Tim Leffel's Cheapest Destinations

Smart Packing for the Holidays

tim — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:38:38 +0000

It’s about to be that time of year again, when planes are jammed, tempers are flaring, and we’re supposed to deliver gifts while full of cheer. Of course it’s hard to be cheerful when you’re paying $25 to $75 to check bags after already paying inflated holiday airfares. So check out this article I got quoted [...]

Enter the Remarkable Photo Contest

tim — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:51:26 +0000

It’s time for the third annual Remarkable Photo Contest at Perceptive Travel. If you’ve taken a fanstastic, amazing travel photo (or two), send in your entry and you may score a nice prize. We’re giving away a compact super-zoom Casio camera that can take 1,000 photos on one charge, a pair of sunglasses from Tifosi Optics, [...]

Caffeinated in Colombia

tim — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:32:03 +0000

I’ve spent the last few days bopping around Colombia after taking a seat on Spirit Air’s new route to Armenia, Colombia. This is the Coffee Triangle region of the country so I’ve been jacked up on caffeine the whole time (just the black liquid pick-me-up, not the other white powdery one.) First impressions are that the [...]

Your Input Wanted

tim — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:53:59 +0000

Because I seem to be the juggler who keeps saying, “Throw me another ball,” I agreed to do a book on travel writing that will come out next year. It’s not the usual rundown on query letters and deadlines though. It’s going to be more about how “breaking into travel writing” is a lot different [...]

Good Travel Info From Elsewhere

tim — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:11:53 +0000

I’m busy getting the 3rd annual Remarkable Photo Contest ready to launch this weekend on Perceptive Travel, so here’s some useful travel info from elsewhere to make this a week of being wiser. 8 things you should know about Gore-tex (that I didn’t until two weeks ago). The fine print on credit cards keeps getting worse and [...]

Don’t Be a Victim of Others’ Wrong Assumptions

tim — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:56:02 +0000

How much are you influenced by what other people think—even if they don’t know what they’re talking about? Witness these examples from Seth Godin’s blog: Texting while driving is more dangerous than driving drunk. It doesn’t feel that way, of course, but will you respect the data and stop, cold turkey? The data shows that the vast majority [...]

How Many Cabins Are There in Hell?

tim — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:51:23 +0000

Here’s one seagoing vessel you will never find me upon: the 6,300-passenger Oasis of the Seas that is now in the ocean somewhere on the way to its home base in Florida. I think you can see it coming if you’re standing on a hill in Alabama. According to the Associated Press, this monstrosity has 2,700 [...]

High in Fiji, a Boat to Bagan, and America’s Stonehenge

tim — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:57:29 +0000

I was running around New York City the past few days, but on Monday we posted the new issue of Perceptive Travel, home to the best travel stories from wandering book authors. Two of our regular contributors return, including one who let me crash in his apartment a few nights ago: Bruce Northam. He’s got a [...]

Mumbai’s Taxi Problem

tim — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:34:58 +0000

One of my many vivid negative memories of India is arriving in Bombay after a 36-hour train ride that was supposed to be 24 hours, only to get in a huge blow-up argument with a taxi driver who tried to charge us double the correct fare for a ride in his beat-up jalopy. Most of [...]

The Best Books for Round-the-World Travel

tim — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:48:09 +0000

I get asked for book recommendations a lot from people planning their first trip around the world or going on an extended trip. Thankfully half of the e-mails have “(besides yours)” in the request. Yes, of course I think The World’s Cheapest Destinations should be the one you look to when deciding where you can [...]