Packing tips for a European backpacking trip: Travel and adventure preparations

Posted by Christopher Wink on Oct 14, 2008 in Travel Tips

Packing is preparation.

Everything else can go to Hell and will.

There is that travel saying that we have all heard, but I have to credit with last reading on a blog by a friend who is doing a world tour right now.

Take all the things and money you need. Double the money and halve the possessions. You’ll be ready.

Before we left, I went through what I packed - some items I have learned to bring, but surely others were overlooked - so we can both learn together. See the video below.

Tags: New Jersey, Newton, Video

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Belgium’s best travel guide: Use-it

Posted by Sean Blanda on Oct 13, 2008 in Travel Tips

Although we are not that far into our journey, we started to feel that we have exhausted the standard travel resources out there. We utilized couch surfing, cling to our lonely plant guide, and ask the locals as about as much as possible. In a few select European cities, including Brussels, Use-It may very be your new best friend. Use-It is smaller non-profit version of your big travel guides with extra information from locals, and will quickly become the most useful name you know.

Tags: Belgium, Brussels

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London: Come on ride the tube, ride the tube

Posted by Christopher Wink on Oct 8, 2008 in Travel Tips

Welcome to greater London: 7 million people, 600 square miles and enough underground tubes to get lost within. We left it earlier this week, so enjoy what I learned.

Like we’ll tell you again and again - and practice ourselves - get underground in each and every city you visit. In the states, abroad, wherever, use a city’s mass transit because no evaluation of a city is complete without a ride on its buses, trains, or whatever else. Know how its people transit, and see its priorities.

London, like a handful of other international cities - Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles and New York (my own Philadelphia lags out a bit in this category) - claims the world’s finest mass transit system.

Tags: England, London, Trains

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How to use a payphone in London, England

Posted by Sean Blanda on Oct 5, 2008 in Travel Tips

Going from the hyper connected world of the United States to the solitary ways of budget travel can be a drastic change. On one hand, such a change is refreshing as you are not interrupted by a barrage of texts and calls. However the losing the ability to stay in touch instantly has its drawbacks. Thus you will become intimately familiar with those shine red payphones you see in the movies. Sounds elementary, but as so one who hasn’t operated a payphone in years (not to mention a foreign payphone) it took £2 of mistakes before I got it right.

Step 1: London payphones require a minimum of 40p, although any call longer than “hello” will outlast that. In our experience the phones did not give you change, so it is a delicate balance to know how much you need to pay. One pound should suffice for most conversations.

Tags: England, London

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