Again with my all too honest travel stories.The first time I ever stayed in a hostel was in Rome. Plenty of websites had said that The Yellow was the best party hostel in Rome, so I was back and forth with the idea. This was going to be my first time doing solo travel, and my first time in a hostel. I wasn’t sure what to expect.Pricewise, The Yellow is on par with most of the hostels in Rome. It is cheaper than the boujie ones for sure. I figured I could book the room and if I panicked beforehand I could always cancel.Getting to The YellowIn terms of arriving at the hostel, this is ridiculously easy to get to. Odds are you’re going to be taking the train into Rome. From Roma Termini train station, it’s only about 4 blocks north.There isn’t too much to see on … [Read more...]
London Travel Blog Writers’ Guide
I feel like I always gravitate towards travel bloggers guides to cities over anything else. Sure I can go to Tripadvisor or some professionally curated websites about travel, but I like the candidness and passion you only get from travel blogs.Earlier this year I did a solo backpacking trip around Europe. I hopped around from Barcelona to Rome, then Prague, and ended up in London. I do like to sort of wing it when I travel, but that doesn't mean I don't devour information to be ready.When I was researching my London leg of my trip I started getting worried that my computer was going to crash from all of the tabs I had open in Chrome. The majority of the tabs were different travel bloggers takes on London. It was kind of a mess, but I got through it. The list below is the … [Read more...]
Mastercard Black Card for Travel – Worth the Annual Fee?
Today I was checking the mail and I had one of those nice envelopes that almost always means a wedding invite. It was a sleek black envelope that said "LUXURY CARD" in silver letters on the top left. The back of the envelope had nothing but the MasterCard logo on the bottom in the same silver coloring.Usually I'll just throw out any credit card mailers, but I'm a sucker for good marketing!I opened it up and read the first card: “Dear Michael…,You’re invited to become a Luxury Card member. Apply today for the MasterCard Black Card, offering 2% value for airfare redemptions and 1.5% value for cash back redemptions – the best rates in the industry versus the competition.” Ugh they are onto me. They know I love fancy packaging AND travel perks! Also, I’m just bolding the … [Read more...]
Travel Inspiration Newsletter for August 2018
This post comes from my email newsletter that I send to my subscribers once a month. I do this instead of bombarding the subscribers with emails everytime I post something new. I also kind of stole the idea from Tim Ferriss. If you'd like to sign up for free monthly updates sign up here.I'm thinking about giving away travel gifts or something to subscribers. Maybe if I get 100 new people on the list this month I'll start picking a random person for a free gift. Thoughts?Travel Quote of the Month "It is better to travel well than to arrive." -Buddha When I do research on a trip, I DO RESEARCH ON A TRIP. I'm going to Hong Kong in a few months so I'm currently reading up about the religions there, Buddhism being one of them. STATS Currently in: Los AngelesNext trip: … [Read more...]
Traveler Rant: I Now Realize What My Travel Type Is
After you impromptu solo European backpacking trip last April, I have had the travel bug really bad. I know a lot of my friends also love to travel, but for some reason we’ve been having trouble lining up plans. I think I figured it out as I’m planning my next European trip.Everyone has their own travel style. My family, for example, are the typical Long Island vacationers. They’ll take their annual trip to Orlando and see Disney World, or they will take a long weekend in the Poconos. Then you have my buddy Adam who goes around the world looking for some crazy way to spike his adrenaline. I guess you can call him a adventure traveler and my family a Disney-fied traveler type.Me, well I’m going to dub myself a dork traveler.I’m okay with that. Apparently nerds are cool … [Read more...]