YourTravels

The Today Show just did an excellent story about travel insurance that goes much more in depth than my previous post. I’ve included the video below. As before, if you are considering travel insurance, be sure to check out Access America by clicking on the banner to the left.

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Travel insurance seems to be a big deal these days and anyone who has booked their own trip knows that booking sites keep telling you, “you need this…you need this.” Truth be told, we have never purchased travel insurance and rely solely on the travel benefits included with our credit card and we ensure that our health insurance has international coverage. I did a little googling today to try and figure out what’s going on.

While sifting through results like, “Osama bin Laden death: What travel insurance will and won’t do for you” and those articles that are obviously written by insurance companies, I found some important points.

1. Don’t buy it at the airport on your way to your vacation destination since it’s the most expensive way to do it (Greenburg, 2007).
2. You should consider travel insurance if your health plan does not cover international travel or if they do not cover the particular country to which you are going (Financial Planning Association, 2011). Some will not cover health care in countries that have State Department warnings and if you take a look at the State Department website, there are a lot of them.
3. Check the cancellation policy. Say an act of terrorism occurs on the border of a country in South America and it makes you worried about traveling to a border city in the country next door. This may not be covered unless you have a cancel-for-any-reason policy (Engle, 2011).
4. If you do decide to buy coverage, print out a receipt since some companies can deny claims without one. They may not accept, “can’t you just look me up?” because that just might make too much sense (Bundle, 2011).
5. If you bought coverage a couple of years ago for your last big vacation, don’t expect the terms of the coverage to be the same. Some insurance companies have been making it much more difficult to file claims because of some financial hits that they have taken in the past couple of years (Salmon, 2011). Remember the Icelandic volcano and the havoc it created to European travel?

Most importantly, if you do choose to buy converage, make sure you compare rates and terms instead of just clicking “yes” during the checkout process of a travel website. Access America is the largest travel insurer in the country and you can get a quote by clicking on the banner in this posting.

Works Cited:

1. Greenburg, Peter. Do You Need Travel Insurance. Today Show Website. 27 March 2007.
2. Financial Planning Association. Make Sure Your Travel Insurance is a Real Safety Net. NASDAQ Website. 4 May 2011.
3. Engle, Jane. Osama bin Laden death: What travel insurance will and won’t do for you. Los Angeles Times Website. 3 May 2011.
4. Bundle. 9 Steps To Avoid Getting Scammed On Travel Insurance. Business Insider. 22 April 2011.
5. Salmon, James. Revealed: Why the cost of your insurance is soaring. Mail Online Website. 21 April 2011.

In a lot of places in the world, it’s a rite of passage for a young person to head out into the world with just a backpack before the responsibilities of an adult life anchor them to one place. The Eurorail even facilitates this by offering a nice discount for young people up to age 25.

If you are a college student looking to see the world or a teacher looking at where to go on summer break, you should consider this discount card from isic (which is affiliated with mega-agency STA Travel). They claim that it is the most accepted student discount in the world and can be used in 116 countries around the world. If you click on the banner, don’t be dissuaded by the banners of places like the Hard Rock Cafe (Really? You would travel all the way to Zimbabwe to eat at a Hard Rock?). If you dig deeper, you’ll see that there are quite a few good discounts on backpacker’s hostels around the world and restaurants. For example, the site is showing that if you are travelling to La Antigua, Guatemala (which I highly recommend – blog entry coming soon), you can get a 20% discount at the Hostal El Montañes and head over to the Cafe Riviera to get 10% off food.

If you are a teacher and you think you are too old to stay in a hostel (really, you’re not since there are people of all ages), there are also discounts at hotels. You can get 20-30% off at the Imperial Mae Ping Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand or select from a group of other hotels that will block out the noise of the tuk tuks flying down the streets and alleys of the city.

It sounds to me that the card could pay off well. Unfortunately, I am way past being a student and am not in the noble profession of teaching (yet).

If your thing is wide open spaces and breathtaking scenery, then you should consider heading South to the Lake District of Argentina. If not, then you should probably find another blog (and a pox on you!). Looking at the map in the Lonely Planet Guide, you see lakes but you imagine the kinds of crowds that are the norm on a weekend day at Lake Tahoe. While we were there during a shoulder season, it’s still hard to imagine that you couldn’t find a quiet spot somewhere in this vast region of Patagonia.

Our hotel, which was totally fine by our standards, will remain nameless. We arrived to the hotel on the outskirts of Bariloche and the desk clerk walked us down four flights of steps to our room. He opened the door, stared wide-eyed for a fraction of second, and slammed the door quickly. He turned to us, thought for a moment of how to say it in English, and said, “we will need more time.” He asked us to wait a moment and ran down the hall and spoke very quickly to the housekeepers while making big gestures. We could only assume that there was a dead body in the room. We headed into Bariloche for a while and when we returned, the army of housekeepers had finished and we and we were greeted by the stunning sight of Lake Nahuel Huapi out of all of our windows. As best as we could figure, the staff had been living in these prime rooms during the offseason and besides the overpowering smell of smoke, the room was perfect by our standards. I could have stayed for the entire week there staring out the window, but we would soon learn that stunning vistas would be in abundance during our week there. After a very eventful week in Buenos Aires (will blog later), this was a welcome week away from the crowds.

It will take me quite a while to blog about the entire experience in the Lake District, but needless to say, we hiked in Patagonia (bucket list, check!), we ate some fantastic foods (twice at the Familia Weiss in Bariloche), we drove the most scenic drives I’ve ever seen (renting a car is highly recommended), and while it sounds sappy, we were forever changed by our time there. I do have two regrets: because of our limited time, we chose not to do 2-3 day treks into the Patagonia wilderness. Also, we were a little early for the prime fishing season, but as a fly fisherman, the world famous crystal clear waters of the creeks and rivers beckoned to me. I didn’t bring my gear because I didn’t want to haul it around the country for a month and we couldn’t find a place that would rent us any gear. These reasons will, of course, have us going back sometime in the future.

The photo above is a from Punto Panoramico off the side of the road, and the image in the rotator above is also from the region. Bottom line: you must see the Lake Distict of Argentina. For the true adventure traveler, Gap Adventures has a fantastic package that includes the Lake District. How does this sound to you?

Patagonia Dreaming

For outdoor enthusiasts who have a bit more time to explore the region’s stunning natural beauty, this comprehensive adventure takes in Chile and Argentina’s Patagonia. Explore Bariloche and wind through the mountains to Chile’s lake district, then head south and trek extensively through some of South Americas premiere hiking destinations. With ample time in Torres del Paine, youll also encounter the Perito Moreno Glacier and trek Glacier National Park before heading to the end of the earth Ushuaia. With years of experience running tours in Patagonia, we employ world-class guides who’ll lead you to our exclusive campsites, ensuring stunning views.

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Yesterday, I had  to head up to South Lake Tahoe, CA for work and even though it isn’t too far of a drive from Reno, I just don’t get up there too often. Since I wouldn’t be too long, my wife and our dog came along and we brought some running stuff to do a lakeside run afterwards.

One of my favorite things in the world is happening upon amazing places that aren’t normally in tourist guides. While we were running, we saw a sign  that said something to the effect of, “public walkway to viewpoint.” By walking between some bazillion dollar homes, we came upon an incredible spot overlooking the lake. The picture below is unfortunately from my Android phone camera and it just couldn’t capture the scenery.

Afterwards, we headed to the Sprouts Cafe where I had a hummus melt sandwhich and fresh vegetable juice that I could only describe as truly spectacular (even though I’m normally a carnivore). Their menu was full of unique items (e.g. a tuna burrito), there are a lot of choices for a vegetarian, and the friendly staff was a welcome sight after a long and exhausting run. Just be sure to bring cash since they don’t take credit cards.

If you haven’t been to South Lake Tahoe, it’s quite an experience. If you haven’t been there in any other season besides winter, it’s a completely different experience. The place is full of friendly, relaxed folks biking around on the many trails who are always looking for a good conversation. There are a number of independent restaurants which is becoming more and more rare in the Reno-Tahoe area. Outside of winter, there’s no shortage of hotel rooms and vacation rentals that you can get at a great bargain. Here are a few examples:

3br – Casa de Tahoe, South Lake Tahoe Cabin

4br – Lake Tahoe VIEW Steps 2 Lakefront Beachfront

2br – LAKE TAHOE VACATION RENTAL by OWNER at Heavenly

BEST WESTERN PLUS Station House Inn

Before my family settled in Hawaii, we lived in a few places around the country as a military family. With that said, we didn’t have the funds for huge vacations abroad so we would pile all six of us into a Ford Pinto for long road trips. My folks weren’t the camping type so we stayed in motels and hotels along the way. Whenever we would reach our destination city, my father would drive slowly along the main road looking for a Best Western sign even if we were all exhausted and just wanted a place to sleep. Before we would leave, he would ask the clerks if our next destination city had a Best Western as well. I’m not sure if there were reward points back then, but we stayed in so many Best Westerns across the country that they probably would have given us a trophy.

I’m older now and I can choose from any darn international hotel chain that I want when we do our own road trips, but I still find myself leaning towards Best Western as well. Of course, my wife and I book well in advance over the Internet and we look for any discount codes. The Best Western chain is as linked to my childhood as that old, cramped Ford Pinto. Also, we do have a dog, and as you see in the banner, the chain does have a number of pet-friendly locations. You can save a little bit of money by booking directly through their website:

Save Money now with Internet Only Rates!

Sometimes as we travel we see things that are hard for us to accept, but the good traveler knows that sometimes it is better to keep our mouths shut rather than saying things like, “in America, we do things soooo much better.” In many countries, dogs are not seen as members of the family who need their own Christmas sweaters, but as wild animals with diseases who travel in packs ready to attack like a group of mean girls at the mall who sees someone wearing clothes from Target. It’s sad to see (the dogs, not the mean girls), and there isn’t much that we can do about it.

In all seriousness, I’m glad to see that opinions of dogs around the world have been changing thanks to the efforts of international groups who work to protect and, more importantly, spay and neuter the dogs thanks to donations from concerned people thousands of miles away.

Some years ago, my wife and I were traveling through Thailand and we saw so many packs of emaciated dogs throughout the country attacking each other for little scraps of food from kind street vendors. On a more recent trip, there were still packs of wilds dogs, but we couldn’t help but notice this time how many people had little dogs in baskets on the front of their mopeds or who had puppies with their heads sticking out of their owner’s purses. Perhaps things really are changing. Some of the wild dogs were so sweet and would have been a great part of someone’s family.

Here area couple of pictures from our first trip. One is of a real sweetheart with eyes of two different colors that did have a collar, but it would still roam wild and the other is of my wife trying to feed dog food to a couple of wild dogs who hung out at a restroom. Something we learned, though, is that these dogs really, really don’t like dog food. They would just look at you as if they were asking, “hey, where’s the pad thai?”

Happy Easter, everyone.

I have something that I have to admit: we have to eat. We put advertising on this site and we make a little bit of money. However, I want to be clear that we are adding our own personal experiences and our own reviews to these postings. We really have been to a lot of really cool places on this big blue and green rock, we really did take a lot of these photos that you see (including all in the image slider on the home page), and we really did buy some of the things in these postings (including that Harbor Freight spotting scope in a previous post that I LOVE).

Why do I bring this up? I just watched an outstanding TED 2011 talk from Morgan Spurlock about his upcoming documentary and thought that it is important that we have full transparency here. With that said, this posting is brought to you by the world’s greatest free online volunteer management system.

The embedding code they provide doesn’t seem to be working, but I highly recommend watching Morgan Spurlock: The Greatest TED Talk Ever Sold. We do not get any money if you watch it.

I usually have to work weekends so I try to take some time off on Fridays. The weather forecast was that it was to be sunny and beautiful so we decided to head out on a hike with a friend who also had the day off. Last week, I read a blog post about a nearby secluded reservoir with some amazing fly fishing so I wanted to head there to scout it out before the season opened May 1. The instructions were that you have to take a dirt road for about four miles and then hike another mile or so to get there. When we got to start of the dirt road, there was a closed gate and sign saying, “no motorized vehicles.” We hiked the beginning of it, but we knew that we didn’t have enough water or food to do the entire 10 miles. We decided to head back out there today with more supplies and the willpower to do five miles uphill and five back down. After three miles of hiking, we hit some serious snow and it looked like more was blowing in so we had to turn around. The picture above of Washoe Lake and Washoe Valley, NV (click on it to see a larger version) was from the turnaround spot. I’m determined to see this reservoir so I’ll certainly be back after a little more melting.

The hike itself was scenic and absolutely beautiful. Really quiet hikes where you only run into a few people at most are not too hard to find around here. The moral of the story is that the place that you live probably has these hidden gems if you’re also willing to do a little adventuring. Please take a GPS.

However, if you’d like to come and find the hidden gems in our Reno-Tahoe area, click on the link below to get a good deal on travel from Expedia.

Cheap airfare, hotels, car rentals, vacations and cruises at Expedia.com!