Suitcases can be a big investment. With good quality full-size suitcases priced well over $100 on average and with luxury luggage often priced over $1000, good suitcases don’t come cheap. Despite this hefty investment, many travelers don’t give much of a thought to caring for suitcases once they return home from a trip. Instead of …
I’m a sucker for great souvenirs, and one of my very favorite souvenirs from all of my travels is from an antique shop in Arequipa, Peru. After wading through tourist markets in Cusco, Lake Titicaca, and Aguas Calientes near Machu Picchu, I was disappointed that all of the Peruvian blankets for sale in these markets …
For many of us travelers, the lining of our suitcase is zero space – unaccounted for when we plan our packing lists and set to the job of cramming it all in. For others, the lining of our suitcase might simply be a place to store soiled and dirty clothing, separated from the rest of …
If you plan to try and travel long-term, you’ll need a source of income and a way to make money. While some folks are lucky enough to travel on someone else’s money or on paid stipends as journalists or social media partners, most of us have to pay our own way – whether that’s on …
I first heard about Jetty Island from a friend who grew up visiting this sandy Puget Sound oasis while growing up in the Pacific Northwest. Intrigued by this promise of a soft sandy beach with shallow, warm waters – a contrast from typical Puget Sound beaches of the Seattle area- I immediately wanted to go. …
Despite seemingly endless waterways in the Pacific Northwest, river floating rarely gets its just respect among the outdoor-activity loving population of Seattle. Popular in the midwest and particularly in Texas, river floating is a fun, lazy way to enjoy open water on a summer day. Even though Washington has a long list of amazing outdoor …
Hunting for the perfect souvenir is part of the fun of traveling. Although I’m not a fan of imported decorative tchotchkes emblazoned with a location name, I love artful, historied objects that take me back to a time and place of adventure and exploration. In the past, my search for the perfect souvenirs has taken …
While pads are are easy to find in any drugstore or supermarket, some regions of South America are notoriously for being difficult places to locate tampons. Thanks to devastatingly effective marketing in the last century that painted tampons as a product that only promiscuous women would use, some South Americans- and especially many Chileans- tend …
In this article, I’m talking about how to wash laundry in a sink and get it really clean so you can stay clean and fresh during long-term travel. It’s not always possible to access to a washer and dryer, laundromat, or hotel “fluff and fold” service- although those are options for many travelers. Below, I …
Packing light is hard- and if your clothes are a bit bigger than average, it can feel 10 times more difficult to stay within one bag packing limits, hand luggage weight limits, and carry-on bag dimension. As an expert at packing plus size clothing in ultra-compact luggage, today I want to share with you a little …
