Be honest: what do you think when you get an e-mail from someone you don’t recognize and it’s from an address like emily28726@gmail.com? Do you trust it? I automatically think the message is junk. I have a good reason to think that based on history: most of them are a waste of my time...

Are you feeling more stuck than usual because of economic headwinds beyond your control? Are you gasping when looking at flight prices and gas pump prices, thinking you can’t go very far? Well, sometimes constraints can produce interesting outcomes. It might be time to find a closer adventure by traveling local. When I first...

More than 10 years ago I published a guest post from Bulgaria native and blogger Maria Stoynova. I’m still in touch with her and we actually hung out together a couple of times in Bansko. She obviously knows more than I do about what it really costs to live in Bulgaria, so I’m turning...

If I had to guess, I’d estimate that two-thirds of the people that take off for long-term travels around the world end up spending the majority of their time in Asia. There are many reasons for this, including the high number of flight connections from Australia and Europe and the sunny weather, but I’d...

Nearly every city has some fun things to do that will cost you little or nothing, but sometimes it’s an underwhelming list. That’s not the case in one of the USA’s most important historic cities though. You’ll find plenty of top-tier places to experience when you check out free things to do in Richmond...

Once upon a time in a simpler travel environment, it was a quick decision on whether to travel with carry-on baggage or not. You did it for speed and to be 100% sure your bag would be with you because you were immediately departing for another city. Or you worked for an airline. There...

Yes, most airlines suck and many travel companies have become faceless AI farms where reaching a real human with answers takes hours of your time. However, many of the travel problems I see people complaining about on social media are ones that could have easily been solved with a back-up plan in place. If...

The USA has some of the most developed health care equipment, some of the best-trained specialists, and some of the best-equipped hospitals in the world. There’s just one big problem: the average American can’t afford access to those shiny superlatives. Unaffordable healthcare costs are a way of life for a huge percentage of American...

“What do you do?” It’s a question we all get a lot, especially in the workaholic USA, and I wasn’t always thrilled with the answer every year of my adult life. It took me quite a while to get to the answer I wanted. I was pretty darn excited when I could start truthfully...

If you’re flying on a budget airline, fees to carry almost anything on with you are a fact of life now, but on airlines that still include carry-on bags in the ticket, you can pack light and save $90 round-trip. Which kind of luggage option you choose can make a big difference in how...

I just spent a few days getting all my tax information together for my accountant and it’s never a fun experience. Even though I live abroad most of the year, Uncle Sam keeps following me around. I still must file every year, which is something that all American expats have to deal with. On...

There are plenty of great values in Bangkok, from domestic flights to hotel deals to great street food. You can spend quite a lot of money though to play golf in Bangkok at the luxurious Thai Country Club or the impeccably groomed Alpine Golf Club, where a round of golf can cost you as...

If you’re planning your USA travels for the World Cup or some other reason this year, it’s important to remember that this is a huge country with vast distances between cities and national parks. It’s better to pick your cluster of destinations rather than trying to hit everything on your wish list in one...

One of the seven wonders of the world and by most accounts the most popular tourist destination in South America for foreigners, Machu Picchu is on the list of almost every first-time visitor to Peru. It’s in an isolated location only reached by train though or on foot though, so the answer to “How...

I just spent two weeks in a European travel destination that doesn’t get much press, even though it’s easy to get to, has some gorgeous mountains in the middle, and supposedly has more than 100 castles you can visit. As I write this, This country is a good value overall but it doesn’t get...

I just got back from leading a tour in Slovakia where we skied part of the time and hit some of the sights around the Tatras Mountains. I also spent a night in Prague and flew out of Vienna, so this gave me a good chance to try out the Holafly eSIM I installed...

Travel sites and magazines constantly run stories about finding great travel bargains and vacation deals. Usually they highlight some nifty new website, the latest app, or some some supposed hack that has you searching for flights at 2:00 a.m. on a certain weekday. They are infatuated with what’s new. Really though, it’s not that...

As someone who spends up to half the year away from my base, working remotely from wherever I’ve landed, I’ve learned a few things about digital nomad tools. I’ve learned which are more trouble than they’re worth and which ones can make your life easier. Also, each week in the Nomadico newsletter I’m sharing...

You can certainly find bigger and more impressive places to visit than the Tequila and Mezcal Museum in Mexico City, especially since this city supposedly has more museums than any other metropolis in the world. But if you’re staying in or near the historical center, it’s worth stopping by this well-designed attraction on Garibaldi...

There are plenty of articles out there on travel hacks for packing, booking flights, and getting credit card perks, but not so many about lodging travel hacks. Maybe that’s because the frequent travelers using them just think of them as “what you do to save money.” As a blogger friend of mine once said,...

This is a terrible time for foreigners to travel to the USA and apparently the president wants to make it painful to travel from the USA as well: he has tanked the dollar against most other world currencies through a series of self-inflicted wounds. At the start of 2025, the world was on sale...

There are times when going down the travel search rabbit hole can really pay off. Sometimes you have to set aside some time, then think creatively to find the cheap flights to anywhere. Flexibility and looking for alternate options can save a small fortune on your airline ticket prices. When I first put a version...

I have been to Patagonia twice now: once on the Argentina side and then a few months ago on the Chile side. It’s all one wild land mass down there though, with variable weather that can change multiple times a day and vary by microclimate. The key elements to remember when putting together your...

I try to keep my advice on this bargain travel blog as streamlined as possible but when it comes to which are the best airlines to fly internationally, there can be more asterisks and footnotes than an academic paper includes. This is especially true for baggage fees, seat assignment fees, and classes of service,...

While few aspects of travel planning are 100% effective all the time, you can almost always save time and money in your searches by using one of the online travel aggregators. This way you can search the best prices from multiple companies without visiting 10 or 20 different travel websites. The word “aggregator” sounds...

Vietnam doesn’t get the same hype and press coverage as Thailand or Bali, but it offers some of Southeast Asia’s most diverse and striking landscapes, with plenty of variety. For starters, you get a UNESCO World Heritage historic city, limestone karsts rising from jade-green waters in Ha Long Bay, terraced highlands near the Chinese border,...

Do you dream of circling the whole globe, of setting off from home for a long round the world trip that will last months or a year? I’ve done it a few times and it was a terrific experience, but making it an affordable RTW trip takes some effort. After you have made this...

As we head into a holiday season, in what has been an especially terrible year for air travel, expect a bad situation to get worse as the crowds surge and the weather turns ugly. The middle of summer and the middle of winter are generally the times when you’re most likely to face flight...

Digital nomads and remote workers are in high demand with smart governments. They spend far more per person than tourists do, they put more money into the local economy than tourists, and they tend to use more local labor services over time than the average traveler. They also spread out more instead of just...

Just because you’re traveling or living in one of the world’s cheapest destinations doesn’t mean things will be cheaper across the board when you pull out your wallet or credit card. Some prices may be more expensive than you’re used to at home, despite the much lower salaries locally. Does it surprise you to...

You probably rattle off Spanish place names many times a year, especially if you live in the western USA or you visit Mexico. But do you know what all those names mean? It probably wouldn’t ring a bell if I told you I’m writing this from Low South, that I’ve been to the area...

We’re approaching that time of year when your inbox is about to be inundated with “buy Buy BUY!” messages from every retailer that has managed to get you to register over the years. They can’t wait to enlighten you about all the things you could be buying to improve your life. Black Friday is...

“I was surprised about how cheap [insert product or service] was in [insert destination]” is a surprisingly common observation from people just returning from vacation, no matter where they went. Naturally the list of local bargains is longer in places where your own currency stretches further, but even in the priciest places you can...

Do you want to pay tourist prices or regular prices? Do you want to pay the maximum or the minimum when you travel? Those sound like dead easy questions when they’re put that way, but travelers often take the high-priced option without realizing they’re doing. it. There are usually at least two tiers of...

There’s a common but outdated assumption by a whole lot of travelers that the best way to earn frequent flier miles is to be a frequent flier. The reality is that it’ll take you forever to earn much that way unless your company is flying you business class at the last minute on a...

Back in 2018 I published a post called, “Buy Quality Travel Clothing (Because Nobody Wants Your Cast-offs Anymore).” This was based on some news articles about how the world was awash in used clothing, thanks in part to the “fast fashion” movement cranking out cheap items meant to be worn a few times and...

Travel decisions have a way of sticking with you and haunting you with regrets long after the other bad memories have faded. A decade or two later, when you’re making more money, you look back on the travel experiences you didn’t take with a lot of resignation and a nagging question haunts you: “What...

Why are some flights from where you live always expensive, while others seem to always be on sale? And what should you do about it so you’re getting the best deals? Understanding why and where cheap flight routes exist can save you a small fortune if you’re flexible. Some routes are just always cheaper...

Do you know the best times to buy travel gear? The calendar date can make a huge difference. Yes you can afford quality travel gear and name brand outdoor clothing for your journeys. The secret is buying it when the timing is right, not two days before your vacation. I see a lot of...

When I took off on my first trip around the world, I was a lot more carefree than I am now as an older (and hopefully wiser) traveler. I took more risks, winged it a lot more, and didn’t have much of a safety net in place when I look back now. I got...

If you’re a train enthusiast, Ecuador has really yanked at your emotions. There were no options, then some major ones, then nothing again for a while. The train crossing much of the country between the two largest cities was a signature infrastructure project from a former administration that created a lot of jobs, then...

If you’ve ever wondered why you see so many articles that are a version of “Is it safe to travel in ______?” it’s because a lot of people are putting that into a search bar every month, especially if they’re American. This is rather ironic since the USA shows up higher than other rich...

When I recently posted in the Nomadico newsletter than I was finally throwing away a pair of Darn Tough Vermont socks I’d used for a decade and a half, a bunch of readers wrote me and said, “Don’t toss them—the company has a lifetime warranty!” I knew that, but I’m staying out of the...

Years before I went full-time as a location-independent worker, a service came along that revolutionized the ability to work from anywhere in the world with a laptop. People forget now how groundbreaking it was, but Skype dramatically changed the communication game. Now the service is kaput though, another abandoned corporate takeover: in May of...

“There are only three essential things you need for international travel: a passport, money, and time.” I’ve seen this quote attributed to a lot of people over several decades and have no idea who really said it first. I’m sure the quote was from a simpler time though, in the age before smartphones, credit...

“If you make $1,000 a month, you can drive a small car, take your family out to decent restaurants sometimes, and visit a place like this on the weekends.” That was an offhand comment from my Nicaraguan guide Pablo when we were at the overlook area checking out Lake Apoyo between Managua and Granada....

I recently got quoted in CNBC talking about how to avoid roaming charges when you travel internationally. Two easy solutions are to use T-Mobile as your regular carrier if you’re in the USA or Europe or just rely on Wi-Fi all the time with roaming turned off. If those options aren’t feasible though, then...

Sometimes when doing an interview about living abroad I get pressed for specifics with the question, “Why would your expenses drop in half by moving overseas?” Which expenses drop so much that you can coast by on $2,000 a month instead of $4,000? Or live a comfortable life on one social security check instead...

Are you preparing to make a journey through the Sacred Valley of Peru to arrive at one of the most famous archaeological sites in the Americas? It’s a well-worn tourist path for sure, but getting to Machu Picchu isn’t as simple as visiting many of the other great wonders of the world. You’ll need...

In 2026 I’ll celebrate my 20th anniversary of going out on my own full time and saying my last goodbye to the corporate world. Since then I’ve been able to talk about making money online with real experience, supporting a family and putting a kid through college on earnings from my publishing company. So...