Journeys Near and Far

Four books to help you plan a volunteer vacation

Are you thinking about doing short term volunteer work abroad? Making the decision to take a volunteer vacation is easy if you know how you enjoy spending your time away from work.  What's difficult is deciding where to go and which program to choose.  

I love books that give advice about planning life-enriching vacations.  Here are four from my library that I recommend for anyone wanting to learn more about voluntourism.

 

Lonely Planet's Volunteer:  A Traveller's Guide to Making a Difference Around the World 

Lonely Planet's Volunteer:  A Traveller's Guide to Making a Difference  is packed with practical information about all aspects of voluntourism.  It covers everything from why people volunteer and the types of volunteering they do to how to prepare for the experience. 

Chapters about volunteer programs are arranged by the type of program, such as "Organized Volunteer Programs" and "Do-it-Yourself Volunteer Placements", "Religious Organizations", "Structured & Self-funding Volunteer Programs" and even "How to Start your own Charitable Project".

This is a very useful book.  My only complaint is the size of the type -- it's too small and in a few places too light, in my opinion, but hopefully that won't be a problem for you.   And it is available on Kindle which will let you enlarge the type.

 

Five ways to get "in-the-know" for an international trip

Mumbai , India -- My Hindi was either pretty good or pretty funny, judging by this grocer's smile.

You've bought your plane ticket, reserved your room, and picked up a guidebook to carry along with you.  But while you're counting down the days to departure, what else can you do to learn about your destination?

 

1.  Read the travel literature

A guidebook is a good way to start learning more about your destination  But why not read some of the travel literature as well?  For example, I'm planning a trip to New Zealand, so I googled "books to read for a trip to New Zealand" and found a list of recommended books on Lonely Planet's website. When I finish my copies of Bob Moore's   The 1 Thing: A Small Epic Journey Down New Zealand’s Mother Road and  Slipping into Paradise: Why I Live in New Zealand by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson  I think I'll have a better idea of the country and its people.

You can also look for recommended reading lists in guidebooks.

Don't forget to follow the country's tourist board on Twitter and like them on Facebook.  And by reading travel blogs about the destination you'll be exposed to a wide variety of opinions about the country as well as suggestions on what to do there. 

 

How to Learn French on a Budget

Image:  notfrancois

If you are interested in learning French for travel or living abroad, head over to Matador Abroad and read Thais Chalencon’s article How to: Learn French for FREE.

In her article, Thais explains how she learned French in France on a budget, and she provides a range of resources to help you do the same.

 Thais writes,

'Having lived in France since June 2009, I can tell you that it is possible to learn French without spending a single Euro. I studied 20 hours a week, and after five months I was fluent enough to get my first job as a waitress.'

via matadornetwork.com

She also provides a list of resources for learning French online.

In addition to Thais' list, I’d like to add three resources of my own.  Use them to learn the language before your trip or while you are away.

Mango languages

Check with your local library to see if they offer Mango Languages.  This is an excellent online program (free at your library) that offers about 16 languages including the usual such as French, Spanish, German and Russian as well as Greek, Vietnamese, Hindi and more. 

Vacation lists make packing easier

Does packing stress you out? It does me.  I actually dread it.  Which is why I've started using lists.

I don't mean the scribbled-on-a-piece-of-paper or two kind of lists, but prepared lists I've saved on my PC.  I've created several, for different types of trips (i.e., overseas, domestic, cruise, roughing-it). 

Before a trip, I customize each list, then print out a copy and place it alongside my suitcase or backpack, crossing off each item as I put it in the bag. 

This is pretty basic, but having a list ready to print out has saved me a lot of time and stress.  I don't have to worry about forgetting something important now.

Become an Untourist and Live Like a Local

Buenos Aires City Hall 

Do you want to live in another country, rather than just traveling through it?  If you're short on time, Untours has the solution.

I first heard about Untours from a seminar travel guru Arthur Frommer gave at the Adventure Travel Show in New York City. 

What's an Untour?

It's an interesting concept, especially for people who like to have a bit of help planning their vacations but don't want to be constricted to a tour bus. 

Untours provides your vacation essentials, namely, a vacation rental, flights, transportation at your destination, a local contact and information on what you can do while you're there. I haven't done an Untour yet, but it sounds like a relaxing way to go on vacation and still be in control of what you do once you get there.

While browsing their site this morning I found several Untours I'm interested in, including a cute apartment in Nafplio, Greece, which includes a "stash of groceries" upon your arrival.  How cool is that?

Five Websites for Travelers who Love the Outdoors

Mirror Lake, Yosemite National Park

Do you love outdoor adventures?  Whether you're journeying near or far, if you're an outdoor enthusiast there are some great websites to help you find the perfect day out. 

Next time you want an impromptu day with Mother Nature (or if you want to plan one), try a few of these sites:

Gorp

Gorp offers information on a variety of outdoor activities, such as hiking and camping as well as  gear and weekend guides.  Under their network they've got several other outdoor/travel related sites as well:

• Away.com
• Outsideonline.com
• Adventurefinder.com
• Trip.com

Between all of these, you could probably plan an entire trip. 

Today's Twitter Travel Finds

 Study Abroad in Poland, take your kayaking to the next level and vote for your favorite restroom by Friday!  Plus more...

The Algarve, Portugal    

Off-Season Travel:  The Algarve, Portugal

Today, Christine of Christine in Spain (@Christinenspain) tweeted an article, Traveling Off-Season to the Algarve, Portugal.  This is my first time visiting Christine's blog and I'll definitely be back, it's beautifully done with lovely photos.

Portugal is on my "places I want to visit list" and, after reading this article, it just moved up a few notches.  Christine is an expatriot, having moved to the south of Spain after graduating from college.  I really admire her for being brave enough to follow her dreams!

 

Monday Site: Spotted by Locals

With the tagline "Experience cities like a local," I had high hopes when I visited this site. It turns out my expectations were met.

I love original content created by people who really know an area well.  And that's exactly what Spotted by Locals delivers.

I learned about the website while in Copenhagen last November for the TBEX Europe conference, where I met one of the site's creators, Bart van Poll, as well as several of the site's Spotters.

European Cities

With a focus on 33 European cities, including,  Ljubljana, Zagreb and Bucharest, I was happy to see (I will be traveling to these cities soon), Spotted by Locals has won numerous awards such as the Guardian and Observer “Best Travel Website” award and the Lonely Planet "Best Group Authored Travel Blog."

How does it work? The site is actually a series of blogs, iPhone apps, and PDF city guides which are kept up-to-date by local bloggers known as 'Spotters'.  The Spotters live in their city and speak the local language, and are all hand-selected by Bart and his wife, Sanne.

Ten Travel Tips from Rick Steves

 

At the New York Times Travel Show, Europe travel guru Rick Steves gave his "Europe through the Back Door" seminar and slideshow.

Steves' talk was loaded with travel tips on how to get the most out of your trip to Europe. His travel philosophy is all about diving into the culture and meeting the real people -- not those who are making money off of you -- by patronizing smaller, family-owned establishments. It's the way I like to travel, and, as always, I came away with lots of new ideas on how to enjoy my trips to Europe more.  Here I'll share Steves' top ten tips with you.

1.  Visit the smaller, less touristy towns and villages

Many of Europe's charming towns and villages don't have promotional budgets, and this is a good thing for visitors who want to avoid the crowds.  "All over Europe you'll find these magical places if you know where to look," Steves said. 

Even better -- visit after hours, and spend the night if you can.  "You want to find places that have missed the modern boat." Steves said as he pointed to a slide of Italy's Cinque Terra. "Places that are the same now visually as they were 100 years ago." 

Sunday Site: Viator.com

 
 

Book tickets for tours, sights and attractions before you leave home to save time and avoid waiting in line.

Viator  offers travelers the chance to book their tickets for tours, sights and attractions in advance, a pretty helpful concept considering how much time it can take to get your tickets once you arrive at your destination.  Why spend your hard-earned vacation time trying to find ticket offices, making phone calls or waiting in line at attractions when you can take care of all this in advance?

I found out about Viator in a very useful book called Ask Arthur Frommer & Travel Better, Cheaper, Smarter written by -- you guessed it -- travel guru Arthur Frommer. 

Viator isn't one of the really well-known travel sites so you may not have heard of it, but I recommend you head over there for a look if you are planning on traveling anywhere soon. 

For journeys near or far

That doesn't mean that you have to be traveling far away, either.  I'm heading to New York City next weekend for the Vogue Knitting Live show, just a two and a half hour drive from my house, so I decided to check out Viator and see what I could use it for while I'm in this nearby city. 

I'm a near-native, so I won't need to book tickets for things like the Hop-On-Hop-Off  Bus Tours or the ride up to the top of the Empire State Building, but even so, I found a slew of slightly discounted things to book in advance through Viator:

• Tickets for The Lion King and other Broadway shows
•  Tickets for a New York City Pizza Tour to Brooklyn and Coney Island (Mmm, now that sounds good)
• A New York City Wall Street Insider Tour, which could be pretty educational for me
• A New York City Nightclub tour, definitely high on my list since I'll be alone and it would be nice to do this with others

Just for fun, I checked out Viator's offerings for Edinburgh and London.  There was a really  nice selection that had me wishing I'd done this before I went to these two places last year.

A wealth of options

The site allows you to create a wishlist and sign up for a newsletter to keep up with the latest deals.  Users can search for tours, attractions and shows by place and category.  For example, under New York, I clicked on Food, Wine and Nightlife but users can also check out twenty-some other categories such as Walking and Biking tours, Cultural and Theme Tours or Shows, Concerts and Sports, etc.

I've definitely added Viator to my list of must-visit travel planning websites.