It's the end of the career break road. Time to go back. Copyright CareerBreakSecrets.com

You haven’t even left and now I’m asking you to think and plan for reentry? Yup. In some ways, this is the easiest part of the budget. Similar to any budget, the formula is simply:

Average daily spend X Days before earning a salary = Re-Entry Budget

See! Easy peasy!

I know, I know. That’s not the whole story, is it? There’s a lot that will go into figuring out how much your spend will be. To be conservative, you could use the same number you calculated from your current daily spend in estimating your travel budget. Essentially, whatever you spend today, plan for that.

That only leaves one tiny little detail. How much time will you be looking for a job before you are drawing a salary again? I can’t tell  you how much time to budget for. But, I can give you some factors to think about as you set your budget. I would love to know how long reentry takes on average. As soon as I know, I will let you know. But, in the meantime, setting this part of the budget is more art than science.

Factors For Setting Your Re-Entry Career Break Budget 

• Do you have a job waiting for you? Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who works for an understanding, progressive company
• What are the general economic conditions? Hard to tell, right? Especially ever since 2008-2009.
• Start up living costs needed. Do you have any extraordinary costs that you need to incur to get started again?
• Moving expenses. Are you returning to the same city/town or are you going to be starting fresh somewhere else? For most people, you are naturally going back to the same city. But, if the career break comes during a transition period of your life, you may be heading somewhere new to start fresh. Plan accordingly.
• Changing your career or same career? Generally speaking, I would tell you that if you are going to be staying in the same career or profession, your search time for a new job will be less. Why? All of your contacts, expertise, know-how is in that industry. If you are looking to change careers, you should plan for it to take a bit longer. How much? No idea. But, you are restarting without a support structure and industry colleagues to help guide your way. This might be shortened if you used part of your career break to build some skills or knowledge in this new area. Either way, it will impact your search time.

Anyone re-entered and have any thoughts or care to share your experience? Let me know in the comments below.

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Career Break Budgeting Part 4: Reentry Budget is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Where will your travel take you? Copyright CareerBreakSecrets.com

Travel the world for $30 a day, $50 a day, $20 a day. It’s so hard to know how much you really need until you get out there. But, that’s little consolation while you’re still at home, at work, trying to make sure you have enough put aside.

My goal in this post isn’t to tell you how much you need. For all I know, you ¨need¨ a 4-star hotel every night and you will refuse to take a local bus. So, I will attempt to give you a laundry list of the things you might spend money on while you travel. Also, don’t forget that I wrote a review about Budget Your Trip and their budgeting tool can give you some real traveler data. Also, my friends Warren and Betsy from Married With Luggage have been tracking and reporting on what they’ve actually spent from their worldwide travels. Also soon I’ll be reviewing the new e-book, Dream. Save. Do.

In creating this part of your budget, you need two expense categories: the first captures on-the-road expenses and the second captures your at-home expenses. At home expenses? Yup! Are you keeping your house/apartment? Are you going to be storing your stuff while you’re away? While your goal should be to minimize your financial responsibilities back home, you will likely still have a few. So, plan and budget accordingly.

Factors Influencing Your Career Break Travel Budget

As you try to figure out how much to budget per day while you’re on the road, here are a few factors to take into consideration.

• How much of a budget traveler are you, really? Everyone is on a budget when they travel. And, most people I’ve met think they are a budget traveler. But, there’s budget travel and then there’s real budget travel. For some, staying at a 2 start hotel is what they are willing to do while others are going to couchsurf the whole way. Whatever kind of traveler you are, be honest and budget accordingly.
• How much financial responsibility at home can you leave behind? Your goal is to minimize as much of your responsibility back home as possible. It will minimize your worry and what you have to budget for. Don’t leave a lot of financial obligations behind.
• Your dining habits: You’ll no doubt be eating out while you’re traveling. It’s unavoidable and one of the great pleasures of travel. But, if you can cook a few meals for yourself, you’ll save on the road.
• What type of accommodation will you be using? As a good friend of mine who had taken a career break told me before I left, ¨Jeff, sometimes you’re going to want a hotel.¨ But, for the vast majority of the time, will you be in a hostel, renting an apartment, couchsurfing, camping?
• Once you get on the road, how will you get from place to place? Will you tend to rely on overland transportation or flying? Tip: the more overland transport you can take, the cheaper it will be. The biggest problem here is that bus and train prices can be harder to research ahead of time than flights. A couple of tips about foreign airlines
• Not all foreign airlines have pricing structures that cause the price to go up closer to the departure date. You can sometimes still get a good deal at the last minute.
• Beware budget airlines. The cheapest ticket isn’t always the cheapest flight if there are a lot of ancillary fees. I flew RyanAir once. It cost me a fortune when it was all said and done.
• What kind of bank fees will you incur? Have you selected a bank that will minimize your ATM fees? What about foreign transaction fees? These will add up over time. So, choose wisely.
• How will you plan to get around in the cities and towns you’re in? Maximizing the use of local transportation and minimizing taxi use will stretch your budget. And, walking, when possible, costs nothing.

Travel Budget While You’re Traveling

Here is your tickler list of budget items that you should be thinking about. What did I leave out?

One-the-Road Budget Items

• Accommodation
• Meals
• Tips
• Tours
• In-country/cross-country transport
• Daily transport
• Medicine, Dr visits
• Internet cafes
• SIM cards: Phone and/or internet
• Visa fees (yes some countries still charge)
• Baggage fees
• ATM fees
• Money exchange fees
• Credit card foreign transaction fees
• Books, magazines, newspapers
• Gifts
• Market Shopping
• Splurges
• Travel guides
• Music, movies
• Replacement clothes
• Emergency finds
• Monthly banking fees
• Health Insurance – if not already accounted for in your Pre-Takeoff Budget.

Back At-Home Travel Budget Items

• Storage
• Mortgage
• Insurance: home, car
• Debt, loans
• Utilities
• Credit card and other banking fees

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Career Break Budgeting Part 3: Travel Budget is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

How Much Do You Really Need? Copyright CareerBreakSecrets.com

As you’re planning your career break, you’re probably focused on how much your going to spend once you’re on the road. Well, a good way to minimize your on-the-road spend is to maximize this part of the budget. It’s not practical or desirable to buy everything now that you ¨might¨ need. After all, if you’re like me and had never backpacked before, you kind of need to get out there to see how you really will be traveling to know what you really need.

Having said that, there are a number of things that you should go ahead and buy now while you still have a job and are still drawing a salary. And, this is the time to be thinking about some of your other needs on the road like getting the right credit cards and bank accounts. Don’t forget to check out my post about the 5 most important things to do before you quit. And, there is also a good resource I recommend for helping you negotiate your career break if you want to return to your same employer.

Factors in Determining Part 1 of Your Career Break Budget

As you start creating this part of your career break budget, there are three factors you need to consider in determining how much you will need.

1. Time between quitting your job and leaving. Some people leave mere weeks after they quit. Others want a little more time. Whatever your timeframe, it’s best to set your daily budget high. Said another way, for budgeting and savings purposes, assume you need as much to live as you did while you still had a job. If you can economize a bit during this period, then you’ll have a nice windfall for your trip or for your reentry period.
2. How much gear do you need for your trip? Do you already have a backpack? Do you already have the basic gear? Or are you starting from scratch? The more you’ve traveled before, in theory, the less you need to spend. Then again, you may be tempted to replace some of your gear, just because.
3. How much spending can you stuff into this phase? Some of the items on the checklists in this phase and the next phase are interchangeable depending on your preferences. For example, are you buying a full RTW ticket or is your goal to get to your first destination and take it from there? The more you stuff into this phase means the less you need for your on-the-road travel budget. But, you may find that approach unnecessary preferring to take a wait-and-see attitude to see if you really need everything on your list.

Budget Categories For Your Pre-Takeoff Budget

This is a starter list to help you get organized. What you spend and how much you need all depends on your circumstances. My goal here is to get you started and get the brainstorming juices going.

• Clothing: pants, wool socks, hiking boots, flip flops, things you can layer. Side note: think breathable and quick drying fabrics as much as possible
• Gear: backpack, headlamp, travel towel, water bottle, sports watch (I actually stopped wearing a watch while traveling, but I know a lot of people that liked to have one still)
• Electronics: laptop/netbook, iPod, unlocked cell phone, ereader/tablet
• Travel stuff: Tickets, hostel membership,  tours, Visa fees, guides, airport lounge memberships, big trip/tour you want to plan around
• Health items: Shots, doctor and dental visits, glasses, contacts, COBRA (for US residents), travel health insurance,small first aid kit,/supplies, medicines
• Finances: Setting up/updating your will, trust, credit cards, debit cards
• Entertainment: Books, music, TV and movies
• Home: Mortgage/rent, utilities, insurance, food, etc

If I missed something, or you have questions, let me know in the comments below.

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Career Break Budgeting Part 2: Pre-Take Off Budget is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Figuring out if you have enough isn't an act of faith.

Let’s get right to it! One of the top questions people ask me is how can you afford to take a break to travel? There’s no magic, but there is budgeting.

The first step is to take a look to see if you have the funds available for a break. As I’ve written before, long-term travel budget planning and estimating are easier than you might think. And, for a deep dive into the topic of saving for your dream trip, be sure to check out Dream.Save.Do. By Warren and Betsy Talbot, which I will be reviewing soon.

Once you’ve determined if you have the money travel, it’s time to start creating your functional travel budget for your career break. And, don’t forget, this is one of the 5 most important things you need to do before you quit.

So, let’s take the mystery out of budgeting for your career break. There are 3 parts to a career break budget that I’ll tackle in 3 follow-up posts of this series so I can go into detail into each. Here’s the overview so you know what to expect!

How to Budget Your Money To Travel in 3 Parts

Part 1: Pre-Takeoff Budget

The pre-takeoff budget covers all of the things you need to buy to prepare for your trip. The timing of this budget starts from now until you get on the plane to leave.

There are 2 parts to this budget. The first contains travel stuff: tickets, gear, insurance are the most popular items in this category. If you’re still working when you start buying these items, they will be easier to pay for since you still have a salary coming in.

The other part of the budget includes home expenses you will have after you leave your job and before you get on the plane. Don’t forget to save money for these costs like utilities, internet, groceries, etc. That money has to come from somewhere and it’s better to have planned and saved for it.

Part 2: Travel Budget

This is the pot of money you need when you’re actually on the road: accommodation, food, tours, in-country transit, additional plane tickets, etc. When you hear people write about traveling for $30 or $50 a day, this is the part of the travel budget they are talking about.

This part is a little harder to budget in detail since you likely won’t know what you’ll encounter on the road. This is where your scenario planning comes in handy. Be conservative and budget as high as possible. Then, watch your budget like a hawk so you can come in under budget.

Part 3: Re-Entry Budget

How much money will you need once you return before you have an income again? Start thinking about it now. If you have a job waiting for you, you likely won’t need to budget too much. But, if you’re going to be looking for a new job, then make your best guess as to how many weeks or months are needed. And, if you’re thinking about a career change after your break, plan for even more time. There is no doubt that this can be the most difficult part of the budget estimating process since there are a lot of factors that will determine how much you need.

I hope this series helps you get you on your way. Budgeting is critical and anxiety-inducing. But, that’s only because it seems so daunting. Let me help you go through the process. And, be sure to leave your questions in the comments or email me with your questions if you desire a bit more anonymity.

Watch your feeds for parts 2-4 of the series!

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Dancing With the Devil in the Details of a Career Break Budget is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Screenshot of Budget Your Trip's site

Trying to put together a budget with any level of detail for your long-term trip is a frustrating process. Real numbers are hard to come by. And, what is a ¨luxury¨ expense for one is a ¨budget¨ spend for another. Almost anything printed in a guidebook is out of date within a year. I’ve heard lots of travelers say that they take the prices in their Lonely Planet guide and add on 10-20%.

There is a new resource for travelers looking to get a better handle on how much they should take with them. BudgetYourTrip was founded by Bryan and Laurie Tighe after their own career break and round the world travels. They took their model for budgeting and tracking their expenses and scaled it for the general traveling public.

Basic Site Use To Set Your Travel Budget

Travelers from around the world input their actual travel expenses. BudgetYourTrip sorts and normalizes the data making it ready to query. You input a country or a city to see the average costs there. You can go directly to a specific country and get the average costs for things like transportation, food, lodging and many more categories.  You can see the costs in the local currency or get them converted to your home currency. This view then gives you a look at specific cities within the country. So, for example, click on Thailand and you get an average country-wide, but you can also see the costs for Bangkok, Chang Mai, Phuket, Satun and others.  There is also a tab for travel tips that have been left by travelers and a link to book hostels and hotels due to an integration with Hostel Bookers.

Advanced Features

If you want to go beyond the averages, you can use the site to plan and track your trip’s budget. By creating a free account you can start to get more refined costs. This happens because you declare your type of budget you will have: budget, mid-range or luxury. So, depending on what type of travel and budget you’re on, you can get the average costs for travelers like you. One note of caution, the definition for ¨budget,¨ ¨mid-range¨ and ¨luxury¨ is subjective. One person who’s on a mid-range trip might be considered to be a luxury trip by another. But, it gets you in the ballpark. Finally, once your trip is over, the system emails you to prompt you to finish entering your actual spends from your trip.

Interesting Details You May Need to Know

• There are currently around 6000 users on the site. There about the same number of trips that people have registered
• Most popular regions with cost data are Europe, US and Southeast Asia
• Current target is the independent traveler
• If you use the basic functionality, the numbers you get will be a mix of budget, mid-range and luxury info.
• Droid app available. Know that you have to be connected to the internet to add and query the database
• You can make your trip public or private
• The average data will be better for the more popular countries and cities. Use the data from lesser-traveled locations with more caution

Functionality I’d Like to See

The single biggest change that could improve Budget Your Trip is a more objective definition of ¨Budget¨ ¨Mid-range¨ and ¨Luxury¨. Currently the definitions are defined by the user. It would be great if BudgetYourTrip could give some guidelines to people to better select the category that’s appropriate to make the data more meaningful over time.  Setting objective criteria isn’t easy. Ten bucks in one country could get you through the day whereas in another, it won’t get you past breakfast. But, by establishing the boundaries for the different budgets, the data become more uniform and more usable to the planner.

Postscript: Since publishing this post, Bryan let me know that they have made this change to the system. Here is his post giving the details of the change and why they made it.

I’ve always like what BudgetYourTrip is working to achieve. But, it’s not a perfect tool yet. After talking to Bryan several times about the tool, he’s aware of those and is working to improve the tool and data. Having said that, I think BudgetYourTrip is the best tool out there for getting near-real-time data from a large pool of travelers. You don’t have to rely on a single guidebook or on a single blog post about what one person spent.  The truth is that you never really know how much it’s going to cost until you get on the road. But, with BudgetYourTrip, you can take out much of the guesswork and be much closer to the ballpark.

Give It a Try: Travel Cost Calculator Widget From Budget Your Trip

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Budget Your Trip: Useful Tool When Traveling the World on a Budget is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Get started budgeting. Copyright CareerBreakSecrets.com

You’ve got the itch, but you’re scratching your head trying to figure out how people leave it all behind to take a career break to travel. When I decided that I really wanted to travel, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out IF I afford it. I researched lots of places on the web to try to get costs and budget numbers. But, in 2006, there were very few out there, publicly available.

In my mind, I had numbers like $10/day, $20/day in my head. But, I had no idea if that was based on reality. And, what if I was wrong? I’d be in the middle of a foreign land with nothing.

So, out of necessity, I took a different tack. I decided to look at my current lifestyle to see how much I was spending per day to maintain myself.  This lifestyle included all the bells and whistles. It included my mortgage, my car payment, cable, electric and gas bills, dog food, etc, etc.  I used a 4-part assessment process to see if I could indeed travel for as long as I wanted to.  And today, I’m sharing that with you. I have yet to see anyone else write about budgeting for their trip in this way.

1. Calculate your Daily Lifestyle Costs
2. Create budgeting scenarios based on a percentage of those costs
3. Compare those scenarios with your savings or whatever you plan to use to finance your trip
4. Revise and refine

Step One: Calculate Your Daily Lifestyle Costs or How Expensive Are You?

The most common way to talk about travel budgets is on a per-day basis.  So, that’s what I used and how we’ll talk about it here.  Since it will always be difficult to know what your true costs on the road will be, let’s start with what you do know: how much your current lifestyle costs. This is your lifestyle at 100% (assuming you’re not overloaded with debt, in which case it will be your lifestyle at 100%+).  So, grab a piece of paper or your favorite spreadsheet and total up your monthly expenses. Don’t leave anything out: mortgage/rent, bills, entertainment, gym, any pampering you might treat yourself to. Throw it all in. I would recommend doing one that includes what you put into savings and one that keeps your monthly savings contribution out of the calculation.

Now, take that number and divide by 30. It’s pretty high isn’t it? You didn’t realize you were so expensive to maintain. If you’re like me, I didn’t realize I cost so much. Here are a few numbers that may surprise you. For after-tax salaries (assuming no savings), your  daily costs would be as follows.

• $30,000/365: $82.19
• $40,000/365: $109.59
• $60,000/365: $164.38

So, even if your after-tax income is around $30,000/year, you spend about $82 bucks a day to live. For the record, most long-term travelers don’t spend anywhere near that while on the road…unless they are traveling in Europe.

Step Two: Create Budget Scenarios

So, now that you have those numbers, I want you to calculate scenarios about how much you think you could live on while on the road.  Could you live on 50% of your number from Step 1? 30%? 60%?  This will start to give you the ranges of daily budgets that you will want to set for yourself.

To make this number more real, start looking at your expenses and see what goes away. Are there expenses that you will not be incurring while you’re traveling? I bet there will be many.  Of course, there may be some new ones. For example, while you may get rid of your apartment or plan to sell your house, you may incur some storage fees.

Personally, this was the point, I decided to get rid of a lot of my stuff. After all, why pay for stuff back home that you won’t be using on the road. And, that is money you could be using for extra perks or tours while you’re traveling.

Step Three: Evaluate Your Savings

So, now you have some baseline daily rates for your budget. How long do you plan to be gone for? 30 days? 90? 180?  To be conservative, include in that a number of days that you will have once your back and will be looking for a new job (assuming you won’t be going back to your current job).  You want to build in a cushion so you aren’t freaking out about money once you return. And, it will reduce the chances that you will leap at the first job that comes along, especially if it’s not one you want.

Take your daily rates and multiply them by the number of days on the road to get your total travel budget.  Now compare that to what you have in the savings.  Is it doable? Are you short?

So, let’s say you want to travel for 60 days, you decide to build in another 60 days for job hunting. And, let’s say you decide on a budget of $70 per day.  The calculation would simply be 120 days * $70 = $8400. That’s the amount you want to have in the savings for your trip.

Step Four: Revise and Refine

This step will start to get the wheels turning about how to really finance your trip while you’re away. It will also get you thinking about other expenses like plane tickets, insurance, shots, etc, and how you will budget for those items.

For me, once I did these calculations, I realized that I had the savings to finance the trip and it made giving notice at work a lot easier.

Happy budgeting and let me know in the comments if you have any questions.

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Long-Term Travel Budget Planning Made Easy is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Part of the fun of planning a long-term trip, whether it be around the world, or focused on a couple of continents, is dreaming about the possibilities.  Where you leave from is the easiest part. From then on, it’s all possibilities.  Not only did I use Airtreks on my career break and round the world travel adventure, but I used them when I went out to film the first season of our travel series.

One reason is their fun toy that is called the Airtreks TripPlanner tool.  Long before I pulled the trigger to take my RTW career break, I spent literally hours over the course of years playing on this cool mapping tool.  When I say I would spend hours on it at one sitting, I’m not exaggerating: late nights, weekends, or anytime I would go into that daydreaming place where I would imagine all the cool places I could visit.  (Travel nerd alert!)

How It Works

With a few points and clicks, you can create a worldwide itinerary, ON A MAP, get immediate feedback on alternatives and a quick quote.

Airtreks' TripPlanner tool

• DREAM: Select Your Cities. Starting with your departure city, you start clicking the cities around the world you want to fly in and out of. At this point, it’s not necessary to know your dates, just that you want to go in and out of these places.

• PLAY: Leaving By Air or Overland? If you’re like me, you want to mix up your travel between air flights and overland options like trains, buses or cars. The TripPlanner lets you plan for that. This allows you, for example, to arrive into Bogota, Colombia, explore South America overland but fly out of Santiago, Chile.

• PLAN: Get the Price and See Alternatives Without Commitment. At this point, TripPlanner spits out a price range for your trip.  And, it gives you an alternative route called ¨More For Your Money.¨ The thing that I like about this step is that as you are planning and budgeting, you can get an idea of how much to budget for your airfare. And, you get immediate advice on other places you can visit without paying anything more.  It then becomes a matter of how much time you have and what your travel priorities are.  Finally, at this point, you are not committed to a single thing. You haven’t given up your email, phone number, nothing. So you can start over again and keep playing day after day…not that there’s anything wrong with that.

• BUY: Get To a Live Person. If you’re ready to move forward, click the ¨Provide Trip Details¨ button. Enter your information so an Airtreks travel counselor can get in touch with you.  Mine was Laura, and she was great (tell her Jeff says hi if you get her!).  I liked this blend of tech and personal service. Laura helped me through any number of itinerary changes, refunds, rebookings, and a stolen passport drama.  When you’re traveling around the world, I liked knowing that if anything happened, I could get to a live person to help me get through it.  And, as crazy as air travel has become, that peace of mind is invaluable!

My Experience With Airtreks: The ¨Moments of Truth¨

• Flexibility.There is a lot of concern by new travelers that RTW tickets lock you in at a point in your planning when you know the least about how you will travel, where you want to stay and for how long. I didn’t find my ticket to encumber me at all. And, my plans changed drastically.
  • First, I mixed up the tickets I bought with Airtreks with tickets bought on the ground whether they be for flights or busses.
  • Second, I found that by having an end date to my time somewhere, it kept me going to discover new places. I could have stayed settled into lots of places longer. But, in a situation where you have total freedom, having one date on when I would leave was actually a good thing for me.
  • Finally, I made major changes at the end of my time in South America:
    • Date: Left 6 months later
    • Countries: Instead of New Zealand, I went to Colombia
    • Direction: Instead of leaving South America for New Zealand, I went to Europe

• Help & Service In a Pinch. So, while filming our series in South Africa, I was robbed in Johannesburg.  Part of what they got included my passport (the most valuable thing they got, not in terms of money, but what I truly needed to travel) which included my e-visa for Australia. Once I was able to get my temporary passport from the US Embassy, Laura got my Australian e-visa reissued in no time.

• Experienced Travel Suggestions. Probably because I was a business flyer for so long, my instinct was just to fly everywhere. It was Laura who suggested that I look into overland travel and getting some flights locally. Now, she could have made a lot more money off of me. But, these suggestions told me 2 things. First, she wasn’t out to hammer my wallet. Two, she was interested in a long-term relationship. By gaining my trust, she earned my long-term business.

• Control: Lots of Customization Possibilities. If you’ve seen an independent traveler’s itinerary, you’ve seen ONE independent itinerary. Airtreks’ model puts you in control of where you go. Price will be an obvious constraint at some point. But, unlike the airline alliance tickets, you get to be in control of where you go next. It’s your trip, TAKE CONTROL!

Making Airtreks Available To You

I take the selection of the products and services in our store, very seriously.  As we looked around at what to offer to you, it came down to Airtreks very quickly.  It’s a service that I’ve used and I can stand behind it.  Certainly, there are flight vendors that would offer us a higher commission for tickets sold. But, the point is that I don’t know their services, I haven’t used them. Airtreks’ service I have used. And, I am proud to offer and promote it to you to check and to see if it’s right for you.

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Dream. Play. Plan. With Airtreks’ TripPlanner is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Screen shot of Airbnb's site

This year I had two trips to New York, one in June and the other in October.  Both times were for events in Manhattan. Looking around for budget accommodation was a challenge to say the least. I really didn’t want to waste time commuting over bridges and through tunnels.  Even cheaper hotel chains were ridiculously expensive.  I have points on several hotel programs, but really didn’t want to use them for work trips.  For my June trip, I sucked it up and stayed in an average hotel.  By the end, I was even more infuriated that I had overpayed for service that under-delivered. By October, I finally found a smarter and cheaper option, AirBnB.com.  I had such a good experience with AirBnB that I will definitely be using them again…around the world.

Service Overview

AirBnb.com is a site that offers you a place in someone’s home. The accommodation can range from a simple air mattress to your own room to an entire apartment or house. I even saw one option in Colombia for someone’s island!  The system acts as a broker and payment system between you the owner.  I have been a big fan of getting out of the hotel and renting apartments for a long time. I’ve done in Buenos Aires, Santiago, Madrid, Paris and Bogota.  So, immediately I was keen on the concept.  Here’s how it works.

1. Select.  Enter your destination, dates and the number of guests. If you leave the dates off, the directory comes up
2. Sort and Filter.  Next, you can sort the results by ¨Recommended¨, ¨Distance¨ or ¨Price¨.  At this point, you can also filter the results by the type of room you want, price range and amenities offered. The list of amenities included the most important one for me: Internet Access!
3. Play.  Now it’s time to play around and look at the options.  You can see the individual listings that include photos, complete descriptions, reviews from previous renters, and the house rules (which all include the owner’s cancellation and refund policy). Don’t ignore the house rules!  I love the integration with Google Maps because you can see exactly where you will be located in the city.
4. Select and Book.  Once you find a place that you like or want to know more about, you are guided to book the location.
5. Response.  The owner will receive your request and respond to you.  In New York, my first option was not available as the owner had an unscheduled trip.  I was disappointed. But what I liked was that the owner got back to me right away, and was very friendly. So, even though I didn’t get my first choice, I was not upset with the service. So, I went through the process again and finally found another great place.
6. Confirmation and Pre-Payment.  Once the owner approves your request, you will receive a confirmation email with the owner’s contact details so you can coordinate the check-in.  You will also be charged for the stay.  That money stays in escrow with AirBnB until you check in.
7. Check-In.  Once you arrive to your city, you’ll meet up with the owner, get the keys and relax in your new place. At this point of the game, your money is transferred to the owner’s account.  You will probably work out the check out details with the owner at this point.
8. Check-Out and Review.  The day has come for you to leave to head off to your next destination, or home.  AirBnB will send you a form to review your stay and the host. AND, the owner will receive a form to review as a guest.  This information is made available to other owners. It’s a great check to weed out unruly guests and bad hosts to keep everyone honest. So, you better be a good guest and leave the place like you found it!  Oh, and each side gets to see what the other wrote.

Pros and Cons of the Service

My Top 3 Pros Are

• Simple, easy-to-use service to find the right balance between the creature comforts you want and the budget you have
• Great detail on the listings like photos, services included and maps
• Double-sided review process that keeps everyone honest

My Cons Are

Honestly, I’m sure there’s something. No service is perfect. And, maybe after a few more stays, I´m sure I can come up with something.  The wildcard is definitely the owner from whom you rent. I would highly encourage you to check our AirBnB for your next trip.

Post-Script

I got a large studio in New York with wifi and full kitchen for $80/night in October. Compare that with a crappy hotel in which I paid $250/night in June.  Not only was it cheaper, I was way more comfortable, my internet worked and I could cook for myself and not rely on takeout!

Let me know if you have any questions about the service or have something to add from your experience.

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A Review of AirBnB, A Great Budget Alternative is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures

Is it more important for you to take that trip of a lifetime, have a real travel experience or to have some knick-knack that you buy on an impulse? Is the money you spend on travel and entertainment optimized? Or, do you tend to buy a lot of cutsie stuff that distract your wallet?  And, more importantly, did any of that stuff provide you with any lasting, cherished travel memories?

I suppose one positive repercussion from the economic crisis is that it has forced us all to re-examine our spending habits.  Yet, as I found out on a recent flight to the US, the temptations are still there.

Skymall Ubiquity

In-flight shopping is a little bit like late-night infomercial shopping: occasionally you find a real gem you can be proud of, but mostly you are sorting through a bunch of gimmicky products whose value is realized by your credit card company.  But, let me be clear about one point: My name is Jeff and I am a former Skymall shopper. I will admit that I quite enjoyed the shower gel dispenser I once bought.  It sold with the house before my career break although I’m sure it did not add to the value of the house.

On almost every plane in the US, you can find a Skymall catalog tempting you to spend your hard-earned money now, now, now.  Honestly, how many times have you looked through the magazine and wondered, “Who buys this stuff?”  And then the next catalog comes out and it’s still there. In fact, 3 out of the 5 products I list below are back in the ¨Late Spring 2010¨ catalog.  So, someone must be buying it, right? Skymall is a guilty pleasure that hits you when you are most vulnerable and alone: tired from your day’s travel with no one around to stop you from yourself.

On my recent trip back to the US, I paged through the Skymall catalog and saw several items that made me shake my head.  So, for fun, I asked a few other bloggers to give me some recommendations on how you could take the money you would have spent on these dreadful products and, instead, spend it on something to give you a great travel experience or enhance your travel experience.  For the record, all of these products come out of the ¨Early Spring 2010.¨ Skymall catalog.  The prices listed below include the shipping and handling charges, which can be significant. All the product photos are the property and copyright of Skymall. They are not from my personal collection, just so you know.

After you read through the list, let us know what you think.

5 Things You Can Buy From Skymall Today But Won´t Be Able to Sell At Your Garage Sale Tomorrow When You Take Your Career Break

1. Zombie of Montclaire Moors Statue on page 72. Cost $105.20

What They Say: “…life-size, gray-toned zombie will claw his way out of your garden plot, office, or family room corner, pleading for assistance with the eeriest eyes you’ve ever seen.”

What I Say: If this item suits you, you need a career break to reestablish basic social interaction with your fellow human beings.  If monsters are your thing, why not go to Brasov, Romania to visit the Bran Castle Museum, former home of Vlad the Impaler, and the inspiration for our modern concept of Dracula?

What Leif Pettersen of RomaniaandMoldova.com Recommends:

EU membership inflation notwithstanding, $105.20 still goes a long way in Romania, even in its tourism-heavy, top destination, Brasov. Tourism in Brasov is as organized as it gets in Romania, with many businesses offering several, complimenting services. Brasov’s hostels do this best, offering comprehensive city information, tours of the “Big Three” castles, by far, Brasov’s most popular day-trip, and, of course, bargain-priced accommodation. The Big Three castle tour (about $25, including transport and guide, but not including entry fees) is a bit whirlwind, but ideal if you’re short on time and don’t want to submit to the inter-city buses. The tour stops at the Dracula-worthy 14th-century Bran Castle, the intriguing, fortified 13th-century ruins of Rasnov Fortress and the 19th-century, German Renaissance style Peles Castle, which served as the opulent home to Romania’s new monarchy. If you’re looking for real-life Vlad ‘Tepes’ Dracula sites, head north to Sighisoara (his birthplace) or take the epic Transfagarasan Road over the Carpathian Mountains, to his true home: Poenari Citadel. After the tour, before retiring to your hostel bed, you’ll have plenty of cash left over to splurge for a dinner at one of Brasov’s excellent Romanian restaurants.

2. The Indoor Dog Restroom and Replacement Mat, listed on page 29, Cost $232.15

What They Say: “The tray is easy to empty and can hold up to two gallons of liquid.”

What I Say: If you are really not home enough that you need a 2 gallon indoor repository, you should probably find your dog a new home.  If your dog suffers from polyuria, this does not apply to you.  Use that money to go travel and spend quality time with your best furry friend.

What Amy Burkert of GoPetFriendly.com Recommends:

Traveling with dogs doesn’t require a lot of fancy “stuff” – your dog doesn’t care if you throw his things in a reusable grocery sack, so focus on the experience! For $232.15 you can spend a weekend with your best pal and have a great time. Here’s the plan using St. Louis as an example:

1. Book a room for a Saturday night at the Drury Plaza Hotel at the Arch in St. Louis, MO (about $140/night) – a bargain for a great hotel that was included in TripAdvisor.com’s Travelers’ Choice Top 25 Hotels in the US for 2010.
2. On Saturday morning, park the car at the hotel (Cost: $15) and stretch your legs in the quiet park next to the hotel. Then cross Memorial Drive to the Jefferson National Expansion Park and check out the Arch, which is equally as impressive from the ground as it is from the observation deck. Take your time exploring the park – there are a lot of great things to see – and then make your way east on the path along the river.
3. Head up the hill and choose from one of the eateries in this area of town know as Laclede’s  Landing. Restaurants with outdoor seating areas are abundant here, so peruse the menus and I’m sure you’ll find something to enjoy (Cost for 2 for lunch: $25).
4. Dinner will be served on The Hill – a neighborhood a bit southwest of downtown known for it’s Italian food. Find a restaurant with outdoor seating and enjoy one of the best pizza’s you’ll ever eat with a fishbowl of beer! (Cost: $35)
5. On Sunday morning pack up the car and head out to Forest Park.  This is one of the largest urban parks in the US, and at 1,371 acres, it is almost 500 acres larger than NYC’s Central Park.  The park and trails are pet friendly, though dogs must be leashed. Pets are not allowed in the buildings, but that doesn’t matter because you’re headed to the Boathouse Restaurant.  Located on Post-Dispatch Lake, this is where you’re going to rent a pet friendly paddle boat! (Cost: $15)

After your paddle excursion, you’ll have spent a total of $230. I suggest treating yourself to lunch for managing to stay on your budget. The outdoor patio at the Boathouse Restaurant is pet friendly, so go ahead and get yourself (and Fido) a treat!

3. Wrist Cell Phone Carrier listed on page 80. Cost $39.20

What They Say: “Our unique solution to the misplaced cell phone! And it can also make a fashion statement!”

What I Say: And that statement is, “Please rob me now. And go ahead and take this nice camera I have around my neck while you’re at it.”  It’s exactly these kinds of purchases that keep you from having the money to do what you really want to do.  Travel gadgets should always, always, always have a valuable functional purpose that enhances your travel experience to justify taking it with you.

What Stephanie Yoder of Twenty Something Travel Recommends:

For the price of this silly piece of junk, you could get a piece of strap on equipment that is actually useful: a Petzl Tikka Plus 2 LED Headlamp from REI. This handy tool will make your life easier in countless situations. Whether you are trying to rummage through your pack early in the morning, read on a dark bus or trying to locate your hostel late at night, every backpacker could use this clever light source. And really, it’s only slightly less stylish than a ridiculous cell phone strap.

4. Vinturi Wine Aerator listed on page 130. Cost $49.20

What They Say: “Mixing just the right amount of air with your wine.”

What I Say: Mix my what? First of all, most of the wine sold these days needs very little time to breath.  Second, if you are buying the kind of wine that needs to breath, you likely already know your wine, probably have a decanter and would enjoy waiting out the breathing time.  The only target market for this money waster are those that know very little about wine but want to appear as if they do.

What Ryan Opaz of Catavino.net Recommends:

One option would be the Wine Travel Guides.  If you are going to a wine region that they cover, it allows you to find the best way to experience the region.  It´s full of maps, tips and tricks!! It really is a great deal.

5. Tranquil Sounds Oxygen Bar listed on page 25. Cost $321.24

What They Say: “Chase away stress with soothing sounds and enriched oxygen.”

What I Say: Well, I guess it’s better than smoking a cigarette.  The health benefits of breathing pure oxygen appear to be fleeting and not long lasting.  And, I don´t even know what enriched O2 is.  So, rather than buy this device, put on the soft music and meditate. If it´s daily relaxation you need to wind down, that I would recommend a yoga class or DVD. At a minimum, you can put on some classical music and do some deep breathing exercises. If you need something a little more intense, I would recommend that you visit Spa Finder to locate a spa near you.

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Get More From Your Travel Spend OR 5 Things You Shouldn’t Buy From Skymall is a post from: Career Break Secrets: Travel show, independent travel blog and advice for career breaks and around the world travel adventures