This is me — with ALL of my stuff, walking in Venice.
Welcome to Don’t Fear Travel, aka Tales of Travel and Tech. My first articles encouraging people to travel independently were published in the 1980s. In 1996 my personal website continued my endeavor and I loved that women emailed me thanking me for helping them or their children get out into the world.
In the ’90s I settled into a career writing about Mac and the Web. Then, as I hit the road again in 2011, I created this dedicated travel website because so many people — mostly women 40+ I’d only met in passing or online! — asked me to share my travels and my “how.” (How could I give up having a home, give away belongings, pack a backpack, and fly away to other countries with no plans!? Being over 50, didn’t I worry I was too old for that?)
So many women confided they newly had, or would soon have, the freedom and time to travel…. They were intrigued by my travels. They wanted to hear where I went, what I did, and how I pulled it off. So this site is for them, and for you if you’re in those shoes.
Whether you’re in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s, if you want to travel the world but feel you don’t even come close to having enough money, maybe you actually can.
What if… you changed your perception of travel from vacation to experience — and found you really could pull it off?
Part of my own method was to stop renting an apartment and use my rent money as travel money. It cost less to rent a dorm bed or a room in almost any place in the world than it did for me to rent my LA apartment for one night! If you have a home you can rent it out and that rent could be your travel money. Or you can house swap. And perhaps you have a job you can continue to do as you travel.
You don’t have to be wealthy or well-off! You can do it! I don’t want you to be afraid or hesitant to travel. Don’t Fear Travel!
By the way… If you seek a gift for someone who travels, visit my Get Real Gift Guide Gifts for Travelers Under $15 and Get Real Gift Guide Gifts For Travelers $15-$30. I have recommendations for gifts that are actually helpful and won’t waste valuable luggage space and weight.
If my travels…
If my travels inspire you to come out into new places and experiences — fabulous!
If my travels are good reading and bring you into my life to share it and learn from it — great.
If you cannot travel physically, traveling vicariously is the next best thing, so I hope I do a good job of making people’s lives real for you.
You can explore this site and learn by top using the menus — or you can click here and see every article. Click the title to read that article. Many contain excerpts from my upcoming book on independent travel.
Oh, and if you’re into shopping at Amazon and would like to help this site grow, please start your Amazon shopping here.
