Either Vicks VapoRub or Tiger Balm should be in your bag as you travel, especially when you travel long-term. Either will likely turn out to be one of the best values for its weight and size.
Both of these similar ointments are helpful for a wide range of medical conditions.
Both are available in my counties.
Did you know that you can enjoy the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame, then a hike in Southern Califonia’s nature, and then return to Hollywood Boulevard — easily in just a day?
If you happen to be in Los Angeles, that is!
It can be difficult to leave luxuries behind. Fortunately, in some cases, you don’t have to. There are often alternates to those nice things.
I’ve already written about how many things a sarong can do.
Here are some more of my substitutes. My goal is to take up very little space and weight.
Don’t worry: I am not going to tell you to cut a neck and arm holes in a plastic garbage bag to make a rain coat.
A visit to the Korean Friendship Bell, located in Angels Gate Park in San Pedro, CA.
I’m back to living in my adopted hometown for a while, so you might not call that traveling. But LA is a major travel destination — and I am traveling within it this weekend! From Friday – Tuesday, I’ll be a guest of a friend in Redondo Beach. I get to show her all the tricks of the iPhone, see friends, and enjoy the beach air and all that Redondo Beach and the Redondo Beach Marina and Pier have to offer.
Wondering how I packed?
When you’d like a great priced grass-fed burger in Santa Monica, CA, visit Shaka Shack Burgers. The Shaka burger is $6.95. The $2.95 fries will compliment 2-3 people’s burgers.
In the forest about an hour north of Venice, Italy, is a 100% people-powered amusement (theme) park built by one local restaurant owner named Bruno. The story, images, and video is inspiring and amazing.
I certainly don’t want to visit Italy again without dining at Pioppi and trying some of his 40 electric-free rides amongst the trees. I think it must be one of the most unique restaurant/theme park experiences!
If you’re ever stuck and need to start a fire, this trick may help. I didn’t come up with it. You’ll find it all over YouTube, as I did. But I’m sharing it here to help you know about it.
As a guest in people’s homes, it’s a given that I bring food or a gift for my hosts. But for the longer-term visits, I typically try to contribute to the home in some way as a special thank you. Sometimes my host/hostess knows. Other times they have no idea unless they notice the difference later on.
Sometimes it’s just cleaning floor molding and cabinet doors. Once I recaulked a bathroom. Once I repaired a large hole in the wall…
[I write this while in LA, newly sub-leasing a small apartment. My plan is to stay in LA for a while, enjoying family and friends here for a while.]
Each night now as I go to sleep and look at this red clock beside my bed and I think: “I have a bedside clock.” It’s been a long time since I’ve had a bedside clock. One of these red glowing LED lights that shine the numbers that tell the time. It might seem silly but it’s a luxury I’ve long lived without and a bit of normalcy for me. I haven’t had much normalcy in quite a while — in 4 1/2 years.
The Crystal Body Deodorant Stick is the perfect deodorant to take traveling! It is small, pure, long-lasting and doesn’t contain anything that can clog or otherwise damage your body.
Images of my Crystal Body Deodorant Stick over time shows this is a top choice for deodorant for travel.
2018: Sprouts now has a mineral salt stick that’s just as good!
On this warm, sunny Jerusalem afternoon, my friend Debora and I took a walk to the King David Hotel area. We visited a windmill built by the British, enjoyed views, and relaxed in the lobby of the King David hotel after exploring some of its rooms.
I was lucky enough to meet Chana Mason and be invited on her unique “Machane Yehuda Shuk & Nachalot Experience” here in Jerusalem. The one and only Machane Yehuda Shuk (outdoor and covered) is THE market in the center of Jerusalem. Nachalot is one of the original areas built outside the city walls as Jerusalem expanded in the late 1800s.
I’ve traveled so many years, for years at a time, that you’d think I knew the best packing. I think I do — but we all make mistakes…
These shoes were not a good travel item.
While a nice sandal, the Columbia gave me no ankle support, so they were not a good choice. They were also very heavy. Heavy in my backpack — and heavy to lift on my foot with every step so walking in them made me tired.
The Taj Mahal restaurant is a very welcome change from the hotels that line the Ein Bokek area of the Dead Sea. It is outside! You have the Bedouin-inspired benefit of cover without walls so you can feel the air and see the Dead Sea. You can choose from a range of seating styles: tables with comfy cushioned seats, benches and metal-backed chairs, cushion seating at low tables, and thick-cushioned lounge chairs around low tables. The decor is unique, fun and a bit eclectic. And, the food is fantastic! As are the owners.
Nothing will change that I loved my Safe Skies Cable Lock — but sadly, I now have to report that this lock has failed me. It reached its limit, so I have a use warning for you now.
The lock still looks almost brand new, even after using this lock daily for about 1 year and 5 months and even more when you add intermittent low use, for about 9 months after that heavy use.
However, one day months ago, during the low use time, while sliding the lock open, it failed me and it is no longer usable.
We all know the feeling: the pain of the burn, then the blister. Then the pain as the blister pops and the new raw skin is exposed before it’s ready. And the possible pain and infection if the new skin becomes irritated, opens or becomes infected.
What if you didn’t have to go through that pain again?
And the solution is simply a discarded part of a raw egg!
…disappointed that she was in China and her friend didn’t want to experience it …couldn’t care less. Then I realized! She wasn’t with “travelers. She was with “travel hackers.”
It’s one thing to take advantage of a great New Card offer and get $50,000 bonus miles — giving you a free flight from say, the USA to Europe. It’s not easy to save for a vacation and we all need vacations. And a new card now and then is legitimate. But go on that vacation and enjoy the place you’d selected! Travel overland while you’re there and see the place. Take a train or bus and talk to the locals! Experience the place! Savor the locale, the people, the foods, the languages, the experiences.
This week I had a new experience in Tzfat. A woman I have known for a while invited me to her home. Then she needed to go away but she also needed to be here for the refrigerator repairman. So I got to house-sit. I cleaned out the fridge and salvaged food.
Sound boring? Sound crazy?
Here’s the thing: that fridge is in a stone-walled kitchen!
This time 4 years ago I lived a typical American life in a two-bedroom condo. It was home to my furniture, photos … two dressers full of clothes…. kitchen full of fine appliances…home office.
Now I’ve virtually been living out of a 65-liter backpack. If something fit into that backpack, I don’t take it with me.
Sometimes I miss my old stuff but If I still had it I would need to still have a place for it to — and I would not have had the freedom to be in whatever country I happened to be in at that moment.
The truth is, we really need very few physical items to be well-dressed, clean, well-groomed, and comfortable. And your perception or definition of “very few items” will even change as you live the downsize.
On Wednesday May 13, 2015 at 3 p.m., I wrote a note to myself on my iPhone.
One word: Kohlrabi.
A day or two earlier, I was sitting in the Ascent library, my friend Mo’s office in Tzfat, working with him. He had this thing that looked like a white waxy Turnip. It fit in the palm of his hand. I’d watched as he peeled it with a knife.
This was new to me.
A perfect traveler’s food.
This is for all the Americans backpackers and other Americans who are traveling to Israel and love our Peanut Butter.
As you shop for Peanut Butter in Israel, you’ll find plastic jars with screw tops like we’re used to in the USA — but you’ll also find a solid plastic contain with either a green or red lid.
It’s not the same as the stuff in the screw-top containers. See how liquidy it is.
For those of you who will be flying, here are 10 Tips to Have a More Enjoyable Flight from Etiquette Expert Jacqueline Whitmore.
Jacqueline is the founder of The Protocol School of Palm Beach and is a former flight attendant. I have not edited or added to any of this. I pass this to you as her expert advice.
Recently I had amazing hummus in two places in Israel — and I now love hummus!
The two great hummus eateries I have experienced are in: Tzfat (Safed) and Qatzrin (Katzrin). This post is about HummuSila in Qatzrin (Katzrin).
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Upon arrival at the comfortable Golan Garden Hostel in Qatzrin (Katzrin) , Israel, I was invited to the Bonfire Music Jam and Donation Dinner. After a fast tour of this nice, comfortable hostel, some great conversations and a bit of work time, it was time to head to the bonfire. I was hungry and ready, as were we all. This clearing and fire ring were an easy 15 minute walk from the Golan Garden Hostel. I asked what town we were seeing in the distance. The lights in foreground are Rosh Pina and those at the top of the mountain are Tzfat. After living in Tzfat for so long and looking out at the lights of other towns, I was now enjoying the lights of Tzfat in my view. It was a beautiful warm evening. Perfect weather, stars high above us. People from a variety of countries. The fire was even interesting. There was a […]
