Travel Tips
Jump to travel guides (first one publishing November 16)
I will be honest, I don't intend to write a lot of destination guides and I pray the SEO Gods spare me from creating top 10 lists.
I mean no disrespect to those who have done so. I have certainly benefited from a number of these in my own travels. For most destinations it is just an oversaturated market. Instead I will provide a list of resources that I am highly thankful for here. I will also write some blog posts linked below for a few harder to plan for places where I think my experience may be of help.
Resources
Wikivoyage is my favourite website on the internet. It's wikipedia for travel. A crowd sourced treasure trove of information for each country. Some pages are more developed than others but its maps help me visualize trips, while the "Do" and "See" sections give me a base overview of what might be worth my time. The "Get In" information is by far the one I use the most as it provides visa requirements, information on different forms of transportation available, how to get to far away airports and even warnings on common scams where applicable.
Caravanistan is THE place for information on travelling Central Asia. Its forums have great trip reports of people's experiences in seldom visited areas, while also being the best place to find travelling companions for expensive endeavours like the Pamir Highway.
Do you like overland travel? There is no one-stop shop on the web unfortunately but the Man in Seat61 is the closest thing. It focuses mostly on train travel but has sections on buses and ferries where necessary. I have probably spent literal days on this site looking at timetables, booking information, itinerary ideas and looking at pictures of different train cabins. For actual bookings I have had success with Trainline in Europe and 12Go in Asia.
As a rule I recommend booking with the airline directly whenever possible. It will save you a headache if anything goes wrong or you're forced into making changes. The explore section with Google Flights lets you see the cheapest round-trip or one-way flights from any airport of your choice up to 6 months in advance! You can set your destination as a country, region or continent. This is especially great for multi-destination trips. One way flights open up a ton of flexibility and are often cheaper to mix together. A notable exception is in crossing the Pacific where roundtrip bookings, especially coming from North America, are recommended.
When planning trips it's always worth it to get multiple perspectives. I'm a white male which naturally informs my perspectives. I think travelling can be rewarding for absolutely everyone but appreciate that there are concerns or questions I cannot properly address. Be My Travel Muse is a blog focusing on solo-female travel, Oneika the Traveller has written extensively on what it's like to be a Black women touring the globe, and Chubby Diaries is tackling plus-sized adventure.
