Travel Resources
Welcome to my Travel Resources page!
Here, I’ve pulled together all the travel tools and booking platforms I trust. When you use the links on this page to plan your next trip, I earn a small commission at absolutely zero additional cost to you.
Thank you so much for supporting my work in this way!
Keep scrolling to find platforms you likely already know and use, like Booking.com, Viator, and Amazon, alongside a few hidden gems that will save you time and money, like Sim Local (for travel SIMs), Going (for cheap flight alerts), and Squaremouth (for travel insurance comparison).
Flights & Cheap Fare Alerts
The ultimate tool for travelers who let the deals pick the destination. Going monitors thousands of routes daily to email you insane airline price drops, mistake fares, and rare discounts straight from your home airport.
The best starting point for any specific flight search. Kayak aggregates prices from hundreds of airlines and travel sites simultaneously, giving you powerful filtering tools and price forecasts to know exactly when to book.
A reliable giant for traditional flight bookings. Expedia makes it easy to lock in your flights, secure flexible cancellation options, and earn reward points that you can instantly stack with your favorite airline loyalty programs.
Hotels, Hostels, & Vacation Rentals
The ultimate all-in-one platform for lodging. Booking.com offers an unmatched global selection of hotels, guest houses, and apartments, featuring an incredibly user-friendly reward program (Genius) that unlocks instant discounts and free room upgrades.
The ultimate travel hack for free accommodations worldwide. TrustedHousesitters connects pet lovers with homeowners who need verified sitters to look after their animals and houses while they are away, allowing you to stay in incredible homes globally with zero lodging fees.
The go-to platform for solo travelers, backpackers, and budget seekers. Hostelworld connects you with social accommodation worldwide, making it easy to find affordable dorms, private hostel rooms, and properties with built-in community events.
Ideal for groups, families, and longer stays. VRBO specializes entirely in whole-home rentals—meaning you always get the entire house, condo, or cabin to yourself without sharing space with a host, making it perfect for a home-away-from-home vibe.
Rental Cars, Buses & Ground Transport
The absolute best starting point for a rental or road trip. Discover Cars is a premier rental car comparison engine that searches major global brands and local suppliers simultaneously, helping you find hidden discounts, lock in free cancellation, and secure affordable full-coverage insurance.
The ultimate stress-free solution for arriving in a brand-new city. Welcome Pickups lets you pre-book a private, flat-rate airport transfer with a local, English-speaking driver who monitors your flight for delays, meets you at arrivals, and gives you a mini-tour on the way to your hotel.
Your global search engine for intercity bus and train travel. Operating across more than 80 countries, Busbud lets you easily compare schedules, prices, and amenities for thousands of different transit companies so you can book your long-distance tickets in your native language.
Ideal for active travelers who want to skip the traffic and explore on two wheels. BikesBooking.com is an online booking service for motorcycle, scooter, and bicycle rentals worldwide, offering guaranteed low rates and instant reservation confirmations at local shops.
The go-to platform for navigating inter-city transit in over 120 countries globally. Bookaway makes it easy to find and book local buses, ferries, trains, and private charters that are often difficult to reserve on local-language websites.
The most affordable way to travel between major cities across Europe and North America. FlixBus operates a massive network of eco-friendly, modern coaches equipped with free Wi-Fi, power outlets, extra legroom, and generous luggage allowances for rock-bottom prices.
Guided Tours & Experiences
The world's largest marketplace for day trips, skip-the-line tickets, and local tours. Viator makes it incredibly easy to read thousands of traveler reviews and secure your spots in advance, offering a flexible "Reserve Now, Pay Later" policy on most activities.
Perfect for uncovering unforgettable local experiences and hidden gems. GetYourGuide specializes in curated walking tours, food tastings, and bucket-list excursions, featuring a seamless mobile app that keeps all your digital tickets organized in one place.
The ultimate platform for budget-conscious explorers and solo travelers. GuruWalk connects you with local, licensed guides hosting pay-what-you-want "free" walking tours in hundreds of cities, allowing you to learn the history and culture of a place before tipping what you feel the experience was worth.
The premier choice for small-group, multi-day travel adventures. G Adventures builds immersive, culture-focused itineraries across the globe that support local communities, making them ideal if you want to explore off-the-beaten-path destinations without the stress of planning or having to travel alone when you don’t want to.
The gold standard for travelers who want to eat like a local. Operating in over 110 cities worldwide, Secret Food Tours leads intimate culinary crawls through historic neighborhoods, introducing you to authentic, family-run eateries and a special, trademarked "Secret Dish".
The absolute best choice for deep culinary immersion in Europe. Moving far beyond simple tourist tracks, Eating Europe guides small groups through historic neighborhoods—like Rome's Trastevere or London's East End—to blend iconic food and wine with rich cultural storytelling and visits to multi-generational artisans.
Travel Gear & Packing Essentials
The absolute best destination for top-tier outdoor clothing, camping gear, and rugged travel luggage. REI curates the highest-quality adventure brands on the market, backed by an incredible lifetime member dividend program and an unmatched 100% satisfaction return policy.
Your one-stop shop for budget-friendly travel accessories, packing cubes, electronics, and last-minute essentials. Amazon is perfect for grabbing quick, affordable travel upgrades with lightning-fast shipping right before you head to the airport.
The gold standard for travel backpacks, carry-ons, and technical hiking packs. Osprey designs packs that distribute weight flawlessly for maximum comfort, all backed by their legendary "All Mighty Guarantee" to repair any damage free of charge forever.
The perfect brand for van lifers, car campers, and off-grid weekend road trippers. Traverseon bypasses middleman retail markups to design factory-direct, highly compact, and easy-to-use camping gear—specializing in quick-deploy tents, ultra-portable coolers, power banks, and space-saving sleep setups.
The premier choice for environmentally conscious travelers who need durable, weather-resistant apparel and luggage.Patagonia builds iconic, responsibly sourced jackets, backpacks, and gear designed to endure harsh elements while lasting a lifetime.
The ultimate brand for rugged, stylish, and high-performance travel and hiking clothing. KÜHL is famous for engineering the most comfortable, sun-protective, and durable hiking and travel pants on the market, keeping you looking sharp whether you are trekking a mountain or navigating a long international flight.
Travel Tech & Apps to Support Your Trip
The ultimate solution for staying connected without expensive roaming fees. Sim Local is a premier eSIM marketplace, letting you download affordable, local data plans directly to your smartphone for over 200 countries before you even land.
If your phone isn’t eSIM compatible, look into Drimsim for a physical universal SIM card that works in over 190 countries.
The best budget-friendly security tool for families and tech-heavy travelers. Surfshark provides premium cybersecurity features and high-speed data privacy across an unlimited number of devices under a single, highly affordable VPN subscription.
An absolute must-have app for hikers, trail runners, and road trippers. AllTrails provides detailed, crowdsourced maps for over 400,000 trails worldwide, complete with offline GPS navigation and real-time trail condition updates from fellow hikers.
The perfect fix for awkward travel gaps between check-out and your flight or during a long layover. Radical Storage connects you to a secure network of local cafes, hotels, and shops where you can safely store your heavy luggage for a flat daily rate.
The most trusted name for travelers wanting to speak like a local before they land. Rosetta Stone uses intuitive, immersion-based bite-sized lessons to help you confidently master essential phrases, vocabulary, and proper accent pronunciation.
Perfect for travelers and expats who want true conversational fluency. Preply connects you with affordable, native-speaking private tutors for 1-on-1 live video lessons, allowing you to practice real conversations and customize your learning around specific regional dialects.
Travel Insurance & Trip Protection
Ideal for digital nomads, remote workers, and frequent travelers. SafetyWing offers flexible, subscription-style travel medical insurance that you can buy or extend from anywhere in the world, starting at just a few dollars a day.
Built for adventurous travelers and backpackers. World Nomads provides robust coverage for hundreds of activities and sports, plus emergency medical care, gear protection, and trip cancellation.
The ultimate comparison tool for finding the absolute best price on your policy. Squaremouth lets you instantly compare over 100 different travel insurance plans from top providers so you can filter by price, coverage limits, and specific benefits like Covid-19 protection or "Cancel For Any Reason."
Now that you’ve seen all the gear, tools, and resources I recommend for travelers, you can save on many of them! Check out my Latest Deals & Discounts page for the current sales, coupons, and seasonal promotions from these brands — a simple way to get the gear you need while supporting the blog.
Travel Guides
in-depth insight into the all of the best sites, bites, stays, and experiences in the places i’ve wandered just a few steps ahead of you
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![Historical stone church with twin towers, detailed carvings on the facade, wooden doors, and surrounded by desert plants with a blue sky and clouds in the background.]()
Oaxaca, Mexico
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![View of a historic town square with colorful colonial buildings, a statue on a pedestal, and stone-paved ground, framed by a yellow archway.]()
Cartagena, Colombia
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![Sunset over the city of Florence, Italy, with iconic buildings including the Florence Cathedral and the Palazzo Vecchio, framed by trees and greenery in the foreground.]()
Florence, Italy
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![Lush green tropical forest with red and green plants in the foreground and hills in the background under a partly cloudy sky.]()
Costa Rica
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![Sunset over a historic town with colonial-style buildings and a church dome in the foreground.]()
Nicaragua
Packing Lists
Travel Perspectives
3 ways to join me on the journey
The Travelogue
The travelogue is a catch-all for personal, diary-style storytelling from the journey and insight into what’s happening behind-the-scenes of this blog.
The Blog
The blog is where you’ll find more of the sort of practical content you’d expect on a travel blog, things like restaurant roundups, day trip ideas, and cultural insight.
The Foot Tracks
The foot tracks are literally where I ate, stayed, and explored in each city, pulled together for easy reference should you desire to follow in my foot tracks.
After nearly a decade of full-time travel, this is the gear at the top of my packing list each and every trip.