Interview with Tim Leffel
Nomadic Matt :. You were in the travel writing industry for a while. How travel has changed over the years
Tim Leffel: The good and bad tend to pick up a little and it often depends on your point of view. The first time that I circled the world as a backpacker, there was no Internet, no e-mail, online banking. Plus ATMs were so scarce in many countries, and always change money ever tried. Now it's all so simple that people can connect to what they need, online from almost anywhere. The dark side of it is, many travelers waayyyy also stay connected at home. Physically they are abroad, but mentally they are still on the safe and familiar idea from home connected. This is the biggest drawback I see now to travel: so many people are in their home-based social media bubble instead of the new people and experiences to interact around them
The biggest plus is all simple and better organized. now. If you can not figure out how to get from place to place and stay somewhere, find now, you're really tight.
Tell us about your book.
I have the fourth edition of Out according to the best destinations in the world recently. I wrote the first more than a decade, because it was not a good option, the countries to find out were the best values without doing a ridiculous amount of research. So I wrote the book I always wanted to buy. Fortunately, many people felt as I did, and it has sold very well every year. Each issue I update each chapter to remove countries where prices too rose and adding others take their place. It is ten dollars you save 20-40 hours of research or so, and hopefully it is to read a kind of fun, if you are dreaming or planning.
How to choose the 21 objectives? Why these ones and not others?
It is purely based on which are the best values - there is no arbitrary $ x per day figure. I try to help both Shoestring backpackers and leisure travelers with a bit more money to stretch their budget, so they tend to be countries with a good infrastructure and a lot to do, but with very attractive prices, which is far less than at home are , So I Cambodia are not first, because only the hard-core backpackers and high-end fly-in tourists would luxe. Now the infrastructure is much better and there is a broader base. Myanmar is probably for much the same reason in the next time to continue the reforms. On the other hand, I removed Turkey this time, because the prices because the economy is growing quickly rose there rapidly. Still a decent value, but not as good as Slovakia, which it replaces.
You're a family man. Can you travel as a family on a budget? Many people do not believe you can.
There are many family budget travel blogs out there now it shows in fact, can do it, especially if you choose the places in my book covers. There are many families around Southeast Asia and Latin America Roaming, spending less than a day to day costs at home. You need more than a single or couple, of course, spend, but it is easy in most places decent size hotel room to get on the cheap, or rent an apartment in the short term. Three of us traveled through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam last summer on a budget of $ 150 per day for airfare. This is not a backpacker budget, of course, but we lived it up, that to every meal to eat at a restaurant and stay in nice hotels with room for three. When I tell friends and relatives, we have that they do not believe me. For them, it seems too cheap for a holiday. It's all in your perspective.
We have made similar trips at a much lower budget in Mexico and Guatemala. There are families there on 60- $ 80 a day to travel from $ in numerous countries and make it work.
When I'm on a real writing journey where I have the research will be on all the time, I tend to go solo. But if I can mix with some downtime, I just take my wife or my wife and daughter together. This is much more fun. My daughter got her first pass, when she was three years old and has seen a lot. In addition, we have lived and traveled in Mexico for a year just before and will be back there for two years in August.
What are your top three tips for a family on a budget?
Slow down. You can not go crazy check-the-box, bucket list do routes, where you are constantly on the move. Choose a few priorities and use home bases to branch. Do not try more than one or two things on the day.
to plan more space in the right accommodation. You need rooms or apartments, where you do not fall over each other and where everyone else at 2am come in while your precious and shouting at 6am is.
It's not all about you. Compromise on what are you like and what is best for your little one (s). For every museum, it should be a playground or shopping center in the mix, despite your feelings about this not "travel".
What is your essential running gear?
Now, as editor Practical Travel Gear I try out an incredible amount of new clothing, luggage and gadgets each year. I'm still a minimalist at heart, though, so I just try to take high-impact products, preferably those which are light and can be more than one thing to do.
As an author, I can go with only a camera, pen, notebook and water bottle. But I think the things I grab almost any international travel are a Steripen water filter, a multi-charger for gadgets, a portable charger for when I do not have time or space for an outlet, easy quick-drying clothes, a couple couple good double-duty shoes, a small toiletry kit with the essentials, a good sun hat and a real book or Kindle. I my smartphone for non-work things hardly ever, although use, so a lot of the room sits
Okay, time for some funny questions. Scariest "I'll get out of this life?" Experience?
All of them really bad include bus trips, hours of drive from eerie mountain passes at the top in Laos. However, the worst was in Egypt - where idiot drivers almost never on their lights - in really dense fog. The driver was hauling ass even at the normal speed and twice we had almost a head-on collision with another bus. People and transition went flying everywhere. I wonder really start when I would arrive alive.
Coolest "local" experience that you were invited?
Despite all the fraud and trouble in Morocco, we had a guy we trust taken which, invited in the same way as we had on the way, and he took us all to Fez in places that we would never have found us to lunch with his family led his friends, and told us where else should we go in the country. He wanted nothing from us, which shows, sometimes you have to go out of your suspicions permit. We also brought English in Istanbul and Seoul, and so we went to a lot of parties and dinners with locals in these places.
What is the biggest mistake you think people make and how to avoid it?
The first would try to do too much stuff to be every day or two to move in and. This kills the budget more than anything else. Honorable mention: to book accommodations in advance. It guarantees more money to pay this way, especially if you are a couple getting a room in places where you will not be subjected to in a hostel dorm bed. Instead, the city received earlier, look around, and negotiate.
You can locate more great tips and information from Tim on his blog to find his equipment site and his Twitter profile. You can learn about his book or buy it more here.
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