How to bring indie travel back home

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Independent travel is largely about exploring the world on your own terms, but few of us can be on the road forever. The time comes when we are forced to settle in to our lives back home, and it can often be a difficult adjustment. Sometimes we might even feel like two different people– the free-spirited traveler and the conformist worker drone.

But the thrill of travel doesn’t have to end when we step off the plane and are greeted by friends and family at the airport. If the goal of travel is self-improvement, that is the perfect time to put all you’ve learned into action.

To me, anyway, indie travel is about attitude, not location. Therefore, we should try to incorporate what travel has taught us into our daily lives, no matter where we are. Here are a couple suggestions for doing just that:

  • Spend plenty of time by yourself. Visit bookstores, cafes, restaurants alone. Go for a walk by yourself. Anything to free up some time for reflection and clear thinking about how you want your life to go.
  • Set goals. It often feels as if we are pushed along life’s path, to paraphrase Emerson, knowing as little and thinking as little as the baby pushed along in her stroller. Don’t let career inertia, conformity, and fear dictate the way your life is going to be. A good idea is to…
  • Write a letter to yourself. List some medium- and long-range goals for yourself, then open the letter in a year. Do you want to travel more? Take a cooking class? Learn Chinese? Put them down. I’ve done this before; it’s excellent motivation.
  • Less stuff = More freedom. The slogan for our modern day society might be: “If everyone else wants something, I must want it, too.” (Apple Tablet, anyone?) This is crazy. Avoid buying things in which you have no real interest, just because everyone else is buying them. You don’t have to become an ascetic, surviving on stale bread and water. But you also may not need that new flat-screen television or BMW. Every dollar you save on house payments, cars, or electronics can be used for getting back on the road, for pursuing other interests, for spending your time the way you want to. As a philosophy professor of mine once said, “If you don’t need a big house, you don’t have to sacrifice your life to pay for it.”

For more tips on bringing travel home, check out Leif Pettersen’s 5 Steps to Living Like a European in the U.S.

Big Island Hawaii: A budget travel guide

by Katie Hammel on

Adrift in the Pacific, Hawaii is expensive. It costs more to get there, it costs more to ship goods there. It just costs more. Looking at the websites of the many luxury hotels on the Big Island, you might think you can’t afford it. But you can visit the Big Island of Hawaii on a smaller budget. Here are a few tips to help you do it.

Forget the luxury hotels.
At $300, $500, or even more per night, staying in a luxury hotel will add up quickly. Try VRBO or Home Away to score a rental home on the cheap, or Couchsurf and stay with a local for free. For cheap accommodations, try a backpacker’s lodge like Arnott’s where private double rooms are $70 and dorm bunks are $25. You can even camp at ten locations around the island for a permit fee of $5 per adult per night.

If you still want some degree of luxury without the accompanying price tag, stay at a hotel off the beach. A one bedroom cottage with kitchen at Nancy’s Hideaway near Volcanoes National Park will run you just over $100 per night. If you want to be closer to the action, check out the Kona Tiki Hotel, a mile outside of town. It’s definitely “no-frills” but costs only $72 per night and is a short taxi ride from the beach. Across the island in Hilo, the Hilo Bay Hostel offers dorm beds for $25 and private doubles for $65, one block away from the ocean.

Use the public beach.
Your hotel will be the biggest cost of your trip to the Big Island. Save money here and you can spend more on activities, experiences and meals.

Of course nothing sounds more luxurious than walking from your private lanai just a few feet to the beach. But the ocean is the same whether it fronts a hotel beach or not. In fact, many luxury hotels share the beach with public parks. Hapuna Beach State Park, for example, is considered one of the Big Island’s best, and you don’t need to stay at the Hapuna Prince Beach Resort to enjoy it. On many of Hawaii’ public beaches, you’ll find food vendors, picnic areas, restrooms and showers. In both Hilo and Kona, there are several beaches you can easily access even without a rental car.

Drive yourself. . .
There are countless tour operators offering tours all over the island – to Volcanoes National Park, through the Waipi’o Valley, and up to the heights of Mauna Kea. But you don’t need a tour guide to see any of these sights. And you don’t need a fancy 4-wheel drive vehicle either (except for visiting the top of Mauna Kea). Sure, tooling around the island in a convertible or open-topped Jeep would be fun, but really the cheapest, most basic compact car will do.

If you plan wisely, you can actually drive around the entire island, making several pit stops for sightseeing, in one day. If you are leaving from Kona, stop at the Waimea Farmer’s Market to fuel up and buy snacks for the road, then spend the morning at Parker Ranch, the island’s oldest cattle farm. From there you’ll pass through the verdant forests and rolling hills of the Hamakua coast to Hilo. Stop for a view of ‘Akaka Falls and the continue on the two hour drive to Volcanoes National Park. Just past Hilo, you can also stop for a tour of the Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory, Monday through Saturday from 8:30am to 5pm.

It’s easy to drive yourself through Volcanoes National Park without a guide. Just stop off at the visitor’s center first to get a lay of the land and a map and to learn about the day’s conditions and any road closings. The cost for the park is $10 per vehicle for seven days, but really you can see most of the Park in a few hours. Driving down to Puna, where the hot lava hits the ocean, will add a few more hours to the journey.

From Volcanoes National Park, you can head back the way you came or continue around the island. If you do, be sure to stop at Volcano Winery for some free samples (from 10am to 5:30pm every day) of sweet, fruity wine made from ingredients like guava and macadamia nut. Venture down to South Point, the southernmost spot in the US, and then on to Green Sand Beach. As you come back around the southern end of Kona, you’ll find yourself in coffee country, where signs every few miles beg you to stop off for a coffee plantation tour and tasting.

Be sure to bring a few CDs with you if you plan on making the drive all the way around the island. From Volcanoes National Park to south Kona, you’ll be lucky to find a single radio station. Be careful driving at night on the island – you may be surprised how dark it is in areas with no streetlights – and don’t drink and drive.

As you make your way back to Kona, detour to Mauna Kea just in time for sunset. Once it’s dark, you’ll find that you are in one of the best spots in the world for stargazing. The mountain’s elevation, plus the lack of light pollution on the island, make for an exceptionally clear sky.



. . . and then ditch the car for a few days.
If you are staying in the towns of Hilo or Kona, you really won’t need a car every day. Most shops and restaurants will be within walking distance and while you do need a car to get out and explore the island on your own, you really won’t need one to get around in town, so save money by renting a car only for the days you will need it. Get a little exercise while you get around by renting a bike from Kona Bike Rentals, where rentals start at $15 a day for adult bikes.



Stock up at the farmer’s markets and eat on the cheap.
In Hilo, the Farmer’s Market is located on Mamo Street and Kamehameha Avenue and is open all year round, every Wednesday and Saturday, “from dawn ’til it’s gone.” In Waimea, the market is located in the center of town, along highway 19, and is open most of the day on Saturdays. In addition to sweet Portuguese Bread, creamy macadamia nut pesto goat cheese, and gigantic breadfruit, lemons, and avocados, you can get freshly prepared treats like spicy huevos rancheros, gooey sweet Nutella crepes, and sinfully rich glazed cinnamon rolls.

For the best beer on the Big Island, head to Kona Brewing in Kona. Take a brewery tour (daily at 10:30am and 3pm) or just settle in for some good pub grub and tasty beers. Pints aren’t super cheap at $5, but the Pipeline Porter, made with 100% Kona coffee, is worth the price tag. Appetizers are reasonable at $7-12 and delicious and huge large pizzas (which can easily feed three people) are $16-26 and come with toppings like Thai chicken, Andouille sausage, and shrimp. Grab a growler of your favorite beer for $22 to stock in your hotel room. Buy it from 5pm – 7pm and save 20%.

This trip was paid for by the Kohala Coast Resort Association, but the views expressed are my own.

Travelfish sets a new benchmark in iPhone travel guides with their guide to Angkor

by Scott Carmichael on

Travelfish has long been one of the most respected resources for travel in Asia. Their site covers Backpacker information for Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Of course, information provided on a web site is great for preparing a trip, but once you are actually on the road, you’ll need to find Internet access to get to it.

This is where the new Travelfish iPhone app can help. Their first app covers Angkor in Cambodia, and my oh my what an impressive app it is. In fact, as the title describes, I’m so impressed, that I’m calling it “a new benchmark in iPhone travel content”.

The application only runs in landscape mode, but it takes perfect advantage of this by presenting plenty of wide screen content. The app covers everything (and I really do mean everything) you need to know about the region For beginners, there is a huge background section, with history of the country and the region itself. It also offers 8 entire sections on how to plan your trip, with everything from visa information to the local weather and what to pack.

The sleep section shows all local hotels on a map, describing the different areas in the city. The application lists the 40 best hotels, hostels and guesthouses, along with a full review, online booking link, phone number and of course, its location on the map. Similar comprehensive guides are offered for restaurants, sightseeing attractions, local transportation.

The walking tours portion takes you on an iPhone guided tour, complete with when to start and exactly how to reach each highlight of the self-guided tour.

The maps support your location, and can be customized to show more (or less) locations.

Final thoughts

Of all the iPhone tour guides I’ve seen, this one really is the most comprehensive. I love the design and ease of use. Best of all, the application stores all its data on your phone, so there is no need for an (expensive) data plan when roaming abroad.

The program is perfect for pre-planning, as well as acting as a live guide when you are actually in Angkor. Each portion of the application offers handy features like bookmarks and “show on map”, and the designers make fantastic use of the touch friendliness of the iPhone and iPod Touch letting you swipe to browse articles.

You’ll find the Travelfish Angkor app in the iTunes store, where it sells for just $7.99.

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South by Southeast: Five reasons to eat more street food

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Welcome back to Gadling’s series on backpacking Southeast Asia, South by Southeast. In Southeast Asia, the center of daily life is the street. In Hanoi, pedestrians stop for a trim at sidewalk barber stands. In Bangkok, co-workers gather for steaming street-side bowls of noodle soup. And in Mandalay, men huddle at curbside tea shops, sipping milky-sweet chai while trading stories and gossip. You cannot claim to have visited Southeast Asia without soaking up this unique sidewalk atmosphere. And if you truly want to partake in this daily carnival of the street, you need to be eating the street food. Frequently.

I can already hear the objections. “I can’t eat street food, it’s going to make me sick. Isn’t all that greasy stuff unhealthy? I have no idea what I’m eating – it could be goat testicles or something!” All these fears harbor a grain of truth. But if you’ve ever had concerns about eating street food during your travels, Southeast Asia is the place to shove those fears down the disposal. Compare plates from your average restaurant in Southeast Asia against a street vendor around the corner and the vendor will win every time. Nowhere on earth will you eat such fresh, well-prepared and innovative meals – all for pennies on the dollar.

Still squeamish? Wondering what all the street food fuss is about? Keep reading for five reasons you should be eating more street food when you come to Southeast Asia.

%Gallery-83608%Because it’s cleaner than you think
The fear with street food is that it’s often unclean. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Many vendors wake up while you’re still snoozing to grab the freshest, most tasty ingredients at the local market. In addition, the vast majority of street food is cooked over an open flame or simmered in a boiling pot. This high heat kills any organism that’s likely to make you ill. Not to mention you get to watch with your own eyes as your food is prepared. Compare this to a restaurant, where an invisible chef prepares your meal away from view. Yes, people do get sick from food in Asia. But if you take care to eat food that is properly grilled, boiled or peeled…you’ll be fine. Relax and enjoy it!


Because it’s the best on earth
Lots of countries have street food. But Southeast Asia has the best. The region’s unique blend of European, Indian and Chinese ingredients is unlike anything you’ve ever tasted: year-round supplies of straight-from-the-ocean seafood, colorful exotic produce and dizzying selection of spices combine to ensure a mouth-watering array of meals, snacks and desserts. Eating the street food of Asia is literally a tourist attraction in and of itself.


Because it’s a great way to meet locals
You don’t eat street food in Southeast Asia by yourself. Typically you’re sitting on a low-slung plastic stool, seated around a communal table. Even when you order, you’ll be chatting with your chosen vendor, offering a chance to practice some local language. The closeness of street food encourages conversation. If you’re traveling the region on your own, it’s a great way to strike up a conversation with your dinner companions and make new friends.

Because it’s good for you
When you think of street food, we often think of greasy snacks from deep-friers. But Southeast Asian street food is much more than deep-fried cuisine. Juicy ripe produce and top-notch ingredients ensure you’ll be getting plenty of vitamins and nutrients. Shockingly, “eating fresh” isn’t just a slogan invented by a fast-food chain – in Southeast Asia it’s a way of life. Cooks have been using healthy ingredients like “organic produce” and “locally-sourced” foodstuffs since the dawn of time.

Because it’s cheap
Each time I pay for my street food meal in Southeast Asia, I feel like I’ve won the lottery. After gorging myself on fresh, delicious food – meals which would set me back $20 or more at home – the bill is never more than $2-3 dollars. If you’re coming to Southeast Asia on a budget, street food is your secret weapon. You can use the savings to pay for nicer accommodations, extra activities or maybe a few souvenirs and still keep within a small budget.

Whether you’re already eating congealed pig’s blood for breakfast or you’re just beginning to explore Southeast Asian cuisine, we could all benefit from eating more street food. Have any street food (mis)adventures you’d like to share? Tell us what you think in the comments.

Gadling writer Jeremy Kressmann is spending the next few months in Southeast Asia. You can read other posts on his adventures “South by Southeast” HERE.

Postcards as guides – International travel tip

by Gadling Staff on

The cheapest way to quickly discover what an unfamiliar city has to offer is to peruse a postcard rack and buy a few that intrigue you.

Postcards not only highlight “sight-see-worthy” locations, but if language is a barrier, just show the cab driver the picture, and you’re on your way.

Once you’re at your location, write a memory of your visit, mail it to your residence, and add to your scrapbook.

The biggest plus? No need to carry the heavy travel guides with you.