Common Characteristics of People that Love Traveling

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Some people love traveling naturally. This is part of who they are. And, when asked why they love traveling, they give many reasons. For instance, a person that loves traveling can say they also love enjoying new experiences, meeting new people, seeing new places, and tasting different foods. But, most people that love traveling share certain characteristics. Here are some of the common characteristics of people that love traveling. 

They Are Adventurous 

Traveling involves venturing out. It entails moving from the known to the unknown. When you travel, you meet new people, engage in new experiences, and explore new places. Naturally, the adventurous spirits of some people make them want to travel more. Thus, they travel to feed their adventurous spirit. 

They are Empathetic 

Most people that love traveling are also empathetic. This can be described as a culmination of the diverse cultures and experiences that they encounter as well as the different people they meet. People that love traveling may come across people living in immense poverty. They can share stories with strangers or engage in random jobs. They can work as cleaners, waiters, and even bartenders. They may experience tough times and great moments. These experiences make them learn to appreciate and accept differences among humans. They learn to see things from a different perspective. 

Willingness to Learn 

People that love traveling are also curious. As they move to different places, they learn new things that feed their curiosity. These people are intensely curious about many things and they always want to learn. They may want to acquire new skills or learn cultural customs. 

They Welcome Change 

To these people, change is a way of life. That’s because change is constant to them when traveling. They find themselves in new places and surrounded by new people. This makes them accept change with ease. 

Individuals that love traveling also have higher self-awareness and self-esteem. They know themselves better and they are more observant. And, this is part of who they are. So, if you have such traits, don’t restrain yourself from traveling. Instead, travel more to feed your adventurous spirit. 

How Traveling Benefits You

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Traveling can add value to your life in many ways. When you explore new places, you acquire new experiences and meet people with diverse ways of living. Here are some of the ways you can benefit from traveling.

You Enjoy Greater Peace of Mind

Our lives are full of strenuous activities that cause us stress and tensions. When we take a trip, therefore, we can disconnect temporarily from these stress factors and our minds relax. We also get to appreciate other people around us and learn new ways of looking at life.

Traveling Makes You Smarter

While abroad, you get to learn new languages and experiences that leave you more equipped than before, in dealing with issues. You also learn how to cope with people of different cultural backgrounds and mindsets.

Traveling Boosts Your Confidence

The ability to survive in a foreign country, where no one knows you assist in boosting confidence in yourself. Overcoming difficult situations alone leaves you a more confident person.

Traveling Creates Permanent Memories

When you travel with friends and family members, you strengthen ties and make beautiful memories. Taking photos while traveling ensures that, these memories will be preserved forever.

It is Fun to Travel 

There is no age limit to having a good time. Traveling, therefore, helps you to break free from the usual routine and enjoy life while it lasts without hindrance.

It Teaches You About Yourself

Traveling helps to reflect on how you feel about your background, and how you feel being away from home. You get a chance to think of how you feel about your country and your people. You get a chance to test your tolerance skills, language proficiency and how to react to situations, as a result, you come back home a different person.

 Traveling is beneficial to your mind, body, and soul.  If yet to start traveling and exploring, these benefits should convince you to travel more often. 

How Do You Choose Your Next Travel Destination

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The world is filled with countless treasures that no traveler would fully experience even in a lifetime. And, this variety of options in terms of attractions and things to do is one of the reasons choosing travel destinations can be quite overwhelming. However, you do not have to visit all the corners of the earth to get the best travel experience. There are many destinations out there that can provide your dream travel experience in one fold. Find out how to easily choose your next travel destination.

Clearly Define your Aim for the Trip

There are many reasons why people travel including vacation, learning about new cultures, acquisition of new skills and business among others. Similarly, destinations vary in terms of attractions, climate and activities. Figuring out beforehand the main goal of your trip will enable you to easily determine the specific things to look for in an ideal destination for your next trip. When defining the aim of the trip, it is also important to include the particular interests that you would want to pursue at the destination.

Prepare a Budget

No matter where you visit, traveling comes with a lot of financial implications that could easily ruin your trip without a proper budget. Create a reasonable budget that covers all your needs and expectations during the trip including airfares, accommodation, entry fees to attraction sites, transport and others. An ideal budget should also include miscellaneous money for emergencies. For convenience, prepare a travel budget that you can afford.

Research

Knowing the kind of experience that you need and the amount of money that you are willing to spend on the next trip, search for destinations that can complement those needs and budget. The internet offers lots of resources for researching travel destinations including travel guides, travel blogs and dedicated travel websites. You can do the search based on the desired attractions, activities, accommodation, climate and food among others. Besides, talking to other travelers could also offer great insights to enable you choose the best destination for your next trip.

Choosing your next travel destination may be challenging and time consuming but, the above tips can help you make the process fun and faster.

Useful Travel Tips for Cancer Patients

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Useful Travel Tips for Cancer Patients

Traveling is in the bucket lists of most people. When you learn that you have cancer, you may consider squeezing in a great trip before you start to undergo treatment. Nevertheless, there are things that you should know and do to make your trip better. Here are travel tips for cancer patients that you should follow if you have been diagnosed with cancer and you want to travel.

Talk to Your Doctor

It’s important for a cancer patient to talk to their doctor before they travel. Talking to your doctor about your intended trip enables you to be sure that traveling is safe for you. Your doctor will share precautions that you should take when you travel. Additionally, they will tell you what you should do in case you feel sick while traveling. If necessary, the doctor will recommend the vaccinations to get before the trip and the most ideal travel insurance policy to buy.

Investigate Your Destination

Your immune system can be weakened by cancer treatments like radiation therapy, steroid therapy and chemotherapy. These treatments can also limit vaccinations’ effectiveness. Therefore, before you travel, conduct some research on the vaccinations that you should take when traveling. Find out if their effectiveness will be affected by the cancer treatments that you may undergo before you travel.

Protect Your Skin Carefully

Radiation therapy and chemotherapy make the skin of cancer patients very sensitive to damage by sun. The effect can be permanent or temporary. Therefore, be extra careful when it comes to protecting your skin. Avoid exposure to direct sunlight by wearing sunscreen, hat, and protective clothing.

Carry Medication

Make sure that you have prescription medication with you. Carry enough medication because you are not sure that you will get it at your travel destination. Additionally, carry the note from your doctor that explains medical necessity especially if you need special supplies. What’s more, monitor your health closely. For instance, stay hydrated while avoiding viruses and germs. Also get enough rest to keep up with recovery and strength.

Buy Travel Insurance

Don’t think that cancer patients can’t get travel insurance because some travel insurance plans exclude pre-existing health conditions. It’s possible to get travel insurance cover for your trip. You just need to be medically stable, buy the insurance early and cover all non-refundable and pre-paid trip payments.

Follow these useful travel tips for cancer patients to make your trip safe, comfortable and memorable.

 

Things to Do During a Long Flight

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Things to Do During a Long Flight

Many people dread long flights when traveling for leisure or business. Generally, long flights can be boring especially when the in-flight movies are not appealing and the Wi-Fi is down. In any of these cases, many people opt to listen to music, sleep, or read. However, these things get old very fast when the flight is long. Nevertheless, there are productive things that you can do during a long flight.

Organize Your Mobile Phone

Use this time to organize your cell phone. For instance, free up memory in your phone by getting rid of the apps that you no longer use. You can also delete embarrassing photos or organize apps on the basis of their categories. You may categorize apps into fitness apps, travel apps, and music apps.

Listen to Great Podcasts

Podcasts provide great entertainment. And, you can download podcasts and listen to them any time you want. So, if you have already downloaded podcasts into your phone, listen to them during the long flight.

Create Several Music Playlists

Perhaps, you have disorganized music in your phone. Use apps that allow you to create playlists to organize and listen to music. You can create playlists on the basis of your activities or interest. For instance, create a workout playlist, travel playlist, road trip playlist, and party playlist among others.

Create a Diet or Exercise Plan

To be successful, your diet or exercise plan requires careful planning. Start by writing down the goals of your plan. For a workout plan, decide on the exercises that you will do on specific days. Include reps, duration, and sets. For a diet plan, create a list of the foods that you like and don’t like. Decide on the foods that you will eat for dinner, breakfast and lunch. Remember to include snacks in your diet plan.

Learn

There are many things that you can learn during a long flight. One of them is a new language. The internet has many apps and websites where you can learn different languages. And learning new languages will definitely boost your career.

You can also learn how to draw during a long flight. You just need a pencil and a sketchbook to sharpen your drawing skills. You can also use a tablet and a stylus. Save the photos that you draw in your phone and use them as a reference.

Another thing that you can learn during a long flight is coding. Coding is an important skill and there are numerous programming languages to explore. There are also many free references including Code Academy and W3Schools that you can use to learn. For most coding languages like CSS and HTML, you just need a text editor like Sublime or Notepad.

Basically, these are some of the things that you can do during a long flight. If you intend to travel in a plane for several hours, it’s important that you pack the necessary items to do them. This will make a long flight seem shorter and interesting.  

Steps for Planning a Trip Itinerary

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Steps for Planning a Trip Itinerary

Planning a trip itinerary enables you to narrow down your choices and enjoy your trip more. When it comes to traveling, there are endless options. In fact, there are many things to do and sights to see that can easily overwhelm you. That’s why you need to know the steps to follow when planning an itinerary for your next trip.

Step 1: Decide on the tour destinations to visit

Come up with a wish list. Make sure that the wish list includes reasons why you would like to visit every destination in the list.

Step 2: Establish a timeline and route

Circle your preferred destinations and consider their geographical order. Determine a logical time that you are likely to take when moving from one destination to another. Mark places that you wish to visit at certain dates and time. After settling on your list of destinations, come up with a timeline and a route that makes your travel plan efficient. If necessary, conduct an extensive research of the places to make the timeline and route more accurate.

Step 3: Decide on the cities to visit

Flying from one city to another is efficient that taking a round-trip flight. Therefore, think about the cities that you intend to visit carefully. Consider cities that make more sense as your first or final stops. When renting a vehicle, remember that one-way drop-off fee will add the cost.

Step 4: Determine the transportation methods to use

This decision should depend on cost and the best way to move from one place to another. Consider flying, driving, and rails. Essentially, don’t depend on cost alone when selecting the transportation method to use.

Step 5: Come up with a rough itinerary

Sketch out your itinerary. Write the number of hours or days you wish to stay in a specific place. To minimize losses during the work days, sketch the itinerary during the weekends. Consider your travel time carefully. You can use online resources to estimate the time that your journey to different destinations is likely to take by car, rail, or plane. Consider overnight boats and night trains to save money and time.

Step 6: Adjust by streamlining, cutting, or adding depending on your budget and timeline

If the rough itinerary exceeds the available money or time, try to minimize redundancy. For instance, if you have two, equally important destinations and you do not have adequate time to visit both, cut a place that takes a lot of hassle or time to reach. Also streamline time for every stop. For instance, you can take five days to tour Paris. However, you can minimize this to three days and visit all high points in the city.

Step 7: Fine-tune the itinerary

Use online travel apps and tools to fine-tune your trip itinerary. Browse map itineraries and destinations or get tips from fellow travelers and friends. Make sure that crucial sights will be open when you travel to your destination.

Step 8: Share your final itinerary

Let friends or family members know where you plan to travel to. This will enable them to find you with ease if the unexpected happens.

Basically, these steps make planning a trip itinerary easier. Follow them to make planning an itinerary for your next trip easier.

Factors that Make Cruising Real Travel

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I have a friend that owns a business in Texas that goes by Ed and we always seem to meet up at his corporate office located near the airport. We recently had a long discussion on whether cruising is real travel and we reached a conclusion that cruising is actually authentic travel. Here are some of the reasons that made us reach this conclusion.

Sea and land

When cruising, you don’t spend time on water only. You make pre- and post-cruise tours on land. In some cases, you stay in hotels and go sightseeing on land. You also get an opportunity to explore coastal cities. Thus, cruising gives you a chance to blend sea and land excursions. Clearly, this is the best travel experience.

Off-the-beaten-path Itineraries

While cruising, you see different places that you may not have a chance to see while traveling on land. You make stops at islands that may be difficult to land by plane. Basically, you to travel to places that many people don’t go when they use planes, cars, and trains while cruising.

Overnight Travels

Cruising, gives you a chance to stop at some of the grandest cities. It gives you an opportunity to tour some of the best cities at night and cruise during the day. Essentially, cruising enables you to enjoy nighttime travel activities on the basis of the local culture.

Destination Immersion

Whether you opt to cruise or travel on land, you get an opportunity to immerse in the new culture of your destination. You get authentic experiences that are characterized by participating in the cultural performances of your hosts. In some cases, cruise directors hold briefs on the highlights and history of the next port. This makes passengers aware of what to expect from their next destination.   

Seeing the World

Cruising gives you a chance to see the world without facing logistical challenges that are associated with land transportation. That’s because you don’t have to move from one ship to another like you would move from one bus to another while traveling on land. Onboard atmosphere becomes your home. You know crewmembers and make overland tours thereby having an opportunity to see inland places. Typically, a world cruise itinerary can span up to four months. During this period, you make stops to ports, cities, and islands. Thus, you end up seeing more places than you would when traveling on land.

Basically, cruising is real traveling. Nevertheless, you should compare the benefits of cruising to those of traveling on land to make a more informed travel decision.

Reasons to Hire a Travel Agent

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Modern travel agents work differently. Instead of booking transactions and acting like order-takers, modern agents function like travel advisers. Essentially, they collaborate with clients in sorting information and guiding them to make informed decisions. Perhaps, what’s more is the fact that even travelers want hands-on involvement in the research of their trips. Nevertheless, they still use travel agents for varied reasons.

Here are some of the reasons to hire a travel agent:

Expertise

Travel agents have undergone professional training. They have also traveled and acquired experience that makes them great travel advisers. Some of them are generalists while others specialize in niches like multigenerational group travel, cruises, and geographical destinations. As such, the right travel agent is an expert that provides the information that clients need to make wise decisions.

Making wise moves

Some trips are simply complex. For instance, foreign travels are complex than next-state travels. No traveler wants to make mistakes when planning a major trip such as when celebrating an anniversary or birthday. Travels that involve itineraries coordination with family members and friends are generally complex. Travel agents provide knowledge and experience that is required to organize such travels.

Money-saving connections

A travel agent has established a network with airlines, hotels, and tour guides. That means working with a travel agent makes getting a better travel deal easier than when operating alone. Additionally, you don’t have to struggle to find reasonably priced accommodation at your destination. The agent takes care of that. And, considering the network of the travel agent, you are guaranteed an excellent treatment at a reasonable price.

Saving time

You need time, perseverance, and patience to research and organize a trip. However, when you use a travel agent, you get all this taken care of by experts. If you are planning a trip away from the airline, you don’t have to struggle with online bookings or making phone calls. You simply have all this taken care of by the travel agent.

Bespoke trip

What makes many travelers hire travel agents is the quality of the trip. With a travel agent, you are assured that every aspect of the trip is taken care of. That means you just have to enjoy a VIP treatment while traveling. Basically, you get a personalized treatment throughout the trip when you work with a travel agent.  

It’s however important that travelers conduct some research to identify the best travel agents. That’s because some travel agents provide better services and experiences than others.

Important Winter Travel Tips

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Winter presents a time of the year when storms hinder the travel plans of many people. But, it is still possible to travel during winter. The following tips will enable you to avoid being caught up in winter storms or get your flight cancelled or delayed.

Before you travel

  • Invest in travel insurance and signup for notifications from the airline. Visit the website of the airline that you book with frequently to know the status of your flight.
  • If you plan to use your car to travel, take it for winter maintenance check-up. Check the tires of your car and ensure that it has fitting chains before winter storm. Check the tire pressure in advance because mechanics and tire shops are generally busy before and during winter storms. Also check the battery, hoses, belts, brakes, lights, wipers, and defroster/heater.
  • Keep the fuel tank full. Never let the fuel tank fall below half while going on a winter trip.
  • Program the radio for emergency messages and traffic reports.

Carry all necessities

There are things that you should never leave behind when traveling during winter.

They include:

  • A survival kit- Make sure that you have a survival kit that has a flashlight, blanket, batteries, snacks, boots, water, first-aid kit, and gloves.
  • Winter travel gear- Make sure that your car has things like tire chains, jumper cables, snowbrush or ice scrapper, and road flares.

Stay safe

Focus on ensuring your safety while traveling during winter. If you get stuck somewhere you don’t know, don’t get out of the vehicle. Instead, stay in the car, put flashes on, and call for assistance. Stay there until someone comes to your rescue. Additionally, avoid traveling at night during winter. If possible, avoid driving alone especially when traveling to a place you have never visited before.

Follow these winter travel tips and you will be a happier and smarter traveler.