30Traveler – Travel Podcast  

Topics: Beaches, Los Angeles, Podcast Episodes, Saving Money, USA, Vegetarian and Vegan Travel

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Los Angeles Stopover Trip Report. What I did for one my 1 night, 2 day stopover in Los Angeles. Falling asleep on the beach, a farmers market and the most delicious Strawberries I ever ate. A fun couple of days in the summer California sun. Places mentioned: Vegan Glory (Inexpensive Thai Food and Vegan Fast Food, Beverly Hills) Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Wholefoods Market South Sepulveda Blvd, Manhattan Beach public library, Motel 6 LAX, Redondo Beach farmers market is Thursday mornings.

This is another one-take-wonder podcast episode – fun and tip-filled but lots of ums. Sorry! Travel Podcast, Budget Travel.

Subscribe to get new episodes by searching 30traveler in itunes.

Thanks for listening. Hope you enjoy!

Topics: Beaches, Hawaii, Podcast Episodes, Saving Money, USA, Vegetarian and Vegan Travel

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Hawaii Trip Report. My AWESOME beach holiday. Finally recorded another podcast episode after a long period of podcasting slackness. Had an amazing time! Have gorgeous beach pics and will put some on the blog at www.30traveler.com. (Pics to come soon. Promise!)

This is another one-take-wonder podcast episode – fun and tip-filled but lots of ums. Sorry! Hawaii Travel Podcast, Budget Travel.

Subscribe to get new episodes by searching 30traveler in itunes.

p.s. its a few months since I paid any attention to this site and I have 3000 spam comments and a similar number of spam emails, so if you left a non-spam comment or sent a non-spam email, big apologies that your message got lost. Please resend if you still want to contact. 30traveler (at) 30traveler .com

Topics: Frequent Flyer, Los Angeles, Podcast Episodes, Saving Money, Trip Planning, USA

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I’m going to be spending the next few months in the US. I’ll be subletting an apartment in New York, but will be getting there via stopovers in L.A. and Boston.

Topics: Blog posts with videos, Podcast Episodes, Saving Money, Trip Planning

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Please note: The smoothest way to get the video is to use the download button. Recommended players for playing the video are Apple Quicktime or VLC Media Player (both free). Video is a normal mp4 file (50mb).

Priceline is one of my favorite ways of saving A LOT of money on hotels.

I’ve used it for Europe and the US.

Its perfect for the budget traveler who doesn’t want to stay in hostels 100% of the time.

However Priceline can be intimidating the first time you use it so I’ve created a video tutorial.

My explanation of the famous free re-bid hack starts at about the 6:30 minute mark.

For two people traveling together: I have gotten 4* hotel rooms for similar to the cost of two hostel beds by using Priceline.

Cities available are

Amsterdam
Barcelona, Spain
Berlin
Budapest, Hungary
Copenhagen
Istanbul, Turkey
London
Moscow
Munich, Germany
Paris
Rome
Stockholm
Vienna

When: Good through 4:59 p.m. Pacific Time, Thursday, April 22

Get em: At the itunes store.

Source: L.A. Times Daily Travel and Deal Blog

Topics: Apps, Flights, Travel Geekery, Trip Planning

I’ve signed up to TripIt to manage my US trip. Its free and super easy. You can sign up at TripIt.com – takes 3 seconds.

How it works

You just email your flight confirmations to plans@TripIt.com and it compiles them into one timeline.

Puts all the info (e.g. flight and layover durations) into a nice consistent format.

You can make your itinerary public or private.

Also has free mobile apps for iphone, android and blackberry (or just use their website).

Does a bunch of other things but I’m still exploring it.

Other than storing my info in one place and showing it in a consistent format, one feature I especially like is…

for free I can auto feed the info to my Google Calendar and it shows the times based on whatever timezone the calendar is set to (e.g. converts the US times for my US trip to New Zealand time).

Before leaving I can share my calendar with family in New Zealand who will then know what days/times I’m traveling New Zealand time.

Topics: Flights, Frequent Flyer, Qantas

Woo hoo. Today I booked a Qantas frequent flyer seat from Christchurch, NZ to Los Angeles for June.

In the process I discovered something weird about Qantas’s Award Travel Booking Engine.

The flight is: Christchurch – Auckland – Los Angeles.

Christchurch to Auckland was showing available
Auckland to Los Angeles was showing available

but
CHC-LAX was returning no seats.

I called the Qantas FF call centre and the agent who obviously knew his stuff, good on him (!), told me to try it as a multi city booking, even those all travel is the same day, June 24th.

Hey presto – it worked.

And barring any Jetstar schedule changes (CHC-AKL is operated by Jetstar) I will only have a 1:35 layover in Auckland.

I’m really looking forward to it! Especially since have been rechecking the Qantas website for a FF seat for travel at the end of June for at least a month. Today one finally popped up.

Love the feeling of having the ticket booked and being able to start making plans!

Topics: Podcast Episodes, Travel Psychology

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You can listen to the podcast version of this article by pushing play above.

Or read on if you prefer the written version.

11th tip that I forgot to mention on the podcast: If you think it’ll be too hot for other exercise, consider staying somewhere that has a pool (that’s big enough for laps).

1. Are you having any of the following cognitive distortions?

- Everyone gains weight while on vacation
- Its inevitable I’m going to gain weight. I have no control over it.
- I can’t have fun without overeating.
- I can’t fully experience and enjoy the food culture of the place I’m visiting without overeating.

Challenge these self sabotaging thoughts.

2. Don’t eat all your meals at restaurants.

At least in Western countries, restaurant meals tend to me higher calorie (higher fat, larger portions etc) than you would serve when you’re cooking at home.

There are bound to be times when you don’t feel like going out eat or don’t want to interrupt your day to go to a restaurant (e.g. you’re going to be spending the day at a museum and suspect the food that’s available nearby will be overpriced and/or gross).

Plan alternatives e.g. taking a picnic.

3. Take with you – a knife, spoon, fork, and container that can serve as a bowl (I use a microwavable plastic bowl that has a resealable lid).

The knife comes in handy for making sandwiches and cutting fruit (e.g. slicing and removing skin from mangoes).

The bowl is useful for cereal and for stopping food from getting squashed in your daypack.

4. I love visiting foreign supermarkets and produce markets.

- It gives you an experience of the everyday life of the people who live where you’re visiting.
- In non-English speaking countries, you can try out your language skills.

When traveling in the US, I like to go to the Wholefoods chain of supermarkets because they have great vegetarian/vegan choices, often have nice seating areas, and many stores have microwaves for heating your purchases. If you’re in New York, try the upstairs seating area at Wholefoods Union Square/14th St. The view across Union Square is amazing and the buzzy atmosphere is also very cool.

In other US cities, the Wholefoods stores are often in interesting neighborhoods that are out of the tourist areas so venturing there can provide a different view of a city.

- In many countries, buying produce at the market is an essential part of the culture. At least, go stock up on fruit.

5. Consider staying at non-hotel accommodation that has cooking facilities for part of your trip.

In Rome, our B&B had a kitchen that we used to cook pasta and store a tub of gelato in the freezer section of the fridge. (B&Bs are an extremely common form of accommodation in Rome and not like B&Bs other places. They’re usually an apartment with only a few bedrooms, each with their own bathrooms, and there are not usually staff present outside of breakfast time or to greet arriving guests. Highly recommended).

Hostels usually have kitchens.

6. Write yourself a note of the advantages of NOT overeating while on vacation.

Here are some examples.

- Coming home after vacation is hard enough without the additional suffering of losing the weight you gained while you were away.
- You’ll establish a positive pattern that you can go on vacation without gaining weight.
- You won’t have experiences of feeling sick from having overeaten.
- You might spend less money on food and booze if you’re being moderate about your consumption.
- You won’t have a negative memory associated with your trip i.e. the memory that you gained weight.

7. Prioritize Getting Enough Sleep and Water

If you’re overtired, you’ll probably overeat to pick up your energy.

If you’re dehydrated you might end up overeating for hydration (i.e. mistake thirst for hunger). Watch out for this on days you’re flying/busing/training.

8. Think ahead.

Thinking ahead can help prevent you overeating due to having become overly hungry.

What approx times do you want to eat meals? Where are you likely to be at those times?

Is there likely to be good food nearby, or are you likely to need to go somewhere different to eat?

Do you need to take food with you?

9. Cheap carbs can lead to traveler’s constipation and/or gaining weight.

Cheap food options (e.g. pizza) aren’t so cheap if you end up with constipation or gaining weight.

10. Watch the extra calories from drinks.

Extra calories from booze and iced coffees, sodas etc add up.

Its easy to end up buying sugary drinks when you’re somewhere you can’t drink the tap water or in hot countries.

Topics: Big OE, Europe, London, UK

The London Tube Map is renowned for being misleading about the physical distance (walking distance) between different tube stops. Within central London (Zone 1) its often quicker to walk.

You can see walking distances between tubes stops below. (Use this link to see a big version of the image – London Tube Walking Distances Map)

Alternatively, this Map shows which tube stations are less than 500m apart (400m = approx 1/4 of a mile).

Topics: New York, TV and Movie Filming

Last summer I wandered around New York listening to the audiobook version of Eat Pray Love, read by the author herself, Elizabeth Gilbert (You can get the Eat Pray Love audiobook for free using this free trial – legal download – and you can keep the audiobook even if you cancel the trial).

Elizabeth Gilbert is one of those electric personalities and the audiobook is full of her personality, even more so than the paper version of the book.

I mentioned in this episode of my podcast (about how to see TV and movie filming) that I saw some of the filming – in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan and in Brooklyn. A super fun experience to be listening to the audiobook while watching the filming of the movie and fun to see Julia Roberts in the flesh.