When you’re new to public transportation in a new county it can be daunting so I’ve documented my tram ride in Bratislava, Slovakia. Your first tram or bus may be in any other country but it’s likely to have the same basic system. Not Bratislava bound? Just use this one as an example.
Each tram stop has a vending machine for you to purchase your ticket. You purchase a ticket that covers the amount of time it will take you to ride.
Then…
I have been celebrating Chanukah all of my life, lighting candles since I was young. But with each place and home I visit, I learn more of not just other people’s cultures, but of my own religion and traditions. This year I was in Israel, for the third time for this festive holiday. In fact, it was not even my first time being in Tzfat (aka Safed) for Chanukah — but I still had new experiences and still learned more.
Can an independent traveler find happiness on an organized tour?
After well over 6 solid years of days traveling on my own, traveling solo, going where I wanted when I wanted, seeing whatever I wanted on my own schedule — I signed up, paid for, committed to, an official 9-day tour.
I have to admit, I have been a bit of a tour snob. I’d watch groups of look-alike people follow a red umbrella or an orange flag, sticking together in a mini-mob, looking at what the guide said to, taking photos even when they seemed not to know why, standing in front of some monument for a photo just to show they’ve been there. That wasn’t my idea of fun or of cultural enlightenment.
Yes, I was going on a group tour. I was committing to travel with a group of people I didn’t know. I was facing the potential to be stuck with people I didn’t know, like, or have anything in common with.
However…
I knew this tour organizer so I knew it would be a worthwhile experience full of great places, people, and experiences…
People have asked me to share some of my how-I-get-places tips so here’s another. I’m flying from Israel to California for only $108.64 and 20,250 miles. Here’s how.
This isn’t about “travel hacking” or gaming a credit card company and it’s not playing games with airlines. It’s simply a matter of time, mile requirements, taxes, patience, and flexibility.
One of three popular destinations from Bratislava is Prague. It’s a relatively short train or bus ride. As I had not been to Prague or any of what was Czechoslovakia during my first travels, I decided that a couple of days in Prague, Czech Republic (as it is now called) would be a new experience and more worthwhile. So today, having relaxed and enjoyed much of Bratislava at my leisure, and knowing I needed to be back there for my friend Annaline to arrive and travel with me to Israel, it was the perfect time to take my side-trip.
I don’t always know where I’ll stay upon arrival to a new place but in this case, I had already selected and reserved my accommodations for the night. All that was left was to enjoy getting to Prague and making it my next home.
When you travel, always bring a towel. (But the right towel — and I have one to recommend!)
“You got a towel with you?” were some of the first words said to Arthur Dent as he started his adventures through the universe. And so they went, towel coming in handy. Today, I ask you the same, and offer you the same advice.
Matador’s new Nano Dry Shower Towel ended my search for a great travel towel.
This is the story of finding the right towel and why it’s so good.
A long day…
Today is the day my friend and I leave fabled Cinque Terre for storybook Venice. From one romantic area of Italy to another. I am still traveling with my friend A, ever since hitting mainland Italy after Sicily. Today we’re traveling on FlixBus. But before we can get to our bus, we need to leave Riomaggiore (our Cinque Terre home base) and get to La Spezia as that’s where FlixBus travels from.
Want to follow along with me for the full day’s adventure? Check-out, walk carrying luggage, short train ride, bus from one coast of Italy to another, walk through some of Venice carrying luggage, check-in, and then… explore a new city!
Starting and ending each of my days at the On the Way hostel in Palermo, I give Palermo a 5 out of 5 for friendliness. Fantastically located on Via Roma, owned by a true traveler and staffed by helpful, enjoyable volunteers such as the great Matt from Wales. This is my recommendation for a hostel to stay at while in Palermo, Sicily.
I was absolutely determined this time to carry a hairdryer and have hair that looks nice and polished each day. That was not meant to happen.
Be careful what you wish for. I am carrying only a 50-L carry-on duffel bag that converts to a small backpack and after logging in around the Miami airport for a day and walking 5 or 6 miles in one day just to find a plane out of Miami and another 5 miles the next day to get somewhere, I was feeling the load. I was wishing my backpack would be lighter.
Having finally escaped from Miami because of a sympathetic American Airlines staffer who fully understood the situation, I was in New York City JFK airport. But frankly, I smelled. I certainly did not feel good look decent. I had hoped American Airlines and their Ambassador lounge people would understand the errors made and in sympathy allow me to use their shower for five minutes but their rules didn’t allow for this. So instead I bathed in the public women’s room. And… I blew dry my hair. That was my downfall.
My first morning in Sicily wasn’t where I had planned it. I’d planned to arrive into Palermo, but due to circumstances had to end my into-Sicily travels in Catania instead. This morning I would continue onto Palermo with just enough time to start my first-ever organized tour — Sicily’s Beating Heart Tour with La RosaWorks.
I woke up at 10 — only because I’d set my alarm for the last possible minute that I could shower quickly and still make check-out. Still groggy and with my coordination not intact, I started my day.
Once released from Miami International Airport by my Hero Customer Service rep I was safely in NYC. From there I had 2 more planes, a train, an automobile in between, and my own blistered feet. That got me to Sicily. After an overnight stay in Catania I was able to take yet another train and finally arrive in Palermo.
Day two of my third over-50 travel adventures.
Greetings from my corner of a group encampment in Miami International Airport, post-Hurricane Irma. But I am not stranded because of the hurricane. Have I mentioned that travel isn’t always glorious?
This blog is called Tales of Travel and Tech, but I’d like to remind everyone that traveling doesn’t mean taking all your tech with you on your vacation.
Want to maximize your travel experience? Then skip the tech!
Most of the time, that is. Not all of the time.
There’s plenty a bit of tech can do to expand your travel, but not if it blocks you from experiences!
I’m getting ready to travel again. I’ve really enjoyed having the past year with my family. I must confess I had a bit of a dilemma deciding whether to travel again or to stay put in a comfortable apartment home close to my family and friends. But in the end, I chose the travel my soul craves over the comfort my heart craves.
I have been out of that apartment for a few weeks now and I have my ticket to fly to Europe.
Here’s what’s in my travel bag — and why. I’m always on the lookout for items I’ll take on my next long-term travel. This is my constantly updated report on what I consider, what I take, and how it works.
Faced with the impending finality of giving up the apartment that has become my comfortable home over the past year, I am once again feeling the constriction in my throat and bouts of fear of what is to come. I am again starting to wonder if I’m crazy and if I should just stay comfortably where I am.
The reality starts to hit me whenever I leave “home” for the unknown. Where am I going to stay? Will I be invited into peoples homes? Will I be safe? Am I crazy for doing this?
For the most part on this blog I have shown you the places I have been and they are indeed exciting. If I have invoked your wonderlust or wanderlust, then I have done a good job of showing you how exciting travel can be. However. I’m not sure whether I have shown you the other side, the uncertainty of it. If I haven’t, I owe it to you to do so.
Traveling or not, how do you stash your cords, cables, and wired earpieces? Here’s my favorite solution of all time — the Cord Taco by This Is Ground.
I have four great ones to recommend.
For many cables, Cord Tacos by This is Ground.
For larger cables such as one to plug in your laptop, Gear Ties by NiteIze
For larger items and hanging items, Pixi by Blue Lounge or perhaps Bongo Ties.
Meet the Cord Taco, a durable, remains-beautiful, premium leather cable wrap that keeps your cables untangled better than anything else I have ever tried, and I have tried pretty much all cable organizers. This is on of the original Cord Tacos. I have been using it since January 2014, almost 3.5 years. This size is approximately 3.25 inches in diameter. And meet Gear Ties, a new and very welcome addition to my travels.
The folks at Matador Network have created a new tool that can be helpful to every traveler. It’s an online database of available airport wi-fi networks and the info about them, including their passwords. Just look at the map and click the location.
And then the talk of the electronics ban for people flying from Europe and the USA started up. So now, although I’d like to be purchasing my flight to Europe now, would I be doing so at the potential cost of not being able to use my ticket without gambling that my computer will not be stolen or damaged on the flight?
AirScale sounds promising but it failed on me at the start of my trip. It’s not worth the gamble. I now have only a too-heavy, too-large battery. Sadly, I must I recommend skipping this product.
As I have said several times, I have happily been using my sarong as a beach blanket, picnic blanket, or as a sheet at times. But recently, I realized that a larger length of ripstop nylon would be handy for the outdoors and not impact me greatly. I planned to get some next time I’m downtown LA. But then I met the Matador folks at the International Travel Goods Show — and they showed me their Pocket Blanket 2.0. I actually had no intention of considering the Pocket Blanket when I came to see Matador for their NanoDry Shower Towel. But then they pulled the corner out and handed it to me. When I first touched this pocket blanket, I just smiled. I couldn’t believe how thin it was. In a life of travel, that’s a major joy. The Matador Pocket Blanket 2.0 is brilliant. It packs tiny and light (98 […]
This is for those of you who do leave your home empty as you travel.
SimpliSafe, a new style, low-cost alarm system and company, created this pre-vacation checklist to give you — or remind you of — ways to protect your home while you’re out traveling. These are very basic but wise. Maybe it will get you started building your own list of ways to take care of and protect your home while you travel.
Each time someone tells me they want to go to Nicaragua I cringe. I hear the people are lovely, they say, and it’s so inexpensive. Yes, that might be true — but my experience wasn’t about nice people. I was locked in a room at the border and threatened with jail — because of an immigration agent on a sick power trip.
I have long debated telling this story, but I feel it’s important. I’ll never know if I really would have been sent to jail in this Dictatorship, but the Tourism agent at the border certainly believed I was about to land there.
Please read this — and take it seriously.
Visitors to Los Angeles often ask about how to get around without a car so this page is my collection of LA Public Transportation info. (Services may change but this is hopefully a good start for you.) I’ll edit this page as I learn more. I hope you’ll also share what you learn in the Comments.
I have an all-over-LA section, a Beach section, and an LAX/airport section.
As you travel, it’s important to do all you can to keep yourself healthy. Flossing is not romantic but it’s an easy part of this and floss has a very low impact on your travel bag’s size and weight.
For flossing ease and the maximum efficiency, Cocofloss brand floss can’t be beat!
Have a read, have a look, then give it a try.
