Living the Dream

We Are Married! - Honeymoon in Spain

2012-05-27T16:19:00.001-04:00

If you have been wondering, we are a bit outside of our normal posting schedule over the last week or so. We are not abandoning anyone with our limited posting, and in fact it is quite the contrary! On May 19th Angie and I got married, and we are currently on our honeymoon in the wonderful country of Spain. We are one week into the festivities and have already visited Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, Sevilla, and Cordoba. The next week will have some great highlights that include Granada, Barcelona, and Montserrat! But with all things, we are taking our honeymoon as a chance to unwind and relax from the last year (plus) without a vacation. Don't worry, we've got tons of great content from Spain, including Angie's first post on this blog, and many more from our previous travels ready to go when we get back in June. This is, as they say, just the beginning, and we are looking forward to bringing you some great content here in the very near future.

In case you did not hear, as an added bonus, we are having a sale on The Long-Term Traveler's Guide while we are traveling. The digital package and printed editions of the book are on sale for 20-25% off and will only be available at this discounted price until June 5th when we return home! If you cannot wait that long for more posts, join us on our Facebook page where we are sharing real time photos from Spain during our honeymoon.

Writing a Travel Book Part 10 - Final Thoughts

2012-05-23T12:00:00.000-04:00

Have promotions - Hosting a promotion periodically will help others remember your product, without sounding spammy or too pushy. Try balancing sales, trusted reviews, and contests to break things up a bit.
Make connections - You may not get a book deal from asking, but reaching out to other successful individuals will almost always have the best returns. Be it a good piece of advice or a substantial hand in the development process, a few helpful connections can help out significantly.
Be available - One of the best ways to get the word out on your book is just being available for people to ask you questions. Whether that is via a Google Hangout, Twitter session, or for a few hours on a Facebook Fan Page, allowing others to have an open and public time to ask questions is a great way to get the word out.
Be a mentor - Members of the travel blogging industry are quickly progressing into the self-publishing industry. You won't be the first to write a travel themed book and you will not be the last. If you find out a fellow blogger is writing a book, be a mentor! Give advice and help others learn from your successes and mistakes. If everyone helped mentored at least one future writer, the quality of the books released will increase exponentially and will progress our industry as a whole.
Be your biggest fan - If you do not believe in your product, no one will.

A Final Thank You

We want to take a moment to make a public thank you for everyone who helped out with The Long-Term Traveler's Guide, be it through contribution of quotes, blog posts for the digital package feature, general advice on the topic of self-publishing, or for just being an inspiration for us to live our dreams. As you can tell from this list, a lot more went into putting the book together than just one person writing over the period of a year, and we ask that you support each and every one of the traveler's who helped us out and are listed below.

Art of Backpacking,
Skinny Backpacker,
No Place to Be,
Twenty-Something Travel,
The Adventures of D,
Walk Fly Pinoy,
Traveling Canucks,
Ordinary Traveler,
Same Skies Above,
Dream a Little Dream,
One Giant Step,
The Traveller World Guide,
Todd's Wanderings,
foXnoMad,
My Life Beacon,
Chicky Bus,
Legal Nomads,
Travels of Adam,
A Dangerous Business,
Breakaway Backpacker,
The Planet D,
Over Yonderlust,
yTravel Blog,
Dont Ever Look Back,
Fearful Adventurer,
The Lost Girls,
Art of Travel Blogging,
...and everyone we have met on the road who are currently living their dream!

More importantly, we want to thank everyone who purchased The Long-Term Traveler's Guide and are currently using it to prepare for your own long-term adventure. Get out there and see the world, you won't regret it. Who knows, you may run into us one day. If you do, please stop and say hello!

Did you purchase a copy of The Long-Term Traveler's Guide? If so, send us a picture of you with it so we can host in this post! We'll link back to your blog or Twitter account if you have one as well!

This concludes the special ten part feature on writing and self-publishing a travel book is based on our experiences with our first book, The Long-Term Traveler's Guide. This feature is provided free of charge for those looking to write a book or e-book themselves. Other authors typically charge a modest price for an e-book that contains this information in such a fashion. Rather than requiring a purchase for this information, if you like what you have read please Reweet, Stumble, or 'Like' this post, use our affiliate links when registering for the companies we've recommended, or purchase a copy of The Long-Term Traveler's Guide to help us out!

Thank you for your support and happy travels!

Our 5 Favorite Hostels and Hotels Around the World

2012-05-21T19:00:00.000-04:00

After having traveled to 34 countries around the world (with number 35 next week) and over 220 days of travel, one thing is certain - we've stayed in a good number of hotels and hostels. In fact, we've got such fond memories of every single room we've ever stayed in that we have a review directory on this website to chronicle our opinions of each. But for every great hotel, there are several bad; and with having dozens of rooms under our belts, only five can be the very best. These are our five favorite hotel rooms we've stayed in around the world, and why you should too.

When choosing a hotel or dorm room, we are very picky. We have strict standards that must be met for us to be able to rest our heads, although we have been known to become rather lax if the city requires it. The staples that make a good hotel? Great location, clean rooms, free WiFi, and air conditioning. What makes a good hotel become one of our top five? Value and character. A $200/night room may be great, but it lacks value, especially if the management are not equipped with credit card processing for hotels. No, to get on this list, you cannot just throw money at your accommodation and make it to the top. To get on this list, you must be a true gem.

The following five hotels have all of these traits, and make us want to make reservations right away because next time we go back, there is no going anywhere else.

Hanoi Hotel Rendezvous - Hanoi, Vietnam

Readers of this blog should be well aware of our love of this hotel by now. Although Hotel Rendezvous is a boutique hotel by design, they have one dorm room that I was lucky enough to find myself in for several days while exploring Northern Vietnam. For $8/night, I felt like I was walking into paradise. Why is $8/night for a dorm room, often considered to be very expensive in Hanoi, amazing? Well, several reasons.

Double beds for everyone with fluffy sheets.
A full shower, great water pressure, and hot temperatures.
Amazing Australian owners who recommended the best restaurants in the city.
Free breakfast, even for the dorm
Luxury tours to Halong Bay and Sapa at cheap prices
Located right in the center of the Old Quarter

Recent prices at Hotel Rendezvous are reported to be approximately $8/night for the dorm.

Wombat's Berlin - Berlin, Germany

Although I was not very fond of the city of Berlin, Wombat's Hostel was one of the best I've ever stayed in. Everything about the hostel screams perfection. Between the clean rooms, ideal location, and one of the best (and cheapest!) roof top bars in the entire city with a view to match, you'll want to spend as much time in the hostel as you do outside. After a great night at the bar, a few minutes walking down the road puts you at some of Berlin's best sights including Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) and the public square Alexanderplatz.

Recent prices at Wombat's Berlin are reported to be approximately 23 Euro per night.

Da House Hotel - San Juan, Puerto Rico

Da House is a boutique hotel located in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. The location is something that should be noted, because Da House is located right next to the world famous La Bombonera diner which has some of the best food in the city. But lets ignore food for a moment and talk about the character of the hotel. Although the walls may be thin and you can hear the outside noises of the streets if you have a window, there is something about the building that just screams Puerto Rico. From the historic architecture to every room and hallway being decorated with artwork from local talent, the hotel feels very personal. With only a handful of rooms, its very obvious for anyone staying to see why. Factor in the $80/night price, one of the cheapest rates in Old San Juan, and you'll understand why we love it... just remember to bring a pair of ear plugs if you are a light sleeper, a tip that goes for any hotel in the city.

Al Zawaideh Desert Camp - Wadi Rum, Jordan

When you go out into the desert of Wadi Rum, Jordan, expecting a five star hotel is a thought that should be reserved only for the foolish. The key word in this accommodation is "camp," but the Al Zawaideh Desert Camp is unlike any camp I've ever stayed in anywhere in the world. The first thought of the word camp? Isolated and far from everything. The perk of camping in Wadi Rum? You want to be far from everything, and hanging out with the Bedouin in Jordan is one of the definitions of remote. But being remote is not all roughing it, the Bedouin have a lot of fun and are quite amazing to hang out and talk with as well as going out on one of the best 4x4 rides in the world. If you can handle the August heat, the Perseid Meteor Shower puts on one of the best shows in the world and you may be inclined to pull your cot out from the tents to sleep under the falling stars.

iBed - Koh Samui, Thailand

This message goes out to all future hostel owners out there. If you can make your hostel feel like a resort, you will succeed. iBed in Koh Samui, Thailand is a perfect example of this as you will never feel like you are in a shared dorm room during your entire stay. Sure, there will be other people in the room, but each bed has its own personal curtain and television included in the bunk. Sure, you share bathrooms with all guests of the hostel, but the showers are more luxurious and aesthetically appealing than most five star resorts. There is also the neighboring resort owned by the same company, with complimentary access to all those staying in the significantly lower priced rooms at the hostel. It may not be beachfront, but a two minute walk is close enough.

Recent prices at iBed Koh Samui start as low as $16/night, but entirely worth it for the luxury.

Have you been to any of the hostels or hotels we have listed in our Top 5? What did you think? If not, what would you consider to be your top 5 accommodations anywhere in the world? Comment below to let us know!

We Are Traveling and So Should You! - Wedding Edition

2012-05-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

Today is a great day because, not only did we get married (yay!), but we are officially on the road again! To celebrate, we kick start our newest promotion for our first book, The Long-Term Traveler's Guide called "We Are Traveling and So Should You!"

We feel very fortunate to be able to travel as often as we do, so every time we are on a trip; be it a weekend getaway, short vacation, or long-term trip abroad, we'll be discounting the guide! The best part about this promotion is that we don't know when it will occur as we have been known to book several long weekends at the last possible second.

In our first We Are Traveling and So Should You special, we are celebrating our honeymoon in Spain! As this is a momentous trip for us, we are having a fantastic discount for the printed and premium digital packages of the guide.

The printed edition of The Long-Term Traveler's Guide is 25% off, on sale for $12.50! The printed edition of the guide is available on a number of sites including Amazon, CreateSpace, and Barnes & Noble.

The digital package of The Long-Term Traveler's Guide is 20% off, on sale for $20.00! The digital package of the guide is available directly from our website via this link. This package not only includes a PDF copy of the guide, but several planning tools to help make preparing for your long-term adventure a breeze. One of the best features? One-on-one planning advice from us! A list of all the features included in the digital package can be found here.

This sale will be available until June 5th, 2012, unless a freak delay causes us to stay in Spain longer than we anticipate, in which case the sale will go on even longer!

So, what are you waiting for? Buy a copy of The Long-Term Traveler's Guide today!

Life on the River: A Cruise on the Mekong Delta

2012-05-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

Today's guest post is a beautiful narrative by Terrance Richardson.

Over the course of our marriage, my wife and I have seen a lot of territory. We have taken at least one extensive holiday a year for the past 20 years, and I am not talking about a quick flight over to Paris or Spain, but exotic detours to places like India, China and Nepal. My wife and I do not want to lose our adventuresome edge, for both of us believe that edge is the real fountain of youth. Despite the fact we are in our golden years, the idea of playing golf, tennis or bridge for the rest of our lives in a retirement community is about as exciting as watching paint dry on the walls. Of course, we cannot strap on a rucksack like the days of old. However, it was all of those budget holidays that we took in our twenties that are allowing us to travel in luxury today.

It is early morning. My wife and I are sitting on the sundeck of R.V Mekong. I am writing a postcard to our oldest daughter, telling her about our journey to Vietnam. My wife is watching the scenery unfold along the riverbank. It is a combination of tropical wetlands, rice paddies and rural fishing villages. It is with these views that I am inspired to write the body of the postcard:

"When we first landed in Vietnam, we spent three days in Hanoi. We are departing from Saigon and will spend three days exploring that city as well. However, the core of our trip is a cruise through the Mekong Delta. The R.V Mekong is outfitted with 34 twin cabins and three decks. There is an elegant dining room and a world-class bar. It gets blisteringly hot in Vietnam, so the boat is fully air-conditioned. However, in the morning there is a cool and refreshing river breeze. It is the best time to watch life along the riverbanks.

Yesterday, we visited a couple of rural pagodas and stopped at a river island, but the real point of this R.V cruise is to relax. Hanoi was hectic and busy. Saigon will be the same, I imagine. The cruise will help us recharge our batteries before we start our sightseeing adventure in Saigon. Village life in the Mekong Delta is different than anything we have seen before. Time seems to stand still, and the water has a hypnotic effect. The entire riverboat is full, so your mother and I have had the opportunity to meet a lot of people. Speaking of your mother, she is hanging over the edge of the boat and snapping photos. She sends her love."

Anyone who has taken a tour of the Mekong will have a good understanding of its immense size, sheer beauty, and relaxing tendencies. Letting the minutes tick by as you float by the river truly is an experience that has to be felt to be understood. The longer you go and the longer you want to stay. This is life on the Mekong.

Tracking Down Coupon Codes for Travel Savings

2012-05-15T12:35:00.000-04:00

Online coupon codes are not often considered when booking travel. There is a mental roadblock on doing searches for discount codes for major travel websites when it is a common activity for nearly all purchases. Why pay for shipping when a quick search will come up with a free shipping code? Purchasing travel is no different, and if the right circumstances come together for your next trip, your ability to find online coupon codes could help save quite a bit of money. (Photo "Coins" by mihow)

The Truth on Travel Coupon Codes

While coupon codes for a free night in a hotel or 50% off a purchase are increasingly rare in the world of travel, the truth is that travel deals are all over the place. Rather than taking the form of a promotional code like many merchandise based sales, travel deals are often in a part of short media campaigns highlighting a small fraction of what a specific company has to offer.

The downside to these promotions is that many times you often have to book via the promotional links in order to get the deal, rather than having a site wide discount. In these scenarios it is not only possible, but commonplace, for one traveler to book the same exact package as the person next to them and miss out entirely on the discount.

This is where tracking down coupon codes and deals really has value. Looking into some of the largest companies that exist, you really start to get a feel for what kind of coupons are available to travelers and how you may be able to save serious cash.

Airlines

Airlines are one of the best at offering great discounts, but are also quite selective in those who are able to benefit from the savings. When looking up coupon codes for Southwest Airlines, for example, there are promotions to get $50 off airfare when booking hotels via their vacations page and promotions for those visiting select cities like New Orleans, St Petersburg (Florida), and Phoenix. As these promotions change frequently, the odds of your destination city being matched increases. (Photo "Photos at a Local Airport" by spanishwor)

On the other hand, promo codes for Emirates airline often take the opposite end of the spectrum in that the many deals are advertised for everyone and do not require additional purchases to earn. For example, a current promotion at the time of posting offers everyone flying to Europe on Emirates a sale price depending on your outbound destination. There are some trade offs, but purchasing a ticket at the right time during a promotion can save as well. Wait a week or two, and the ticket is back to its original price.

Tour Companies

The major tour companies like Tours4Fun and Intrepid Travel offer multiple promotions that change every few weeks. Unlike airlines, which often limit the number of people who are eligible, tour companies make coupon codes relatively cut and dry. If you are booking a trip on a promoted tour, you get the discount! But those looking to buy discounted tours from the major companies must take note of this one caveat - they sell out. Do not expect any tour that is discounted by >20% to have seats remaining for very long. Jump on them fast, especially if you spot a 50% off Antarctica package that appears from time to time.

Day Trips

Companies that offer day trips tend to offer more sporadic sales. Rather than having dedicated discounts and coupon codes for everyone to use, day trip operators may have flash sales on their social media pages that only last for 24-48 hours at most. While this is not always the case, with these companies it pays to not only follow their coupon code listing pages, but the social media pages as well to jump on the best promotions when they come up at last second. Don't wait, because they will be gone if you do!

Although coupon codes may not work for every traveler, and some of the best that exist are highly focused on special itineraries, those that are a match could save a significant amount of money on their next vacation. For only a few minutes worth of work to do a search to see what exists, the money that is returned could be significant. Don't pay full price, look for the best deals!

4 Tips for Buying Train Tickets for Spain on Renfe

2012-05-14T12:26:00.001-04:00

For those who have purchased tickets on the Spanish train booking website Renfe, you are probably cringing in recollection of your experiences. For those who are heading to Spain in the future but have yet to purchase tickets, you probably have heard the rumors about how bad the service is. For those who do not know what I am talking about, you're about to have an eye opening experience. Buying tickets on Renfe is quite possibly one of the worst travel experiences one can have, and after several frustrating purchase attempts we figured out 4 great tips to help make your purchasing experience a breeze! (Photo "Train Tracks" by M10tje)

Why the Headache

The notoriety of Renfe comes from many sources throughout the years. The network is the main site to purchase all train travel in Spain and also offers some of the best deals you can find. But as the attractive ticket prices lure you in, the poor website design and seemingly impossible network results in many headaches as purchase attempt after purchase attempt get denied and timeout. This process repeats itself several times over such that many people often just give up on trying to get the deal and spend more money at a 3rd party website to get past the time required to get Renfe to work altogether. But for those who wish to try their luck, follow these four tips we put together after purchasing our own tickets on Renfe with moderately good success!

Tip #1 - Buy Early and at the Right Time

The online booking deals through Renfe are one of the most popular anywhere in the world. For every ticket that is available, early booking promotions exist that can allow a few select people to get up to 60% off the price of a ticket. For us, that meant buying an overnight private room for two from Granada to Barcelona for less than the cost of a more open room for four, and even comparable to some of the basic seated fares. When looking at the larger picture, these fares are even cheaper than flying a budget airline carrier and having one more night of an expensive hotel stay in your destination city. But as these deals are almost too good to be true, you must get them early.

Tickets from the Renfe system become available 62 days in advance at midnight Spain time and recently started selling tickets between Madrid and Barcelona 120 days in advance.* Nearly all tickets will have published web fares at significantly discounted prices, but only in such a low quantity that the tickets are often sold out a day or two after going on sale. It is sad to say, but a few short hours could be the difference between an incredibly discounted ticket or another for the same seat that is 50% more expensive as happened to us when buying tickets from Madrid to Sevilla.

When it doubt on the exact time to purchase a ticket on Renfe, try out the following two activities:

Look at dates closer to today's date to see when the ticket sales cease. Renfe typically adds ticket sales one day at a time, so it is easy to find where the current sales date is.
Watch ticket sales around midnight Spain time to confirm they go on sale at this time. Two sets of our tickets went on sale a few hours before midnight Spain time on the day they were to go on sale.

As getting a good deal on Renfe is part being in the right place at the right time, it is worth looking in advance to know without a shadow of a doubt when tickets will become available.

*Note - These dates were accurate as of May 2012. Please check to see if these have changed when researching in the future.

Tip #2 - Prepare for Website Crashes and Oddities

Booking on the site often feels like performing an activity on the internet from the mid-1990s. Some computer in their system, located in some part of Spain, has likely not been updated since then. Add in a few hundred tourists wanting to buy tickets as soon as they go on sale and the computer overloads. Don't be surprised if this overload on the computer results in many minutes passing by with nothing happening, and several crashes of their server with only the prompt to return later. But in order to get the web fare deal, especially in the busy summer months, you must keep working through it. (Photo "Electrico" by jmjvicente)

The second oddity to watch out for when buying Renfe tickets is that the site will often switch back and forth from English to Spanish text. While some writers swear that starting the prompt entirely in Spanish will yield better results in completing the transaction, we believe this is not the case. But what you do need to consider is the Spanish translations of some of the common transaction terms you'll see on the Renfe system:

Email - Correo Electronico
First Name - Nombre
Last Name - Apellidos
Type of Document: Tipo de Documento (Choose Pasaporte)
Passport # - Numero de Documento
Address - Direccion
Post Code - Codigo Postal
City - Poblacion
State/Province - Provincia
Country - Pais

Even though we are only moderately proficient in Spanish, seeing these prompts dozens of times made us be able to recall these phrases from memory with ease.

A working Renfe system will get to a check out screen, allow you to enter a credit card, and most likely prompt you to complete a Verified by Visa or Mastercard log-in.   Any interruption between these pages will result in you having to start over, and a failure to purchase after the Verified by Visa prompt is likely due to your bank denying charges. Any interruption before these pages will likely be well before any information is sent to your bank for approval.

*Note - I do not work for Renfe or any transportation department in Spain, my statement of old computers is a tongue-in-cheek joke. To anyone in Spain or workers of Renfe, I mean no disrespect, but it is incredibly difficult to buy tickets on the website. I'd be happy to provide a consultation to improve your services if needed.

Tip #3 - Use a Bank Card and Call in Advance

One of the biggest published headaches on the whole Renfe purchasing system is that it is incredibly difficult for those who use credit cards issued outside of Spain and many other European countries. Those that are hit especially hard with this issue are Americans, and hundreds of published stories exist online where many American and foreign travelers alike are simply unable to purchase Renfe tickets due to their credit card being denied.

There are two reasons for a credit card being denied on an international purchase. The first is that your bank is assuming your card is being used fraudulently and the charged is stopped to avoid future issues. The second is that the software is having issues sending approval to your specific banking institution. Renfe's notoriety with the latter of these two issues is so well known that a great majority of the time you cannot even make it to the final confirmation screen, and when you do, your card may get denied for fraud issues anyway. After putting in several hours of tries to get to the final checkout screen, only to be denied, you can imagine the frustration comes up.

Our successful attempts came about when we used our bank debit card to purchase these tickets, but only after several days went by from our first call to the bank to notify an international transaction was about to take place to when we actually purchased the tickets. All attempts with our trusty credit cards failed, and even though we were assured we could make instant purchases on our bank card, we did not have success until more than 48 hours after giving notice. Once that occurred, we made two unique orders over a period of several days without a single issue.

For full disclosure, we tried both Visa and Mastercards issued from several major banking institutions. Our banking institution that worked was PNC Bank.

Tip #4 - When All Else Fails, Use a 3rd Party

If the above three tips do not work, then fall back on our fourth tip - use a 3rd party service.   Many of these services will offer the similar web fares that Renfe is famous for, but will charge up to 10-15 Euro per ticket as a service fee. After wasting several hours trying to purchase tickets on the Renfe system and no visible signs of progress due to site outages, not reaching the final checkout screen, or any other number of factors, keep in mind that your time is valuable. Figure out what your limit is, when you reach it stop, pay the premium, and move on. The headaches are not worth it.

Do you have any tips for buying Spain tickets online with either Renfe or another 3rd party service? If so, let us know by commenting below!

5 Incredible Train Routes for Sightseeing

2012-05-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

All aboard! Make your trip all about the journey, not the destination, and spend your next holiday on the rails catching the world's top vistas from angles not available in any other form of transportation. All you have to do is set back, relax, and let the world slowly pass by with your camera at the ready.

Below, we list 5 of the world’s greatest train lines, perfect for long-haul travel through some of the planet’s most spectacular scenery.

The Orient Express, London to Venice

Relive the golden age of rail travel on the Orient Express route from London to Venice. Vintage Pullman and Continental trains used to transport passengers bring home the Agatha Christie feel.

Img: Jay cross

Tōkaidō Shinkansen, Japan

Zipping between Japan’s two most populous cities, Tokyo and Osaka, this high-speed bullet train line also offers stunning views of Mt. Fuji.

Img: adam79

Lima–Huancayo, Peru

You know the train track’s high when carriages have extra oxygen supplies available. This journey over the Peruvian Andes takes you up to 15,688ft.

Img: Max Opp

Snowdon Mountain Railway, Wales

The charming Snowdon Mountain Railway travels to the summit of the highest peak in England and Wales.

Img:www.snowdonrailway.co.uk

Rovos Rail, South Africa

Rovos Rail is the one of the African continent’s most comfy and reliable private rail companies. Take a journey from Cape Town to the Victoria Falls to see the stunning landscape of both South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Img: Gavin Clabaugh

Inspired? Go to HostelBookers’ Facebook page for the chance to win a pair of 10-day European rail passes every day between 9th - 18th May.

Highlights from the Singapore Botanical Garden

2012-05-06T17:03:00.000-04:00

When thinking of Singapore, everyone's first thoughts are always about the country being a small city-state. It is true, Singapore is small. We drove across the entire country in a taxi in about 15 minutes, to put it all in perspective.

While the country is one of the smallest in the world, there was an unusual feature that we were attracted to several times during our visit, the 183 acre botanical gardens. It is an unusual feature for a country that is famous for its urban scene to have such massive green spaces, but the gardens of Singapore are one of the best in the world. In order to truly understand the beauty of these gardens; however, we have to let our photos do the talking.

Flowers Everywhere

In being a botanical garden, you can expect there to be flowers just about everywhere. Unlike all of the other garden's we've visited in the past, many of the flowers at the Singapore spot were new to us and distinctly Asian. The further you walk, the more unique flowers you are presented with. Just be sure to have a fully charged battery to capture them all.

Well Maintained Displays

For many free botanical gardens, it is a relatively common site to see the displays and structures go unmaintained after a period of several decades. Even though the Singapore botanical gardens have been open for over 150 years, the features that have been added in over time look like they are brand new, and everything is in its place.

Green Space Everywhere

You may recall that the Singapore botanical gardens are over 180 acres in size. For all of the beautiful flowers and displays that the park has to offer, there is also an equally impressive amount of open green space. When walking around the gardens, do not be surprised if you stumble across a family having a picnic, locals walking their dogs, or friends just hanging out enjoying great weather. Some how, relaxing in the shade of the tall palm trees just seems to be one of the most relaxing activities anyone can do. Don't like the crowds? There is plenty of space for everyone, and enough green spaces to find one to claim as your very own for a few hours with no one to bother you.

What to See

There are a number of highlights that we recommend checking out at your time in the Singapore botanical gardens. When wandering around the grounds, be sure to check out these beautiful features!

The Orchidarium - For all things Orchid
The Rainforest - A small tropical rainforest located on the grounds
Ginger Gardens - Home to some of the most unique flowers you'll ever see
Swan Lake - One of the largest lakes on the grounds, great for people watching
Unnamed Corners - Don't take our word for it, the best part of visiting the gardens is exploring the parts not mentioned on any website! Pick a good day, walk around, and enjoy the day.

Red Inn Hostel Review - Penang, Malaysia

2012-05-02T18:33:00.000-04:00

The island of Penang, Malaysia is one of the most visited destinations for travelers in the country. With a combination of amazing beaches, cultural attractions, and food styles, Penang has every aspect of Malaysia rolled up into one small island. In knowing that, I made my way there shortly after visiting the island of Langkawi, right on the border with Thailand. Picking out a place to stay in Penang ended up being a difficult choice as there are a number of good options with cheap rates and desirable amenities. Although I splurged on my choice of staying at The Red Inn, it did not take long for me to realize that my choice was a good one that everyone should take some time to check out. So pull out your airfare fee calculator, buy a plane ticket, and get ready for one of the best hostels Penang has to offer!

The Common Areas

The common area at Red Inn is one I will always remember as being calm and relaxing, but always having something going on. Whether it was a few people hanging out talking and playing on their computers, a movie playing on the TV, or an even larger gathering, the common area always seemed full without having the high energy of a crowded atmosphere. It could have been the spacious lounging area with tall ceilings, the cushions designed for laying back, or the enlarged canvas of John Lennon, but something about the common area was different than the countless hostels I've stayed at before. The area lends itself well to unwinding after a busy day of sightseeing, without the worry of an all-night party keeping up guests who want to sleep (which at this point, I was on the needing sleep side of the spectrum).

Location, Location, Location

Red Inn has one of the best locations on the island as it is right in the middle of Georgetown, the most visited city on the island. This statement should not be taken out of context; however, as the island takes 2-3 hours to ride around via motorbike so every major attraction is within reach regardless of where you stay. The perk of this particular location is that the hostel is only a few blocks away from one of the islands best restaurants, The Red Garden (naming is only a coincidence). It takes a lot for me to want to eat at the same restaurant more than once while traveling, but the hawker center setup and stalls from every major country in East Asia makes the restaurant unique. When you are only a 5 minute walk away, you can't help but go a few times. Walk a few minutes further, and all of Georgetown is at your disposal.

A Three Bed Dorm Room

One of the interesting features of Red Inn that I hardly see in hostels is a three bed dorm room. Typically, when choosing hostels, rooms are of even sizes in order to maximize the number of bunk beds that can fit. The bonus for those who want to stay in the larger rooms is a significant price break, while those like myself who value privacy and quieter sleeping arrangements will pay more for less people per room. In having an odd number, you can be sure that at least one bed is not in bunk bed style, and you can imagine which of the three I ended up claiming for my four nights in Penang. No one above me, and no bunk to climb up. Perfect!

Overall - Five Stars (*****)

At 32 Ringgit per night (~$10/night), the three bed dorm room at Red Inn was one of the more expensive in Penang, but worth every penny. With a great location, clean rooms, a unique ambiance in the common areas, hot water, and free Wi-Fi, the hostel has everything I look for when picking out a place to stay. While this may be expensive to some, put in perspective that my previous stay was a $24/night private hotel room in Langkawi that was not nearly as nice, with one of the biggest perks being a good location. Even though I was sharing the room, the small size made it feel like I wasn't. Now that is worth the price.

Writing a Travel Book Part 9 - The Cost of Writing and Sales Summary

2012-04-29T11:52:00.001-04:00

During our time putting together our first self-published travel book, The Long-Term Traveler's Guide, we had to spend a lot of time learning about the self-publishing process and the travel book industry in general. In order to save future author's time and money, this ten-part Writing a Travel Book series was born!

The following is a quick list of the entries into this special feature. To learn more about our book launch and other information associated, please check out the Travel Book sidebar on this site.

Part 1 - Finding a Niche and Writing
Part 2 - Editing and Formatting
Part 3 - Evolution of a Cover Design
Part 4 - Digital Packages and Special Features
Part 5 - Developing a Website for Sales
Part 6 - Distribution Companies
Part 7 - Pricing Development and Launch
Part 8 - Affiliate Sales Programs and Tips to Succeed
Part 9 - The Cost of Writing and Sales Summary
Part 10 - Final Thoughts

Writing a Travel Book Part 9 - The Cost of Writing and Sales Summary

The costs associate with writing a travel book represents a significant investment for those looking to take the leap into self-publishing, as time spent writing will not be your only requirement to release the book. While it is true that putting together a quick e-book may only require a very modest financial investment, producing a full-fledged book with hopes of obtaining a book deal takes requires a bit more and can wind up being quite expensive.

As this series on Writing a Travel Book draws to a close, I wanted to give my unfiltered costs and profits associated with releasing The Long-Term Traveler's Guide. Hopefully, this post will give the true financial aspect of self-publishing for all those looking to release their own book in the future on both a time and cost basis. It may be a significant investment in both aspects, but it has been a great experience for us the whole way through.

For the purposes of this post, "Time" is defined as the moment of starting the task to the moment of completing the task, independent of the other tasks on this list and may only have required a few hours per week or few hours per day at its peak. Some aspects of producing this book ran concurrently. Finally, although I would love to value my time in a monetary increment, for the purpose of this post "Cost" only includes billable items that I paid for out of pocket in order to release the guide, otherwise this book would be very, very expensive.

Cost Summary for The Long-Term Traveler's Guide

Writing the Book
Time: ~8 months
Cost: $0

Editing the Book
Time: ~4 months
Cost: $200 in the form of a very nice dinner for my fiancee and myself to celebrate.

Website
Time: ~1 month
Cost: ~$50 to setup a domain name and host, $100 to purchase Thesis theme for design.

Design of the Book Cover
Time: ~3 months
Cost: $380 for 8 hours of work for front and back design, three options per side, and a print-ready delivery

Preparation for Printed Sales
Time: ~1 month
Cost: $50 for product activation on ClickBank, $225 to purchase two ISBNs, $45 to order two rounds of proofs with rush shipping, and $50 to register the book with the US Copyright Office.

Preparation for Digital Sales
Time: ~1 week
Cost: $5/month for delivery services with e-Junkie

Marketing Efforts
Time: On-Going - a few hours per week
Cost (Thus Far): $210 to order 40 copies and $60 for distribution of printed copies to supporters, key individuals in the travel market, and potential publishers as well as all associated shipping costs.

Total Cost to Self-Publish a Travel Book: $1,370

To put this number in perspective, I spent about $200 less than this to spend 4 weeks in China in 2010 excluding transportation to get in and out of the country. This figure is in-line with many others who have self-published a book as the common rate is at least $1,000 for comparable efforts. I am very excited to say that I am not an outlier in this.

Sales Summary for The Long-Term Traveler's Guide

Although the book has only been available for about 75 days, and our media campaign is just beginning, we have to consider sales to put the full series and writing process into perspective. The first number to consider? How many do you have to sell before you break even.

For us to breakeven with the book and recover $1,370, this means that we have to sell:

200 copies of the printed book,
or 60 copies of the digital package (120 if sold through affiliates),
or 225 copies of the Kindle/Nook edition,
or some combination of the above;
plus an additional 3 copies of the digital package per year to cover the reoccurring costs with e-Junkie.

Lets take a look at how we are doing to date:

Total Printed Books Sold to Date: 18
Total Kindle/Nook/iPad Books Sold to Date: 14
Total Digital Packages Sold to Date: 8
Total Blog Sponsored Contests for the Guide: 3 plus 1 scheduled in the near future
Total Number of Free Copies Distributed: 16
Total Affiliate Commissions Paid to Date: $22

and finally, the most important figure...

Total Revenue Earned to Date: $400

Revenue Earned and all sales data spans from launch in February 2012 until publishing of this post at the end of April 2012, or approximately 75 days of sales. The guide was released for Kindle approximately two weeks after launch, for Nook approximately six weeks after launch, and for iPad approximately 10 weeks after launch (only a few days before this post went live). As there has been significant interest in reader formats, especially iPad, we expect this figure to rise significantly in the near future.

Sales Breakdown by Month

To give a graphical representation of how The Long-Term Traveler's Guide is doing, please refer to the following charts. The first chart plots the relative sales of each format up until the last update of this post. The second chart plots revenue made on the book. It may seem low to only sell a few copies per week, but our major media campaign is just about to begin, and the numbers will continue to grow from there.

Regardless of how you wish to put sales, we are happy. To put it simply, I wrote The Long-Term Traveler's Guide as a labor of love to help encourage people to get out and see the world in a manner they are most comfortable with. Writing a book was on my bucket list, and it is a great feeling to say that I completed the task with amazing success.

My cost of $1,370 is on par with other reports that self-publishing authors have published on the web, and its always good to not be an outlier. While this is quite a sizable amount of money, we project that we will break even on costs after about one year of sales or less and are working to secure a book deal within that same period of time. Your future book may come in significantly under this cost, or may exceed the cost depending on a number of factors. Ultimately your payback will be based on the amount of effort you put into your book, and no monetary figures can give an accurate reflection on producing something that reflects your greatest passion.

Next stop... book deal? The search begins.

Write until it hurts, edit until your eyes bleed, be happy with your final product, promote it with intensity, and the world will take care of you in return.

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This ten part feature on writing and self-publishing a travel book is based on our experiences with our first book, The Long-Term Traveler's Guide, and is provided free of charge for those looking to write a book or e-book themselves. Other authors typically charge a modest price for an e-book that contains this information in such a fashion. Rather than requiring a purchase for this information, if you like what you have read please Reweet, Stumble, or 'Like' this post, use our affiliate links when registering for the companies we've recommended, or purchase a copy of The Long-Term Traveler's Guide to help us out!

Thank you for your support and happy travels!

Writing a Travel Book Part 8 - Affiliate Sales Programs and Tips to Succeed

2012-04-26T12:19:00.001-04:00

Bloggers Looking to Earn Money +

Websites Tailored for Your Product =

Affiliate Success!

You do not have to run with this formula for great affiliate marketing, but without having a way to partner with perspective affiliates and a way for those affiliates to sell your product, where will the interest come from?

Part of the reason we partnered with ClickBank for our digital package sales is to be listed in their product database for their quoted "100,000" sellers to possibly become our affiliates. While this process is not guaranteed to launch your product to stardom, it definitely wouldn't hurt. After two months of being live, we can easily say that we've seen significant traffic come through our website from these affiliates who we never heard of before and have even made a few sales with them as a referrer.

For more immediate affiliate sales, we looked to our professional network and developed some ways to encourage our fellow bloggers to sign up.

1) Have Participation from Day One

Allowing those in your network to contribute to your product is a great way to build a relationship with others in your industry who may one day drive affiliate sales. This could be as simple as asking for advice on how you form the product to having others contribute full segments of your package. Be sure to reward all contributors for their help proportional to the what they provide, as you should not expect anyone to help out for nothing.

For The Long-Term Traveler's Guide, we had several of the world's best travel bloggers contribute quotes to the included topics as a way to introduce each chapter in the book. It was a creative touch for a cover page, and all those who helped out are getting prime exposure in the book's reference page and digital package features. Free exposure in a potentially large book for a few minutes of effort is an easy decision for most bloggers, and being able to promote and make money off the product that you are featured in comes as a natural extension.

For full disclosure, all those who were featured in our guide received a free copy of the digital package as well as a printed edition for their contribution.

2) Offer Attractive Payouts

One of the biggest mistakes that digital sellers make with affiliate marketing is not giving their partners a large enough commission for their work. If your product is $50 and you only offer a $5 commission, it is quite likely that many potential affiliates will pass you right over. But if your $50 product offered a $25 commission per sale, you may generate a lot more interest in gathering affiliates to sell your product for you, especially if it is a product many people truly believe in.

We chose our digital pricing to be $25 for The Long-Term Traveler's Guide, a value that we feel is either right at or slightly less than what most people would be willing to pay. But to offer only $2.50 commission to our affiliates would be an insult and not worth their time. As our base affiliates are comprised of those who helped contribute small features that made the guide the amazing product that it is today (see tip #1), we felt like we could offer no less than 50% commission on all sales. Cut out the ClickBank commission, and the final sale price is $11 for us, and $11 for our affiliates.

So far, we've heard no complaints.

3) Give Select Affiliates Bonus Incentives

While you may not personally know all of your affiliates, you do have the opportunity to gain a few through bonus incentives. A common bonus technique is a tiered commissioning platform in which the most successful are given higher commissions above the base (+10%, +20%, etc). Our partner service does not offer such tiers unlike a few others that do, so we had to investigate other avenues to generate interest in our program.

As a way to generate interest in our product and attract people to become an affiliate, we are offering those with top rated travel blogs the chance to giveaway a copy of our book to a reader in exchange for a review. The partner places their affiliate link to generate sales from their review, more people will read it as the review doubles as a contest, and interest in our package increases. Good for us, and good for our affiliates.

The way you promote your affiliate program is up to you, but our initial formula has proven a great success for our product. Using databases as a way to pick up affiliates is one technique that requires no effort, but targeting those that will be more effective at selling your product is a win-win situation. Take a while to reflect on your product, determine where would be the best spots to sell it, and figure out what incentives you may be able to add in order to make it marketable to affiliates on Day 1.

While no product will truly sell itself, having others do it for you is a very close second; and paying your affiliates fairly is the least you can do for their effort.

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Thank you for your support and happy travels!

Join Our Webinar on May 9th: From Blogging to Self-Publishing

2012-04-24T18:57:00.005-04:00

It is that time again, we're having another Webinar with our friends at Art of Travel Blogging! Mark your calendars for May 9th at 7:00PM EST for "From Blogging to Self-Publishing: The Next Level." This Webinar is designed for all those looking to expand their online presence from writing via blogging to releasing a dedicated product for sale! RSVP now for your slot, as this Webinar will be limited to only 100 participants.

Title: From Blogging to Self-Publishing: The Next Level
Presenter: Jeremy from Living the Dream and The Long-Term Traveler's Guide
Date: May 9th at 7:00 PM EST (New York City time)
Duration: ~1 Hour
Click Here to RSVP as space is limited or read on for more about the Webinar!

Description of Webinar

"Making the leap from blogging to the world of self-publishing comes with numerous challenges to those looking to expand their brand. Where blogging is about producing free content for readers, self-publishing is dedicated to creating a dedicated product for sale. Website design and SEO are replaced with formatting to vendor specifications and getting listed on retailer websites. Rather than gaining subscribers, the goal of self-publishing takes everything to a new level – making sales.

The self-publishing process may take weeks, months, or even years to create a final product, and the sales effort is an on-going process from there. But to those who put in the effort, a polished product is a reward that will stick around for many years to come."

Topics Covered During Webinar

Who Should Self-Publish?
Formatting for Release in Print or Digital
Print-on-Demand Services (CreateSpace and LuLu)
Working with Distribution Companies (ClickBank and e-Junkie)
Affiliate Programs Pros and Cons
Getting Noticed – Reviews, Contests, and Associations
The Cost of Self-Publishing
Question and Answer Session

This Webinar is free for everyone to join but is limited to 100 participants. A recorded video of the presentation will be available to members of the Art of Travel Blogging community and I will be available for follow up Q&A outside of the allotted time for members of the Art of Travel Blogging community as well.

RSVP now by clicking here!

Meeting ID (for iOS app of MeetingBurner): 72375

Disclaimer: I am not being paid for participating in this Webinar and I do not earn affiliate sales based on your participation in the Art of Travel Blogging community. I do, however, participate regularly on the internal message boards and highly recommend you join. If you would like to support us after attending the Webinar, please check out our self-published book The Long-Term Traveler's Guide!

Hotel and Hostel Reviews from Around the World

2012-04-22T09:34:00.001-04:00

The problem we have with online reviews of hotels, hostels, and other accommodation types is the same issue we have with many recommendation services - we don't know the person who gave the review.   Aside from the cases of the always positive and always negative, it is hard to sort between listings containing mixed reviews, especially for those who pursue budget travel where these type of ratings are common. This is where bloggers come in to fill the void.

In reading articles from a travel blogger, you not only come to understand the destination, but the viewpoints and travel styles of the authors themselves. Without knowing the person giving a recommendation, you can never be certain if a hotel, attraction, or city would be right for you. To help with this, we've compiled a list of every single hotel we've ever stayed at while traveling in the last few years, rated them, and commented on the pluses and minuses for each. In knowing us from reading our blog, you will have a better idea of our opinions when put into context to our own travel style to see if a hotel match is right for you.

As this feature expands, we hope to include other travel writers to have a more encompassing review system in place, for hundreds of hotels from around the world, from bloggers you know and trust to have a similar travel style to your own.

Rating System

For all accommodation reviews shown in the list below, the ratings will be illustrated on a one star (*) to five star (*****) scale. In order to have continuity in this feature, the following is the breakdown associated with each star rating:

* - Awful. Nothing good about the location. Avoid at all costs.
** - Pretty Bad. A few plus sides, but would not stay again.
*** - Acceptable. Would stay again but may consider other options to see what is out there.
**** - Pretty Good. Worth the money for the amenities, location, or other offerings.
***** - Exceptional. Above and Beyond what was expected.

Anything above three stars (***) is generally considered good. Four stars (****) corresponds to a place we'd recommend checking out and five stars (*****) is a place that we continue talking about to this day and highly encourage you to look into if the price is within your budget.

Hotel Review Directory

When applicable, the hotel names listed below will be linked to their full review.   For now, the hotels are arranged by continent and subsequently arranged by date visited in each region.   Please note that pricing has likely risen for most hotels proportional to how long ago they were visited and reviews are only applicable for these specific dates visit (although rare, some hotels do get better and others get worse!).   If you are interested in any that are recommended, we encourage you to find other reviews closer to your travel date to ensure the positive rating is still valid if the original date of stay is more than a few months in the past. If you have any questions about any that are listed, feel free to comment and we'd be happy to respond!

To keep updated with this on-going feature in the future, check out the "Hotel Reviews" link on the drop-down menu above under the category "Plan a Trip."

Name - Location -   Date - Cost/Night - # of Nights - Author - Rating (*****) - Comments

Europe

Royal National Hotel - London, England - May 2008 - $55 / Tour - 3 - Living the Dream - **
- No A/C, good location. Paid nights were discounted triple accommodation in private rooms
Nieuw Slotania - Amsterdam, Netherlands - May 2008 - Tour - 2 - Living the Dream - ***
- Leaking shower
Wombat's Berlin - Berlin, Germany - May 2008 - Tour - 2 - Living the Dream - *****
- Cheap bar, clean, top spot
Plus Prague - Prague, Czech Republic - May 2008 - Tour - 2 - Living the Dream - ****
- Large, great dining area and bar
Haus International - Munich, Germany - May 2008 - Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - ***
- Indifferent on provisions
Haus Schoneck - Hopfgarten, Austria - May 2008 - Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - *
- Much to be desired (Contiki Tour owned accommodation)
Camping Fusina - Venice, Italy - May 2008 - Tour - 2 - Living the Dream - **
- Far away, cheap campsite
Seven Hills Village - Rome, Italy - May 2008 - Tour - 2 - Living the Dream - *
- Far away, poor facilities
Camping Panoramico - Florence, Italy - May 2008 - Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - ***
- Smallest cabins ever, perfect view of Florence
Camping Jungfrau - Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland - May 2008 - Tour - 2 - Living the Dream - ****
- Okay rooms in chateau, quiet location, beautiful
Camping Du Tremblay Champigny - Paris, France - May 2008 -   Tour - 2 - Living the Dream - **
- Far away, poor facilities
Le Village - Paris, France - May 2008 -   24 Euro - 3 - Living the Dream - ****
- Great location, decent facilities, dorm room
Wombat's Berlin - Berlin, Germany - June 2011 - 22 Euro - 6 - Travels of Adam - ****
- Recommended by everyone, great rooftop bar, perfect location, dorm room
THC Bergantin Hotel - Madrid, Spain - 2012 -   58.5 Euro - 4 - Living the Dream -
- Coming Soon, private room
Hotel Amadeus - Seville, Spain - 2012 -   112 Euro - 3 - Living the Dream -
- Coming Soon, private room
Carmen de la Alcubilla del Caracol - Granada, Spain - 2012 - 140 Euro - 2 - Living the Dream -
- Coming Soon, private room
Solyk Guest House - Barcelona, Spain - 2012 - 55 Euro - 4 - Living the Dream -
- Coming Soon, private room

North America

Imperial Palace - Las Vegas, Nevada - March 2011 - $49-$99 - 3 - Living the Dream - ***
- Perfect location, cheapest on strip, private room
Sheraton City Center - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - July 2009 - ~$100 - 2 - Living the Dream - ****
- Great downtown location and views from upper floors, pricier hotel, private room
Sheraton Centre - Toronto, Canada - October 2009 -   ~$100 - 2 - Living the Dream - ****
- Great downtown location and views from upper floors, pricier hotel, private room
Da House Hotel - San Juan, Puerto Rico - March 2010 - $80 - 2 - Living the Dream - ****
- Great rooms, bring ear plugs. 303 is good, private room
HI Lake Louise Alpine Center - Lake Louise, Canada - May 2010 - $30 - 3 - Living the Dream - *****
- Did not seem like a hostel, clean, great staff, and sauna! Dorm room
YWCA Banff - Banff, Canada - May 2010 - $32 - 2 - Living the Dream - ***
- Rooms were noisy and dirty, but great location and price, dorm room

Africa

Wake Up! Cairo - Cairo, Egypt - August 2009 -   $17 - 1 - Living the Dream - ***
- Middle of Cairo, decent rooms, free upgrade to a private room
Santana Hotel - Cairo, Egypt - August 2009 -    Tour - 3 - Living the Dream - **
- Hard to find, okay facilities
Pyramisa Isis Corniche - Aswan, Egypt - August 2009 - Tour - 2 - Living the Dream - *****
- Beautiful, on the Nile, great facilities
Felucca (generic sailboat) - The Nile, Egypt - August 2009 -   Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - ****
- Bare bones, relaxing, facilities with provided support boat
Susanna Hotel - Luxor, Egypt - August 2009 -   Tour - 2 - Living the Dream - *****
- Beautiful, on the Nile, great facilities
Morgenland Saint Catherine - S.C., Egypt - August 2009 -   Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - *****
- Amazing pool, middle of nowhere
Elaria Resort - Nuweiba, Egypt - August 2009 -   Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - ****
- Decent resort, beach needs work

Asia

Aquamarina III - Aqaba, Jordan - August 2009 -   Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - ***
- Great views from room, okay facilities
Al Zawaideh Desert Camp - Wadi Rum, Jordan - August 2009 -   Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - ****
- A great experience, cot + tarp = room however. This is "camping"
Petra Diamond - Petra, Jordan - August 2009 -   Tour - 2 - Living the Dream - **
- Not a diamond, mediocre but ok location
Salome Hotel - Madaba, Jordan - August 2009 -   Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - ***
- Good enough, central location a plus
Gardens Palace - Amman, Jordan - August 2009 -   Tour - 0 - Living the Dream - ****
- Better rooms of all Jordan stops, sad I couldn't stay the night
Asakusa Smile - Tokyo, Japan - August 2010 -   2000 Yen - 4 - Living the Dream - ****
- Thin walls, good location, cheap cheap cheap, dorm room
Nikko Tobu Park Lodge - Nikko, Japan - August 2010 - 2990 Yen - 3 - Living the Dream - *****
- 8 beds, kitchen, bath, common area all included in room. Very nice dorm room/apartment
Zenkoji Kyoujin - Nagano, Japan - August 2010 - 4000 Yen - 2 - Living the Dream - ***
- Private room, 100 year old temple, nasty bug bites, ryokan style private
Hostel Ann - Nagoya, Japan - August 2010 - 2500 Yen - 2 - Living the Dream - ****
- Not best location, nice room and great price, dorm room
K's House Kyoto - Kyoto, Japan - August 2010 - 2500 Yen - 3 - Living the Dream - ****
- Large building, cheapest bar in Japan, noisy sometimes due to size, dorm room
Hana Hostel - Hiroshima, Japan - September 2010 - 2500 Yen - 4 - Living the Dream - ***
- Small room, cramped shower. Free sake tasting on Sundays, dorm room
Akari Hostel - Nagasaki, Japan - September 2010 - 2500 Yen - 3 - Living the Dream - ***
- Decent Location, Nice Staff, Semi-See Through Shower Windows, dorm room
Osaka Guest House Koma - Osaka, Japan - September 2010 - 2500 Yen - 5 - Living the Dream - **
- Okay location, owner sleeps in dorm and hits snooze 8 times at 7am. Bugs too, dorm room
The Phoenix - Shanghai, China - September 2010 - 100 CNY - 3 - Living the Dream - *
- Hard beds, semi-rude staff. Poor all around, dorm room
9 Dragons Hostel - Beijing, China - September 2010 - 60 CNY - 5 - Living the Dream - ***
- Decent rooms, mosquitoes, only 1 shower per floor non en-suite rooms, dorm room
Han Tang Inn - Xian, China - September 2010 - 40 CNY - 3 - Living the Dream - ****
- Great beds, central location, cheap cheap cheap, okay wifi, dorm room
Mix Hostel - Chengdu, China - September 2010 - 40 CNY - 3 - Living the Dream - ***
- Poor wifi, very little networks (so many people on it), okay facilities, dorm room
Guilin Backstreet - Guilin, China - September 2010 - 30/40 CNY - 2/1 - Living the Dream - ****
- Good room, good shower, faster wifi, dorm room
Monkey Jane's - Yangshuo, China - October 2010 - 80/100 CNY - 2/1 - Living the Dream - ** /*****
- Put in a dirty room first two nights, squat toilet and shower together. Helpful when missed bus and needed a room and sold out, dorm room lower price, private higher price
Yiu Fai Guest House - Hong Kong - October 2010 - 250 HKD - 4 - Living the Dream - *****
- A bit pricey, but great location, clean, and fast wifi. Raymond is the best, private room
Augusters Lodge - Macao - October 2010 - $12.50 USD - 2 - Living the Dream - ****
- Hard to find but amazing location, free wifi, cheap! Kind of cheap accommodation but price wins, dorm room
Hanoi Rendevous Hotel - Hanoi, Vietnam - October 2010 - ~$7 USD - 4 - Living the Dream - *****(*)
- Best. Dorm. Ever. Feels like a resort, free wifi, free amazing breakfast. Great location!
Sapa Global Hotel - Sapa, Vietnam - October 2010 - Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - *****
- Great private room, booked with a tour so unsure of the rate. Great shower especially after getting muddy while hiking.
Princess Hotel - Cat Ba Island, Vietnam - October 2010 - Tour - 1 - Living the Dream - ****
- Good private room, wifi only in lobby. Not bad for a tour inclusion.
Hong Thien - Hue, Vietnam - October 2010 - $12 USD - 2 - Living the Dream - ***
- Wifi in room, privates ($6 pp minimum two), decent quality
Nha Trung Hotel - Hoi An, Vietnam - October 2010 - $25 USD - 3 - Living the Dream - ****
- Good room, wifi, decent breakfast, but expensive for what you get, private room
Viet Hai Hotel - Nha Trang, Vietnam - October 2010 - $7 USD - 3 - Living the Dream - ***
- Good enough, employee who works at night speaks little to no English, good location, private room
Ly Loan - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - October 2010 - $16 USD - 2 - Living the Dream - ****
- Great location, tons of touts nearby however, amazing family, private room (family house)
Bun Kao - Siem Reap, Cambodia - November 2010 - $3 USD - 4 - Living the Dream - *
- Okay facilities, staff tries to nickle and dime you for everything. Hostelworld description lies! Dorm room
Lub D Siam Center - Bangkok, Thailand - November 2010 - 320 Baht - 3 - Living the Dream - ****
- Near perfect. AC setup in the room goes off under too many circumstances though, dorm room
Mojito House - Chiang Mai, Thailand - November 2010 - 150 Baht - 5 - Living the Dream - ****
- Basic, very basic. Extremely basic. But great location, hot shower, wifi. Would go again, private room
iBed - Koh Samui, Thailand - November 2010 - 500 Baht - 4 - Living the Dream - *****
- Discount on bookings.com, resort quality. Amazing shower, bed, room, complex. By beach! Dorm room
Ko Tao Backpacker House - K. Tao, Thailand - Nov. 2010 - 200-250 Baht - 5 - Living the Dream - ***
- Good and basic dorm. Discount on diving days. Okay wifi and great location.
Haad Thian Resort - Koh Phangan, Thailand - November 2010 - 450 Baht - 4 - Living the Dream - ****
- Private bungalow, private beach, wifi in restaurant, quiet, discount in low season (4 nights for 3)
Heart Inn Hotel - Koh Lanta, Thailand - November 2010 - 720 Baht - 3 - Living the Dream - ****
- Great room, semi-luxurious, Good wifi, TV. A bit pricey. Private room.
Billa Beach - Koh Lipe, Thailand - December 2010 - 400 Baht - 4 - Living the Dream - ***
- Basic bungalow with squat toilet semi open to creatures. Just fans. Wifi and "Private" Beach, dorm style
Sweet Inn - Langkawi, Malaysia - December 2010 - 80 Ringgit - 4 - Living the Dream - ****
- Good enough private room, AC, Hot Water, Off & On wifi, Sometimes Poor Desk Workers
Red Inn - Penang, Malaysia - December 2010 - 32 Ringgit - 4 - Living the Dream - *****
- Good location, wifi, hot showers, common area. Bit expensive otherwise. Liked a lot, dorm room
Kang House - Cameron Highlands, Malaysia - Dec. 2010 - 14 Ringgit - 3 - Living the Dream - ***
- Basic, limited wifi range, 14 bed dorm, hot showers, good location. Very cheap!
BackHome Hostel - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Dec. 2010 - 38 Ringgit - 4 - Living the Dream - ****
- Good location, wifi in rooms sometimes, great staff, luxurious. Bit expensive otherwise. Dorm room
Ringos Foyer - Melakka, Malaysia - December 2010 - 11 Ringgit - 2 - Living the Dream - **
- Basic rooms with very little amenities. Owner was too talkative and wanted to hang out all the time. Dorm room
Pillows and Toast - Singapore - December 2010 - $20 US - 3 - Living the Dream - ****
- Great room even if 10 per room. Great location in Chinatown and good amenities, dorm room.
Rucksack Inn - Singapore - December 2010 - $55 US - 3 - Living the Dream - ****
- Private room was good and great amenities. Loved the staff a lot!
Villareal Heights - Phuket, Thailand - January 2011 - $70 US - 3 - Living the Dream - *****
- The owner, Phil, was amazing and gave us a private tour of the area (free) and had a great room! Private room
Ivory Phi Phi - Koh Phi Phi, Thailand - January 2011 - $80 US - 4 - Living the Dream - ****
- Great location, a bit expensive for what you get but a wonderful private room (high season price)
Railay Princess Resort - Railay Beach, Thailand - Jan. 2011 - $110 US - 4 - Living the Dream - ****
- Absolutely epic. Buffet breakfast, perfect location on Railay, amazing room. Splurge and stay here!

Participating Authors

To make this feature more encompassing than just where we have stayed, we are adding other travel bloggers' reviews and opinions to this list. But to truly understand where the review is coming from, you have to know the author. Other than clicking through and exploring their blogs to understand if their travel style is a match to you, we've added a list of what each author looks for in picking a hotel, hostel, or accommodation. When reading the reviews in this feature, it is best to keep in mind the following criteria to keep all thoughts in perspective. A person who always splurges on luxury accommodations may not like a budget hotel, which could seem like heaven to a bare bones traveler.   In hotel reviews, this perspective is everything.

Living the Dream - Prefers budget oriented and boutique hotels/hostels but sometimes splurge on resorts and premium accommodations. Often will pay a premium to ensure the room/dorm has A/C, central location, and free WiFi and tens to stay in smaller dorm sizes (4-6) rather than larger.
Travels of Adam - Coming soon.

Want to help us add to this great list? We are currently seeking other travel writer's hotel/hostel recommendations from around the world to make this resource even better! If you have an absolute favorite or horror story, please e-mail us to be featured in this list. Let us know your website address so we can review your site. Once approved we'll host your reviews, each containing a back link to your website.

If we let you know that your site is a match for this feature, be sure to let us know the following pieces of information for your review to be included in this database (all must be provided in order to be listed):

Your name / website address
Hotel name
City and country of hotel
When you visited (month and year)
How much the room was (in local currency) and if it was shared or private
How many nights you stayed
Star rating following our standard rating system
A short description of what was good or bad (a few words up to one sentence). Give preference to location, price to value, wifi, hot/cold water, or unique/terrible features.

Disclosure: No commercial links will ever be hosted in this feature and all reviews accepted from other travel writers are personally checked by us prior to hosting to determine their validity in meeting this criterion. If a room was discounted by any reason for us as a byproduct of this site (in exchange for a review, etc), it will be noted.

Last Updated: April 27th, 2012

Seeking a Publisher for The Long-Term Traveler's Guide

2012-04-21T12:18:00.002-04:00

As you may be aware, in early 2012 we released our first self-published travel book, The Long-Term Traveler's Guide. Since then we have published several articles about the guide including our ten part Writing a Travel Book series which will be concluding in the next few weeks. The guide is the culmination of many years of research, traveling, and writing on all aspects of long-term travel; becoming the definitive handbook for those looking to head off and explore the world on a long-term journey.

Over the last two months since the book was first released in print and our special digital package, the guide has been slowly released for the numerous popular reader devices that are currently available including Kindle, NOOK, and Apple's iPad (finally released in late April 2012). Now that the guide is available in all mediums, we need your help! We are currently seeking a publisher for this great resource and need everyone's help getting the publishing world's attention to our little corner of the travel universe.

Ways You Can Help

Purchase a copy of The Long-Term Traveler's Guide in your favorite format if you are interested in the topic. The guide is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, the iBookstore for iPad, and the book's website!
Give us a review on any of the major websites we sell the guide on (listed above) and let us know about it.
Retweet, 'Like', or Stumble this article and the guide's website to get the word out to the publishing community. Some major publishing company's Twitter handles include @PenguinUSA @PenguinBooksAus and @RandomHouse if you wish to include them in your Tweets.
Share this article and the guide's website with friends or contacts who may be interested in reading or know someone who can help out.
Finally, please comment below to show your support!

Although The Long-Term Traveler's Guide has only been out for a little over 2 months, it has been receiving great reviews from past long-term travelers, major travel companies, and future travelers who are currently planning their own journey. With this post, we are now beginning our media campaign to not only promote the book, but to get the attention of every travel publisher in the industry to help our book find homes on traveler's bookshelves around the world. But to get the attention of the major publishing companies, we need your help in any way you can give it!

What's Next?

Our media campaign is going to take us on a few interesting paths over the next few weeks. As the details get finalized we'll post more information about our advertising campaign in Part 10 of the Writing a Travel Book series when it goes live in a few weeks. For now, here are a couple upcoming promotions we are putting together:

A new contest to coincide with a review from a major travel company
Local book signings and Q&A sessions in Dayton, Ohio and Pittsburgh, PA regions (starting local then expanding out)
A new Webinar series with Art of Travel Blogging on writing and self-publishing
...and more!

So as we begin our media campaign and search for a publisher, we would love it if you could help share the word in any way possible! The buttons for social media for this post are located below and on the right of the website and we would love to hear what you think by commenting below!

Are you a publisher who would be interested in learning more about The Long-Term Traveler's Guide? If so, please email us for a complimentary digital copy.

Inside the Louvre - Photos of the Masterpieces

2012-04-18T18:32:00.000-04:00

The Louvre. It is beautiful. There is no other word that can so simply describe the greatest art gallery in the world. With halls so large that it would take several days of wandering just to spend a few moments appreciating every single piece, it is quite easy to miss the masterpieces and just as likely to stumble upon a new favorite in the process. After two trips to the Louvre on my last visit to Paris, I made the effort to not only see the most famous works of art in the world, but discover my own personal favorites, illustrated in this photo oriented post!

The Masterpieces

Many of the world's most recognized art pieces are housed within the immense walls of the Louvre. A good chunk of a day can be spent only seeing the most world renowned works of art, and that just scratches the surface of the collection. The Venus de Milo, thought to depict the goddess Aphrodite, was crafted around 100 BC. Standing nearly 7 feet tall, this statue is one of the gallery's most famous residents and does not disappoint. Isolated on her own, Venus commands attention. Judging by the number of visitors, she most certainly gets it.

The Raft of the Medusa is one of my personal favorite paintings in the Louvre not only for its brilliant scene and skill of the painter, but for its size. This wonderful masterpiece is approximately 280" wide and 200" tall and its scale can be seen by the head of an onlooker standing at the bottom left hand corner of the photo that I took. An upsetting splotch on an otherwise great photo, but perfect to illustrate the sheer scale of it all. This photo depicts the scene after the wreck of the French ship the Meduse where over 100 survivors set sail on a poorly made raft, nearly all but 15 dying in the coming days at sea.

An equally stunning statue to the Venus de Milo is Winged Victory of Samothrace, another armless (and headless) statue from around 200 BC. It may not be well understood from just looking at the statue, but Winged Victory is believed to be created to honor the goddess Nike and honor a major battle of the time. Again housed in her own room, the statue has an aura about it that only a few of the other masterpieces housed in the Louvre have. With no other distractions all eyes are on her, and it is hard to look away.

The Historical Treasures

Other than the famous artworks of the world, the Louvre houses some of the best cultural specific treasures that you can find outside of their home country. The two that I were immediately drawn to were one of the heads of the immense Moai Statues of Easter Island and the incredible Egyptian wing, the largest collection of artifacts outside of the country (reported to number 50,000+). As my next trip following the European adventure was Egypt, visiting the collection of artifacts was not only a great experience to learn about the ancient civilization, but get excited for the next year's adventure.

The Just Plain Fun

With its size and fame, you would almost expect the Louvre to be a very serious place. With numerous priceless pieces of art and thousands of visitors every day, there is reason to be concerned for the safety of the employees, art, and visitors themselves. Still, even with this concern looming, the Louvre has a fun side that caught me totally off guard.

During both visits to the gallery I was met with dozens of painters actively working on replicas of some of the best works of art the world has ever known. From professional painters to retirees, it seemed like a very popular activity for those who love to create art. Standing back and watching an artist work was almost more enjoyable than appreciating the finished product, and is something I am very happy that the curators of the Louvre let go on within its walls. Still, I can imagine that someone in maintenance has a headache over the many drips of paint that likely hit the floor each day.

Oh..and Mona Too

We cannot have an article about the Louvre's top artworks without including the tiny Mona Lisa. After all, it is a bit obligatory to talk about her in every single Louvre post and every fifth post about the city of Paris. Unfortunately for Mona, I'm going to let you in on a fairly well known secret. She is small, very small. The Mona Lisa, arguably the most famous painting in the world, is only about 30" tall and 20" wide. To put that in perspective, the wall that she is housed on with no other artwork is nearly 30 feet wide and 20 feet tall, making her appear even smaller. In an even more ironic context, most every other painting in the room is at minimum five to ten times larger. Small indeed!

Even though the Mona Lisa is a beautiful painting, it is hard to keep your focus as several of the world's best paintings are housed in the same room, enjoyed by just turning a few degrees in any direction. This is only the beginning, and the rest of the Louvre's treasures are waiting to be to be explored.

During your next visit to Paris, be sure to allow extra time to explore all of the unpublished features of the Louvre. Saying the gallery is large is an understatement. Just hitting the major sites included in this post would take a half day of exploring, and that is less than 1% of the total collection. If you keep this one fact in mind, your next trip to Paris will be a fantastic experience, and visiting the Louvre will be one of the highlights.

What is your favorite exhibit or piece of art in the Louvre? Comment below and let us know!

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Today's Post was inspired by our friends at Direct Travel. When planning your trip to France, check out Direct Travel for the latest travel insurance offers.

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Writing a Travel Book Part 7 - Pricing Development and Launch

2012-04-17T12:43:00.000-04:00

The great thing about selling products digitally is that you have easy access to pricing for all other comparable products that are currently for sale. In the travel market it only takes a few Google searches to not only find pricing for other travel products, but also know everything about what is included and reviews to see if it is popular. The downside is that everyone else can find out this information as well and can quickly search to see if your product is a good value compared to several others.

Unfortunately for our launch, research into pricing of other reputable travel products range anywhere from $5 for a simple e-book to $75+ for a comprehensive package! With such a wide range, we found it was necessary to take a more focused look on what each type of product offers to see why the pricing was warranted.

Products on the high end of this range are advertised to make you an expert on several topics and to aid in generating revenue through a website. Products on the low end are typically a 50 to 100 page presentation designed to educate you on a singular topic within the travel universe. Prices somewhere in the middle typically offer personal communications with the owner or private forums for advice not provided within the package.

As with all digital products, especially around the topic of books, the costs associated with printing and shipping a tangible good are removed. The $10 fee for a printed book reduces to the same $3 fee as its Kindle and Nook counterparts. In order to sell your product for a premium, the package should include a significant amount of bonus features that could not be featured in the printed format. If you do not offer these extras with your digital package, the only direction your online pricing should go is down.

As our product includes several features that could each be sold in the $5 range, a personal communications feature for our travel advice, and a digital copy of the book, we began our pricing research right in the middle of this common range to see what would stick. To validate, we had to get other traveler's opinions.

Ask For Community Advice

In your preparation for launch, it is highly likely that you have given your product to several others in the industry to generate interest and have published reviews on launch day. If this is the case, don't let the owners of the sneak preview copies off without giving their input! The best way to obtain pricing for your product is to find out what those who could benefit from it would be willing to pay. Float some numbers by the owners of your pre-release copies and see what they think.

As we came to find with the digital package of The Long-Term Traveler's Guide, the best price is slightly low, if not just right for many who had hands-on time with the sneak preview copy. At $25 the digital package is a slight premium over its $16.50 printed counterpart, yet low enough that it would not require any traveler to give up a whole day exploring the world to purchase it. This mental block is one we made sure not to cross, and the responses we got from the community reinforced our pricing considerably!

"I think your pricing is great, especially with the extras that you are offering for the digital package. I'm pretty sure that I would have forked over $25 for that much help when I was researching/planning." - A long-term traveler who contributed to the guide.

"Personally I would pay more than what you are selling the package for, no question!" - A fan who is currently planning their own long-term trip.

If you get responses like these, then you know you are on the right track. Resist the urge to charge more, as you may ultimately price yourself out of the value your product brings. When it comes down to it, having to sell one or two more copies to make up for a small price difference is a small hurdle if your product is good enough to sell. Once you settle on pricing, you are ready for launch!

A side bonus to having reviewers give their input on pricing is that this detail will show up in their review. An excited reviewer who likes your pricing will most certainly show their feelings in their critique. Remember, the kiss-of-death in a review of your product is a complaint that the pricing is too high. Let your reviewers work for you and take their input to heart.

Building Up to Launch

In the days leading up to launch, you may be so excited that some of the minor launch details are overlooked. Be sure to check off the following items to ensure your launch day goes as smooth as possible:

Get your product's website listed on Google and other search engines.
Make sure all ordering links are live, working, and available for customers.
Organize reviews and promotional activities from your peers.
Schedule interviews with other authorities in your industry.
Publish teaser information or posts on your websites, social networks, or other online hangouts.
Distribute complimentary copies to those in the industry to generate more reviews over the coming weeks and months. They may take significantly longer than you would like, so get them their copies as early as possible.

When launch day comes, make a party out of it. You cannot just bring a new product into existence and expect it to sell itself even if your online presence is quite large. Promote! Promote, promote, promote! A simple blog post is not enough to generate interest in a product and a proactive approach is always sure to help. Talk to people on social networks, schedule times when you'll be available to answer all questions, and be as helpful as possible. You'd be surprised how easy it is to help those who are on the fence about purchasing your product if you only made yourself available to answer questions.

But with all things, don't let this happen on just launch day. Keep at it! The more you promote, the more sales you will have. A book deal, if that is your goal, will not come on launch. Most self-publishers who have received a book deal will admit that it took thousands of tweets and countless hours of promotion before being noticed. Spikes in sales often coincide with a major authority giving a mention, review, or interview. Neither of these will likely happen on Day 1, so you must keep at it if you want your product to be a success. If you do not believe in what you are selling enough to promote it continually, then no one will believe it is worth buying and will be reflected in your sales. Do not give up, the real work is just beginning!

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Thank you for your support and happy travels!

Learning Foreign Languages - The One Year Challenge

2012-04-14T12:32:00.000-04:00

The real question for any traveler looking to learn a foreign language is not what ones are worth knowing, but what parts of each language would help you out while on the road. As most of us may only spend a few weeks or months in any given region, the level of understanding for a language varies substantially. It doesn't make sense to spend a year becoming fluent in Arabic if you will only be spending three weeks in the Middle East, meanwhile only learning the basic Spanish phrases may not serve you well if you intend on staying half a year in South America. To prepare for worldly explorations, and to have a bit of fun, the One Year Language Challenge was born!

With the exception of a few countries, many locals in the tourist hot spots are proficient in English which is something that we as fluent speakers are fortunate for. Still, there are many cases when knowing a bit of the local language goes the long way. Not only is it respectful to try and address someone in their local tongue, there are several situations where knowing a few words can change the scenario entirely, including:

Introductions and Basic Conversation
Bartering
Negotiating a Taxi
Asking Directions
Ordering Food
Reading Street Signs/Maps
Conveying Allergy Information

These phrases are necessary to become what we call Tourist Ready - you know the basic phrases in order to navigate a country and be respectful, but not enough to follow or maintain full conversations. This level is equivalent to a basic or fundamental proficiency to the rest of the world, but we like to call it Tourist Ready to make sense in explanation.

We can think of several scenarios in our previous travels where having a tourist ready knowledge of the language would have helped us out significantly. While bartering for souvenirs in Thailand, two workers at the store were talking to each other on what the minimum price would be for what we were going to purchase. If we knew basic numbers in Thai, we would have overheard the price and received a better deal. In China, where I knew four words of the language, hailing a taxi was almost impossible unless you had the Chinese characters for where you wanted to go written down on a piece of paper to hand to the driver. Finally, Angie suffers from a severe tree nut allergy, and knowing the words for nuts and allergy in local languages helps prevent a scary situation (although we have an iPod app for that, which will be featured in a future post in this series).

It is because of these scenarios that we are instituting a One Year Language Challenge. After releasing our first book, which coincidentally took about one year to put together, we have significantly more time available for a new challenge. Although we'll still be working on promotion and trying to secure a book deal, we'll be spending a great deal of time trying our hand at six (6) languages between the two of us to become Tourist Ready by next May.

The Languages

French
Spanish (pushing towards fluency)
Arabic
Italian
Hindi
Norwegian

As a means to gauge our ability with these languages, and for full disclosure of our current language proficiencies, the following are our self-appraisals for how much we know of each language at the beginning of this series:

French: Jeremy took two years of French in high school and spent a few months reading language tools in the past to refresh. At one point he was tourist ready, but may be lacking a bit now. Angie does not know any French.

Spanish: Angie took three years of Spanish in high school and spent a few months reading language tools in the past to refresh. She is past tourist ready but not quite at basic fluency, although she could hold her own in a conversation if need be. Jeremy knows a handful of words in Spanish and will be trying to get close to tourist ready before their honeymoon in late May 2012. The goal for Spanish is pushing fluency due to our desire to travel to South American countries in the future and increasing Spanish speaking population in the world.

Arabic: Jeremy spent several months studying language tools already to become tourist ready in Arabic, including ability to read script, but has let the knowledge slide in the last few years. Angie does not know any Arabic.

Italian: Other than a few words, mostly food related, neither Jeremy nor Angie know any Italian. After learning Spanish and French; however, Italian may be on the easier side to pick up. Otherwise we'll fall back on our favorite words - gelato, pizza, and Chianti. Buonissimo!

Hindi: Okay, we know, we know. Over 100,000,000 people in India speak English (roughly 10% of the population). To put that in perspective, China, which I felt was quite difficult as an English speaker, is reported to have only 1% of the population speaking English while a more tourist friendly country like Thailand is also at 10%. Why do we want to learn Hindi? Well, this wouldn't be a good challenge without a difficult language, and we would really like to know what some our coworkers are saying sometimes when they think we cannot understand them. Right now we know zero words of Hindi.

Norwegian: We put Norwegian on this list as another fun language to learn rather than for its practicality. If we had to make a list of dream destinations to live in one day, Norway would likely be on the list. We've never been, but Angie's ancestry and relatives who have visited make us not only want to go one day, but stay a while as well. Right now we know zero words of Norwegian.

But with any language learning challenge, there are some potential roadblocks that we have to consider.

Potential Roadblocks

Angie will be finishing up her PhD program by next May. Her time will be significantly limited from January to April while she writes her several hundred page thesis. (But that means massive amounts of free time for Jeremy to double up on language learning and blog to-dos!)
Jeremy will be traveling a lot for work this year and may have less time to focus on studying, although more time in the air could mean more time to study. (But that means more time for Angie to learn languages)
Not all language learning tools are created equal and we are already seeing the limitations of a few that we have purchased.
We will still be blogging and working full-time. As those earn us money to live and travel on, they have priority.
Our mental capacity may not be large enough to be engineers, travel writers, AND remedial polyglots all at the same time.

With that, we begin our challenge! Over the next year we will make frequent updates into this series going into the types of language tools we are using, our progress and setbacks, special language tools we have with us for travel, and any other major developments that arise. At the end of this challenge (May 2013) we will summarize where we are with our chosen languages, what we learned, and any tips that we developed for those looking to learn languages on their own. To follow more about our great One Year Language Challenge, subscribe to our blog or check out the Language Challenge link on our sidebar!

Do you have a language learning tip or a favorite tool to learn a language? Comment below and let us know. We'll be featuring fan comments in future posts, so any advice you have may be featured in this series!

Disclosure: We are not partners with any language learning program yet. We hope to partner with a major company in our goal to become tourist ready in many languages, but currently this undertaking is an independent project. All links featured in this series to products are to our affiliate accounts only and to products we are currently using. If this were to change during the duration of the challenge, this disclosure will be updated and dated to reflect such a change.

Help Give Kids the Education They Deserve with Project SAMA

2012-04-13T21:24:00.001-04:00

Today's post is a bit of a departure from our standard content and is a cross-post by our friend Amanda from A Dangerous Business. This article was first hosted from her site, but as we fully support the goals of this project Amanda has allowed us to repost this article. If you feel so inclined, please help out any way you can!

Growing up, I was one of those little girls who loved going to school. I never faked sick, and I actually looked forward to everything from history class to science lab. I just loved learning.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize just how lucky I am to have gotten the education that I did. Around the world, curious, intelligent young girls just like me don’t always have the same opportunities.

While I was learning about the Boston Tea Party, there were young girls taking care of their whole families on the other side of the world. While I was doing algebra equations, they were getting married. While I was busy applying to college, many of them were raising children of their own.

It’s no secret that women around the world often get a raw deal when it comes to opportunities — women have less access to jobs, high salaries, and especially education. Gender inequality is real, and it is present in all parts of the world.

For example, did you know that over 60 million girls around the world won’t even attend primary school? 60 million. That’s a lot of girls with a lot less opportunity than their male counterparts.

But with a number that huge, what can we do to put a dent in it?

Well, we can start small.

Introducing Project SAMA

In conjunction with Plan, one of the world’s oldest and most experienced children’s development organisations, Intrepid Travel is endeavoring to do what it can to help young girls — and all children — get better access to the education that could be crucial to their futures. Through education, Intrepid hopes to help fight the gender inequality that is present throughout the world.

Girls are more likely to be pulled out of school, have less access to health care, be married at an early age and experience more violence — these are just some of the reasons Intrepid has decided to take an active role in supporting gender equality over the long term.

Project SAMA is “a 3-year global gender equality program, aiming to improve the lives of communities and help bridge the gender gap through early education,” according to the SAMA website.

The first stage of the project will begin in rural Laos, where preschools didn’t even exist as recently as 3 years ago. In these areas, young girls are not only held back from education because of their gender, but also often because of their dialect and how difficult it is for them to integrate into school.

It’s Intrepid’s goal to raise $60,000 for this project by June.

How You Can Help

The great thing about SAMA is that the project does not plan to attack the issue by sending in a bunch of Westerners to “restructure” education in Laos.

Instead, SAMA aims to “establish parenting and community learning groups in up to 45 villages, develop low-cost, locally-made play and learning materials, and train preschool teachers for these communities.”

SAMA wants to help these villages help themselves.

By training the communities, the project will be able to sustain itself and grow for years to come.

And, because this project is taking place in a poor area of the world, a little bit of your money can go a long way.

For example:

$5 can provide a maths bag and slate
$5 can provide sports equipment for a village
$15 can provide play and learning materials for a preschool
$50 can support one playgroup in an ethnic minority community
$100 can help train one teacher

It’s so easy to make a big difference with this project, and I really hope you’ll consider making a donation, and spreading the world to everyone you know.

Donating is easy and can even be done via Facebook, using everything from credit cards to a Paypal account.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE.

The Importance of Education

And, because you should never take the word of just one person, I asked some other female travelers/bloggers about the importance of education in their own lives.

Their answers, I think, are quite inspiring.

My education has done more than just about anything else to shape the way that I see the world. I use the critical thinking skills I learned in school literally every single day to interpret the world around me. If I hadn’t had the benefit of a great education as a child, I am sure that I would not be the curious, book-loving, adventure-having person I am today.

– Stephanie, Twenty-Something Travel

I’m incredibly grateful that my parents insisted on education as a priority, from reading to me all the time as a kid to paying for my college degree. I always loved school: learning, reading, asking questions. It’s made all the difference in creating my current lifestyle: there’s no way I would be able to travel and write without my education. Earning a journalism degree taught me how to write, but even more importantly, my professors and peers taught me to think critically, challenge status quo and search for creative solutions.

– Christine, C’est Christine

Education is the heart and soul of my life! I was raised by two educators who preached that teaching and learning are the reason we’re on Earth. I’ve now been teaching in Boston for 8 years, and it’s an amazing career to help youth develop their minds, skills, and futures. I applaud the work of Project SAMA because human life without the opportunity for education is tragic.

– Lilie Marshall, Around the World L and Teaching Traveling

Education has been an essential part of my life, not so much for the reading and writing and other skills I learned — although this has also been important. What I’ve gained the most from it is what I have learned about the world around me. This has given me a deeper understanding of others, has opened my mind to new ideas and ways of being, and has helped me to understand myself more. Education for me is a lifelong process. I am always learning, hence always growing.

– Caz, y Travel Blog

I feel very strongly that many of the world’s dilemmas and a lot of the suffering could be resolved if more girls and women were educated and given opportunities and equal rights. My birthday is March 8, International Women’s Day, so perhaps that has made me very interested in girl’s and women’s issues throughout my life. But I have also come to this understanding through my own experiences. I dropped out of school when I was a teenager, and luckily had the chance to go back and obtain a degree in journalism as a young adult. Without my education, I would have been unlikely to fulfill my potential, which I believe is to be a writer.

Education brings with it a higher income, but more importantly, it brings freedom, self-respect, choices and a better life. Every girl and woman should have this chance. Many studies have shown that when girls are educated, in rural areas especially, the family income and quality of life goes way up. Everyone benefits when girls are educated.

– Mariellen Ward, Breathe Dream Go

I think education is essential for a traveller. Like the child of any parents who have dual citizenship, I grew up moving around the world. If I hadn’t had those experiences as a child, I would have never gone to university to study Anthropology. I don’t get to travel much in recent years due to (long and boring) personal reasons, but I’m also using my degree to work hard on my new business — with the aim of financing a lifestyle of travel and work.

– Vanessa, Suitcase Scribbles

So now that you’ve heard the call to arms, do something about it! That $60,000 won’t raise itself.
Make a donation. Share this with your friends on Facebook. E-mail it to your former teachers and professors. Please, help spread the word.

Today's post is a cross-post by our friend Amanda from A Dangerous Business. Please check out her blog and help support Project SAMA!

Writing a Travel Book Part 6 - Distribution Companies

2012-04-11T12:35:00.001-04:00

Print-on-Demand services are designed to be just that. When a customer purchases your book these companies will print a copy within hours and handle all the logistics of binding, packaging, and shipping all for a marginal fee. The work you put into it after launch amounts only to marketing efforts, and the revenue is deposited to your account while you pursue other endeavors or develop new products.

The downside to these type of services is that because they handle all the work, their fee is per sale and is nothing to laugh at. We chose Amazon's CreateSpace as our print-on-demand services as their reviews are nothing but stellar and have a very easy to use interface. The downside is that they have a higher fee per sale than other comparable networks as shown in the example at the end of this section.

How to Use the Site

CreateSpace has a very simple system to get your book from a basic Word file to a tangible final product that we found to be quite user friendly. For each book size that is available, CreateSpace has basic guidelines to let you know what the formatting needs to be in terms of margins, picture bleed, and other easy to adjust settings. Make the changes in your draft, upload your book in PDF format, and start the virtual tutorial to look over your book and get a feel for how it will look when printed.

This check is something that we thought CreateSpace was really good at. The software will notify you of any low resolution photos, characters outside the suggested margin, or internal changes the software had to make to convert your file to their format. A simple click will take you to the specific page, and that is it! You can either make the changes or ignore them and move on, just like that.

Once you are satisfied with your content, upload your print-ready cover file and submit your book for a free review. CreateSpace will then check your book to ensure there are no major issues and normally takes about 48 hours to send you a summary of their review. Once you get the all clear you can order a print of your book to review and approve, then will be on your way to sales!

Note: Many formatting techniques discussed in the second section of this guide were developed based on our experience with CreateSpace. Check them out!

Where Do They Sell the Book?

CreateSpace has several unique marketplaces that they will list your book, and even more so if you pay the nominal $25 fee to be listed in the Expanded Distribution Network. These marketplaces can range from Amazon, to Barnes & Noble, wholesale sellers, or even public libraries if you use the CreateSpace provided ISBN*.

Their listings are said to be vast, but information published on what retailers are actually involved with the Expanded Distribution Network is kept quite secretive. CreateSpace's largest partnerships are with Lightning Source and Ingram Content Group and are said to stock many of the top book stores around the world. Unfortunately, even with this partnership, unless your book is really stellar it will only sold in the order-on-demand marketplace rather than stocked on the shelves. But for a flat $25, it is hard to say no to the possibility.

For us, easy access to Amazon is #1, and the rest are just a bonus with moderate payments per sale. Luckily this is where CreateSpace shines.

*A CreateSpace provided ISBN is free, but locks you in with CreateSpace as the publisher indefinitely. Purchase an ISBN if you will keep options open for a future publishing deal as you are allowed to switch publishing companies if you see fit. Any major reprints of your book past small spelling and grammar errors, or selling in other formats, will require a new ISBN. Be careful when purchasing as buying 10 in bulk may be cheaper overall than buying one at a time. Barcodes will automatically be placed in the bottom right corner if not added by your designer.

How Much Do You Make?

CreateSpace's fees vary based on the style of book you choose, the length, and what network the sale is made in. A full color book will have a higher upfront cost than a black & white book, and a book with 300 pages will cost more than a book with only 100 pages. Luckily, the service has a handy calculation tool that instantly tells you what your final payment will be on a per sale basis for each network.

Using The Long-Term Traveler's Guide as an example, we chose the pricing of our book to be $16.50 which we think is an appropriate cost for a 248 page informational paperback. For the three distribution networks offered by CreateSpace, our payment per sale breaks down to be the following:

Amazon - $6.13 per book sold (37.2%)
CreateSpace eStore - $9.43 per book sold (57.2%)
Expanded Distribution Network - $2.83 per book sold (17.2%)

Other sellers have published that they use the personal distribution option ($3-$5 per print at your own cost) to order mass quantities of books and then ship to their customers directly for a larger profit. As CreateSpace charges you less when ordering copies for personal use or free distribution, some users take advantage of this for significant gains. While this method is possible, it is highly frowned upon in most print-on-demand services and also requires a lot of continual effort on your part. To keep this process as automated as possible, we are letting CreateSpace do the work and take the higher fee.

**Overall Experience: 9/10 - Aside from a few printing issues on the back end that were remedied without issue, working with CreateSpace was almost flawless.**

Sell Digitally with ClickBank and e-Junkie

Before looking to sell a book digitally, we thought the process would be as simple as signing up for a web service that would handle orders, process payments, deliver the product, and have a respectable affiliate program for others who want to sell our book. As it turns out, a good program for those four simple points simply does not exist.

The two leading companies for digital sales is always said to be ClickBank and e-Junkie. So with many other aspects of writing for this book, we put together a pro's and con's list for each to determine if they would be the better one to sell our book.

ClickBank Pros

ClickBank is one of the leading websites for selling all things digital. With a running counter of over $2 billion in sales and 10 years of operations, you know it is a reputable brand.
ClickBank's affiliate program is the best around. An open network of thousands of affiliates are always searching the ClickBank marketplace to find good products to promote.
All affiliate commissions are paid automatically without any work on your part.

ClickBank Cons

To use the service, ClickBank has a $49.99 activation fee for your product plus takes a 7.5% + $1 commission off every sale. For the $25 digital package, that means they take a $2.88 fee per sale.
ClickBank does not offer delivery services, and you are responsible for delivering the product to your customer. As we found out, creating a secured "Thank You" page (required by ClickBank) to distribute our product is next to impossible without extensive coding knowledge or purchasing software that could range from $50-$150.

e-Junkie Pros

e-Junkie's biggest pro is that it only charges a flat rate of $5 per month fee. No extra costs to activate the product and no extra costs based on the number of packages you sell.
e-Junkie handles all aspects of the sales process from the order page all the way to secured delivery of your product from their servers.

e-Junkie Cons

Although e-Junkie has a well developed affiliate program, the biggest drawback is that you have to manually pay your affiliates each month through a PayPal business account. We really wish this was an automated process as it is one of the major drawbacks of their entire program.
Picking up random affiliates through their program is not as widespread as ClickBank's, partly due to the payment system.

After several hours of fighting with coding our own secured Thank You delivery page for ClickBank's services, we gave up. But there was another solution: use both ClickBank and e-Junkie.

One of the silver linings of these two services is that they can work together; with ClickBank being used as the selling mechanism with affiliate sales and e-Junkie being used as the delivery mechanism. Sure, it may be an extra $5 per month of expenses to add e-Junkie, but the amount of time we wasted trying to code a secure Thank You delivery page would have paid for at least a year of this service if put to better use. As we would like everything to be automated from Day 1, this seems like the best option. Our hopes of securing a book deal in the first year or two after launch will hopefully end the need for this set-up in perpetuity; or at the worst case, a new solution will exist.

Steps to Use ClickBank and e-Junkie Together

For those looking to use both ClickBank and e-Junkie together, use the following steps to get both accounts working together. We are including this walk-through in this post as the official steps are vague and confusing.

Register your product on ClickBank and get it approved with your own generic Thank You page as a placeholder. We used one saying our product would be delivered via e-mail to not have to worry about delivery method issues and had no troubles getting it approved. If having trouble, follow these tips to get started.

Register and upload your product to e-Junkie and enter your ClickBank information where requested including seller ID and secret key. If having trouble, follow these tips to get started.

Replace your Thank You page URL on ClickBank with the e-Junkie delivery page URL as supplied in the previous walk-through.

Replace your sales links wherever posted with the generated e-Junkie checkout link, only selecting ClickBank as the payment option (especially crucial for those using ClickBank for affiliate sales). This option will be grayed out unless you have all of your correct information submitted. This link has a built-in tracker to ensure no one uses a link for delivery without purchasing, and redirects to the ClickBank checkout system to complete the transaction. After purchase, the e-Junkie delivery page will kick in, confirm that a sale was made, and deliver your product.

Order your product to confirm the delivery setup works from start to finish. You must do a real order for this and not use ClickBank's test scenario that you used while setting up an account in Step 1. Don't worry, you'll recover all costs except the ClickBank fee for the sale. A few dollars is worth the comfort of knowing you have this setup correctly.

**Overall Experience: 7/10 - Our major complaint with these services is that there are major cons to each that make them both less-than-ideal when on their own. Getting across the mental hurdle of using them both together, at a financial loss, was the hardest part. Integrating the two took a few trials, and a few headaches, but works perfectly after being setup.**

Kindle, Nook, and iPad Downloads

It is sad to say, but releasing a book into the digital marketplace for reader devices is quite possibly the most difficult of all mediums to work in. The reason for this is that there is no universal format that all three devices accept. In the second part of this series, we discussed ways to edit a file to look on reader formats. This section will focus more on the difficulties of actually getting the file published when finished.

Kindle is the Winner

Amazon is the only company in this list that has all things going for them in the digital reader market. The process was as simple as making the required edits, formatting into a .mobi file with Calibre, and uploading to their database for approval. Within a few short days the digital package was up for sale on several country's amazon pages, looking great, and making sales.

Apple Hates PC Users

Apple has a very strict review policy before any digital product can go live in their iBookStore. In fact, there is a fairly stringent review policy when you open a sellers account, even before uploading a file. So suffice it to say, we were pretty upset when we found out you can only upload files to Apple's iBookStore format if you have a MAC after waiting a full week to be approved for sales. Yes, you read that correctly. To upload a file to Apple's iBookStore you have to download an uploading program, only for MAC computers.

The options to get around this for PC users are the following:

Beg a friend to use their MAC, likely several times over the course of the revision process.
Upload your file via an intermediate distributor, such as Lulu, that will submit your file to Apple on your behalf and take an additional 20% off the top of all of your sales.

We opted to use Lulu as a distributor for The Long-Term Traveler's Guide, as the headache of coordinating time to use someone else's MAC several times seemed like more effort than it was worth. The downside to this is that the review process rejects all files published in the .epub format as put together by the Calibre software.

To get around this, we had to convert the file to a Rich Text Format (RTF) and let the Lulu software convert the file to an acceptable epub file for reader devices. Luckily the edits required for this format are very similar to those established in the second part of this series, so your additional work will be minimal. A few oddities may pop up; however, so it is highly recommended to be able to review your files on an iPad or even an iPod Touch just to be sure before submitting the file for publishing.

Note: If it were not due to requests from a few readers to release the guide on the iPad format, we probably would have given up as this process was a major headache to figure out an alternative method to release the book in the marketplace. Lulu displayed our Apple iBookstore product as listed shortly after uploading; however, after 5 weeks we are still waiting for guide to appear in the marketplace. It is said that this is common and there is nothing you can do but wait.

Nook Comes Along for the Ride

The one positive thing about using Lulu as an aggregate service is that they simultaneously upload your file to Barnes & Noble for their NOOK reader device at no extra effort to you. Hooray! Since we did not do any specific work for this format, we cannot report any positive or negative experience on the topic.

**Overall Experience: 9/10 for Kindle, 1/10 for Apple - Working with files for Kindle and the iPad are a night and day difference. While both services have a human review all files, Apple has many added requirements that reject files outright and stop all PC users in their tracks to begin with. There should be no surprise as to why Kindle is leading the e-book market at the time of publishing this article, and our experiences working on the guide back it up 100%.**

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The links included in this article are directed to our affiliate accounts on CreateSpace, ClickBank, e-Junkie, and Lulu. By using our links to open an account with either network we will get a small commission. Your fee for opening accounts and selling your product will not be increased by clicking these links. If you like what we have provided in this series, we'd be happy if you used our affiliate links when opening your accounts. Please comment below with any questions or comments about these programs and we'd be happy to answer them!

This ten part feature on writing and self-publishing a travel book is based on our experiences with our first book, The Long-Term Traveler's Guide, and is provided free of charge for those looking to write a book or e-book themselves. Other authors typically charge a modest price for an e-book that contains this information in such a fashion. Rather than requiring a purchase for this information, if you like what you have read please Reweet, Stumble, or 'Like' this post, use our affiliate links when registering for the companies we've recommended, or purchase a copy of The Long-Term Traveler's Guide to help us out!

Thank you for your support and happy travels!

Dreaming of Travel - 5 Must Experience Road Trips

2012-04-10T12:41:00.000-04:00

The iconic road trip is a must experience travel style for wanderers of all ages. There is something about jumping into a car, picking a direction, and driving that inspires a great wanderlust. In fact, the concept of a road trip is not much different than any other long-term journey as you can, in nearly all cases, go wherever you please. Tired? Stop for the night. Want to explore? Pick a side road and head off to see what kind of adventure awaits. Don't like it? Turn around and pick a new direction.

As the fundamentals of the road trip are in-line with long-term travel, we've researched what we're calling the Top 5 Must Experience Road Trips from around the world. Some are to be expected, others are unusual, and the only question you need to ask yourself is how to make them a reality for your next great road trip. (Photo "Mountain Road" by arinas74)

Exploring the United Kingdom

Road tripping through the United Kingdom is like a trip back in time. Starting in London, the entire drive goes further back into the regions history while stopping in Wales, Liverpool, and the northern cities of Scotland.

While in Scotland, visiting the beautiful Lochs and ancient castles give an alternative view of the region than the larger cities found in the south. Although Edinburgh and Glasgow offer a look into the major cities of Scotland, it is the small towns and historical ruins that really transport a visitor into the past to see what life was like several hundred years ago. The only difference on this time warping itinerary is that the car comes with you on this incredible journey.

The dream United Kingdom itinerary has a second benefit in that most of the major destinations are very close together. Much like the second road trip on this list, Tuscany, driving in England and Scotland means you aren't ever faced with long stretches of driving like some of the later inclusions demand. The bonus in this road trip is all that extra time can be spent exploring the lesser visited destinations, driving on the back roads, parking and exploring random destinations, and even getting lost if you like. Just don't forget to bring a GPS and a map! (Below Photo "Glencoe" by br0)

Preferred Mode of Transit: Mini Coupe Roadster
Duration: 3 weeks
Driving Time: 24+ hours driving
Must See Spots: London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Loch Ness, Eilean Donan, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Leeds

Eating Through Tuscany (and Beyond!)

Food is the only thing we can think about when posed with the thought of Tuscany. Unlike all of the other road trips on this list, Tuscany and the surrounding regions is the only road trip that would have a home base for the entirety of the journey.

Starting in Florence is a logical extension for the great Tuscan road trip as all of the amazing sights are seemingly within a 60 mile radius of the city. A little more than an hour drive in the morning in any given direction will put you in small villages that most guidebooks leave behind with nothing but great local food, small vineyards, and very few tourists. One day you could be walking in a village where nobody speaks English, and the next you could be in a great cooking class with some of the world's best food and views to match.

Hungry yet? We are!

Preferred Mode of Transit: Lamborghini (kidding)... most likely a Fiat or other small car.
Duration: 10 days
Driving Time: 10+ hours driving
Must See Spots: The general region of Tuscany within a 60 mile radius of Florence.

Australian Outback

If we were to make the long flight to Australia and had several weeks of time, then the great Australian road trip is the only trip we would consider. The greatest driving trip in Australia would have to begin in Cairns, as we would need to get in a few scuba dives in the Great Barrier Reef before beginning the several long driving stretches.

Driving down the East coast of Australia is much like driving down the coast of any country. Countless miles of coastline, small cities and beautiful views can be found at every bend. After reaching the Southern city of Melbourne and taking the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide (thanks to David for the tip on this one!), it is time for a change of pace as the long drive up to Darwin is packed full of open spaces. Aside from a quick stop in Alice Springs and Ayers Rock in the central part of the country, this leg of the journey is best spent enjoying the vastness of the region and the company of those with you.

A brief stop in Darwin begins the next leg of the long journey down to Perth, where aside from a few stops along the coast, a few long driving stints await. Take a few moments to stop, enjoy the scenery, and consider that you are on one of the biggest single country road trips the world has to offer. (Below Photo "The Road Ahead" by timobalk)

Preferred Mode of Transit: 4x4, Jeep, or SUV
Duration: 1 month
Driving Time: 5+ days of continuous driving
Must See Spots: Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Ayers Rock, Darwin, Perth

South East Asia by Motorbike

There are no cars in the perfect South East Asia road trip. In order to truly experience the region, this road trip must be done entirely on the underpowered motor scooter.

My last trip to South East Asia lasted for a total duration about three months in the region (5 months in Asia total). During that time I passed up on the opportunity to ride from one Vietnamese city to another by motorbike, and instead opted to make the journey by train. Having never ridden on a motorbike without someone else driving, my fear of injury got the best of me and I skipped what was said to be an amazing experience. Several weeks later I taught myself how to ride a motorbike in the islands of Thailand and spent countless days riding around the islands on my underpowered scooter.

Looking back on it and hearing stories from others who have done South East Asia with a motorbike of their own makes it seem like an amazing way to explore the region. As the small bikes have little capacity for fuel, the frequent stops to refuel would force you to visit smaller towns and villages that are otherwise off the radar of most backpackers. Even for a brief stop for fuel and food, the smaller locales are thriving with interesting sights and people, and is the side of South East Asia only a few travelers elect to see in addition to the best attractions.

Preferred Mode of Transit: Motor Scooter
Duration: 2-3 months
Driving Time: 4+ days of continuous riding.
Must See Spots: Northern Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Chiang Mai, Burma, Thai islands, Malaysia, Singapore

Great American Road Trip

To finish out this list, we can think of nothing better than the iconic American road trip. With a country so large, there is no better way to get around and experience all of its wonders. Unlike the other countries in this list, exploring the one we call home would take quite a bit of time for the dream itinerary. You see, when we think of an American road trip, we are not thinking of a 2 week journey that cuts across the major interstate. No, our dream American road trip is a multiple month adventure that hits nearly every state, the top national parks, and the food capitals of the country.

Our ideal itinerary begins in the Midwest, where we call home. From there we would begin the multi-day drive through the Midwest and plains with stops in major cities like Chicago, St Louis, or Minneapolis before reaching Mount Rushmore, the black hills of South Dakota, and the wide open spaces of Montana. The final destination of the first stretch would be Seattle to take in all of the eating opportunities that are available. The second stretch of the road trip would be down the west coast while stopping at every vineyard, national park, pretty beach along the way.

The third stretch of the road trip is where it gets a little hectic. To pull it all off the return leg of the journey would be a zig-zag that crosses the country several times with Las Vegas, Arches National Park, Yosemite, Denver, New Orleans, Florida, and New England all being reached over the period of several weeks. That is, of course, if you are not sick of driving at this point in what could be over 170 hours of driving before considering day trips and daily commutes. (Below Photo "Straight Highway in Wyoming" by nissemand)

Preferred Mode of Transit: Any type of convertible.
Duration: 1-3 months
Driving Time: 7+ days of continuous driving
Must See Spots: Yosemite, Yellowstone, Wine Region of California, New Orleans, New England, and a lot of family.

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Today's post was inspired by our friends at Airport Parking Quote. Visiting the UK? Go to Airport Parking Quote to get special discounted rates on airport hotels and car parks throughout Britain.

Exploring the History of Cherry Blossom Season

2012-04-06T12:29:00.000-04:00

Now is one of our favorite times of the year. The weather is warming, the days are longer, and the flowers are in full bloom. Of all of the flowers that appear during this time of year, there are none more beautiful and interesting to us than the Japanese cherry blossom. Not only are these flowers a treat for the eyes of any photographer, but the history of these Asian flowers spans all corners of the world. (Photo "Cerry Blossoms" by Alfi007)

Why the Cherry Blossom?

You may be wondering what the special secret is about the cherry blossom that gets everyone so excited and booking special themed East Coast Sightseeing Tours. We looked into it and were rather surprised to find that there is no major back story to the flower, and no major event hundreds of years ago that started the popular viewing tradition. The reason the cherry blossom viewing season is so popular is rather simplistic - its gorgeous!

For over 1,000 years, early spring in Japan brought on the bloom of the cherry blossom. As this period of time marked the warming of the islands, the pretty flowers began to draw out residents to see their beauty and enjoy a nice sunny day with friends and family. Cut to a few centuries in the future, add in better technology to track the blossoms, plus thousands more trees planted to spread the beauty, and you have the cherry blossom phenomena that we know today.

The Japanese take their technological advancements to new levels during cherry blossom season in order to track the "cherry blossom front" to predict when the flowers will bloom in any specific prefecture. The flowers begin blooming in late January in the southern island of Okinawa and travels slowly north to Kyushu and Hokkaido in March and April. Nightly weather forecasts often take a few moments out of their broadcast just to give an update on the blooming locations of the day to ensure no one misses them when the blooms arrive. (Photo "Cherry Blossoms" by Alfi007)

You may think all the buildup to the cherry blossom season is a bit over-hyped, as even the popular video game Angry Bird's has a special cherry blossom themed level to get into the action. But as quickly as the buildup to cherry blossom season arrives, the festivities are over. Cherry blossoms, unlike many other spring flowers, bloom almost overnight and only remain on the trees for about ten days before falling to the ground in a beautiful whirlwind of life and death. For those looking to get out and enjoy the fields of beautiful flowers with friends and family, the countdown is on from the first sighting, and the tracking system seems all the more necessary.

Where Else in the World are They?

If you are not one of the lucky individuals to be in Japan over cherry blossom viewing season, do not be upset! Japan has been sharing their national treasure with many of the world's nations over the last century, and national cherry blossom festival tours can be found in several countries around the world! (Photo "Cherry Blossom" by angood)

United States - Perhaps the most famous cherry blossom viewing outside of Japan is in Washington DC which were given as a gift to the United States in the early 1900s. Since then, several cities in the USA have received gifts of thousands of cherry blossom trees that have flourished over the decades.
Brazil - Due to a large immigration of Japanese citizens to the country who brought cherry blossom seeds along with them, Brazil enjoys the beautiful trees located all over the country, especially in the city of Curitiba.
Turkey - Perhaps one of the most interesting cherry blossom stories is from Turkey. In the year 1890 a ship was returning from a visit to Japan and sank, claiming the lives of 500+ sailors. To honor their memory, the Japanese donated cherry blossom trees to the country in remembrance of the lost sailors.
Multiple other countries including the United Kingdom, South Korea, the Netherlands, and more.

Whether you take in the cherry blossom viewings in the United States, Europe, or make the trip all the way to Japan to enjoy the festivities, one thing is for sure - the trip will be one that will be remembered forever. Just be sure to charge your battery and take enough memory for your camera for the immense collection of beautiful shots that will be acquired along the way as once the cherry blossoms are gone, the yearlong wait for the next season begins.

Writing a Travel Book Part 5 - Developing a Website for Sales

2012-03-31T15:26:00.000-04:00

This blog is our personal voice on the topic of all things travel. The Long-Term Traveler's Guide has its own unique message that should not be blended with our own.
The goal of a good promotional website is to retain interest in your product, and this blog gives perspective customers a number of exits to outside information which would decrease sales.
As much as the website design should be focused on sales, it is also a sales pitching tool for perspective publishers. While we would like them to visit this site for other promotional ideas, it is best to only have the one topic for their attention.
A separate website will have its own unique placement in search engines and not be tied with non-related information from your personal site. Unfortunately, that means building up new SEO as well.

Building the Website

Having a dedicated website extension with the same name as your product is an act of simplicity and continuity. If your customer knows the product name they can easily find the website and remember it for future use. As the website should be focused about getting a potential customer's attention and keeping it there, this is one of the easiest things you can do.

Being familiar with website design for many years, we chose Wordpress.org with a custom Thesis Theme to give us the most flexibility in developing the website. This is a good option for those who know a bit of HTML coding, but not a whole lot of design languages like CSS. For a nominal registration fee and $100 to purchase the Thesis Theme, you cannot go wrong. A few days of playing with it, your website will have a great aesthetic design that is hard to match.

Regardless of how you make your website's visual design, there are some pages that should be universal to all products as a means to give your customers information about your item and why they should buy it. The following are a list of some of the top items to include, and each of these topics are linked to the pages we made for The Long-Term Traveler's Guide's website so you can see how we put them in action:

The Pitch - The main pitch to get people interested in your product. This may double as the landing page for search engine traffic to the product's homepage.
Extended Pitch (optional) - A second, slightly different pitch to build up interest.
Sales Information - Finer details about what your product is about, what it includes, where to buy, and price. This is the landing for those selling with sites like ClickBank when your product is found through their marketplace or via affiliate links. Be sure to include a small pitch to encourage people to stick around and learn more.
Influential Reviews - Links to published reviews to give your product more credibility and praise.
Read a Chapter - A reader cannot thumb through your book online, so a few chapters are good to throw out there for free. A few quick formats and upload to Scribd.com does the trick.
Author Profile - You may not be a world famous writer yet, but your author profile has to display your credentials to the topic you are selling.
Contact Page - An easy way for all visitors and members of the media to get in touch with you.
Media Press Kit - A special page dedicated to the media for anyone looking to promote your product, publish a review, or more! Include things like synopsis, author photos, and book photos to freely use in any publication.
Affiliates - There is no shame in advertising your affiliates program on your product's website. A future affiliate may even make you more sales than you can do yourself! But they have to find you somewhere, so a prominent link to this page is worthwhile.

Good Site vs Bad Site

Just to see what kind of competition is out there, we searched the term "travel guide" on the ClickBank marketplace. As their service forces you to have self-hosted sales page, we thought it would be worthwhile to see what others are doing to sell their products. Clicking through the first few items available, we were shocked by the low quality formatting of the sites. Some of the products displayed on the first page had such poorly designed websites that the first words that came to my mind were "possible scam" and "low quality."

Rather than showing screen caps of these sites without permission, we recommend you visit the ClickBank marketplace search results for "travel guide" and click on a few to see what we mean. When finished, you will probably have come to the same conclusions we have and outlined below:

A good site shows the physical product (if available) and not just a digital mock-up on every page.
A good site separates the pages into individual topics and does not force them all on one long page.
A good site is aesthetically pleasing and looks like it took more than 5 minutes to put together.
A good site has reputable reviews from professionals in the industry and not random purchasers. (These are good too, but Tom Smith doesn't carry as much weight as MSNBC or a well known website)
A good site incorporates social media to capture popularity by the masses.
A good site sells the value of your product.

Why are the previous bullet points critical to your success?

Images of a tangible product gives a concrete idea of the item that is available and reduces the thought that it may be a scam or of low quality.
Separate pages let the reader focus on one point rather than being bombarded with information they may not care about. Rather than being encouraged to click more, they will click out of your page if they have too much to read and nowhere else to go.
Reputable reviews give your products credibility from brands your customers know and trust. At the very least, a link to a blog hosted review is infinitely more credible than a standalone quote.
While 15 reviews from people no one recognizes may not help you, a Facebook counter with 150 'Likes' will as it gives a quick visual snapshot of your product's following.
If there is no perceived value to your product than what can be found in a 30 minute internet search, you have no business selling a product in the first place.

The Ultimate Goal

The ultimate goal of any website developed for sales of a product should be able to pass the three major roadblocks in advertising:

The 30 Second Test - A poorly designed website will only generate one click, the close button.
Generating Interest - Spark an interest, make it stronger, and encourage people to stick around and learn more while minimizing ways to leave.
Sales - Always offer a quick option to purchase your product at any page of your site. You never know what page will be the one that seals the deal, so it is best to always give the purchase option at every corner.

If your website can successfully pass these three roadblocks, you have done well than most every other self-published product out there! Enlist a few friends who are familiar with your product or area of specialty and get their opinion. If it checks out, you are ready for launch.

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Thank you for your support and happy travels!

Events and Festival to Enjoy around your Scotland Hotel Break

2012-03-30T19:11:00.000-04:00

Bring out your inner thespian, highland athlete or musician during your Scotland hotel break by timing it with one of the many festivals and events that take place throughout the year. Only a few things can amplify an already beautiful region's ambiance, and a great multi-day festival is guaranteed to do the trick!

The following is a guide to the best of the bunch, taking you from culture and history to music and sport. Just grab your hotel key card, wallet and sunglasses then you'll be ready to go. (Photo "Scotland Images" by vineetagar)

Ceilidh Culture

Dig out your frocks and fiddles for Edinburgh’s Ceilidh Culture Festival, a celebration of all things traditional in the world of Scottish music and dance. Be prepared for a good old knees up as Edinburgh’s best traditional bands play into the night. Take your kids along to family friendly workshops in historic music and dancing or explore the street-fair over Easter weekend. There are loads of cozy B+B’s in Edinburgh with their own history to share that will create just the right atmosphere to get you in the mood for some traditional Scottish fun. The festival runs from mid-March to mid-April.

Glasgow International Comedy Festival

One of the biggest comedy festivals in Europe, the Glasgow International Comedy festival attracts the best funny folk from around the world, with loads of local talent too. Running from mid March to April, there is sure to be something to get you hooting with laughter (acts this year including Sarah Millican and Stewart Lee). Mingle with other comedy fans in Glasgow’s central hotels and explore the historic streets and venues, from old-world pubs to concert halls. (Photo "Highland Cow" by garwee)

St Andrews Golf Week

Book yourself into a luxury hotel and don your tartan cap for St Andrews Golf Week taking place in mid April. Golfers from all over the world flock to this picturesque city to play on the many courses including the legendary Old Course. Whether you’re a pro or a beginner, it matters not. You can participate in one of the many competitions, be a spectator at professional tournaments or take lessons to improve your technique.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

For three weeks is August, Scotland’s capital hosts the largest arts festival in the world. International and local talents take to the stage in locations across the city, with everything from comedy and literature to theater and music finding a platform. Book tickets to see your favourite acts and enjoy discovering new talent as you watch street theater and pop-up events across the capital. (Photo "New Town, Edinburgh" by natedogghc)

The Highland Games

Highland Games take place throughout the year in different locations across Scotland. The largest and most famous of these is the Braemar Gathering, which is a one day event on the first Saturday in September. Watch the lads and ladies of Scotland strut their stuff in traditional attire, with competitions ranging from Tug of War and Throwing the Hammer to Highland Dancing and Piping. There are also a host of other events unique to Scotland such as Putting the Stone and Tossing the Caber. The really special thing about this gathering is the history behind it, with the first one taking place in 1815. The individual games themselves would have been enjoyed by modern participant’s distant ancestors.

The next few months of Scotland are definitely a fun time to be in the region, and no matter your interests there always seems to be something great at every corner. Heading to Scotland soon? Let us know what you think of these great festivals after you check them out!

Win 100 Awesome Business Cards from MOO!

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From time to time while running this website we have the opportunity to review travel products and accessories to share our opinion for our readers. Several of these products have turned out to redefine how we approach the topic in all of our future interactions and a select few of these items have become our personal favorites. Our recent acquisition of MOO Business cards most definitely fits within this set, and after having the luxury of ordering multiple sets of cards in recent months, we will be using their product for many years to come. The best part? Our friends at MOO are letting us run a contest for three (3) lucky winners to each win a set of 100 custom business cards (and free international shipping)!

High Quality Every Time

After purchasing hundreds of business cards over the last few years in conjunction with this website and our recent book launch, the number one criteria we judge a business card on is its print quality. If the card feels right in our hands, has a very professional and glossy print, and holds up after staying in a wallet or card holder for months on end, then we know it is a durable card worthy of our time and money. After playing with both the full-sized MOO business cards and the adorably sized MOO Minis, we can easily say that both card types hold up to our strict attention to detail.

To get to the point of holding a final product in your hand; however, the card must first be designed. Luckily, MOO makes the entire feature as advanced or as simplistic as you want it to be. Looking for a standard design? Their design software can help you make it look great. Have your own design? The upload tool works like a charm and can have you from starting to checkout within a few minutes. Having designed business cards in the past, we had our complete card design and order placed within minutes of starting and the final product matches the exact preview to minor detail.

But Also the Small Details

One of the most notable features of MOO cards to us is their attention to detail and love of product. In previous cases of ordering business cards, our product was delivered in a standard mailing box without any additional protection other than the mailing box it was shipped in. MOO Cards take this one step further and ship your cards in a specially labeled box that is unique to each size that is offered. So while some of our business cards are still stored in the ugly mailing box for lack of any space other space to house them, MOO Cards took care of that and provided a stylish housing for our cards - easy to store and easy to transport.

Overall, our experience in ordering cards from MOO has been nothing but positive. Their quality of product shows in the final product and will be our choice business card company for years to come. We highly recommend you to check them out with your next business card design, or if you cannot wait that long, enter our contest below!

Contest - Win 100 Business Cards!

Thanks to our friends at MOO, we are hosting a contest to give away a set of 100 custom business cards (~$40 value) with free international shipping to three (3) lucky winners! As we believe that MOO is the best custom business card company out right now, we are very excited to have this contest be open to everyone.

Business cards are especially great for travel bloggers as they can house all the information about your blog and social networking profiles on one easy to distribute card. If it were not for our business cards, several friends we met on the road would not have been able to find us later on, something that is quite regrettable when looking back on it.

To make the contest easy for everyone to enter, we are using the Rafflecopter program to giveaway the business cards to three lucky winners and are giving you many great ways to enter! Click the category on the program below and perform the entry requirement to gain the respective number of entry points. At the end of the contest (April 10th at 12:01 am EST), Rafflecopter will randomly draw three winners based on all eligible entries.

Note: Be sure to complete the prompts via the Rafflecopter program below to record your entry. Attempts to enter without verifying on the program below will result in your entry being being excluded from the pool. You do not have to be a travel blogger to enter and the cards can be used for business or personal use.

Many Ways to Enter

Leave a comment on this post - 1 entry
Tweet information about this post - 2 entries
Follow Living the Dream on Twitter - 3 entries
Follow MOO Cards on Twitter - 3 entries
'Like' Living the Dream on Facebook - 5 entries
'Like' MOO Cards on Facebook - 5 entries
Subscribe to our Blog RSS Feed - 10 entries!

With only a few moments of your time, you can obtain up to 29 entries into this competition, increasing your odds of winning substantially! The best part, you don't have to do all of them if you do not wish. Pick your favorites and enter by completing the task and clicking the prompt on the program below.

Note on Entering: You must complete the prompts within the program below to be eligible. Entries that are not logged in the Rafflecopter program will not be included in the random draw.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure notice: We were provided a complimentary set of business cards from MOO.com for this review and giveaway. The MOO Mini cards that were discussed in this post were acquired on our own via external sources. The views expressed in this review and contest are our own and represent our personal opinion on the product.