travel advice & tips
Tips For Getting Around Like a Local During Your Career Break
Written By: jeff
Posted On: September 4th, 2011
Getting around when your traveling is a daily decision. It starts in your planning when you’re trying to figure out if your hostel is close enough to all the things you want to see. You arrive and you have to get to the hostel or hotel. While you’re there will you walk, take a bus, […]
Discovering A Country Through Its Food During Your Career Break
Written By: jeff
Posted On: September 3rd, 2011
Food. Food. FOOD!!!! It’s an integral part of the travel experience. Whether you go for the street food stalls or a fine dining experience, you will leave a country remembering what you ate. Or in some cases, the food may not have impressed you, which is also a lasting memory. When I talk about my […]
Safety and Security Tips During Your Career Break
Written By: jeff
Posted On: September 2nd, 2011
Writing about security while traveling is a tough topic. You want to help people be prepared. But you don’t want to scare them either. Most long-term travelers will tell you that most safety concerns people have about traveling in the world are overblown. I echo that sentiment. That’s not to say that you don’t have […]
Money Tips for Your Career Break Trip
Written By: jeff
Posted On: September 1st, 2011
This topic always raises travelers’ blood pressure and stress by a few points. Even I still check and double check that I have everything in order before I go. The good news is that most of what you have to do to minimize your risk of being without money can be taken care of before […]
Packing for a Career Break: The B-Side
Written By: jeff
Posted On: August 31st, 2011
Packing for a long-term trip is different than a other trips. On a vacation, it’s usually short enough that you can think through what you will need. Go skiing? heavy clothes. Going to the beach or a cruise? Beachwear. But, on a long-term trip, you could be shifting seasons over time. In Ecuador, you could […]
Introducing the B-Side of the Gap Adventures Career Break Series, Ditch the Cubicle
Written By: jeff
Posted On: August 30th, 2011
[pro-player width=’600′ height=’400′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts_iCGh3OuY[/pro-player] Excited. Not sure how else to describe the launch of the Gap Adventures’ Career Break Video series. Through the course of 10 videos (OK, 9 if you don’t include the introduction video), I’ll take you through the process of preparing for a career break and give you some ideas on […]
Lost in Translation? 12 Things You Gotta Go Through to Learn Spanish (Or Any New Language) Fluently
Written By: jeff
Posted On: August 23rd, 2011
It’s hard to believe, but I arrived in South America about 4.5 years ago to start my career break. One of the biggest things I wanted to accomplish was learn to speak Spanish fluently. While I still make plenty of mistakes, basically I consider myself fluent. Since 2007, I’ve had the benefit of rounding […]
Traveling Without a Cell Phone: Alternatives to Staying in Touch
Written By: jeff
Posted On: May 19th, 2011
In my previous posts, I told you why you need to ditch your cell phone carrier, how to get an unlocked cell phone, and compared the costs for you to show you how much you can save. Of course, all that assumed that you will be traveling with a cell phone. But, if you want […]
The Dollars and ¨Sense¨ of Traveling With an Unlocked Cell Phone
Written By: jeff
Posted On: May 12th, 2011
Sometimes our need for convenience, for things to ¨just be easy¨ winds up screwing us. Such is the case with international cell phone service. It starts with the belief that the only place to get a cell phone is at the service provider’s store. And, the only way to buy service is to pre-pay for […]
Secrets of Getting An Unlocked Cell Phone For Travel
Written By: jeff
Posted On: May 5th, 2011
Your US cell phone is locked. If you’re like me, you didn’t even know that. I certainly didn’t know what that really meant before I started traveling. As long as your cell phone use is primarily in the US, it really doesn’t matter. Buying a cell phone typically happens at the time you select your […]
