Are you turning into a traveling stereotype? Find out here.

by Aaron Hotfelder on

I’m halfway through cooking a dinner of Ramen Noodles at my three-dollar-a-night hostel in Mexico, and suddenly it dawns on me: I haven’t showered in two days, I have ten pesos in my pocket, and I slept in a cave last night. God dammit, I thought, I’m turning into a traveling stereotype.

To help you avoid the same dark path, I’ve composed a “Field Guide” to traveling stereotypes. If any of the following descriptions start to sound a little too familiar, put down your plate of Ramen Noodles and run. I said, Run, dammit!

The Frugal Backpacker

Description: You’re eager to see the world, even if you don’t exactly have the funds to pay for it. In fact, a person takes a leak with more forethought than you gave to your financial situation before this trip. You barely scraped together enough cash to fly standby to your destination, and your tentative plan is to return in the hull of a cargo ship. Your budget is roughly $2.50 per day, including approximately $0 for gifts for friends and family. Thirty percent of your body is composed of Ramen Noodles.

Aesthetic: Ebenezer Scrooge meets A Map for Saturday

  • Turn-ons: Free refills, haggling over miniscule amounts of money, sleeping in bus stations, raiding wishing wells (I’ve heard)
  • Turn-offs: Shampoo, any accomodation ending in the word “hotel” rather than “hostel”
  • Won’t go near: An ATM

The Business Traveler

Description: You travel with the joyless efficiency of someone who’s spent far too much time drinking overpriced cocktails in airport restaurants with names like “Blue Skye Bar and Grille”. You can visit a Panda Express at any airport in the world and order “the usual.” When taking your seat in a crowded airplane, you clog the aisle for several minutes while folding your sport jacket like you’re in the color guard at Arlington National Cemetery.

  • Aesthetic: Steve Forbes meets immaculate luggage
  • Turn-ons: USA Today, expense accounts, looking snazzy
  • Turn-offs: Crying babies, the middle seat
  • Won’t go near: Coach

The Over-the-Hill Backpacker

Description: Your grandchildren set up a travel blog for you before you left six months ago. It still says “Under construction. Come back soon!” You love sleeping in hostels but don’t understand why the kids have to turn their damn music up so loud.

You wake up before most of your fellow backpackers go to bed. You’re heartened by other backpackers who frequently tell you, “I hope I’m still doing this when I’m your age.” You inspire travelers pretty much wherever you go.

  • Aesthetic: Lonely Planet meets Centrum Silver
  • Turn-ons: Bran cereal, getting up early, bringing all your medication with you for the next six months
  • Turn-offs: Updating your blog, Florida retirement communities, loud damn music
  • Won’t go near: ‘Nam, Korea

The Luxury Traveler

Description: You’re still vexed by the fact that you can’t find ice cubes in Europe. As noted in The Onion, you frequently tell people that you “love Brazil” despite the fact that you’ve only seen two square miles of it. You stay away from street food because you’re certain it will give you some combination of AIDS and leprosy. Your main concern before a trip is what kind of rental car you’re going to get. You still have a travel agent for some reason.

  • Aesthetic: Conde Nast Traveler meets Samantha Brown
  • Turn-ons: Conspicuous consumption, bell hops, a detailed itinerary, blowing your children’s inheritance
  • Turn-offs: Hostels, street food, people who don’t speak English
  • Won’t go near: India, except Goa

Ten reasons why you should visit New Zealand NOW

by Grant Martin on


With more and more people losing jobs and the economy shrinking, many people think that now is a terrible time to travel overseas. Fearing tremors in their jobs or their 401Ks, workers may often choose to stay at home this year, or maybe even work right through their time off.

But in one place, the timing is perfect for holiday travel. The combination of a favorable exchange rate, excellent plane tickets and lower demand has created the perfect storm of a budget traveler’s paradise, guarantying endless thrills, beautiful landscapes and wonderful food at a fraction of the cost.

That place? New Zealand. So why should you go in these troubled times? Here are ten great reasons:1. The Dollar: The thin silver lining around the recession is that the dollar is gaining ground against many foreign currencies. New Zealand is an excellent example, with the exchange rate at about 1.8:1 (at writing). That means that everything is half off. Skydiving, whitewater rafting, sailing, bungee jumping, tours of Hobbiton and even dinner is half off.

2. Delicious, cheap wine: Both New Zealand islands have recently been enjoying a boom in wine production. Helped partially by the drop in output from Australia (due to the recent brush fires,) Kiwi wine is widespread, inexpensive and quite delicious to boot.

You can take wine tours from Auckland (try the Mudbrick) or venture south into the Marlborough region to mix in some beautiful landscape as well.

3. Fare Wars: Ever since V Australia entered the transpacific market, fares between the United States and Australia/New Zealand have been outstanding. Several Gadling bloggers reached Sydney from Los Angeles for under $500 earlier this year, and even now, tickets are hovering around the $800 range. At about this time last year, these prices were around $2,000.

4. It’s an outdoor activity playground: New Zealand’s varied landscape includes lush, bucolic plains, rolling hills, sweeping glaciers and magnificent mountains, all within a span smaller than the state of Texas. You can bungee jump, swim through glowworm caves and white water raft all in the same day, and if that’s not enough, mountain biking, skydiving and sailing are a hop, skip and a jump away.

5. Because the economy needs us: With all of this belt tightening going around, the global economy is starting to stutter and contract. The only solution? Take some of that money out from under your bed and enjoy a healthy holiday. Just don’t put it on your credit card.

6. You’re going to sleep magnificently: At 5-8 hours behind the United States, You’re going to be struggling pretty hard to stay up until 10PM every day. And irrespective of whether you’re sleeping on a five star pillow top mattress or under the bar pool table, you’re going to collapse exhausted, sleep like a baby and wake up refreshed at 7AM the next day, with a full night’s sleep and ready to take on the Kiwi.

Furthermore, you don’t have to deal with any truncated redeye flights like those to the EU. With some fifteen hours to kill on your outbound journey, you’re bound to get your first night’s sleep in.

7. Because you’re leaving your job anyway: If you haven’t already been laid off, you’re terrified that you might get the ax any day now. Why not take a fraction of your savings and ride out the recession overseas?

8. They already speak English: No need to worry about asking for directions, negotiating prices or buying produce in another language, Kiwis are the friendliest people on the planet and are always willing to chat. As a bonus, some youngsters even find the American accent attractive.

9. Excellent Food: Its fertile soil and supple fishing waters make New Zealand a prime location for fresh produce, seafood, cattle and lamb. These strengths are reflected both in the grocery store, with plentiful, healthy selections and at restaurants, where chefs create exotic, delicious plates at very reasonable prices.

Coffee culture is outstanding as well, with a cafe on nearly every corner of the country, each with extremely high quality beans, standards and practices.

10. Because you may never get the same opportunity: This crazy combination of cheap tickets and a strong dollar may not come back for a while — perhaps in your lifetime. Don’t regret saving a few dollars now when the missed opportunity of a lifetime could haunt you for years.

30th anniversary for STA, 30 chances for you to win a trip in April

by Alison Brick on

Trips have officially replaced goody bags as the party-favor-of-choice (and not a moment too soon). STA Travel celebrates its 30th anniversary by giving away a trip every day in April.

Most of the trips slated to be given away are to Europe, but they’re also to United Arab Emirates, Australia, and South Africa, as well as Canada and within the US. It all depends on what day you enter and win. The destination for the first day of the giveaway, April 1st, is United Arab Emirates.

To enter, go to STA’s “30 Days of Free Travel” website after it launches on April 1st. There, you’ll want to provide your name, email, status (student, youth under 26, teacher, or parent), zip code, and where you want to travel this summer. Yes, in sticking with the ’30’ theme, you must be 30-years-old or younger to win.

Great American road trip: Choteau, Montana, Letterman’s hangout is a gem of a town

by Jamie Rhein on

Choteau, Montana where David Letterman married last week at the county courthouse is a gem of a town–the type of off-the beaten-track that beckons people who might be passing through to pull into a parking lot and stay awhile.

When we were on our Great American Road Trip to Montana and back last summer, we pulled into the parking lot of the Old Trail Museum for just “45 minutes” and stuck around for three hours with thoughts of returning some day. This was after staying with friends who live near the base of the Rockies twenty miles from town.

The Old Trail Museum is one of those types that tell unusual tales of western life. There’s the noose that was used for the last hanging in Choteau, for example. I hadn’t seen an actual noose used in an actual hanging before. It catches your attention. The noose is in a display with other artifacts and details about the murder that sent the guy to the gallows.

There are also exhibits about Native Americans, cattle ranching, medical care and whatever else you can think of that has to do with life in the west. One gallery is dedicated to the dinosaurs that once roamed the region.

Along with the main museum are other buildings with a variety of themes. There’s the taxidermy grizzly bear, the cabin dedicated to a Danish pioneer family and an art studio of a prominent Montana artist. I could have spent hours here poking around.

The museum also a great place to pick up books with a Montana theme. Fiction, non-fiction and kids’ fare fill shelves in the gift shop. Here you can buy items made by Blackfoot Indians who live in the state. I went a little nuts with the buying–a problem of mine. But, then again, anything one can do to keep the economy following.

We also helped the economy flow at Alpine Touch, across the street from the museum. Alpine Touch is a brand of specialty spices made in Choteau. While we were buying bottles of the Lite All-Purpose Seasoning, we tossed in several bottles of huckleberry body lotion and huckleberry jelly–also Montana-made.

Chances are, you won’t run into Letterman if you head to Choteau, although people have seen him there. The saucy older woman who is a volunteer at the visitor center mentioned giving him a chuckle when she let Letterman know that he is on too late for her to really know who he is. Who cares who Letterman is was her take, although she did offer that he has been very kind and generous to Choteau.

The great thing about places like Choteau is that it doesn’t matter who you are, you can have the same great glorious time whether you don’t have more than a few nickels to rub together, or you’re a millionaire.

That’s one of the things I thought of when we spent an afternoon wandering around in Sun River Canyon located in the Lewis and Clark National Forest with the brilliant blue sky overhead. Hiking along the trails is free. You can pick up trail maps at the Rocky Mountain Ranger District Trail office in town. We were lucky enough to come across a beaver just as it ducked into a stream to head to its dam.

Before we left Choteau, we would have shopped more, although we did have just enough time to grab some ice cream at the ice-cream shop that’s part of the museum complex. It cost more than a nickel, but it didn’t break the bank.

For anyone looking for a low key fun place to go with families, consider here. It’s only 50 miles from Great Falls, another Montana destination I’d like to have more time for one of these days. One place you might consider staying is the JJJ Wilderness Ranch. We walked around the grounds hoping to snag a horseback ride, but you have to be a paying guest. Next time we’re in Choteau, I’m finding a horse.

Cruise ship shift from Vancouver to Seattle means cheaper deals for travelers

by Jamie Rhein on

Starting in 2010, Carnival Cruise Lines will shift its 2,124 passenger ship Carnival Spirit from Vancouver to Seattle. Although this is great news for passengers wishing for less expensive cruises to Alaska, it’s bad for Vancouver.

According to this The Vancouver Sun article, the ship typically has meant $18 million dollars for the city in business revenue each year. The switch is not because there’s anything wrong with Vancouver, but because Seattle lines up better with the travel market during this lackluster economy.

The Vancouver cruise was one where people flew one way and took the ship the other. Great, if you have the money. With next year’s shift, Carnival Cruise Lines is expecting that more people who live within driving distance to Seattle will also see a cruise in their future. The round-trip will include: Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and Victoria.