Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

Success Stories: How Dan Readjusted to Life Back Home

2013-06-18T17:09:19Z

Two months ago, Erin told us about how she readjusted to life after spending two years traveling the world. This month, continuing our reader story series, Dan shares his story about how he readjusts to life back home after spending enormous amounts of time on the road. What makes Dan’s story a little different is that he doesn’t permanently return – he comes home, works, then goes out and travels more.

Dan, tell everyone about yourself.
I’m English, and my first trip was a month spent inter-railing around Europe in 1991. I was 18. It didn’t actually go that well and I wasn’t hooked until my trip to India in 1998. There was something about being immersed in the culture of a developing nation that really fascinated me (that and the fact that I could survive on about 5 GBP a day)! That’s where my low-budget ethos was born and from then on I was a bona fide traveler. Now, I move countries every few years with long, overland trips, working in-between. I currently live in Sydney, Australia with my like-minded wife.

What inspires your trips?
We were most recently traveling Southeast Asia. This particular leg was chosen because it was between Cape Town, where we had been living, and Sydney, our current residence. After our last trip through the heart of Africa, we needed a more enjoyable, relaxing trip and we knew that Southeast Asia was going to be a lot more “fun” given that it’s a backpacker mecca.

Where did you go on your trip?
We started in Bangkok and did a clockwise loop north through Laos, Vietnam, and back through Cambodia to Bangkok, then we headed south down the Malay Peninsula, across to Indonesia and along the chain of Indonesian islands as far as Bali before flying back to Sydney. That took 5 months. We would have liked to continue east to East Timor or Papua New Guinea but we ran out of money.

Were there any scary parts to your trip?
Probably the scariest parts of this trip were the drunken antics of the backpackers in Vang Vieng (Laos) and Ko Pha-ngan (Thailand), several of whom died or disappeared during the respective Tubing and Full Moon Parties while we were there. In terms of traditional third-world scaremongering though, all the people were wonderful and we had no troubles at all. After living on a knife’s edge in Africa for three years, Southeast Asia was a doddle.

Did you have a plan for when you came back from your first trip? If so, what was it?
The first time I went away was only a month around Europe so it didn’t impact much on my home life, so that’s probably not a very interesting answer. My second trip was more major – a year in Australia when I finished university. Before I left, I booked a place on a post-grad course intending to earn the fees during my year away. I slaved in a supermarket for six months earning enough to support me for the next year, but then I went travelling and blew most of it. D’oh!

As far as practical plans went, I was just going to stay on a mate’s floor until I found a room in a shared house, and from there look for a part-time job. It all went as planned. It’s never taken me long to find a job. Despite the unemployment figures, if you really want a job, you’ll find one. My theory is that the sort of person who is willing to drop everything and travel long term will have the same mindset and will rarely have trouble finding work.

What was the hardest part of coming home?
Having to cook for ourselves again! No, we (my wife and I) move countries entirely so we have to organise somewhere to live, some work, collecting our worldly goods from the port and storing them.

I’m a very practical person so I don’t let emotions interfere with my rehabilitation into society. When the trip is over, it’s over, and it is time to get back to work. Sure, I miss the road but I know I’ll be back and besides, I like living in the city too, so there is plenty to look forward to at home. On my first trip, I met a lovely young lady whom I travelled with for nearly two months, and I missed her enormously when I left. (Matt’s Note: Check out this article on love on the road.)

To be honest, after returning from that first trip to Australia, I went through a period of sadness. Her letters combined with my fabulous memories and new, unglamorous student existence got me down for a while, but I soon pulled myself together. In all the trips I’ve done since, I’ve learned to cope better emotionally. Practice makes perfect, right?

Do you find it hard to adjust to “normal life” after being on the road so long?
I’m pretty level-headed so I didn’t find it difficult, plus I’ve done it several times before. In fact, I love getting back into the city and catching up on the food, movies and music that I’ve missed. Being away for so long means you can miss entire seasons, memes and explosions in popular culture. A news event or trend that flared up and died, then is referred to years later can leave you perplexed until you work out that it must have happened during your year in South America. Imagine if you’d missed Gangnam Style and then saw it on a Review of 2012 five years later. You’d be gobsmacked.

Did you find employers looked at your travels as a negative or does it help in securing a job?
In my field, it was definitely a positive. Travel shops need staff with world experience who can relate to (and impress) their customers, and so are understanding when you express your need to travel further. I work at an independent shop called Trek & Travel in Sydney, Australia, where we sell hiking and travel clothing and equipment. I’m currently the assistant manager. In Cape Town, South Africa I worked for an outdoor clothing manufacturer called Capestorm that had a chain of stores. Although working in retail is never something to which I aspired, my understanding boss does let me take months off at a time to feed my travel habit, and being surrounded by the paraphernalia of travel and like-minded people every day keeps the excitement of the world simmering. If it gets too boring I’ll just quit, go travelling, and find another job upon my return. Although, I have to say, this process does get slightly more daunting as I get older.

What advice would you have for people coming home after a long trip?
Don’t panic. Take things step by step. Find somewhere to crash, either with friends, family or at a cheap hostel. Next, grab the first available job. Do anything; don’t be fussy. I usually start work within a week of arrival. Use that money for the bond on a rental place, then look for a better job. Obviously it’s wise to finish your trip with some start-up capital, tempting though it may be to stretch that last dollar as far as possible. Set aside a couple of hundred dollars and don’t touch it. After that, you’re up and running.

*******************************
Dan’s story shows that while coming home can be an adjustment, you learn to adjust quickly and returning from subsequent trips becomes easier and easier. Thanks for doing the interview, Dan!

You can read more about Dan on his blog and in his self-published book about Africa, This is Not a Holiday.

Next month, I’ll be profiling a couple who sold everything on their fiftieth birthday, and traveled around the world for two years.

The post Success Stories: How Dan Readjusted to Life Back Home appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

IMPORTANT and URGENT Message for All RSS Readers!

2013-06-16T21:24:20Z

Do you read this site via RSS like Google Reader? Then I have an important message for you that requires urgent action. On July 1st, Google will be shutting Google Reader down.

That means you won’t have easy access to all the great travel tips and stories featured on this blog but here are two easy things you can do so you don’t miss any posts:

1. Find another feed reader and add this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/MattsTravelSite

You can use Feedly, which is an awesome free site.

2. Join 35,000 other people on my weekly email newsletter, where you can get my posts, awesome tips not found on this blog, exclusive discounts, and money saving travel deals I find each week.

And, if you sign up below, I’ll even send you the first chapter of my book for free!

If you read this site via RSS, you have an automatic way to stay up-to-date with this blog. Don’t let Google take away that ease. If you want to keep reading my newest articles, move to a new feed reader or take your savings to the next level and join my newsletter where you will get all my great posts plus tons of other goodies.

Thanks for reading!

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What’s It Like Taking a Night Train in Europe?

2013-06-13T13:53:10Z

Earlier this week, I talked about European train passes and whether or not they were worth the money. As part of the continuing train series, in this week’s video, I highlight my night train from Madrid to Paris, a long twelve hour ride on an old Renfe (Spanish) train. (Quick note to Renfe: upgrade your trains!)

Here’s the journey:

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While I had a good time and the journey was comfortable (and the food surprisingly good), as I said in Monday’s post, I don’t find overnight trains to be good value with their high costs. If you are traveling through Europe and want to save money on accommodation, a second class seat will work out cheaper than a hostel or hotel but avoid the cabins. They are too expensive.

Unless you are a train enthusiast, I’d save my money, take a cheap flight, and avoid twelve hours of travel. Unlike the famous Ghan in Australia, or the VIA rail in Canada, I don’t find anything special or unique about the overnight trains in Europe (I’ve taken three).

Editor’s Note/Disclosure: This post is the beginning of a series of blogs, videos, and giveaways revolving around train travel in Europe. As mentioned in the beginning of the post, Rail Europe gave me my pass for free and also paid the reservation fees. Rail Europe has been a site partner since 2009.

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Are Eurail Passes a Giant Scam or Do They Save You Money?

2013-06-10T14:24:02Z

Every two years, I use a train pass to ride the rails of Europe in an effort to answer the most important question travelers have on the subject: do these passes actually save you money or are they a giant waste of time?

Back in 2011, I found that rail passes were worth the cost if you took lots of high speed, long distance, or overnight trains and were traveling last minute. This year Rail Europe again gave me a pass to determine whether that was still true. I set off on a journey from Lisbon to Berlin, taking a variety of trains in order to explore the differences in value.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve heard from fellow travelers that passes have gotten harder to use due to limited seat availability and increased fees. It used to be that you could buy a rail pass, hop on a train, and go wherever you wanted. And if you needed a reservation for the seat, it didn’t matter whether you had a pass or not — if there was a seat on the train, you got it. Now there are often only a set number of seats available for passholders on any given train and many countries have instituted high-priced reservation fees (I’m looking at you, France!).

Additionally, as railways have had to deal with the rise of budget airlines, they have changed their pricing model to more closely imitate airlines. Now they now tend offer cheap early bird prices and expensive last-minute fares.

Under these new constraints, I wanted to see if passes still make financial sense.

The Math: How Much I Spent

It’s all about the money with the passes. So how does it work out? Here’s a breakdown of what the expenses looked like:

Train	Cost With Pass	1st Class (w/o pass)	2nd Class (w/o pass)
Lisbon – Madrid (overnight single)	97	151	60
Madrid – Paris (overnight single)	192	202	180
Paris – Brussels	18	124	72
Brussels – Amsterdam	0	62	34
Amsterdam – Berlin	0	199	123
Total	307	738	469

Note: Prices are in Euros and reflect last-minute departure prices that were given to me at the train station at the time of booking.

The pass I was given was a first class 15-day, two month Global pass that costs $1,189 USD. (Why first class? Because it’s the only pass you can get when you are over 26.) This means that I can use the pass for 15 non-consecutive days of travel in a two month period. The value of each journey works out to be $79. Since I was only in Europe for two weeks, I didn’t use the entire pass, but I used a variety of different trains for my tests. My five train rides then have a base value $395.

So with all the fees plus the base ticket price, did I save money? My total costs were $800 USD (the base cost plus fees). The added fees were for seat reservations. On night trains, they are required. In some countries, like Italy and France, reservations are also required for day trains. So that means on top of the base fare, you are also paying a small fee for the seat (anywhere between 2-9 Euros ($3-12 USD)). Without the pass, my first class tickets would have cost me $975, a savings of $175.

(A second class pass is $774, or $51 per trip. Without the pass, it would have cost me $620 whereas with the pass, costs would have been much less.)

Using the pass
I never had any problems finding a seat, except on the Paris to Amsterdam journey. The Thalys train has a limited number of passholder seats and since I didn’t pre-book a ticket, instead of travelling direct, I had to make a number of stops. It made the journey cheaper but also a lot longer than it needed to be. Other than that, I had no problem using the pass or finding seat availability.

Should You Buy a Rail Pass?

So are Eurail passes worth it?

Maybe.

A lot of people assume train travel in Europe requires a pass, purchase one without looking at the numbers, and then complain about the cost.

But rail passes are all about money. If it doesn’t save you a dollar, it’s not worth getting, and that means you have to do a lot of math, which can be a time-consuming process, but is certainly worth it in the end.

Just like the airlines, prices are now variable and no longer fixed. Depending on when you book, your ticket cost will fluctuate. If you are willing to pre-book months in advance, you’ll easily find some unbeatable bargain deals such as Paris to Amsterdam from $46, Rome to Venice from $38, or Amsterdam to Berlin from $78. Denmark offers orange tickets that are 50% off the normal price. Since rail passes cost roughly $79 per trip, you can’t beat booking individual tickets far in advance.

But who pre-books a multi-month trip to Europe?

If you are planning on a two-week trip months from now and you already know your dates, it’s not going to be the best idea to get a rail pass. Even though those early bird tickets are non-refundable, they are still pretty cheap and you probably won’t be changing too many of your dates.

But if you are traveling around Europe with no fixed plans, rail passes can work out to be a better value than buying same-day point-to-point tickets. To me, the pass is about flexibility and being able to hop on and hop off trains when you want. If you are traveling long term, you aren’t going to pre-plan months of travel. You are going to want the ability to go with the flow, which using a pass will give you.

I think one of the best ways to use the passes is to mix and match, using the rail pass for the expensive trains while paying for cheap tickets individually so you can maximize value. For example, for 11 days of train travel in Europe, it’s cheaper to buy a 10-day Eurail Global pass plus one point-to-point ticket for the cheapest train. Additionally, I place a value on flexibility. If the math is roughly the same, I’ll buy a pass because maybe saving $3 isn’t worth trading the flexibility a pass gives.

That being said, reflecting on the high costs of the sleeper trains, I don’t think I would take an overnight train again. If you don’t mind a seat, it’s a great deal — but I can’t sleep in seats and am not a huge train enthusiast to begin with, so I would opt for flights instead. At $79 USD, day trains work out to be cheaper than last-minute flights (baggage and service fees add up) but the added fees for night trains might make airfare better value.

Special note: Train passes also come with some other perks that you can see here. For example, by just being a passholder you get 50% off ferries in Greece, Italy, and Germany, 40% off ferries in Finland, and some other bus discounts. If you look over the perks and plan on taking advantage of those as well, those savings should be factored into your decision as to whether a rail pass makes financial sense for your trip.

How to pick the option that is best for you

Rail passes are all about math. The only way to know for sure whether a rail pass or point-to-point ticket would be cheaper is to work out the point-to-point prices for most of the trips you’re planning using the various European train operator websites.

After you have a general idea as to where you want to go, visit the national railway websites and work out two sets of prices: one for tomorrow (i.e. a last-minute fare) and one for two months from now (i.e. an early bird fare). Add up the prices in each category.

Next, head to Rail Europe, find your rail pass, and divide the rail pass price by the number of days you’ll be travelling by train to figure out the cost of each journey on the pass.

See which is cheaper and take that option, bearing in mind that your journey may change or you may take more high-speed rails. If I know I’ll be in a lot of countries that don’t charge reservation fees and the prices are for booking early versus using a pass are close, I’ll probably go with the pass as there is value in flexibility (I change my mind a lot).

In the end, a train pass isn’t right for all trips but for most people spending a long time in Europe and traveling vast distances, having a pass will save you money. While the reservation fees stink, the basic principles of the pass still hold: if you are traveling vast distances, using a lot of high speed trains, and are traveling last minute, a rail pass is still going to save you money.

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My Favorite Travel Companies and Gear: 2013 Edition

2013-06-07T01:33:03Z

Many years have passed since the last time I wrote about the travel companies I use and a lot has changed in those years. Now, there’s a ton of travel apps, new search sites, and resources available to help plan your trip. And while many of the companies I use have stayed the same, many have changed as has some of the gear I take with me.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is:

“Matt, who do you use when you travel?”

Since the last time I answered that question was 2010, I am overdue for a response. Below you will find a list of all the companies, apps, and gear I use:

Travel insurance – I still am a loyal user of World Nomads. I’ve been using them since I started traveling in 2006 and I’ll continue to use them until I stop traveling. Their prices are competitive, they offer comprehensive coverage and great customer service. Overall, they just rock. They are the official travel insurance of both Lonely Planet and National Geographic and I figure if they were good enough for them, they’re good enough for me. I’ve never been disappointed.

Backpacks – When I went to Africa last year, South African Airlines lost my REI Mars backpack. It was my baby. After 6 years on the road with me, it functioned as good as the day I took it home from the store. I still miss that bag – it was a constant on the road. It went everywhere I did, saw everything I did. So after mourning its lost, I walked into REI and bought the same one. Their products last forever and come with a lifetime guarantee. I’m a customer of theirs for life. Now, let’s just hope this backpack doesn’t get lost either.

Guidebooks – I don’t always use a guide book but when I do, it’s Lonely Planet. Everyone has their own guidebook preference; Lonely Planet is mine. I like the look of their guides as well as their light weight. After a redesign in 2011, the books are now better organized with more photos and better maps, and I enjoy their emphasis on budget travel.

Camera – I used to be a Nikon guy, but Canon has really improved the quality of their night photographs. Since my Nikon point-and-shoot was a little outdated, before I went to Africa, I bought a Canon SX 500 because of its really impressive zoom lens. I mean, look at the detail on this moon photo! That’s pretty amazing detail. Now, I keep the Nikon around for city shots but if I’m taking a lot of nature shoots, Canon is what I use.

Video Camera – For the videos I post on my site (I’m starting to publish weekly videos, so be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel) I use a Panasonic HC-X900M. It’s supposed to be the top-of-the-line HD video camera under $1,000. It shoots in full HD at 1920×1080 and since starting to use it, I’ve noticed a vast improvement in my video quality.

Computer – For all my website design, video, and photo needs, I use a Macbook Pro. I find it easy to use and it never breaks down. I love my Mac. Once you go Mac, you never go back.

Hotel booking sites – When it comes to hotels, I am a Starwood hotels loyalist. I don’t often stay in hotels but when I do, I love the W and I use the points I get from travel hacking to stay for free. But if I do have to research I like to use Hotwire, Hotels.com, Expedia, and Booking.com.

Travel Apps – I don’t use many travel apps; I’ve never been a huge fan of them. Why would you be checking apps while on the road? I never find myself in the middle of a jungle or on a beach thinking “damn, I wish there was an app for X!” But a few do come in handy: Google Maps (the handiest app of all), Skype, and Currency cover my basic needs. The rest are just filler.

Airline booking sites – I tend to be loyal to American Airlines. I fly a lot so being loyal as a frequent flier pays off. But when I am looking beyond AA, I use the following sites: Momondo, Skyscanner, Vayama, and ITA Matrix. Those sites are the start of any search I run for airfare prices.

Hostel booking sites – The best hostel accommodation site out there with the largest inventory, best search interface, and availability is Hostelworld. I use them for my bookings and I like them so much that I started a partnership with them two years ago.

Tour company – I took my first overseas trip to Costa Rica in 2003 with G Adventures. That trip turned me into the travel junkie I am today. I like their commitment to the environment and local communities, small group sizes, and balance of free time and scheduled activities. It’s the way touring should be done. They too have been a partner of the site for a while and in a couple of weeks, I’ll be making a major announcement regarding them that will save you a ton of money!

Airline alliance – While I travel hack the world and use points to fly just about anyone I can, when I am paying for my flights or have the miles, I am a Oneworld loyalist. While the Star Alliance has more airlines to choose from, American Airlines (the US partner) is far better than United and I’m also a huge fan of Cathay Pacific and British Airways! Win, win all around.

Travel credit card – This is a bit tricky since deals, cards, bonuses change so often. I sign up for a lot of cards in order to travel hack so I can fly for free. But when it comes to my everyday spending, I rotate between three cards: Starwoods AMEX (business expenses), American Airlines (points for free flights), and Chase Sapphire Preferred (some points, plus no foreign transaction fees).

So there you have it: my favorite travel companies – the ones I use constantly throughout my travels. These are the ones I recommend throughout my site because they constantly get me great deals, offer great customer service, and are just all-around amazing. Are these the perfect companies for every traveler in every circumstance? No, of course not — but if you’re looking for some consistently good companies to check out first, these are the ones.

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The Top Things to See and Do in Madrid

2013-06-05T16:37:32Z

My first time in Madrid was a failure. I got sick and only ended up making it out for half a day before retreating back into bed, cursing a cold that kept me from experiencing one of Europe’s great cities.

On my train trip through Europe last month, I entered Madrid tired from an overnight train but in wonderful health, and I set out to right a wrong. Madrid would be explored, dissected, drank, and eaten through.

A couple of weeks ago, I took you on a food tour of Madrid. This week’s Wednesday video highlights the top six things I loved about the city.

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Madrid has a lot more to offer than what’s included in this video, from food tours to flamenco dancing to outstanding nightlife to a growing gin and tonic obsession.

You’ll never be bored in Madrid. There’s so many things to do there, but the activities mentioned in this video will give you a good starting point.

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Love, Fear, and a Chance of Drowning with Torre DeRoche

2013-06-03T16:31:17Z

Did you ever read Eat, Pray, Love? Did you like it? I didn’t — and when I saw the movie on a flight, I wanted to throw a shoe at the screen. I’m not really a “chick flick” movie guy (exceptions: Love Actually and The Notebook, two great movies). But then my friend Torre DeRoche published her love story, Love with a Chance of Drowning, about meeting the man of her dreams and sailing across the Pacific despite an intense fear of the ocean.

To my surprise, I really enjoyed the book. It was less of a love story and more of an adventure story about getting over your fears. I found the book to be descriptive, funny, and inspiring. (Also, she is a much better writer than I am.) So today, I virtually sit down with Torre to learn how a girl who was afraid of water sailed across an ocean with a man she met at bar.

Tell us your story. How did a girl afraid of water end up on a boat?
In my mid-twenties, my life in Melbourne had stagnated, so I quit my job and booked a one-way flight to San Francisco. Not long after I got there, I met a man in a bar who had a humble boat and a ready-to-go plan to set sail. Since I’ve always been terrified of the ocean, I had no interest in his adventure, but he was fun to be around so I kept seeing him.

Over many months, he charmed me with pictures of the remote islands of the South Pacific, and I found myself wondering what it would be like to reach such a paradise by the power of the wind.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I grew excited by the challenge of facing my fear. I was also in love. So I decided to jump aboard and island-hop across the Pacific to Australia on a leaky, 32′ boat.

For that matter, how did an Australian girl who doesn’t like water fly over an ocean to end up in California?
I was scared of a lot of things: the flight over, starting from scratch, loneliness, finding a job and a place to live, making friends, and getting by on what little savings I had. But I forged ahead because I had always wanted to live in the US, and because I felt that if I didn’t face my fears and go, I’d be sentencing myself to a predictable, boring life.

You weren’t afraid of ending up on the “Lost” island?
When you’re floating mid-Pacific in a boat that’s smaller than a bedroom, you’re far too vulnerable to let yourself get worked up about fictional stories. It was the creepy, real-life threats that I feared, like freak waves, white squalls, or orcas attacking and sinking the boat (yes, this really happens!).

When did you get over your fear?
After we spent twenty-six days at sea sailing from America to the Marquesas, I felt pretty invincible. I was still nervous about deep water and long sea passages (see above for reasons why), but the throat-clenching, phobic fear that I’d felt at the start of the voyage was gone.

With your book Love with a Chance of Drowning, how did you go from self-publishing to being published by a traditional publishing house?
I queried agents for six months and, after having no luck with that, I decided to self-publish. A couple of weeks after launching, I received a Twitter message from a Hollywood producer who had chanced upon an excerpt of my book through a series of random clicks. He wanted to know if the film option was available.
A month after self-publishing, I received two offers: one from the UK publisher and one from the Hollywood producer. Armed with two offers, it took me about four days to sign with a New York agent. From there, the book went to auction, and we quickly sold to five publishers around the world. The film rights were also optioned.

What’s life like now as a big time author?
I’m hand fed caviar and peeled grapes around the clock by an entourage of Herculean men in leather thongs. No, that’s a lie. Life as a published author is exactly the same, only with a vague understanding that a bunch of strangers are reading my words right now.

I’m asked to sign books, which never stops being strange. At a book event, someone said to me, “Could you please write a little piece of wisdom in my book?” I’m not very skilled at wisdom-on-demand, so after a long, thoughtful pause, I wrote, “Thanks for coming tonight.” Whoa — watch out, Dalai Lama!

I always find it weird people want my signature too.
It really makes me wish I’d invented a cooler signature.

What do you want people to get out of your book?
On its most basic level, Love with a Chance of Drowning is a lighthearted, fast-paced travel memoir that takes the reader across the Pacific Ocean via a string of remote islands aboard a leaky boat. It’s a love story set on a sailboat, but it’s not just for armchair travelers, sailors and romantics.

At its heart, it’s a book about going up against fear and taking big risks. If you have the courage to step outside your comfort zone with an open mind and an open heart, the world and its possibilities becomes infinitely larger. Big risks yield big rewards.

It may force you to question your own life decisions, it may give you the inspiration you need to embark on your own scary adventure, or it may simply take you on a hair-raising boat trip through the South Pacific with a terrified woman and her clumsy-but-lovable Argentinean boyfriend.

Is there a movie in your future?
Somewhere in Hollywood, Love with a Chance of Drowning is being adapted into a script right now. If all goes to plan, there will indeed be a film. Watch this space.

What were some of your top three moments sailing the pacific?

Smelling land for the first time after twenty-six days at sea.
Meeting a beautiful 60-year old woman who had been sailing for forty years, and learning that she also had a fear of deep water. She taught me that adventurers are not always fearless, which inspired the name of my blog Fearful Adventurer.
Being welcomed with huge bear hugs by islanders in destinations accessible only by boat. We were taken in like family.

I’ve always wanted to sail around the Pacific. How do you do it? What if I don’t want to buy a boat? Any advice?
There are a few ways to see the Pacific without having to buy your own boat:

The Aranui – This is a freighter ship that delivers food and goods to various remote islands around French Polynesia. It also takes passengers on its route through the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, and the Society Islands. The ship doesn’t stay in port long, but you’ll get to see many remote islands that can only be reached by boat.
Crew on someone else’s boat – A lot of sailors take on crew to help with the sailing and chores. Many of them want people with prior experience, but if you’re a particularly charming backpacker with the right attitude, you can hitch a ride across the Pacific on anything from a structurally questionable wooden boat to a Fortune 500 CEO’s mega-yacht. You may end up with a loveable captain, or a complete freak — but that’s all part of the adventure, right?
Charter a boat out of Fiji, Tonga or Tahiti – There are a number of companies that offer charter boats. You can hire a skipper and crew, or you can bareboat. From Tahiti, you can sail a couple of days northeast to reach the Tuamotus. There you’ll find some of the most beautiful -— and treacherous! — atolls in the world.

What would you tell a person who wants to try something new, but who is afraid?
I believe that if you get that nagging urge to try something new and you find yourself hesitating because of fear, the only reasonable path to take is to follow through with it. If you do, possibilities will open up and you’ll get an incredible sense of empowerment from breaking down your own perceived boundaries. If you don’t follow through, the opposite will happen. Your world becomes smaller. You’ll lose faith in yourself. A little piece of you dies, and regret grows in its place.

And really, isn’t that a hell of a lot more scary than whatever it is that’s holding you back?

What’s next for you?
I haven’t figured that out yet! I’m so focused on trying to get through this wild adventure of writing and publishing a book that I haven’t yet had a chance to plot out my next moves.

As far as writing goes, I would love to attempt fiction next.

For more of Torre, you can visit her website, Fearful Adventurer, and you can get her book on Amazon or in your local book store (I highly recommend it!). There’s also her witty tweets on Twitter.

The post Love, Fear, and a Chance of Drowning with Torre DeRoche appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

May’s Reader Video Q&A

2013-05-30T15:38:28Z

It’s the end of the month so that means it is time to answer your questions. This month I got a ton of questions and, since I’m trying not to make the videos three hours long, I only answered a few but plan on getting to the rest in June.

I’m really getting into video and am going to start doing weekly travel videos – not only answering your questions but giving travel tips and highlighting destinations around the world.

Here’s me answering some awesome reader questions this month!

(Want more travel videos? I now update my Youtube channel each week with a new video. Subscribe here and get free videos!)

Next month, I’ll be answering an extra large amount of questions so if you have one, leave a question in the comments section. Moving forward I have a great idea on how to handle all the questions I get but that’s going stay a secret for now. Why spoil the surprise?

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

The Accidental Traveler

2013-05-28T16:36:43Z

I can count on one hand all the places I visited before I was 23. Travel wasn’t part of my upbringing. It wasn’t something my family did outside of the occasional road trip to visit my grandmother in Florida.

In college, I skipped studying abroad because I was afraid I might miss something. I went to Montreal twice because when you’re under 21 and can’t afford Spring Break in Cancun, Montreal is the closest place to go when you live in Boston. It wasn’t until I was 23 that I left North America to visit Costa Rica and I only did that because that’s what I thought you were supposed to do when you work. With two weeks vacation a year, you’re supposed to go somewhere and have fun, right? It wasn’t that I had a burning desire to travel; it was just something I thought I had to do.

But that trip to Costa Rica changed my whole life. After that, I was hooked. I was in love. I was addicted. I needed travel in my life.

A couple of months ago, I told this story during a radio interview and the host called me an accidental traveler.

I liked that phrase. The accidental traveler.

I’d never thought about it that way before, but it’s fitting.

In the beginning, I had no burning desire to travel; it was just something that happened. Travel became part of my life only as an afterthought. I never woke up wanting to be nomadic.

Being called an accidental traveler made me think about the journeys we take as people.

Are they deliberate, or do they just happen? How many times do we discover our journey only while we’re in the middle of it?

I think about the journey I’ve taken. It begin first as a simple desire to travel more, then changed to a stronger desire to take a gap year and then wanting to travel forever. I fell into travel writing as a way to make that happen.

Now, I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.

Each step, each twist and turn, happened without any prior planning or thinking. In the words of Robert Frost, way lead onto way.

I found my path only while I was on it.

My mind sometimes goes back to when I was 23 and in Costa Rica. What made Costa Rica so special was that it showed me I could live life on my own terms. Travel allowed me to do what I wanted, when I wanted. It made every day Saturday and filled it with endless possibility.

I think of my friend Chris Guillebeau, who recently finished his journey to visit all the countries in the world before his 35th birthday, and how he described his journey of one that evolved over time.

You want to see a couple of countries.

Then a couple more.

One day you wake up and you’re on a quest to see every country in the world.

Just like one day you wake up and you realize you’ve become a world traveler.

You don’t know how it happened. You can’t really pinpoint the exact moment you or your life changed.

But it did.

Your one year plan turns into eighteen months, then thirty six months, and then, suddenly, you are celebrating five years on the road.

You’re a traveler. It’s in your blood. It’s who you are.

And you sit and write this in your favorite coffee shop in NYC and you reflect on how you got here and think about all the other big moments in your life and you realize that the best ones all happened as accidents.

And as you get ready to travel again, you realize that sometimes just falling into something can be the best thing to happen to you.

One day, you set out on a path and the road twists and turns and you think you’re still on that same path until you stop and rest — then you look around and realize you’re not where you intended to be, but someplace even better.

Then there, in this new world, as you get ready to celebrate another year older, you come to the conclusion that no plan might be the best plan and you’re happy letting life’s accidents lead the way.

The post The Accidental Traveler appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Taking a Delicious Food Tour in Madrid

2013-05-26T12:52:59Z

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: Despite me offering to pay, Lauren and James provided the food tour for free.

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