The summer travel season is almost upon us. We want to make sure you have all the gear you need to make your next trip unforgettable, so we’re giving it away.

Just follow the directions below to enter the sweepstakes.

Enter the contest using the widget in the next section. A bit further down the page, you can see all of the awesome prizes from us and our amazing sponsors: Clothing Arts, Clever Travel Companion, Gobi Gear, Vapur, and Cocoon Innovations. The total prize is valued at nearly $400. Good luck!

How to Enter

If you’re reading this post in your email or RSS reader, click here for the full post with the entry widget.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Prizes

The Ultimate Travel Backpack

The Tortuga Travel Backpack 45 is the ultimate travel backpack and our flagship product.

Pick-Pocket Proof Pants

Clothing Arts’ P^cubed Travel Pants offer the functionality and security of four money belts. Their pants and shorts have loads of hidden and expandable pockets with zippers and buttons for added security. You can win one pair of shorts or pants in your choice of style.

Clever Travel Companion Underwear

Hide your money, credit cards, and passport in the most secure of locations: your underwear! Clever Travel Companion’s pickpocket-proof underwear have specially-designed, built-in pockets to keep your valuables safe. You can win one pair of underwear in your choice of style and color.

Hoboroll

The Hoboroll is a reinvented compression sack that’s more organized and can double as a stand-alone bag. We love clever packing innovations like this!

Vapur

The Vapur Anti-Bottle is a collapsible, clip-able alternative to bulky Nalgene bottles and overkill Camelbak systems. For a more detailed breakdown, check out Jeremy’s review.

Grid-It

A Grid-It is a great tool for organizing all of your electronics, so you don’t have to dig through your bag to find them.

Thank you to all of our sponsors and good luck to all of the entrants. If you win, where’s your next trip?

The Fine Print

Sweepstakes entries will be accepted from Monday, May 14, 2012 at 12:01am EST until Friday, May 25, 2012 at 11:59pm EST. The winner will be chosen at random through the Rafflecopter contest widget and notified by Saturday, May 26, 2012. The winner will have seven (7) days to respond and claim his or her prize. If he/she do not respond within seven (7) days, he/she forfeits the prize, and a new winner will be chosen. The sweepstakes is only open to entrants with a valid US postal address.

Facebook is in no way affiliated with this sweepstakes.

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Fred’s at Coachella right now, so odds are he’s very thirsty. That got me thinking about hydration and water bottles, in general, and how most of the solutions to one of the most basic human problems of quenching thirst suck.

Most water bottles are about as elegant as a concrete block. They’re hard, they take up a lot of space, they start to stink after a while and make water taste bad, thereby inherently making them bad at doing their sole job. I imagine most cavemen had the exact same problems with their water-carrying devices.

Can’t we find a better solution?

The Problem With Hard Water Bottles

I’ve tried to use Nalgene-style water bottles a few times in my life, but I’ve always been excessively disappointed from a utility standpoint alone. Let’s be honest: they’re less than ideal to drink from. The size of the opening is simply too big for a bottle that large. Unless I’m enjoying the great outdoors on a hot day, I have zero interest in pouring water all over my chest.

Hard water bottles take up a fixed amount of space. When they’re empty, they don’t become any smaller. Should we take it for granted that a water bottle should take up a fixed amount of volume in our precious luggage space?

And what to do with the bottle when it’s not being stored in luggage but you’re not actually drinking? Am I supposed to carry it in my hand? And, yes, I know I can clip a water bottle to my belt with a carabiner. But who doesn’t hate that thump-thump-thump with every step against their leg?

There have also been safety concerns with Nalgene. I don’t know if the concerns have any merit, but I choose to stay away.

Lower quality plastic water bottles are even worse than Nalgene. They oftentimes start to stink and make water taste bad after just a few uses. I have no patience for products that are bad at doing the only job they’re designed to do.

CamelBak and Their Brethren: Close but No Cigar

CamelBaks and other similar “hydration systems” are a great solution in some settings. They’re clearly designed for outdoor activities like biking and hiking, and I think they’re perfect for those activities.

If I were walking across Europe, I’d definitely want a CamelBak. Couldn’t beat it.

But not for most traveling or in every day life. In my humble opinion, CamelBaks are less than ideal for most people that are traveling. Drinking tubes seem best suited for babies and astronauts. I don’t want to be sipping from a CamelBak at the Louvre.

As For Disposable Water Bottles… Duh

For honesty’s sake, I’ll admit that I’m not obsessed with environmentalism. But I am very conscientious of it. I certainly don’t want to go out of my way to hurt the planet.

And, frankly, I feel that chronic use of disposable plastic water bottles is about as bad as it gets. I have no problem with occasionally buying a bottle of water, but no one should be drinking and throwing away five a day. Yet plenty of people do. It’s too much garbage to solve a simple problem.

More importantly, tap water is one of the greatest resources of the modern world. It’s close to free, it’s perfectly safe, and it tastes just as good as most bottled water.

Simply put, it’s wasteful and expensive to drink bottled water. I don’t like it. I don’t endorse. It’s a primitive, inelegant solution.

The Best Solution I’ve Found

When I was in Park City for Sundance this year, I got a .5 L Vapur Anti-Bottle in a swag bag. I was immediately taken by it. First, it’s pretty to look it. My bottle is an attractive purple with a slightly abstract white print of the map of the world. It’s understated and nice.

But even aside from the design, I realized it was a genius solution as soon as I saw it. Just looking at it, it’s obvious what the Vapur does and how it works. And because you get really thirsty in the dry, mountain air, I was extra-eager to give it a try.

Vapur’s Anti-Bottle is roughly 8.5 inches long with a 2-inch hard plastic drinking spout at one end. When fully extended, it’s less than a foot long and exactly as wide as an iPhone is long. When it’s empty and free of air, you can fold it to about the size of a small wallet. The body of the bottle is a durable, flexible plastic. There’s a small carabiner at the top of the Anti-Bottle near the spout to allow you to hang the bottle where you want.

I loved the Vapur. Its small mouth was great to drink from (similar to the mouth of a disposable plastic bottle). When it was full, I used it’s carabiner to hang it from the leather belt around my jeans. When it was empty, I stored it in a pocket on my NorthFace shell, and I never knew it was there. I’ve had no problem with its durability.

The damn thing just worked. I was jealous I hadn’t thought of it.

I’d compare the Vapur Anti-Bottle to the magnetic iPad Smart Cover. The solution is so very simple, obvious, and elegant that only a genius could think of it.

The Vapur also cleans easily with soap and water. Mine doesn’t smell bad yet. I still drink from it.

However, since a Vapur is only $10, they’re also readily replaceable. It seems reasonable that someone who consistently uses a Vapur would go through about two per year. That’s a whole a hell of a lot better than throwing out a disposable plastic water bottle every day.

Vapur also has a new Anti-Bottle which I haven’t yet tried. It’s called the Element, and it’s slightly larger and designed to be more durable. Best of all, it’s only $2 more expensive. Outdoor enthusiasts and those traveling to very dry climates might want to give the Element a try.

The Vapur Anti-Bottle is the best solution for how to carry water on the road that I’ve ever found. They’ve managed to elegantly solve a problem humans have had since we were cavemen. For that, I thank and applaud Vapur.

Have you tried the Vapur Anti-Bottle? Do you prefer a different solution to the water bottle problem? Let us know below.

(Photo: mape_s)

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Below is an interesting infographic from Best Colleges Online that answers those questions and more.

I was surprised to learn that just as many students study abroad during a summer term as in a normal semsester.

Click the infographic to view a larger version.

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When traveling, the journey is just as important as the destination.

In our last interview, we met Shannon and Kristin of {r}evolution apparel whose backpacking trip led to a line of eco-friendly clothes for backpackers. Today, you’ll meet another traveler on an inspiring journey.

After receiving his MBA, Thibaud wasn’t sure what was next for him. Rather than wait around for someone to tell him what to do, he started his own journey: 12 months, 12 cities, 12 goals.

He struck out on his own not just to see the world but also to become a renaissance man in everything from programming to kiteboarding.

Read on to learn more about his journey and how you can create your own traveling education.

What inspired your current journey?

Hi Fred & Jeremy, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to do this interview!

In June 2011, I was coming to the end of my MBA program at the University of Ottawa, Canada and, despite a strong desire to start my own company (and dozens of business ideas), I had not found a project that was completely blowing my mind yet. Within two months, I would go back to France, and I had the feeling that I was missing something.

Since February, I had been working on a consulting project for Shopify as a group assignment for the MBA, and I realized two things: on the one hand, eCommerce was fascinating me and I would lead my future entrepreneurial efforts in online retail; on the other hand, in spite of a pretty good business background in Marketing and Strategy, I did not know anything about selling goods on the internet.

This is when I stumbled upon The Art of Non-Conformity, a very inspiring book in which Chris Guillebeau introduces the following idea: “If you value learning but are not a fan of debt or busywork, why not create a way to learn what you need on your own? The One-Year, Self-Directed, Alternative Graduate School Experience offers a customizable plan to fit the needs of almost any aspiring student.” Eureka!

I got my mind-blowing project: The DODEQA Project was born.

What is the DODEQA project?

The DODEQA Project is a one-year, round-the-world trip, alternative-learning experience focusing on eCommerce. From November 2012 to October 2012, I am visiting 12 amazing cities, trying to achieve twelve specific objectives.

Indeed, the idea is to take one year off to learn all the things I need for my future plans that I did not get from school for one reason or another, such as computer programming. I am also taking advantage of this opportunity to do things I have always wanted to do, like kite boarding or running a half-marathon.

The word DODEQA comes from the Greek “Dodekathlon”, which refers to the Twelve Labours of Hercules: 12 months, 12 cities, 12 objectives, these are my labours!

What has the trip taught you so far?

Well, once a month I publish some updates with regards to the achievement of the 12 objectives.

In terms of self-improvement, I have learnt how to master my DSLR camera, read a dozen of books and I am almost ready to run my first race despite an injury that occurred in Seoul, South Korea and took me off the road for about a month. I have to say that it is vey fulfilling to observe your own progress, especially when you measure it against predetermined metrics!

However the big chunk of what I learn comes from the amazing people I have the opportunity to meet. On average, I meet with at least one professional from the eCommerce industry and make an interview to understand how things work in his or her respective country. Getting insights from successful entrepreneurs all over the planet is definitely an invaluable experience!

What advice would you give to travelers considering their own project/journey?

One thing: go where you want to go.

When I was preparing my trip, I have been told such things as “Why don’t you go to Africa?” or “If you don’t go to India, you are missing a part of the equation.”

I have chosen my 12 destinations according to the cities I was dreaming of visiting and the places where I thought it would be interesting to watch what is going on in terms of eCommerce: Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Sydney, Melbourne, San Francisco, New York City, Santiago del Chile, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo.

That was matching my goals and my desires. If you throw yourself into such an adventure, go with your guts and don’t follow other people’s opinion. Especially if those people have never undertaken this kind of project. It is your experience.

How have your goals and expectations for DODEQA changed now that you’re three months into the trip?

The objectives are all set for the year, and I am fully committed to them. This is my absolute priority as they are the reason why the project exists. So, I would not say that my goals have changed.

However, the project has literally blown up all my expectations, and I can tell you that every morning, I wake up thinking how lucky I am to be able to live this life.

Travelling full-time is a challenging, intense and extraordinary lifestyle I fell in love with, and I am now working on a couple of side projects to see how I could turn this temporary project into a permanent way of life.

In a way, the project has raised – by itself – the bar of its own overall goal!

What would you have done differently?

Okay, here is a paradox I have been through. At the beginning of the project, when I was in China, I used to work with a lot of flexibility – understand “without organization” – because I wanted to have the minimum of constraints and be able to enjoy my trip to the maximum.

However, things quickly took off, and I happened to have so many things to do that the lack of structure eventually prevented me from doing what I wanted to do and see what I wanted to see.

Since then, I have put a lot of effort into organizing my work to boost my productivity and have more free time to take advantage of the amazing places where I stay. If I had to do it again, I would have organized my work right from the beginning. But I guess the “messy” experience was necessary to figure this out!

How has traveling prepared you to be an entrepreneur?

It’s funny that you ask this question: I wrote a post to explain how traveling could help you develop some very useful skills for entrepreneurs, like your abilities to take initiative, to deal with unexpected situations and to remain calm in an unknown environment. It also appeared to me that traveling developed my social skills as well as a habit of doing more with less. To my mind, all this is a huge advantage for an entrepreneur.

Also, I have been one step further by launching my first eCommerce website, Friends, Family & Fools: I design motivational T-Shirts for entrepreneurs. On each T-Shirt there is a quote printed back-to-front: the goal is to address the message to the person who is wearing the product – when he or she looks in a mirror – and spark conversations with other people who will try to read it.

This is basically a pedagogical project to get used to running an online store to acquire my own practical experience while doing something as fun as running a t-shirt store!

In a way, traveling has already turned me into an entrepreneur by giving me the time to launch my first business.

Have you picked up any new travel tips or tricks you can share?

Here is a trick I was given by a traveler friend: when you travel abroad, make sure to have your checkbook – or just a check – hidden in a different place than your wallet. In this way, if you lose your wallet with all credit cards and cash inside, you can go to the local embassy of your country and give them a check: they will give you some cash in return, which is really cool while you wait for your bank to send you another credit card. I wish I had done it!

What’s next for the DODEQA project and yourself?

Next week, The DODEQA Project is taking me to Hong Kong where I will have the opportunity to achieve one of the twelve objectives: stay tuned to learn about it!

Beside The DODEQA Project, I am working on two different kinds of things: an eCommerce business I would like to launch, based on all the amazing things I am learning this year and a publishing initiative to share my experience and help people design their own alternative learning round-the-world trip.

When The DODEQA Project is over, my goal is to keep on traveling, learning and sharing: I will see in the upcoming months how to manage all this!

Where can we learn more about you?

Dodeqa.com is my online home where you can learn everything about The DODEQA Project and you can even subscribe by email or RSS.

If you want to get some more personal feedback from the adventure, just go to the Facebook page of the project.

Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or by email at Thibaud@dodeqa.com any time, I am always happy to get in touch with new people and talk about travel, eCommerce and Self-Improvement.

Many thanks Fred & Jeremy, it was really cool to speak with you!

If you have a sweet tooth, be sure to check out Thibaud’s latest project, Candyscovery. Have any more questions? Leave one in the comments.

(Photos courtesy of Thibaud Clement)

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Have you checked out Evaser yet? It’s a travel blog that also helps you find the best travel products and apps and has helpful preflight and packing checklists. Not only is it useful, but it looks really unique too.

The best thing about Evaser, though, is that they called the Tortuga the “Perfectest Backpacking Travel Backpack.” Now that is a hell of a compliment (and a mouthful to say).

You can read the full review on Evaser’s blog. You can also check out more Tortuga reviews from authoritative travel websites or past customers.

Why Hostels are Still the Best Option for Budget Travelers

Accommodation options for travelers are increasing by the day. First hostels, then budget hotels, now Airbnb. What’s next?

Here’s a take on why hostels are still your best bet. Hint: it’s not just about price.

Thanks to Jessica, who runs the inBed.me Travel Tips blog for publishing our guest post.

We’ll be back on Friday with our regularly scheduled post. Until then, safe travels.

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Ask (for stickers), and you shall receive!

We’ve become big fans of stickers here at Tortuga.

A little while back, we got some awesome stickers made by StickerMule that feature our turtle shell logo. StickerMule’s tagline is, “Custom stickers that kick ass.” The stickers they made for us do indeed kick ass. And we want to share them with you.

If you want some stickers, drop me a line at jeremy (at) tortugabackpacks.com. Send us your street address, and we’ll stick them in the mail. Please share your Tortuga stickers with friends, put them up at travel destinations around the globe (but please don’t vandalize!), or use them however else you might please.

Keep spreading the good news about Tortuga, and don’t be shy about asking us any travel or packing related questions. We love helping you even more than we love stickers.

Our stickers are simple, high-quality, and plain old awesome. Just our turtle shell logo. Here’s what they look like:

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Can you hear that loud buzzzzzzzzzzz? That’s the hype Pinterest has been getting.

Living in San Francisco makes it difficult for me to tell which websites and technologies are really being used outside of Silicon Valley. With Pinterest, there’s no question. This one is going to be big.

Once I see my non-techie friends using a new service, I know it’s time to take notice. That time has come with Pinterest.

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is an online pinboard that lets you “organize and share things you love.”

Here’s a helpful analogy: remember those old-school corkboards that you could pin stuff to with thumbtacks? Maybe you had one in your room as a kid, like I did. They were a great way to express yourself through collections of pages from magazines, handwritten notes, and photographs.

Pinterest is just like those boards. Except online.

On Pinterest, you create themed “boards” that act as collections. You could create boards of “Places I Want to Visit,” “My Favorite Travel Gear,” or “Cat Pictures” (hey, it’s the internet). Each board is a collection of images you’ve uploaded yourself, “pinned” from the web, or “repinned” from other users’ boards.

Your old corkboard is now online. And it’s fun and social.

Who’s Using Pinterest?

A lot of people! While this latest internet craze hasn’t gone as mainstream as Facebook or Twitter yet, Pinterest does have 1.36 million visitors every day.

The site first became popular with women and currently over 68% of users are female. Nice call, ladies. Now, I’d like to speak to the men privately for a second.

[Guys: women beat us to this one. It's fine. Let's take the high road, congratulate them, and jump on the bandwagon. Seriously, Pinterest is really fun for dudes too. Need proof? Check out this board titled Bacon and Sex. Now, back to our regularly scheduled post...]

The last fact I’ll share is that Pinterest is addictive. On average, people spent 15.8 minutes on the site. That’s more time than is spent on Facebook or Twitter and nearly as much as is spent on YouTube. Clearly, they’re on to something.

Over 68% of Pinterest users are women

(Stats via Modea and Mashable.)

Why Should Travelers Use Pinterest?

Ok, you get it. Pinterest is cool. But how does it apply to travel? Is it really useful or just another time suck?

Great question.

Pinterest is actually useful both before and after a trip. Finding and curating pictures can be a great way to plan your next trip or, if you’re not a permanent nomad, sustain yourself between vacations.

Inspiration

Some people can be inspired to visit a place by guidebooks or travel essays. But many more of us are visual. A blow-your-mind-awesome picture is more likely to influence someone to travel halfway around the world than the written word is.

Pinterest helps you collect your favorite pictures, from filtered Instagram shots to stunning DSLR photos, so that they’re easy to browse and share.

If you’re looking for new places to visit, you can browse the travel category or search for something specific like cliff diving. Then collect all your favorite destinations in one place to share with your travel partners.

Whenever you get cold feet or are having trouble saving money for your trip, you can take a look at your board and be reminded of how important and memorable your travels will be.

Planning

Once you’re sufficiently inspired, you can start planning your trip. If you’ve already picked your travel partners, you can use Pinterest to create collaborative boards.

Let’s say you’ve decided on a trip through Thailand. Great. Now which cities will you visit? Where will you stay? What activities will you do?

As you research the possibilities, you can pin pictures and articles to your board for sharing with your group. Then everyone can comment and form a consensus on the details of your trip.

If you haven’t been backpacking lately, you might also need to pick up some gear. With so many great travel products and clothes available, how will you actually decide what to buy?

First, browse around online and in brick and mortar stores, then collect your favorite stuff on Pinterest. Once you’ve saved up some money and your trip is imminent, you can click through your board of travel gear to purchase everything you’ll need.

Sharing

Travel blogs are not in short supply. Some travelers like to write about their trip. Some just want to share photos or videos.

Tumblr is a great choice for the mixed-media crowd to document their journey through text, audio, videos, and photos. However, if you’re looking to create a permanent collection of the best moments from your journeys, rather than an always-changing blog, consider Pinterest.

You can upload your favorite photos from your trip where your friends, family, and fellow travelers can see them. Plus, other Pinterest users can see the pictures, repin them to their own boards, and be inspired to take a trip of their own. Pay it forward.

For more ideas on how travelers can use Pinterest, check out Sandra Foyt’s authoritative post on Albany Kid.

Random pins from the Travel & Places cateogry

How Can Travel Bloggers Use Pinterest?

Not a travel blogger? Skip to the next section, “Who Should I Follow?”

Hey fellow travel blogger! Great to see you here. Thanks for reading.

As a traveler first and a blogger second, the above suggestions also apply to you. Pinterest is a great way to find travel inspiration, plan your trip, and share everything you’ve done and seen.

But wait, there’s more!

Find New Readers

Pinterest is also a great way to find new readers for your blog. The travel community is already very active there sharing their favorite pictures and inspiring quotes. More on that in the next section.

By sharing your pictures and posts on Pinterest, you’ll be able to attract followers, likes, and repins. Right now, Pinterest is heavy on curation and sharing. Over 75% of pins are actually repins, rather than original pins. That means that your pins are very likely to be shared and posted to others’ boards.

Not only will more people see your stuff when you share it on Pinterest, but you’ll be able to connect with other travel bloggers by repinning, liking, and commenting on their pins.

Boost SEO

Perhaps most importantly, Pinterest is awesome for SEO. Unlike most social networks and bookmarking sites, Pinterest links are “do-follow” links meaning that they actually help your SEO rankings.

Increase Sharing

Once you’ve created your own profile and started sharing content, you’ll also want to encourage readers to share your content.

But, how?

It’s simple: just add the Pinterest Follow button and Pin It button to your website. The Pin It button should be added to individual posts, while the Follow button can be included in your sidebar.

Remember that Pinterest is very image-focused, so don’t add the Pin It button to text-only posts. Make sure you have eye-catching images for users to share. The pin generated by the button will automatically link back to your full post. Nice!

Want to practice? Pin this post using this button: Pin It

Some of travel blogger Gary Arndt's boards

Who Should I Follow?

Now you know how to establish your own presence on Pinterest, but don’t forget the social aspect of the site. You’ll also need to find some cool users and boards to follow.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

First off, you should know that you can follow either users, if you like all of their stuff, or individual boards. This offers great flexibility not found on other social networks.

Travel Brands on Pinterest

Airbnb
Hipmunk
Hotel Tonight
Jetpac
Jetsetter
Travel Channel
Virgin America

Travel Bloggers on Pinterest

Bootsnall
Everything Everywhere’s Gary Arndt
Johnny Jet
LandLopers’ Matt Long
Legal Nomads’ Jodi Ettenberg

You should also check out Visit Savannah. This account, for the destination marketing organization of Savannah, Georgia, was an early adopter of Pinterest and has racked up over 12,000 followers.

Also, make sure to follow Benet Wilson’s Art Deco Travel Posters board, one of my personal favorites.

You know who else is on Pinterest? Us! You can check out our boards here:

We’ve already created boards of

• The trip to Prague that led us to create Tortuga Backpacks
• Inspiring travel quotes
• Cool shots of Pittsburgh, our hometown
• Kick ass pictures of turtles, our namesake

If you’re just getting started with Pinterest, you may want to bookmark this post and come back to it later for reference. Need an invite? Just email fred AT tortuga backpacks DOT com, and I’ll send you one.

If you’re already using Pinterest, share your page in the comments so that we can follow you. Want to follow us? Just use this button:

(Photo: 24oranges.nl)

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I’m an adherent of the slow-carb diet advocated by Tim Ferriss. I’ve done a pretty good job of sticking to it for a year straight. In the past, I’ve been on it for long chunks of months, too. The diet is pretty straightforward. I can eat vegetables, meat, beans/lentils, and I get one “cheat day” per week to eat whatever I like.

But sticking to it while traveling can be tough.

Traveling presents some serious obstacles to staying on a diet. Strange places have strange foods that might not lend themselves to a particular diet. Breaking your normal routine seems to make it easier to break your diet. And, something about travel is indulgent. We feel like we should indulge ourselves with food when we do travel.

Read on for some suggestions how to maintain your diet (which can be any diet you so choose) while you’re on the road.

Set Clear and Simple Rules

Make the rules of your diet abundantly clear and as simple as possible. A vague, hard to keep diet would be “eat less than I normally do every day” or “eat healthier.”

What’s normal? What happens if you binge at lunch? What should you be consuming and avoiding? What if your meal is horribly unhealthy but the portions are small?

Those vague diets sound promising, but those are the plans at which nearly every dieter fails. The more concrete the rules of your diet are, the easier it’ll be to follow. Even a draconian diet will be easier to adhere to on the road if the guidelines are clear.

Clear, firm rules like “eat five servings of whole grains per day” or “don’t eat potatoes” can be kept on the road.

If your doctor has prescribed a diet or if you’ve found a diet book you love, write out a list of the rules of the diet. Make the rules unbreakable and try to sum up the diet in less than ten bullet points. This is the most important tip. Keep referring back to your list of rules.

Don’t Cheat

Stick to the rules of your diet… no matter what. Falling off the bandwagon back home makes it too easy to abandon a diet. Falling off the bandwagon on the road nearly guarantees failure.

Cheat (Day)

Observe a cheat day on your diet. I cheat every Saturday and eat whatever I want. It’s much better to watch what you eat six days a week than eat like garbage every day because you can’t faithfully stick to a diet every single day.

Make your cheat day one of the rules of your diet. Then savor the hell out of it.

Cook For Yourself

Traveling doesn’t mean you need to eat every meal out. Buy ingredients at a local grocery store and cook for yourself. Use local alternatives that you buy to give yourself a taste of your destination.

Do Your Research

Research the food and traditions of your destination before you arrive. I love eating nice meals when I travel. In fact, it’s a major reason I travel in the first place. Sadly, going out to eat might be the easiest way to break a diet.

Do your homework before you leave. If you’re not permitted sugar on your diet, research whether the favorite dishes of your destination are made with sugar. If they are, don’t eat those dishes or save them for your cheat day. And if you find a new food on the road that you’re dying to try, spend ten minutes at an internet cafe researching it.

Don’t let ignorance ruin your diet.

Make it Public

Tell your traveling partner(s) and/or new friends that you’re on a diet. Don’t be shy about it because they’re not going to care about your eating habits.

Many people will go out of their way to help you observe your diet if you clearly explain its requirements to them.

Remember: It’s Your Diet

Don’t try to force your diet on anyone. If you’re willing to devote yourself to a diet, you’ve got to be pretty convinced that it’s great.

But that doesn’t mean that anyone else has to be on it. If the people around you don’t feel threatened by your diet, they’ll appreciate your effort a lot more.

Prep for Transit Time

Buy diet-safe food for your plane, train, and bus rides.

I’ve personally found that airports are the hardest place in the universe in which to find healthy meals. Likewise, long commutes of any type lend themselves to binging on junk food because it’s oftentimes the only thing that’s available.

Stick some food that’s diet-safe in your backpack before you leave your house or hostel for the next leg of your trip.

Seeing is Believing

Eat food that’s made in front of your eyes. You’ll be able to tell what’s going into it and whether you can eat it.

Focus on Other Aspects of Your Trip

Embrace that your trip is not all about food. Make this a conscious decision before you leave. I do this when I’m on a super-tight budget and know that I’ll be eating less than stellar food on the road, and I do it when I’m on a diet, too.

Make the decision that your trip is about seeing new places, experiencing new things, and meeting new people but that new food won’t be important to you. It works.

It’s easy to remember that cheeseburgers and pastries don’t make us happy when we feel like crap after we eat them. Remember that crappy feeling and how much it pales in comparison to new experiences.

Ask for Advice

Seek out people that are on your diet and ask them how they’ve successfully managed trips in the past. The internet is full of amazing forums. Or, post your question on Quora.

The Alternative

I have an alternative to offer. It’ll assure that you’ll never break your diet or feel guilty.

Forget your diet altogether while you travel.

Make sure that the trip you’re about to take is special enough that it deserves priority over your diet. You’re not just leaving home, but you’re traveling in every sense of the word. Promise yourself that you’ll eat like a local. Don’t just enjoy every bite; truly love it.

Friends always ask me, “What would it take for you to drop your diet?” And I always respond, “If I were going to Tuscany for three months, I’d forget the diet altogether and eat to my heart’s content.”

This alternative is perfect for those who save up to take one great trip a year. For those who know that they may be visiting a destination for the first and last time. For those who let travel transform them.

And when you get back home, get back on your diet. It’ll be much easier to adhere to your diet knowing that the food you savored while traveling will always taste better than what’s at home.

How do you keep your diet while on the road? Share your advice in the comments.

(Photos: Waist: Charlotte Astrid, Doughnut: JD Hancock)

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How is it that some people can barely fit everything into an 80L bag while others have room to spare in a 30L one?

Do these two travelers really need drastically different stuff? Probably not. They just think that they do.

Many travelers profess to want to embrace minimalism but find it impractical. Read on to find out how to pack to make minimalism work for you.

Extreme Minimalism: The No Baggage Challenge

To understand how to apply the principles of minimalism to our travels, let’s first take a look at an extreme case: the No-Baggage Challenge.

Travel writer Rolf Potts spent six weeks traveling around the world with only the clothes on his back and what he could fit in his pockets. While he wasn’t really cheating, I should point out that he was dressed entirely in Scottevest clothes, which come equipped with tons of extra storage space compared to most jackets, shirts, and pants.

While the challenge certainly proved its point, the average person will never travel like this. I know I won’t.

Being away from home can be tough, so why make it harder on yourself? The purpose of a pared down packing list should be to make your trip easier and less worrisome, not gross and uncomfortable.

Let’s apply the lessons of the No Baggage Challenge to a more reasonable packing list. First, where can we begin to lighten our load?

Where To Simplify Your Packing List

In the quest to minimize our packing list, we’ll have to make some sacrifices. Where to begin?

Clothing Options

First up is a change in strategy from bringing anything that you might wear to bringing only what you absolutely need.

Instead of a variety of outfit combinations, we’ll be bringing two of everything: one to wear until it’s dirty and another to change into. That’s it. One in use. One on standby.

Just make sure to bring neutral-colored clothes that look okay in any combination. Zebra stripes and 80s fluorescents can be left at home.

Toiletries

You only need enough toiletries to stay (relatively) clean. You don’t need to be “camera-ready” in the jungles of Vietnam. As long as you don’t stink, you’re okay.

This restriction means leaving behind the gizmos and elixirs you normally use. You’ll have to rely on your natural beauty and charming wit to seduce the locals.

The only hardware we’re allowing on this list is a toothbrush. As for liquids, you might not like my suggestion. We’ll get to that in the next section.

Electronics

Obviously, you can’t include a computer on a super-minimalist packing list. For your computing needs, you can rent time at your hostel or an internet cafe instead of carrying your own computer or tablet.

You can also pick up a cheap phone and local SIM card at your destination. The card will need to be switched out as you travel between countries, so there’s no need to bring everything from home.

The one gadget worth making space for is an iPod Touch or unlocked iPhone. These electronic multi-tools can be used as mini computers whenever you have access to a WiFi network. You can even use the Skype app to connect with friends and family back home. Either Apple product can also replace most point and shoot cameras, notebooks, maps, books, and standalone mp3 players.

An iPod Touch or iPhone may be an indulgence on a minimalist packing list, but their usefulness and versatility vastly outweigh the additional baggage.

The Practical Minimalist Packing List

Ok, now it’s time for the easy-to-understand, if hard-to-implement, minimalist packing list. This isn’t extreme minimalism, but you’ll get 80% of the results with only 20% of the sacrifices.

Clothing

Toiletries

Done! Short, right?

At first glance, this list may look impossible. Keep in mind that you’ll still be clean, have clean clothes to wear, and have more than a week’s worth of outfit combinations. Plus, your bag will only contain (at the most) three shirts, a pair of pants, a pair of underwear, a pair of socks, and a small toiletry bag.

Damn, that’s light!

What If I Need Something Else?

You’ll inevitably need other things along the way, but they can be borrowed or purchased locally, often for much less than you would pay at home.

Consider these occasional shopping trips an opportunity for exploration and adventure.

Think you can get by on this list? Have you gotten by on even less? Tell your story in the comments.

(Photo: jeltovski)

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This post is part of our Travel Product Review series. At Tortuga Backpacks, we love to find the perfect tool for the job. We couldn’t find the perfect travel backpack, so we created it. When we find other great products, we like to let you know about them with a review. The following review was unpaid and unsolicited. It reflects the opinion of its author only and is based on his/her own experiences.

17 countries. 6 weeks. One pair of underwear.

This boast is the tagline for ExOfficio Men’s Give-N-Go Boxers. While only taking one pair would be ambitious, that itinerary is doable with only two pairs. Believe it. Plus, honestly, what are you smuggling that you couldn’t fit a second pair of underwear in your bag?

We’ve all seen nuveau riche tourists dressed head to toe in the latest from REI, but lots of technical travel clothing has high price tags without matching benefits.

Not ExOfficio.

These boxers are the real deal. Don’t believe you could travel the world with only two pairs of underwear? Read on!

[Ladies, you can check out a review of ExOfficio's women's underwear by former guest blogger Brooke Schoenman on Her Packing List.]

Biggest Benefit: Staying Dry and Odor Free

The Give-N-Go boxers are lightweight and quite comfortable in addition to their technical advantages:

Quick Drying: Because they are made primarily of nylon, these boxers dry much faster than typical cotton underwear. Since they can dry overnight (or faster), you need less pairs for your trip. You could even travel with only two pairs if you’re willing to hand wash the used pair every night.

Moisture Wicking: Let’s skip the gory details and just say ExOfficio boxers will keep you dry in the most important areas far more effectively than cotton underwear.

Odor Resistant: Even the most hygienic of us are not always at our freshest while traveling for months on end. ExOfficio boxers are treated with an Aegis Microbe Shield to control odor-causing bacteria, which your roommates at the hostel will greatly appreciate.

Field Test

As a certified Ex-Officio fanboy, I now own four pairs of boxers, which, in addition to regular use, are my default travel underwear.

When discussing such a delicate subject, the best evidence of quality is reliance on the product. I’ve used Ex-Officio while backpacking across Europe and as my official in-flight boxers of choice.

Sixteen hour flights can be very demanding, but ExOfficio has never let me down. The Give-N-Go boxers are the most effective precaution against swamp ass on the market.

Final Verdict

Pros:

• Dry quickly
• Prevent moisture and odor
• Are comfortable and lightweight

Cons:

• Expensive at $25/pair but are worth it and can be found cheaper on Amazon

Bottom Line: ExOfficio Give-N-Go Boxers are the ideal travel underwear because of their ability to keep you fresh and to dry overnight.

Have you tried the ExOfficio underwear? Tell us what you thought about them, or your preferred travel underwear, in the comments.

(Photos: ExOfficio)

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