Weekend Blitz

Before we left for our 15 day trip to Myanmar, I scoured the internet looking for tips and tricks on what to pack. It’s a bit very, very befuddling because the climate is mighty tropical (think 104° most days we were there…YIKES!!!) but the Burmese are extra-super-duper-conservative, so, if you walk around in what I would consider normal attire for 104° (a bathing suit?!??! at least something close to it…), you will get stares All. Day. Long. and just feel pretty uncomfortable.

So, how can you respect the conservative culture while avoiding the misery of jeans + other knee-and-shoulder-covering clothing? How can you stay cool without looking like you’re walking around [...]

You might have already seen this news, but I think it’s so incredibly awesome that I had to share: Google has recently updated its Translate app and it is everything I’ve ever needed.

The updates to this app include automatic language detection. This feature means you can text in real time with two languages and your friend’s texts immediately get translated into the language you’ve chosen. This is perfect for me because I still regularly Skype/FaceTime and email with my host family in Italy who I lived with for a semester while in college. But, because my Italian is rusty (at best), I always end up typing in English and then using a translation website [...]

Yangon is a city in the throes of growing, busting at the seams with young locals eager to learn more about the world outside its borders and more tourists than ever before.

City streets are filled with street eats, smiling faces and bright colors.

Myanmar welcomes about 1 million tourists each year and, compared to its neighbor Thailand’s many millions of annual visitors, that’s a drop in the bucket – but, only a hand full of Burmese cities and towns are set up for tourists and Western hotel chains have barely scratched the surface of the country (we think that’s a good thing). So, while Thailand’s many [...]

Help! You’re planning the trip of a lifetime to Southeast Asia but are completely stuck and don’t know what to where. It can be a bit intimidating: there’s a dress code for visiting temples (no bare shoulders or knees) but the humidity is absolutely gut-wrenching. So, there’s that.

On our trip to Thailand (my first foray into Southeast Asia), I packed adhering to the pretty strict temple dress code. I was quickly shocked to find out that a) yikes, even cotton pants don’t breathe like they should! and b) every other woman tourist there had not seemed to pack according to the dress code at all! And, what’s more, outside of each temple where [...]

One day on our honeymoon, we were caught in the rain for hours. No big deal, but, the very next morning, we had to board an international flight. Put two and two together and… my favorite flats never made it home.

I realized that travel shoes were important — especially ones that could get wet. And, with the beginning of the fall season, I’ve been on the market for a good pair of waterproof flats. Ideally, they’ll look like normal flats — but just won’t get ruined if I get caught in the rain.

I’ve found two pairs that fit the bill, both with good reviews. I’d wear both of these flats in rain or shine, so they’re easy [...]

The iPhone 6 mania is amongst us. That special time of the year where the overlords at Apple tell us what we’ll be spending our money on immediately.  So, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the iPhone 6 is out and that you want need to have it ASAP.

I was about to pledge my allegiance to Verizon for the next 2 years and renew my contract but wanted to have the flexibility to use my new smartphone abroad, possibly using a foreign carrier’s SIM card. So, my nagging question that I needed answered before getting my hands on the newest iGadget:

What’s the best iPhone 6 to get for international travel?

Is it possible [...]

I stumbled across a cool website the other day:  Rome2Rio.com.

Rome2Rio is basically a multimodal transport search engine. It answers that nagging question: “what is the best way to get from point A to B?” But the “best way” is still left for you to decide, taking into account travel time vs cost.

The great thing about the site is that it gives you door-to-door approximations including estimated fuel cost for driving and fares for buses, planes, taxi, trains, ferries, etc…

Use it to explore all travel options with total times and prices

So, here’s an example of how it’s useful:  I’ll do a search for a [...]

A few months ago I wrote about the advantages of getting a credit card or debit card with EMV or “Smart Chip” technology (Great Travel Tool: Get a Credit Card with a Chip). Check out the post for more info on why you need one for traveling. I also included a brief list of U.S. banks and financial institutions that have recently started offering this new technology but now have a more comprehensive list. Check out the list, there’s a good chance that a card that you already have is now offering a chip and all you have to do is call up and ask for one.

Chip-and-PIN

A true Chip-and-PIN card offers the ultimate in security (including in [...]

So, this might be the best thing that has happened to U.S.-based International travelers in a while (aside from U.S. banks offering Smart Chip credit cards, of course–click for link):  T-Mobile’s Simple Choice Plan started offering Unlimited International Roaming in late Fall 2013. This is a complete game changer when it comes to communications while abroad.

The basic plan you’ll need is the “Simple Choice” plan, starting at $50/month for 500 MB of data and up to $70/month for unlimited data. All simple plans offer unlimited talk and text. If you choose the $70 plan, this will get you:

We’ve just got great travel tips and tools flying at you guys these days (Great Travel Tool: Get a Credit Card with a Chip, Credit Score Crash Course etc…). Next up is the litmus test for that question of: “should I book with points or pay with cash?” or “should I transfer AMEX points or use AMEX travel for my booking?” I created this for my own personal use as I was tired of pulling out the calculator every time I needed to run the calculation.

Here is the calculation going on behind the scenes: