will take you) isn’t that great due to large crowds and overfishing. Almost every dive expert I spoke to didn’t see why people were so obsessed with the reef. There are far better dive spots in the country, especially on the west coast. So while you may be sharing your view of Nemo with 50 other people, who cares? It’s the Great Barrier Reef! You can see this thing from space!

The Full Moon Party

Every month about 15,000 people (double during the holiday season) descend on the island of Ko Phangan for this all-night beach party. It’s mass tourism in Southeast Asia at its worst — and it’s some of the best fun I’ve ever had. I enjoy myself so much that I’ve gone 7 times.

Khao San Road

Bangkok’s infamous Khao San Road is awash in dirty backpackers, overpriced beers, touts, and cheesy Red Bull singlets (standard backpacker gear), but it’s one of my favorite spots in Bangkok for a few reasons: there’s great people-watching, you’ll meet some interesting characters, there’s always a party, and if you get off the main drag, you’ll find some actual local Thai bars. When I lived in Bangkok, we would always go here when we wanted an interesting night out.

Times Square

As someone who lives in New York I can say this is a place I rarely visit, and I don’t really know anyone who goes there either. It’s crowded, it’s filled with aggravating tourists who are too busy gawking and taking pictures instead of walking, and it’s completely commercialized, but it’s home to Broadway, you can watch many interesting street performers, the M&M’S store is a piece of heaven on earth, and sitting on top of the TKTS stairs provides a nice place to watch it all.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

Yes, I took that photo. There I am, trying to hold up the leaning tower (and in another, push it over). In the background are other people trying to do the same. It’s absolutely cliché, but hey, who doesn’t have fun playing with perspective?

Any salt flats

Like the Leaning Tower, salt flats are fun because you can play with perspective. Look, it’s people on your hand. Look, you’re lifting a car! Look, you’re smaller than a backpack. The list goes on. I mean, salt flats are kind of pretty, but once you’ve seen one, the rest are kind of all the same — but sitting there for umpteen hours taking perspective shots never gets boring.

For me, travel is about experiencing the world and learning about different cultures. I like seeing how everything and everyone fit together in the puzzle that is humanity.

But travel is also about having fun.

Not everything we do as travelers has to be some deep, life-changing experience. Sometimes it’s just about relaxing and cutting back with people from around the world while doing something fun — and isn’t that what life is all about anyway?

The post My Favorite Cheesy and Overrated Tourist Activities (And Why I Love Them) appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Lisbon: Even Better the Second Time

2013-05-09T14:04:12Z

There are some places you never leave. You may not be there physically, but a piece of you stays behind forever to be with the place that stole so much of your heart. It lives there, reliving those initial memories and waiting for new ones to be made.

Last year, I visited Lisbon for the first time and though the visit was short, thoughts of it never left me. I fell madly in love and the city claimed a hold on me that I could never shake.

Last week, I returned to the city and it was as though I never left. Lisbon and I just fit. I walked new streets with that feeling I had been there before. I navigated the subway with ease. I felt at home in unknown restaurants. I sat around sharing jokes with Portuguese shop owners though neither understood each other’s native tongue.

Mostly, I wandered the city dumbstruck as I marveled at just how crazy beautiful the city is – filled with beautifully tiled houses with red roofs and winding cobblestone streets that snake between multi-story homes draped with Portuguese flags and hanging laundry.

At every turn, I remarked to my friend, “Damn, how beautiful and amazing is Lisbon?”

I worry a lot about going back to cities I fall in love with the first time around. What if I am just chasing ghosts? What if it won’t be the same? What if I go back and hate it? Will I just compare the present to the past?

So, I touched down in Lisbon with a mix of excitement and trepidation, but as I stepped out onto the streets, I knew in my bones that we are soul mates. And when you are just meant to be with someone, all the change in the world doesn’t matter.

On this visit, I relaxed at the nearby beach in the town of Cascais, where my ghost-like appearance become a bit more human-like after some time in the sun. I dined on fabulous fish at Santa Rita, a delicious and cheap (21 Euros for fish, a liter of wine, bread, and seafood rice) restaurant located downtown. I ticked off touristy sites like the city history museum and the castle. I stayed out so late in the Barrio Alto (an area known for wild nightlife) that I slept most of the next day away. (I still mostly blame the jetlag.)

There are moments when you travel where the stars seem to align and you think, as you sip wine from a cafe while watching neighborhood kids play soccer in the street and grandmothers hang the laundry from the windows, that somehow you got lucky enough for a destination to reveal itself to you in all its glory and that life couldn’t get better.

Lisbon is filled with wonderful architecture, history, charisma, nightlife, people, and such incredible budget value that I can’t help but daydream of renting a quiet little apartment on one of those cobblestoned streets.

Some places wow you.

Some places take your breath away.

And then there are places like Lisbon that capture your soul and you are never the same again.

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Interview with Tim Leffel

2013-05-07T17:50:17Z

A few months ago, you might have noticed a newly-released book on traveling the world on the cheap. Recently, Tim Leffel, one of the original budget travel gurus and a travel writer I admire greatly (who also read through drafts of my own book), updated his cheapest destination book, The World’s Cheapest Destinations. As someone greatly interested in value for money, I interviewed him about his new book, budget travel, travel gear, and saving money on family travel.

Nomadic Matt: You’ve been in the travel writing industry for a while. How has travel changed over the years?
Tim Leffel: The good and bad tend to cancel out a bit and it often depends on your point of view. The first time I circled the globe as a backpacker, there was no internet, no e-mail, no online banking. Plus ATMs were scarce in a lot of countries so getting and changing money was always trying. Now it’s all so simple that people can connect to whatever they need online from almost anywhere. The dark downside of that is many travelers stay waayyyy too connected to home. Physically they are abroad, but mentally they’re still connected to the safe and familiar idea of home. That’s the biggest downside I see to travel now: so many people are in their home-based social media bubble instead of interacting with the new people and experiences around them.

The biggest plus is everything is easier and more organized now. If you can’t figure out how to get from place to place and find somewhere to stay now, you’re really dense.

Tell us about your book.
I recently put out the fourth edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations. I wrote the first one more than a decade ago because there was no good way to figure out which countries were the best values without doing a ridiculous amount of research. So I wrote the book I always wanted to buy. Thankfully lots of people felt like I did and it has sold very well each year. Each edition I update every chapter, removing countries where prices have gone up too much and adding others to take their place. It’ll save you 20-40 hours of research for ten bucks or so and hopefully it’s kind of fun to read when you’re dreaming or planning.

How do you pick the twenty-one destinations? Why these ones and not others?
It’s purely based on which are the best values—there’s no arbitrary $x per day figure. I’m trying to help both shoestring backpackers and vacationers with a bit more cash to stretch their budget, so they tend to be countries with a decent infrastructure and plenty to do, but with very attractive prices that are far less than home. So at first I didn’t include Cambodia because only the most hard-core backpackers and high-end fly-in luxe tourists were going. Now the infrastructure is much better and there’s a wider base. Myanmar will probably get in next time for much the same reason if the reforms continue. On the other hand, I removed Turkey this time because prices have risen rapidly there as the economy grows quickly. Still a decent value, but not as good as Slovakia, which replaced it.

You’re a family man. Can you travel on a budget as a family? A lot of people don’t believe you can.
There are lots of family budget travel blogs out there now showing you can indeed do it, especially if you choose the places covered in my book. There are lots of families roaming around Southeast Asia and Latin America, spending less than they do on day-to-day expenses at home. You have to spend more than a single or couple of course, but it’s easy to get decent-sized hotel rooms on the cheap in most places, or to rent an apartment short-term. Three of us traveled through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam last summer on a budget of $150 a day after airfare. That’s not a backpacker budget, obviously, but we lived it up on that, eating every meal in a restaurant and staying in nice hotels with room for three. When I tell friends and relatives we spent that, they don’t believe me. To them it seems too cheap for a vacation. It’s all in your perspective.

We’ve done similar trips on a much lower budget in Mexico and Guatemala. There are families out there traveling on $60 – $80 a day in plenty of countries and making it work.

Do you travel a lot with your family?
When I’m on a real writing trip where I’m going to have to be researching the whole time, I tend to go solo. But when I can mix that with some downtime, I take just my wife or my wife and daughter along. That’s much more fun. My daughter got her first passport when she was three and has seen a lot. Plus we’ve lived and traveled in Mexico for a year straight before and are going back there for two years in August.

What are your top three tips for traveling on a budget with a family?
Slow down. You can’t be doing crazy check-the-box, bucket-list itineraries where you’re constantly on the move. Pick a few priorities and use home bases to branch out. Don’t try to schedule more than one or two things a day.

Get more space in the right lodging. You need rooms or apartments where you’re not falling over each other and where everyone else is coming in at 2 am, while your precious is up and yelling at 6 am.

It’s not all about you. Compromise on what you’ll like and what’s best for the little one(s). For every museum, there should be a playground or mall in the mix, despite your feelings about that not being “travel.”

What is your essential travel gear?
Well, as editor of Practical Travel Gear I’m trying out an insane amount of new apparel, luggage, and gadgets each year. I’m still a minimalist at heart though, so I try to take only high-impact items, preferably ones that are light and can do more than one thing.

As a writer I can go out with just a camera, pen, notebook, and water bottle. But I guess the things I pack almost every international trip are a Steripen water purifier, a multi-charger unit for the gadgets, a portable charger for when I don’t have time or place for an outlet, lightweight quick-dry clothes, a couple pairs of good double-duty shoes, a small toiletry kit with the essentials, a good sun hat, and a real book or the Kindle. I hardly ever use my smart phone for non-work things though, so that sits in the room a lot.

Okay, time for some fun questions: Scariest “Am I going to get out of this alive?” experience?
All of them involve bad bus rides really, from scary mountain passes to riding on top of one in Laos for hours. The worst though was one in Egypt — where idiot drivers hardly ever turn on their lights — in really thick fog. The driver was still hauling ass at the normal speed and twice we almost had a head-on collision with another bus. People and gear went flying everywhere. I really did start wondering if I would arrive alive.

Coolest “local” experience you were invited to?
Despite all the scams and hassles in Morocco, we trusted a guy we met who was heading the same way as us and he took us all around Fez to places we never would have found, invited us to lunch with his family, introduced his friends, and told us where else we should go in the country. He didn’t want a thing from us, which shows sometimes you have to let go of your suspicions. We also taught English in Istanbul and Seoul, so we went to a lot of parties and dinners with locals in those places.

What’s the biggest mistake you think people make and how can they avoid it?
The first would be trying to cram in too much and being on the move every day or two. That kills the budget more than anything. Honorable mention: booking all their lodging in advance. You’re guaranteed to pay more money that way, especially if you’re a couple getting a room in places where you don’t have to be subjected to a dorm bed in a hostel. Instead, get to town earlier, look around, and negotiate.

You can find more great tips and information from Tim on his blog, his gear site, and his Twitter profile. You can learn more about his book or purchase it here.

The post Interview with Tim Leffel appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Announcing My First Reader (UN)Tour: My Highlights of Europe

2013-05-06T19:10:33Z

I’ve been toying with the idea of running tours for a couple of years now but have never been able to really sit down and organize one. There’s a lot that goes into a tour and I wanted to really make the first one great. Over the last few months as I’ve been settling down in NYC, I’ve had time to plan and I’m happy to announce my first tour (with many more to come) will take place this September in Europe!

Nomadic Matt’s Crazy European Adventure

The basics:
When? September 15th-28th
Where? Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm
Why? I want to show you some of my favorite cities in Europe and what draws me back to them over and over again. We’ll be going to my favorite restaurants, bars, attractions, and more. This is my Europe, which is why I’m calling it an untour. We’ll be going off the beaten path quite a bit!
How many people? Maximum of 10

That’s the overview. Here are the details:

General Itinerary

Day 1 – Paris

Arrive in Paris
Welcome dinner

Day 2 – Paris

Walking tour through the city
Museum visits

Day 3 – Paris

Versailles
Picnic!

Day 4 – Paris

Morning food tour
Free time

Day 5 – Amsterdam

Train to Amsterdam in the morning
Walking tour with me

Day 6 – Amsterdam

Dutch pancake breakfast
Canal tour

Day 7 – Amsterdam

Museum hopping!
Night train to Copenhagen

Day 8 – Amsterdam

Free day! Travel is about exploration. Time to explore on your own! (Or hang out with me! Up to you!)

Day 9 – Copenhagen

Arrive in Copenhagen
Walking tour

Day 10 – Copenhagen

Canal tour
Sightseeing activities

Day 11 – Stockholm

Morning train to Stockholm
Walking tour with me

Day 12 – Stockholm

Boat tour around the harbor and a visit to some castles

Day 13 – Stockholm

Sightseeing, free time, and a bike tour
Good bye dinner

Day 14 – Stockholm

This is departure day! We say good bye here!

That’s the basic overview. I’ll be filling the trip with more events and activities as we get closer to departure. You will not be short on things to do in each destination. It will be a fantastic time.

What’s included?

13 nights accommodation (We’ll be staying in my favorite hostels! See FAQ below!)
Inter-city transportation (We’ll be taking the train between each city. There is one overnight train between Amsterdam and Copenhagen; you’ll have a bed on the train.)
A welcome dinner in Paris, one breakfast in Amsterdam, and a goodbye dinner in Stockholm.
A 3 hour food tour in Paris and a 3 hour tour of the Palace of Versailles.
Walking tours and activities with me in each city.
The time of your life.
Plus, a lot of surprises to come!

What’s not included

Flights
Travel insurance
Visa fees
Optional activities
Meals not specified

How much?
This 14 day tour is $1,500 USD.

This tour is full. If you want to be on the wait list, e-mail me at matt@nomadicmatt.com with the subject “wait list” and I’ll put your name on the list!

F.A.Q.

What kind of rooms are we staying in?
We will be staying in hostels and we’ll have our own dorms. There will be two 4-bed dorm rooms and one double room in each city. For couples, I’ll work to get you into the double room every time we change destinations. Rooms will be divided by gender (males in one, females in the other).

Is airfare provided?
No, you’ll be responsible for your own airfare to and from the tour.

Will I need travel insurance?
Yes, all guests will be required to have travel insurance for the duration of the trip. I’ll be asking for proof before departure. If you don’t have it, you won’t be able to come.

Will I need to fill out any release forms?
Yes, you’ll also be required to fill out and sign a liability waiver releasing me and Nomadic Matt Tours from any and all liability related to the tour.

What if I change my mind? What is your refund policy?
I’ll cry but understand. Plans change. If you cancel before July 15th, 2013, you will get 100% of your money back. Between July 15th to July 31st, 50% of your money will be refunded. Between August 1st to August 31st, 25% of your money will be refunded. After September 1st, 0% of your money will be refunded. Organizing a tour involves a lot of work and costs that can’t be reimbursed close to departure as money does get paid upfront.

Will I have any time to myself?
Of course! I hate the tours that book every minute of your day. While we will be busy, there will also be plenty of time for you to explore on your own!

Why only 4 cities?
My travel philosophy is less is more. I don’t want to be racing across Europe in two weeks. On this trip, we travel my way – slow – so we can know each destination better!

What about visas?
If you require a visa to enter Europe, you’ll need to get that in advance on your own.

How many tickets can I buy?
Reservations on the tour are limited to a maximum of 2 per person to ensure everyone gets a chance to go!

If you try to get in and there’s no more room, e-mail me at matt@nomadicmatt.com with the subject “waitlist” and I’ll put your name on the waitlist!

P.S. – Not able to make this tour? I’ll be offering more in the future! March 2014: Thailand, August 2014: Eastern Europe, December 2014: Australia. You can stay informed by signing up to this list.

The post Announcing My First Reader (UN)Tour: My Highlights of Europe appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

April’s Video Reader Q&A

2013-04-30T15:00:14Z

It’s that time of the month again where I embarrass myself on camera and answer your monthly reader questions. Last month, I only talked about international phones and SIM cards, this month I get back to basics and answer a bunch of questions ranging from visa issues to working overseas to my favorite hostels. I think I’m getting better in front of a camera. Like they say, practice makes perfect right? Or in my case, practice makes me suck a little less!

Show Notes and Links
How to Teach English Overseas
The Flying Pig Hostel
Singapore travel tips

If you have a question you want answered, leave a comment below and I’ll try answer it next month!

The post April’s Video Reader Q&A appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Why Your Airplane Ticket is So Expensive

2013-05-01T22:04:51Z

A few months ago, I was speaking with the folks from Singapore Airlines and we ended up talking about the public perception of the cost of airfare. Everyone is always looking for the cheapest flight. And while there are ways to get cheaper airfare, the age of rock bottom prices are simply over. If you’ve been flying for at least the past few years, you might have noticed ticket prices, even the cheapest ones, seem to be going up and up. Save some flash sale or price war, consumers are simply paying a lot more than they used to. If you really want rock bottom prices, you’ll need to invent a time machine and go back ten years. (Don’t forget to take me with you!)

But that conversation inspired me to sit down and write this post. Since ticket pricing is complicated, I want to take some time out to explain why the hell your airline ticket costs so goddamn much as well as let you know a few tricks to making it cheaper.

Why Have Prices Increased?

Ticket prices are high today for a number of reasons. For starters, the industry has consolidated a lot over the last few years. Less competition means less need for cheaper prices. Thanks to bankruptcies and mergers now there are only 4 major airlines in the US (soon to be three when American merges with US Airways). In Canada, you have 2. In Europe, KLM and Air France are now one company, and Lufthansa has its hands in many smaller airlines. (While budget airlines keep prices cheap within Europe, once you leave the continent, those 10 Euro prices disappear!) As airlines have partnered up, merged, or gone bankrupt, there is little incentive or need to create low fares to win your business.

Secondly, the price of airline fuel has increased tremendously. Back in 1996, airline fuel cost 55 cents per gallon. Now, it’s $2.97 per gallon. Airlines can’t absorb all of that increase, so they pass some of that on to the consumer, leading to higher fares.

Additionally, airline taxes and security fees have also increased, adding a lot of money onto your base fare. Currently, the following fees are added to the cost of your ticket:

September 11th Security Fee of $2.50 (up to a maximum of $10 per round-trip).
Passenger facility charges of $4.50 per segment (up to a maximum of $18 per round-trip).
US Federal Domestic Segment Fee of $3.70 per segment.
US Travel Facilities Tax of $8.20 per direction (only applicable to flights to/from Alaska and Hawaii and the 48 contiguous US states or between Alaska and Hawaii);
US Immigration User fee of $7.
US Customs User fee of $5.50.
US APHIS User fee of $5, US International Transportation Tax of $16.30 per arrival or departure; and Foreign Government security/tourism/airport/international transportation taxes and fees of up to $290 (varies widely by destination and fluctuates with exchange rates).

That’s a hell of a lot of fees! And it’s not just the United States. Ever fly into London? Half the price of the ticket is made up of the fees and taxes!

Moreover, following 9/11 and the recession, demand fell and to compensate, airlines reduced both the number of routes they offered and the frequency of their flights. They did this to save money and fly fuller planes. Fuller planes mean more passenger revenue and fewer costs for the airline. It’s why if you live far from a major city you’ve seen fares go up and the number of flights go down. Planes fly close to full now and airlines are quite happy about that.

With fewer planes, less competition, and higher capacity, airlines can charge a lot more for tickets. There’s nothing to stop them and they don’t need to lower prices. United CEO Jeff Smisek said that only now are airfares priced appropriately. When you have a CEO say something like that, it means prices are not going to go down anymore, but only up.

According to Rick Seaney of farecompare.com, “Before 2008, things were in the favor of the passengers. After the 2009 crisis, the scale of justice tipped towards the airlines.”

Why Do Prices Fluctuate?

Prices go up and down for many reasons. No one can really predict when or if a price is going to go up or down. Only the airline knows that. But there are four things that drive prices: competition, supply, demand, and oil prices. The first and last items are the ones that really affect prices the most.

Together, those four things all affect a lovely thing called load factor. Airlines want to fill their planes and maximize profits, and they do this by calculating a plane’s load factor. Essentially, this is the percentage of seats sold on a flight. They want this number to be as high as possible.

Airlines tend to manage their load factor by constantly changing the price of tickets to fill the plane and get maximum revenue. On a U.S. domestic ticket, a flight might have 10-15 different price points, according to Rick Seaney.

If the load factor is low and demand is low, an airline will increase the availability of cheap fares. If the load factor is high and demand is high, the airline will raise prices.

In the airline industry, there are two types of passengers: business travelers and leisure passengers. Business travelers are flexible on price (the boss is paying) but not on dates. Leisure travelers aren’t flexible on price (the cheaper the better) but are on dates.

Airlines are constantly trying to strike a balance between these two types so they can make a profit. Why fly a plane full of cheap fares when you can get people to pay more?

Airlines know that a certain number of people will book far in advance if they can find a decent price. Airlines also know that they need to hold a certain number of seats for business travelers who will book last-minute and pay more.

Ticket prices jump up and down based on the demand for seats on a plane from these two types of passengers.

As Scott Mayerowitz, airline reporter for the Associated Press, says, “To maximize their profit, airlines developed sophisticated computer systems that constantly compare booking trends to past sales history. If tickets are selling faster than in the past, the price rises. If a competitor raises fares, the airline will probably raise theirs too.”

How Do You Get Cheap Fares?

I remember the days when I got excited over roundtrip fares for $500 to Europe. Now, with prices typically around $1,000, I get excited over a $750 round trip fare. (Yay! I say sarcastically.)

It’s not impossible to find a cheaper ticket. Am I going to find that $500 roundtrip fare to Europe? Maybe if I get extremely lucky but typically not. Heck, you can sometimes fly to Asia for the price it costs to fly to London!

One trick to not being the person who paid the most for your ticket is to be flexible. As I said, airlines are constantly changing prices and trying to balance leisure and business travelers; they’ll do their best to avoid having customers pay the lowest price point.

“About three months before, airlines start to manage those bottom price points,” Rick says. That means airlines begin to look at historical trends and current seat sales to figure out whether they will release those really rock bottom fares or keep prices high.

If you are booking inside a month, you are playing into the airline’s hand. As Rick pointed out to me, the bulk of the tickets are sold within 30 days of departure. Booking that late is a bad idea. At that point, airlines know they have you. When your dates are no longer flexible, you’ll pay whatever they charge.

To quote Scott again: “The days of routinely flying from New York to San Francisco for $99 each way are long gone. That said, there are occasional fare wars when airlines like Virgin America or Spirit enter a new market. Airlines will also still deeply discount flights when traffic is low, such as winter flights to Europe. The catch is: travelers need to be flexible about when they fly. ITA Software’s airfare search provides a calendar of the lowest fares on given routes. It’s a great way to find the best fares, if you have some flexibility.”

(For more from Scott, check out my interview with him from last year.)

And, while there are many other tricks to reduce the cost of your ticket, the main two are flexibility and flying when demand is low. That means avoiding flying on Monday, Friday, or Sunday, flying mid-week, and taking early morning or really late flights.

The days of cheap airfares are long over. They aren’t coming back and the prices you see now are the new normal for airline tickets. They are simply going to cost a lot more, especially if you don’t find the sweet spot when prices are their lowest. But by understanding how tickets are priced, you can avoid being the person who paid the most.

The post Why Your Airplane Ticket is So Expensive appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Why Tourists Ruin the Places They Visit (and What to Do About It)

2013-04-23T19:03:19Z

Last summer while I was living in Sweden, I met up with travel writer Doug Lansky, the man behind several worldwide destination guides for Rough Guides. We were talking about travel (of course) and began discussing the philosophical question about whether, as traveler writers, we end up destroying the places we love by sharing them with the world.

By writing about those off the beaten track destinations, those little local restaurants and quiet parts of the city where you are free of tourists, do we inadvertently contribute to the demise and overdevelopment of these destinations?

When I consider this question, I think about two things. First, I think about Tony Wheeler, the founder of Lonely Planet, the guy who pretty much commercialized backpacking. He’s the guy that turned the world onto Ko Phi Phi, which used to look like the left image and now looks like the right:

Secondly, I remember my own experience on Ko Lipe in Thailand (a tiny, off the beaten path destination) and how overdeveloped that island has become in the last few years. And I think about how I always talk about Coral Bay, Australia — and other little towns and restaurants around the world — with great enthusiasm and encouragement.

By driving people to the next “undiscovered” place, do I just ruin it? Will I be that guy who returns and says, “Man, this place used to be cool 10 years ago.”

But while not totally guiltless, I don’t think travel writers are to blame when places become crowded destinations full of tourists and overpriced hotels.

What actually ruins a destination are the tourists.

And I don’t mean that simply because of the increase in visitors. I mean that because tourists end up supporting unsustainable tourism practices, and that’s what really destroys a place.

We simply love places to death.

I’ve seen far too many locals who are shortsighted, building hotels, resorts, and businesses to try to cash in on the latest travel fad. And who can blame them? People need to eat, kids need to be sent to college, and money needs to be earned. The future is someone else’s problem, right? And I can’t really fault a lot of people for that logic. I don’t agree with it, but how do you tell someone they can’t build something to feed their family? (I also think many countries in the world, including my own, should enact stronger environmental laws to help curb excessive building and development to ensure people take a longer view.)

I remember reading an article by Thomas Freidman from The New York Times talking about the rainforest in Brazil. In an interview with a local activist, the activist said that people need to eat, and while some understand the need to protect the forest, with no alternative, people are going to choose food over protecting trees.

And it’s not just small locals that do this.

Large corporations come in and take full advantage of lax regulation, low wages, and corrupt officials. Greenwashing, the practice of pretending you’re engaging in environmentally friendly actions, is very prevalent in travel.

Development is good but unfettered development is bad, and unfortunately, there’s too much unfettered development in tourism today.

That being said, I still mostly blame the tourists. I think as a writer it’s important for me to not only highlight destinations (go here! It’s great!) but to also emphasize responsibility so future generations can benefit from the place and enjoy it. There are a lot of great environmental travel blogs out there and while this site deals more with the practical side of travel, I’ve talked about ruined places before and the need for better environmental protection many times.

But as tourists we ALSO have a responsibility to the destination. This is where consumer choice and power really come to us. If we frequent operators, hotels, and services that are destructive — not only to the environment but also to the local economy — we can’t really be surprised when we encounter mass development and “ruined”, overcrowded attractions.

How you spend your money is your vote for whether or not you accept what companies do. You know why companies have jumped on the eco-friendly bandwagon? Money. Sure, some actually care about the environment, but for 99% of them, it’s money. People will pay more money if they feel like they are impacting the environment. Wal-Mart executives are pretty open about the fact they began selling eco-friendly and organic products was because their customers were demanding it and there was money to be made.

I think the same is true in travel. We have a choice in the vendors we use, the hotels we stay, and the tour operators we hire. Our dollars go very far in developing countries and the businesses there will change if we demand it. Start demanding good environmental practices and suddenly you’ll find them. If more and more people tell businesses that they want to see better environmental practices, they will happen. You’ve found a company underpaying or mistreating their local staff? Or partaking in destructive practices? Let them know and use their competitor. There’s a lot of information online that can help you learn more about companies to avoid:

Responsible Travel Report
Green Travel Resources
Green Global Travel Blog
National Geographic Green Living Resources

I feel that many people, when given the right information, will make the right choice. And as a travel writer, I’d like to encourage people to make that right choice. That means looking up the environmental record of the hotel or resort you are staying in, choosing a tour company that is ecologically friendly, and avoiding destinations that are already overdeveloped. How do you do that? A little research and common sense.

We go to these places because they are beautiful. We may never come back but if we do, don’t we want the magic to still be there? Don’t we want our kids and grandkids to enjoy these places too?

We all bear some responsibility, but those whose money supports the ruinous ways bear the most.

It’s not the volume of travel that matters, but how that volume is handled. And we have a responsibility to ensure that the volume we create is well managed. Or you could very well be the last person to see that destination in all of its splendor.

Photo of Ko Phi Phi thanks to the Traveling Canucks. They’re a great blog. You should read them.

The post Why Tourists Ruin the Places They Visit (and What to Do About It) appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

The Saturday City: Austin

2013-04-20T14:04:25Z

According to research, the phrase “Keep Austin Weird” was inspired by comments made by Red Wassenich in 2000 while giving a pledge to an Austin radio station. He later began printing bumper stickers and published a book called Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town.

Now the phrase reflects the friendly, artistic, creative and a little offbeat culture that is a haven for varying LGBT, intellectual, naturalist and environmentalist communities.

Austin, the state capital of Texas, is an island of blue in a sea of red. It’s a liberal city in a very conservative state. In Austin, you’ll find boutique food, bike lanes, alternative bars, hippies, open homosexuality, food trucks, art, and culture. It’s a welcoming place where anyone who likes happy people, good food, and great music would find themselves at home.

For ten days last month, I spent my time in Austin attending the SXSW music, film, and tech festival. This massive event is the outgrowth of what was once a small independent music festival. Now, it’s a corporate megashow. It was my second time at SXSW and my third time in Austin.

While I have mixed feelings on SXSW itself (I love and hate it all at once), what I don’t have mixed feelings about is Austin. I don’t think it’s weird at all. I think the rest of Texas is weird for not being more like Austin.

Which is why I love the city and do my part to keep the place “weird.” If it wasn’t for the fact that you really do need a car to travel around the city, it would be on my “I’d move to this city” list. Some of my favorite activities are:

Cathedral of Junk

One of the real highlights of my entire tip was checking out the Cathedral of Junk. The cathedral was built by Vince Hannemann, who sits around while people hang out with his stuff. The Cathedral of Junk is exactly that – a bunch of junk. There’s towers of TVs, bikes, old refrigerators, tires, hubcaps, and more. I found the place great for families. Talking to some locals, I found out that a lot of people come here with their kids; many were running all over the place and having a merry time playing make-believe. Kids + junk + pretend = an easy afternoon.

Museum of the Weird

This museum located on 6th Street is a typical penny arcade featuring weird oddities like a two-headed chicken, a “fish man”, a mummy, and even a sideshow. It’s one of those “Step right up and see some weird shit” kind of places. It’s small, taking only 20 minutes to wander through, but it’s weird, Austin-like, and sort of fun. Admission is $5.

Taste of Joy
This hot sauce shop serves hundreds of different kinds of hot sauces and was the reason behind this video:

If you like hot sauce, come here. They offer free tastings for many of the sauces. If you want to go crazy, try all the sauces on the shelves aptly shaped like a coffin. They are for serious spicy addicts only.

Food Trucks

The food trucks in Austin are second only to those in Portland. You can’t say you ate in Austin if you don’t go food truck hopping around the city – you can get everything from sandwiches to Asian fusion. The South Austin Trailer Park and Eatery on S. 1st Street is really good. Definitely check that out.

Listen to music

Austin is famous for its music scene and there are many opportunities here to listen to some world-class, independent music. Pretty much every bar in the city showcases music. The two big music festivals in the city are Austin City Limits and SXSW.

Visit Whole Foods

Whole Foods, the nationwide chain, started in Austin and the flagship store is located here in the city. This particular store features a wine bar, smoothie bar, beer locker, roof terrace, giant salad bars, and endless supplies of vegetables, food, and restaurants. It’s a food heaven, and it might be my happy place, too.

Watch the bats on Congress

From mid-March until November, the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin is home to 1.5 million flying bats. Visit the waterfront at dusk to watch these beauties head out for their nightly foraging.

Jump into Barton Springs

Barton Springs Pool is the city’s main aquatic treasure. Located in Zilker Park, the natural springs provide a great respite from the summertime heat. If you’re up to it, check out Hippie Hollow on Lake Travis, Austin’s nudist beach.

Get drunk on 6th Street

Sixth Street is the famous street in Austin that is home to all the bars and restaurants and offers a wild, Mardi Gras-style atmosphere during the weekends. This is a fun street and a great place to meet people.

Zilker Park

Zilker Park is in the heart of south Austin. The park offers many different types of outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, kayaking, jogging, and anything else you can do in a park. Barton Springs is here as well, and don’t forget to visit the statue park.

There is a lot to do in Austin from the weird to the mundane. The unique and eclectic nature of the city makes it a great place to grab beer, listen to some music, and people-watch for days straight. You’ll find you can only be bored in this city if you try.

The post The Saturday City: Austin appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.