30 Days of Long-Term Travel Tips: Video Transcripts

Tip #1:

Hi guys, my name is Maria. I'm the founder of Travelries. And Travelries is on a mission to make long-term travel like adult gap years and travel sabbaticals easier to plan and just a total joy to do. In my view, there is not nearly enough information about how to successfully long-term travel out there today. All the travel information is geared towards vacationers. and we are on a mission to change that and to get more information into the ecosystem. So, we're launching on YouTube and we are kicking off with 30 days of 30 travel tips.

So, without further ado, tip number one for long-term travelers, you need to build in weekends. So, here's the deal. When you're on vacation and you've got two weeks to take full advantage of being in Spain, you don't want to take a break for anything. You know, you get sick, you have a cold, you're like, "Let's go kayaking. Let's power through." Maybe you're the kind of person who's planned every second and so you're up at 6:00 a.m. That is so not who I am. But you're not taking breaks. And that's the only kind of travel that a lot of people have done. So then when you decide to long-term travel, you go in with that mindset of we only have six months. We have to take advantage of every second. You've already gone through your planning process and maybe you thought we're going to see 60 countries and you've realized you only have time to see 10 and you're heartbroken. So you're going to plan every second.

It does not work with long-term travel because instead of vacationing, long-term travel is more like living abroad. Like that's literally what you are doing. So, um, one of the first mistakes that long-term travelers make is they don't build in the breaks that you get at home because they assume I'm not going to be working. I'm not dealing with the boss I hate or um you know, emails aren't torturing me anymore. Um and so you assume you're on a big break, but you're going to get tired, you're going to get sick, you're going to want days to do nothing, you're going to want time to call home, and you have to build that in. So, how do you do it? The reality is you don't need to build in two days off in a row. You don't need to take off Saturday, Sunday. There's no science behind that.

But what I recommend is for every place that you're going, each city where you're going to be there for more than a minute, build in buffer days. So what do I mean? Let's say you're planning on going to Marrakesh. And in your view, there's 4 days of things to do there that are interesting to you. Instead of going for 4 days, plan to be there for 5 days or 6 days. That way, you're going to have four days of stuff to do, but five or six days to do it. You can go slower. And then if you get tired or you get a cold, you're not going to be in this position where you run out of time to do things and you're rushing to get them done or you're leaving feeling like I didn't get to take full advantage of the time that I planned in Marrakesh.

One thing that's kind of helpful to do, you'll see this in Europe a lot. Um, you know, sometimes there'll be a day Monday or Tuesday where all the museums are closed. It's like naturally a slower day. Sometimes this is Sunday, sometimes this is Friday. Depends on the country that you're in. But if you want to get super gran granular with what you're planning, you can say, "All right, that's going to be my weekend day." Um, it's really it's up to you. But if you build in these buffer days, you're going to give yourself some space to um prevent yourself from burning out on your travel sabbatical or on your adult gap year and no one wants that.

So that's tip number one, guys. This is a new channel. Uh help us out with a like and a subscribe. And you know, Travelries is on a mission to get more information about long-term travel out into the ecosystem. You can follow us on uh Instagram, on threads. We have a Substack. Um I'll link all of those in uh link all of those below. And if you're curious about long-term travel for yourself, but you just have no idea where to start, you can always book a free consultation with us at www.travelries.com. We are very excited to help. So follow along, guys. We have our second tip coming out tomorrow.

Tip #2:

Hi guys, it's Maria, the founder of Travelries. Uh, Travelries is on a mission to make long-term travel easier to plan and a total joy to do because that's how it should be. But there is not nearly enough information out there for uh people who want to travel long-term. All the travel information is geared towards vacationers. And anyone who has traveled for more than 2 weeks will tell you uh it's really different. So, we're launching on YouTube to get more information out there for long-term travelers. Um, and we're starting with 30 days of travel tips. This is tip number two. So, if you haven't seen the first video, go back and watch it. We talk about burnout on uh on travel sabbaticals and adult gap years.

Without further ado, tip number two, laundry. What do you do when you're traveling long term and you need to do laundry? I get this question a lot. I think people are imagining the amount of clothes that they have at home in their closet and having to haul that to a laundromat and hang out at the laundromat for several hours. That's pretty much never how it goes. Maybe some people do that. If you are, give me a call. You're doing it wrong. Um, what I recommend is, uh, I promise this is not sponsored, the Scrubba laundry bag. So, I'll walk you guys through what this is in a second, but depending on where you're going, especially if you're going to Europe or if you're going to Africa and you're going to be doing a lot of camping in the bush, it is super helpful to have a laundry bag where you can literally do your laundry in it.

So, here's how it works. This bag has a clip on top and you literally fill this up with your clothes. You put a little bit of detergent in. I'll give you a tip for that in a second. Um, and then you add water and then you close the top and you clip it. And then you just you're literally kind of rubbing this because you want your clothes to go against this like um uh this part in the back which is kind of rough and helps get dirt and things out. Um as you can tell this is really well loved. I've got gear tape on here because we put a couple of holes in it from being too rough and just using it a ton in the past.

Um, but when I used this in Africa, I was with a big group. We'd all be doing laundry at the same time and people would grab like a big plastic tub and do their laundry themselves. And I I have to say people were kind of jealous of our laundry bag. I never expected to have that be the coolest thing I was traveling with, but it was really helpful.

Um, this is especially helpful in Europe because if you're more a budget traveler, we were definitely working against a budget and you're staying somewhere um on the cheaper side, you know, you might have like a really tiny sink in your room or you might be staying at a hostel where the bathroom is shared and you know, you can't just wash your underwear and leave it in the sink in the public bathroom in the hostel. So, it's helpful to have something you can fill up with water and then wash out. Um, you know, you do the soap first, dump it out, clean water, ring it out, and then leave it somewhere to dry.

Um, one tip for detergent with this, especially in the US, you can find laundry detergent that's literally like paper sheets where you rip it and you can throw it in your laundry bag and it will dissolve and become this nice sudsy thing. Those are really handy to travel with because they pack super light. They last a long time. You're not using the full sheet. You're just ripping off a piece of it. And if you're keeping your laundry detergent with you, obviously you want to avoid liquids. If you're traveling on planes, you don't want a ton of that, but you really don't want a white powder in your bag. Even if it's laundry detergent, why attract that extra attention? So having the paper sheets is just a great way to always have detergent with you without having to carry a liquid or a sketchy white powder with you while you travel.

One note, I've had a lot of trouble finding those while traveling. gotten lucky once or twice. But if you're US-based and you like those, buy a couple in advance and just bring them with you when you're traveling long term because they pack super light and um and you probably won't be able to find them on the road.

So, this is not sponsored. Um Scrubba, if you want to sponsor me, I'm cool with it. I love your product. Um but one of the biggest questions I get is what do I do with laundry? One caveat to all of this.

If you're traveling in Southeast Asia, um there are mats all over the place and you can get like a full wash dry fold um for really cheap and it can actually be easier. Candidly, if you have this and you just fill it up and you bring it to the laundromat, for them to do the laundry for you, it, you know, it cost us a couple bucks. So, this is relevant depending on where you go, but especially in Africa and in Europe, the Scrubba laundry bag was super helpful.

Um, guys, this is a new channel. If you want more information about traveling long-term or you want to support our mission, which is to help make it easier for people to travel long-term because there's not nearly enough information out there for people today. Um, help us out with a like and a subscribe. You can find us on Threads. You can find us on Instagram, on Substack. And if you have questions about long-term travel for yourself and you want help or you want someone to do all the planning for you because frankly there's a lot to know, um, check us out on travelries.com. We do free consults and we are always excited to help someone else. Follow along for tip number three tomorrow. Thanks guys. Bye.

Tip #3:

Hi guys, I'm Maria, the founder of Travelries. Travelries is on a mission to help more people take long-term trips to enjoy travel sabbaticals and adult gap years. In my view, there is not nearly enough information out there today um for how to travel well long term because it's totally different from vacationing. All the info out there is geared towards vacationers. We are on a mission to change that so more people can fight hustle culture and can enjoy long-term trips. Um, so we're kicking off our launch on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips and we are on tip number three. If you have not seen tip number one and two, we talked about travel burnout and laundry bags. Um, how you do laundry while you travel, go check those out before you listen to this one.

The third tip today um is about advice while you're traveling. So when you are planning your trip, maybe you've kept it a secret. You don't want your boss to find out. You haven't quit your job yet. Um or you just don't know many people who have taken a trip like this. It can feel like you are the only one who is who is taking this risk, who is traveling long-term. It certainly felt like that for me and for my husband when we were planning our adult gap year when we were 29.

But once you're traveling, you will meet other people who are traveling long-term. You'll meet other backpackers, bougie backpackers, um people who have taken early retirements, and you'll be surprised. There are quite a few people who do this. It's not as rare as you think. Um, my tip for you is when you meet other people who are traveling long-term, ask them if they have been to the locations you are about to go to because having just been there, they will be able to tell you if anything's changed that's going to um bode poorly for what you're planning to do there. They can give you specific advice on activities that you want to do.

Um, often times backpackers will do really similar things and so advice from someone else is going to be really valid for you. But most importantly, they can call BS because if you tell them, hey, we're going to Southeast Asia. We're going to be there for 10 days. We're going to go to 10 countries. They will be the first to tell you, you're doing too much. Here's where you should cut back. Here's what we really loved. Um, oh, it's monsoon season right now. Maybe skip that bit in this area. they will be able to call BS and help you assess how realistic your plans are for a particular location. This happened to us when we were in Africa. We met a ton of long-term travelers and we shared with them plans for regions of the world that we were going to and we were consistently called out on like, "Nope, you're you're trying to do way too much." Um, we love these places for this. um that was less exciting for us.

And so we actually changed our travel plans um based on the guidance we got from other long-term travelers, which is also just easier to get than from a blog post. You know, you don't know who wrote the blog post, but here you're talking to someone and you can really assess, do they travel like you? Do they enjoy the things that you do? Should you trust their guidance or not?

Um, one note, I talk a lot um to people interested in long-term travel about what to book in advance and what not to book in advance. And really, you shouldn't be booking too much in advance in most cases. There's plenty of caveats to that. Um, but this is one of the reasons why you don't want to overbook and overcommit to specific activities because when you get this guidance, you really want to be able to capitalize on it. Um, and so not having plans that are set in stone can help you a lot help you a lot in those instances. Um, so get guidance from people you meet while you travel and listen to it.

That's tip number three, guys. Guys, this is a new channel. If you want to support our mission to help make it easier to travel long-term, um, please help us out with a like and a subscribe. We're also on Instagram, on Threads, on Substack. You can follow us on all of those places. And if you want help planning your own um long-term trip, reach out to us. We do free consults to um help people who might want to work with us. You can find that on our website and um just book time on our calendar. It's super easy. But excited to see you guys tomorrow for tip number four. See up.

Tip #4:

Hi guys, it's Maria, the founder of Travelries. Travelries is on a mission to help make it easier to travel long-term by talking about information long-term travelers need to know a lot more. Um, a lot of the information out there is really for vacationers and we are trying to change that. So, we're launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips. I hope you guys are following along. We are up to date number four. Tip number four, if you are curious about travel burnout or how to do laundry, um, uh, how to change your trip on the fly, go take a look back at our earlier, um, videos, tips one through one through three.

But tip number four, okay, this is going to be multi-art over a few days. We're going to talk high level today and then we're going to go a little bit deeper um, tomorrow and the day after. We're going to talk about packing. When you are vacationing, it's not a huge deal if you overpack. It's inconvenient going to and from the airport and maybe you're going to get on a train once, but it's just not a huge part of your two week trip hauling your stuff around.

When you're traveling long-term, you're going to have a lot of transit days. And especially if your budget is tighter, you're going to have a lot more uncomfortable transit days. You might have you might choose instead of taking a cab from the train station to your Airbnb or to the hostel to walk and maybe that's a couple miles. Well, guess what? You're going to be hauling all of your stuff on your back or maybe you have a roller bag. We'll talk about that later. If you're thinking roller bag, um it is absolutely not worth it to um pack more than you need when you are traveling long-term. It will ruin your trip. It is awful, awful, awful.

So, if there is a time to learn how to pack light, this is it. So, uh, tip number four, with the caveat of if you're using the packing list that travels that I provided you, this doesn't apply to you. With that caveat, take everything that you're planning on bringing for your trip. Put it on the bed, put it on the floor, put it somewhere in a pile, look at it, and work towards cutting it in half. It's an aggressive goal, but it's going to help you to really think through what you do and do not need while you're traveling.

So, let me give you a couple ways to look at this pile. First, look for anything that you are not going to use frequently. Let's say you need a heavy jacket for a couple days on your trip for 2 weeks. Let's say you're going hiking, but only a couple times. Think about what you can rent versus what you have to bring with you. If you're only going to use it a few times, you might be able to rent it while you're traveling. You'd be surprised what you can rent. I rented a heavy jacket when we were in Patagonia.

Um, second thing, if you're going to different climates and that's sort of hamstrung you because now you have to bring clothes for multiple climates, bring well-loved clothes instead and just plan to donate them and buy new clothes while you're traveling. It's easy to do. Um, you'll get cool stuff that you're going to keep in your closet and treasure because you bought it in Namibia. Um, so take advantage of that and don't bring three climates worth of clothing.

Um, third, anything that is especially heavy like a camera or like the hiking boots I mentioned earlier, look at with a lot of skepticism and think about whether you are really going to use that enough to make it worth it to carry around for the entire duration of your trip. Um, I'm actually going to talk about cameras and whether they are worth fancy cameras, whether they are worth bringing in 2 days. So, if that's a question you're evaluating, follow along because we're going to talk about it real soon.

Um, and last point, when you're looking at this pile and you're thinking out about like, how do I cut this in half is if you are packing more than seven pairs of underwear, seven pairs of socks, just get rid of anything over seven, it's just you could buy more if you need it. It's wasted space that is taking space away from other things that you would like to bring uh on your trip. So, that's an easy uh easy thing to cut down. And if you're worried about doing laundry or kind of stressed at that, uh check out tip number two. We talk about doing laundry on the road and the scrub a laundry bag and how awesome it is.

Um so, that's tip number four. Put everything in a pile, cut it in half so you can learn to be a light traveler in time for your long-term trip. Guys, this is a new channel. Um, help us out with a like and a subscribe if you want to support our mission to um add to the ecosystem to teach more people about long-term travel and how to do it really well. And if you're curious for more, you can follow us on Instagram, on Threads, on Substack. You can join our mailing list, on our website. Um, and if you want help for you specifically, you can always book a free consult with us. We help people plan their trips directly and the first call is always free. So, we can assess if we can um add value and really be helpful to you as you're planning your trip.

Tip #5

Hi guys, I'm Maria, the founder of Travelries. Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to travel long-term. All the information out there today is geared towards vacationers. There is so little out there to help long-term travelers to plan really wonderful, well-planned trips, and we are on a mission to change that.

So, we are launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are up to day number five. If you haven't checked out tips number one through four, I highly recommend going back and taking a look through those before you dig into this one.

And tip number five is playing off of what we talked about yesterday, which is packing light. We're going to go deeper into how you pack light with clothing. Packing light's really hard. I know. I get it. But one way that you can reduce the amount of clothing that you need to bring is you can buy things abroad instead of bringing them.

This works especially well if you are going to be traveling through multiple climates. What you do is you bring clothing that you are not that attached to. I would not bring this jacket, for example. I had it made while we were traveling and I am completely in love with it. But bring clothes that you are okay saying goodbye to during your trip and plan for them to be with you for the first region, the first climate that you're going through.

And then at the end, anything that does not make sense for you to carry on forward, you can donate, you can throw out if it's in really bad shape, and you can go shopping for what you're going to need at the next location. Yes, this costs money, but you can budget for it proactively and you could buy things pretty cheap at thrift stores or if you're just traveling to a location where the conversion rate really works to your advantage or things are cheaper in general. It's not a huge hit to your budget. It is a huge savings emotionally and physically to not have to carry that stuff with you while you're traveling.

This works especially well for items like heavy jackets, even if it's like a fleece that takes up a lot of space, or gear like hiking boots that you might need in one region but not need somewhere else. Obviously, don't bring really expensive hiking boots that you'd be sad to part with. You can always ship them home, but that is expensive. But that heavy gear, you can part ways with it, donate it, and then not have to carry it on to the next place. Just be sure that if you're taking this approach that you budget in advance.

That's it, guys. This is a new channel, so if you are keen to support our mission to help teach more people how to travel long-term really well, help us out with a like and subscribe or follow us on Instagram, Threads, Substack. Join our mailing list. Check us out on www.travelries.com.

And if you're curious to travel long-term and want to have a deeper conversation about what that can look like for you, you can always book a free consult with us directly on our website. See you guys tomorrow for tip number six.

Tip #6:

Hi guys, Maria from Travelries. Um, and I'm here as part of our 30 days of 30 travel tips series for our YouTube launch. Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to travel long-term. There's a lot of information out there for travelers, but not a ton for people traveling long-term. It's a lot of information for people going on vacation. And we're here to change that because long-term trips can be totally life-changing. So, um, this is the end of a bit of a packing mini-series that we have done. So, if you haven't seen our prior trips, prior tips, go check them out. Um, starting at tip number four, um, we started talking about how do you pack light and did like a general overview and now we're going deeper.

So, tip number six, um, packing light. Let's talk about fancy cameras. So, especially if you're going somewhere incredibly beautiful or with a ton of amazing wildlife, I get the inclination to say, "I'm going to bring a fancy camera." I get it. Um, a lot of long-term travelers think about this and evaluate it, and plenty decide to bring a camera.

My firm opinion and firm advice is that unless you are already a traveler or sorry already a photographer, meaning it's a hobby, you're good at it, you know what you're doing, you know what all the buttons mean, it is probably not worth it to bring a fancy camera unless you fit in that bucket. Especially if you have a phone with a really nice camera like I have an iPhone. It takes great um pictures. I don't need to bring a heavy camera with me. My tip for you if you are having trouble with this, if it is breaking your heart like I was going to become an amazing photographer on this trip, I get it. Is make friends with photographers when you travel in the places that are stunningly beautiful or where there's incredible wildlife. you are going to meet plenty of people who have fancy cameras and who know how to use them. So, make friends and ask them to share the photos. They'll take incredible photos and then you can keep them. You can frame them. You can do whatever you want, but you haven't then had to bring have haven't had to lug this gigantic camera around with you.

Um, plus if you don't know what you're doing, keep in mind that that camera is going to make you a bit of a target. Well, it'll make you a target regardless, but it's especially less worth it if you don't know what you're doing with that camera.

Um, you know, they're pickpockets all over the world and if you have a really expensive looking piece of equipment, pickpockets, thieves are going to pay more attention to you and you are going to be kind of stressed out at times of thinking about, okay, I need to make sure that I protect this piece of equipment because it cost however much money. So, that's my tip. Um, unless you are a really good photographer, skip the camera when you're packing so you don't have to haul around. You don't have to worry about it getting stolen. And instead, just make friends with the great photographers while you travel.

Um, guys, this is a new channel for Travelries. We are just launching on YouTube. Uh, you can help us out massively with a like and a subscribe. We are on a mission to make it easier to travel long term and liking and subscribing is going to help us do that. You can also follow us on Instagram, on threads, on Substack. You can join our mailing list if you like. And if you have questions about what long-term travel could look like for you, um you want help planning something much more bespoke to your situation or overcoming hurdles in the way of your of your trip like career risks or family obligations. Um, feel free to check out our website and schedule a free consult. We help people all the time think through their own personal situations to help them take their dream trips. See you guys tomorrow for tip number seven.

Tip #7:

Hi guys, this is Maria, the founder of Travelries, here with day seven, tip number seven of our 30 days of 30 travel tips installment for our YouTube launch. Um, super quick Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to travel long-term, to take adult gap years, to take travel sabbaticals. All the information out there today is really geared towards people on vacation and not geared towards people who want to travel long-term. We are on a mission to change that because these long-term trips can be really life-changing. Certainly was for me.

Um, day seven, tip number seven, we're talking about backpacks. And my tip for you is to find a backpack that has really good back support. I know when you're looking for the perfect backpack to bring for your year of travel, 6 months of travel, 3 months, whatever it is, you might be looking at a list of things like what's really cute or what has a really great pockets um or uh what has anti- theft features. All of those things, you know, they have variable levels of value.

The most important thing in my view to look for is back support. And I'm looking for three things when I look uh at a backpack to see if it's going to be helpful uh if it's going to be good for for my trip.

And I will tell you this is a subject particularly close to my heart because I did not pick a good backpack to travel with initially. was hauling it all over, throwing it over my shoulder. We were walking for miles with it in a way that I didn't expect because we were trying to save money on cabs and so we'd walk long distances from a train station to our Airbnb. And I sprained my spine, which was not a fun thing to do while traveling. Uh, and I stuck it out. Uh but you know saw a couple doctors while while we were traveling and that was a complexity I much would have I really would have preferred to have avoided.

Um but I having learned my lesson I want to tell you the three things I look for in backpacks now um that tell me the back support is going to be what I'm looking for. So number one you want it to have a waist strap. Something that you can clip around your waist and tighten. And then two, you want it to have a stiff back. It's okay if it has the mesh material, but there needs to be something firm in the back. And that's really important because that stiff back is going to work with your waist strap to make sure that the weight of the backpack is not falling on your shoulders, but is falling on your on your waist. Uh, and then the last thing that I look for is you'll often see adjustable straps on the shoulder that let the bag fall further back. It's just another way that it helps distribute the weight away from your shoulders. Would have been nice for me. Um, and onto your hips to help save your back.

I'm not a doctor. um you know, if you want to talk to a physical therapist about this, they certainly will have better advice um than I will, but from my own experience, those are the three things that have worked really well for me and are what I look for now when I'm looking for whether or not a backpack is going to work well for long-term travel.

So, that's tip number seven, guys. If you haven't tip checked out tips number one through six, go check them out. I think they're really valuable. And of course, this is a new channel for us. This is our YouTube launch. Um, you can help us out a ton with a like and subscribe. Tell your friends. And if you're super keen to get more information on long-term travel, check us out on Threads, on Instagram, on Substack. We've got a mailing list on travelries.com. And if you're really curious to get more bespoke help, help tailored to your individual circumstances or want to chat with me, um, you can book a free consult on travelries.com. And we help clients to plan their own long-term trips to make sure that they are just as magical as you hope that they'll be. See you guys tomorrow for tip number eight.

Tip #8:

Hi guys. Uh my name is Maria. I'm the founder of Travelries. Here with tip number eight in our 30-day series, 30 days of travel tips for our YouTube launch. Uh Travelries is on a mission to help make it easier for people to travel long-term. There's a ton of information about travel out there. Not much of is not much of it is geared towards long-term travelers. Most of it is geared towards vacationers. And the advice for long-term travelers is totally different. So, we're here to change that.

Um, and without further ado, tip number eight from Travelries is about anti- theft tech. So, uh, in my view, the best way to, uh, limit your risk around pickpockets, to stop thieves, is to simply have a money bag that touches your skin. Something like this, really thin. You could fit some cash in this, a passport if you have to travel with it, but you can fit it under your clothing so no one knows that you have it in the first place and it is literally touching your skin so you know it is there at all times. There's a ton, like really a ton of anti- theft tech out there. Um, bags that are cut proof fanny packs that, you know, have straps that you can't cut through allegedly. Um, hidden zippers.

And I, you know, I'm not saying that stuff isn't valuable, but what I worry about when I see that stuff is it looks really nice. And if you have really nice looking things, I worry about making myself a target when I when I travel because you look you look wealthier. Um, the other thing is I've heard plenty of stories. I am uh I've heard plenty of stories while traveling um from people who just, you know, didn't even realize their bag was stolen. And despite all the anti- theft tech out there, it doesn't really work if you're distracted and you put your bag down and someone takes it. Um, doesn't really matter if it's cut proof at that point.

So, I'm old school and I think uh the best anti- theft travel advice is to have something that touches your skin and to be really thoughtful about what you bring in the first place. Don't bring things that would be life-changing to lose. Um you can replace your passport. You cannot necessarily replace family heirlooms. So, uh, I'm old school in that in that regard. When you're looking for a money bag, pick something thin that will fit under your shirt. If you buy anything too bulky, it's going to stick out and people will know that you have it under there. And the whole point of this is so that thieves won't know that you have cash, a passport on you in in the first place. Uh, so that's it. thin money bags that touch your skin. Super helpful for protecting um cash and your passport while you travel.

Guys, this is day number eight of 30. This is a new channel for us at Travelries. It would help us out a ton if you're interested in long-term travel uh to give us a like and subscribe. Um, you know, we're really working hard to teach more people what they need to know to travel long term. There's not a ton of info out there. So, you can follow us on Instagram, on Threads, on Substack. We've got a mailing list. And if you want advice tailored to your particular situation, you can always find us on our website. We do free consults um to start and we can give you guidance tailored to your particular circumstance. So, see you guys for day number nine

Tip #9:

Hi guys, I'm Maria. I'm the founder of Travelries. Here with tip number nine in our 30-day series, 30 tips for 30 days for travelers. And you know, if you haven't heard already, Travelries is on a mission to help more people travel long-term. In my view, there's really not a ton of information out there for long-term travelers. There's so much for people going on vacation and just not a ton for people who want to do an adult gap year or a travel sabbatical. And we are on a mission to change that with uh with our YouTube launch.

So day number nine, our tip today is to avoid the pressure of gate checking a bag, which can sometimes come with a fee, by bringing a backpack when you travel long term. Um, this seems to be the eternal question for long-term travelers. Should you bring a backpack or a roller bag? My very, very firm opinion is that unless you have a back issue, you should bring a backpack. Um, and this is one big reason why. So, especially when you're on shorter flights very often, very very often, um I've experienced the gate agent goes around and they're looking for bags that they can check um because the flight's over booked or they're not going to have enough overhead space, whatever. I have never had an issue, knock on wood, where someone has looked at my backpack and said, "You're going to need to gate check that."

Instead, I watch the gate agents go around and like systematically talk to every single person who has a roller bag instead. Um, by the way, not the point of the tip today, but if you're traveling long-term and you're going to beachy island locations, the fair is going to drop you off in sand potentially. And lugging a roller bag through sand is not anybody's cup of tea. So, for this and a million other reasons, backpack over roller bag for long-term travel.

Um, hey guys, this is a new channel for Travelries. Um, help us out with a like and subscribe so you can help us teach more people about how to travel long-term really well. Uh, we're also on Instagram, on threads, on Substack. We have a mailing list on our website, travelries.com. And if you have questions about your specific personal circumstances, you're interested in traveling long-term, but you don't know where to start, you can always set up a free consult with us. Um, we might be able to help you plan your trip, budget it, figure out a savings plan, answer questions about um, safety or cultural guidance that are kind of burning in your mind. So feel free to reach out and I will see you guys for tip number 10.

Tip #10:

Hi guys, Maria here, founder of Travelries. Travelries is on a mission to teach more people what they need to know to travel long-term uh in a way that's really enjoyable and well planned. Uh in our view, there's just not enough information out there for long-term travelers. There's a ton of information for vacationers, um but not enough for people who want to travel long-term. So, we're kicking off our YouTube launch with 30 days of 30 travel tips and we are on day 10. If you have not checked out the first nine videos, what are you doing skipping ahead? Go look back at videos 1 through nine. And by the way, just go ahead and like all of them and share them and subscribe.

Topic today is really controversial. I'm going to get some flack for it. Tip number 10 is budget for tip money. See, now you know why it's controversial. Okay, so depending on where you are in the world, tipping may or may not be a normal cultural practice for you. But wherever you're going to go, the cultural practices will vary. And locals are often counting on tip money for activities that you're planning on doing at restaurants, whatever the case is. And in my view, it is a super unfair budget practice to simply decide to follow whatever is normal for you with regards to tipping.

My strong guidance here is to look up what's normal in the location and follow that guidance. This is a lot easier to do to stomach, especially if you're not big into tipping if you look it up in advance. And you really, really should because um this can be expensive, especially if you are going on a safari. Those tips can really add up. Um, so not only you're going to need to plan to have cash in those circumstances, but you're really going to want to put that in your budget because um it will add up over time and that's much easier to stomach if you have planned uh planned ahead.

So plan ahead, budget accordingly uh or work with travel and we will do that for you and maybe that will make it slightly less uh controversial, easier to stomach in your mind. Guys, this is a new channel. Um, if we haven't lost you with our views on tipping, help us out with a like and a subscribe. We are on a mission to just make it easier for people to travel long term to enjoy adult gap years and travel sabbaticals. Um, and that's exactly what Travelries wants to help people do.

So, you can follow us here. You can also follow us on Instagram threads, Substack. We have a mailing list. And if you want to talk about your particular personal situation, um, we can help people. We help people, uh, plan their own travel sabbaticals and adult gap years. You can always schedule a free consult with us to see if that's something that could make sense for you. I will see you guys tomorrow for tip number 11.

Tip #11:

Hi guys, Maria, founder of Travelries here. Travelries is on a mission, as many of you know, to make it easier to travel long term. It's not enough information out there for long-term travelers. All the travel guidance is geared towards vacationers. We are trying to change that so you can take life-changing trips. Um, we are kicking off our YouTube launch with 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are on day 11. And if you haven't watched the first 10, go back and watch those. What do you think? You can start at 11. Rude.

But our tip today is use travel advisories. So what is a travel advisory? Well, a lot of people ask me, you know, how do you know if a particular country is safe? And you know, certainly people have all kinds of biases and they say, oh, how do you know a a country in that region of the world is safe? uh and travel rate or uh travel advisories are a great place to start.

So these are published by the US state department but other governments publish them as well and they are um you know meant to be somewhat objective assessments of the safety and what you need to know to travel to a particular destination. So they have four ratings um of safety and security. One is just normal precautions. Then it goes up to exercise increased precautions, then reconsider travel, and then do not travel. You'll often see do not travel for active war zones. Um, and not only do they assign that level on each country, they will within a country, they might go down as far as to I've seen at the neighborhood level to say this neighborhood is a level four, but overall the country is level two.

And they'll also give specific guidance about the kinds of issues that US travelers have reported there in the past. Is it pickpocketing or is it kidnapping? Are there concerns about terrorism? So, you can really read about the safety. But what's also really handy for travel advisories is just super practical information about getting into and out of a country. You can see entry and exit regulations all compiled by country.

So, do you need a visa? How many pages does your passport need to have um uh remaining unstamped for them to let you in the country? For how long does your passport have to still be valid, like not expired for them to let you in the country? Do you need 6 months? Do you need a year? Um gets really specific and they also add helpful information about local customs and laws, just guidance um that might be helpful to you. as as someone who might not know that information when you're going to a a place that's very culturally different from a place from the places you're used to. Um so I love this as a great place to start um when I'm thinking about entry and exit regulations, safety in general, what kinds of things do I need to think about, and then just general cultural guidance.

So definitely check them out. They're super helpful when you're planning a long-term trip. And if you get any push back from relatives who say, "Oh, are you sure that country is safe?" You can say, "Well, yeah, you know, the US State Department sure seems to think so. Here's the travel advisory."

Um, guys, this is a new channel. Be sure to like and subscribe. Uh, help support our effort to uh increase everyone's knowledge about long-term travel, help make it easier for people to do this kind of traveling, to take these life-changing trips. You can follow us here. You can also follow us on Threads, Instagram. We have a substack. And if you're curious to talk about long-term travel for you specifically, we do plan um bespoke trips for people and really help them figure out what kind of life-changing long-term travel do they want to do themselves. You can always book a free consult with us on our website. See you guys tomorrow for tip number 12.

Tip #12:

Hi guys, Maria from Travelries here. Uh Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to travel long-term. We're trying to get tons of information out there for long-term travelers cuz all the information in the ecosystem today is really geared towards vacationers and we want to make it easier to have these life-changing adult gap years and travel sabbaticals. So, our launch on YouTube is 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are up to day 12. Uh, if you haven't seen the prior videos, go back and watch them.

But today, the tip is all about wedding ranks. What do you do when you're traveling long term and you uh are married? Well, in my view, it is best to not attract attention. So regardless of if you think your ring is, you know, clearly particularly expensive or clearly particularly not, I will just say to thieves, my point of view here is even really cheap jewelry can look expensive. Um, you know, who knows if that's like a cheap piece of metal or platinum? Who knows if that's gold or it's painted?

And so regardless, especially when you're traveling long term, I think just from the perspective of not attracting unwanted attention from the wrong people, best to leave it at home to keep it safe. Uh certainly for such a sentimental uh sentimental item. So, you know, what do you do instead? Well, there's a company called um QALO, Q A L O. They make silicon wedding rings. And this is not one of them. I got this uh while traveling in Namibia, but um you know, you can you can get a ring from them. I promise I'm not sponsored, but I've had rings from them in the past and they're great.

You can get any kind of silicon wedding ring and it's going to look cheap, but it's going to be comfortable. It'll continue to show, you know, hey, you're married. um if that's especially important for you to continue to have that symbol and then you know you're attracting less attention but you're also not risking damaging your ring. You're less likely to you to lose it. I lost a silicon travel ring as I was in Victoria Falls. You know that would have been heartbreaking if it was my real ring. So check these out. Very easy to find, super comfortable. Um, and just a nice way to wear a wedding ring without the stress of having something expensive and sentimental on you when you're on the road for 3 6 12 months.

Guys, this is a new channel for Travelries. Uh, we're launching on YouTube to help transform the ecosystem, give more knowledge to long-term travelers. Help us out with a like and a subscribe. You can also follow us on uh threads, on Instagram, on Substack. We've got a Facebook, we have a mailing list. And if you're curious to chat about long-term travel for you specifically, head to travel.com. We do free consults so we can talk about your specific situation and see if we can um help you out with planning and budgeting your trip. See you guys tomorrow for tip 13.

Tip #13:

Hi guys, Maria, founder of Travelries here. Uh, Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to travel long term. So much information out there for vacationers. Not that much information out there for long-term travelers, for people who want to take travel sabbaticals and adult gap years. We are here to change that. That's why we're launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are up to day 13. If you have not seen the prior ones, go back and listen to them. And also like and subscribe.

So tip today is to enroll in the Smart Traveler program if you're an American through the US State Department. This is called the STEP program. Step smart traveler program somewhere there's an E. Uh, and this is a I think really helpful when you're traveling long-term because the Smart Traveler program will give you alerts for ongoing issues in the area you are traveling in that you should be aware of like health, disease outbreaks, um, severe weather issues, issues with civil unrest. Um, you know, it is hard when you're traveling to stay aware of safety situations going on in the country broadly. Um, you know, you might not speak the language. You're not necessarily watching the news every day because you're doing these cool things. Maybe you're out on safari, but the step program will send you alerts and say, "Hey, there is there are serious protests going on in Nairobi and they um have gotten violent before and here's what you should do or here are the resources available to you."

So if you weren't a aware before, now you're aware and also the state department knows that you are there and you have a sense of what resources are available to you to um stay safe in those situations. So the way you do this is through the state department website. It's very easy to find. Um you have to fill out your itinerary information. And this for long-term travelers is a little bit of a pain because you have to put in so many dates, so many places that you are going. Um, but I promise, at least for me, this really was worth it.

I got maybe a half dozen to a dozen alerts while we were traveling for a year. Some I knew about in advance, others I didn't. And it always just gave me a little bit of a sense of security that um we were able to stay on top of these issues and had a little bit more information for what to do if something bad uh something bad happened. So, it's worth the 10 15 minutes that it's going to take you if you're traveling long-term to fill out the information. Um guys, this is a new channel.

Be sure to like and subscribe to help support our mission to teach more people about how to travel long-term and plan it really well and effectively. You can follow us on here. You can also follow us on Instagram threads, Facebook. You could join our mailing list. You can join our substack. And if you're curious about um long-term travel for yourself, be sure to book a free consult on travelries.com. We talk to people about whether long-term travel uh can make sense for them, what their budget would look like, and then we even help them plan it. So, be sure to check it out. See you guys tomorrow for tip number 14.

Tip #14:

Hi guys, Maria, founder of Travelries here. Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to travel and plan long-term trips. There's so much information out there about travel today. It is all geared towards vacationers. We want to make it easier for you to plan travel sabbaticals, to plan adult gap years, because those trips can be truly life-changing. Um, hard for a two vacation to be truly life-changing. So, we're launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are on day 14. If you haven't seen the past 13, go back and watch them, please. Uh, and also maybe like and subscribe. That would be cool.

14th tip is about uh how you stay in touch. And my tip for you guys is take advantage of e-sims. You do need to check if your phone is compatible with an e-sim, but I think today most phones are. Um, and e-sims are just a great easy way to be able to stay in touch with people as soon as you land in a new country.

Also to have access to the internet. Um, now some people would say, and I think they'd be right in some cases, well, it's actually cheaper to just go to a phone store and get a physical SIM. I'll get more data for less money. And certainly, if you're super budget conscious, that's a great approach. It's going to depend on the situation whether it's cheaper or not. E Sims are still pretty cheap. Um, but what I really like about E-SIMS is as soon as you land, so long as you set it up in advance, you have service. And I've run into issues with scams at the airport.

Um, I like being able to book a Bolt uh or like a Uber equivalent as soon as we land in a country if that's the transit that we're taking. I like having access right away so I can check, is this a scam at the airport? It just it gives me a little bit of a sense of security. So, um if you haven't used an e-sim before, uh you can check out companies and this is not sponsored like Airalo, A I R A L O, or Ubigi, U B I G I. And they have a list of e-sims, so you can see prices for what these cost, but um they can be pretty cheap. We're talking about a couple bucks for um a couple gigs of data and you can add more if you need more. Um so my tip for you is to check those out.

Side benefit here is if you're planning a long trip, looking at the cost of e-sims can help you budget really granularly for how much this is phone data going to cost you over the course of your 3 6 12 month trip because you can see the prices in advance for all of these countries. And you know, great if you want to get something for cheaper once you're in the country, good for you. It'll also give you a sense of what countries is this not an option for.

But in my experience, it's it is hard to find a country that does not have an available E-sim. You might have to look at different um E-SIM companies to cover all of your bases, your full trip itinerary. But I think in our year-long trip, we went to 23 countries, maybe one or two at the time, and this is years ago, didn't have an available e-sim. So, check your phone's compatible with an e-sim, but it probably is. Um, and look into e-sims if you are traveling long-term because it's just an easy, great way to stay in touch and avoid buying a satellite phone.

Guys, this is a new channel, so be sure to like and subscribe. Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to travel long term. Following us on here would help us out a ton, but you can also follow us on Instagram threads, Substack, Facebook. We've got a mailing list on travelries.com and also through our website. If you're curious about long-term travel for you, you want an adult gap year or a travel sabbatical, but you just don't know where to start. Book a free consult with us. We can help. We might be able to plan your trip for you and personalize it to your needs and your budget. Um or um we could just provide great advice to get you started on the right foot. See you guys tomorrow for tip number 15.

Tip #15:

Hi guys, Maria, founder of Travelries here. Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to travel long-term on an adult gap year on a travel sabbatical. Uh there's so much information out there about where to go and what to do. It is all geared towards vacationers though and long-term travel is totally different. So we are on a mission to change that because serious mileage requires serious expertise. So, we are launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are on day 15. If you haven't seen the prior videos, go check them out.

The tip for today, uh, which is super beneficial to long-term travelers trying to keep their budget um to be budget conscious, to keep their budget as controlled as they can, is you can negotiate with your Airbnb host. It does not work every time, but I have done it personally. I'll tell you in a minute exactly what I say, which has worked for me, I would say more than half the times when you look at all the times that I've asked. But here's the deal. If you're traveling long-term, Airbnb uh Airbnb hosts will already give you a discount today. If you are traveling and staying in the same Airbnb for more than a month, you can get a pretty significant discount.

But if you're traveling long-term, you might be in an Airbnb for 2 months or 3 months. And so there's room to reach out to the host and potentially negotiate a lower rate because the host is really benefiting from you staying there longer term. They're keeping the space totally booked. They don't have to worry about gaps and there's also less work for them to do because they don't have to bring housekeeping in and out. And you know, a housekeeping service for them probably costs money. They might have a property management team that charges them where it's going to cost them more money to have more guests. So, they may be inclined to keep you in there and offer you a lower rate because you're staying for so long.

I'm sure it helps if you look like a normal person on Airbnb and you have great past reviews. Um, I'm sure that goes a long way. So, here's what I do, which has worked for me in the past, and you are welcome to try this. Um, I'll find a couple of Airbnbs that I think would work for us that are not totally out of our budget, but where I would need 10%, 20%, a 30% discount in order to make it work for our budget.

And then I message the host and I just very honestly communicate, hey, we really like your place. We would love to stay there. We're traveling from this date to this date, my husband and I. Um, but your place is out of our budget. Our budget is this. Would you be willing to entertain that price? And sometimes they say no, but I've gotten a lot of yeses. It's It really surprised me. And to be clear, I have done this in the US as well. I'm sure this is influenced by, you know, the culture and whether this is appropriate um or not depending on where you're where you're going. But in my view, well worth trying.

We've saved hundreds of dollars on Airbnbs by by doing that. So, for long-term travelers can really help your budget. Um, doesn't hurt to ask. Just be nice. Like, there's no reason to criticize going into a negotiation like this. Being nice is really all you can do. Uh, so that's it. Negotiate with your Airbnb. Tip number 15.

Guys, this is a new channel. Be sure to help us out with a like and a subscribe. We are on a mission to teach people how to travel long-term in a way that's um that's just works. Teach people what they need to know to travel long-term. Um you can follow us in here. You can also follow us on Instagram, on threads, on Facebook, on uh you can join our mailing list through our website travelries.com. We also have a Substack that publishes weekly. Our mailing list is monthly. And if you're curious about what long-term travel could look like for you, you want to take an adult gap year or travel sabbatical, but you just don't know where to start, you can always book a free consult on travelries.com. We'll help you get started and we may be able to help you even plan your whole trip. See you guys tomorrow for tip number 16.

Tip #16:

Hi guys, Maria with Travelries here for our 16th of 30 travel tips in our month-long series to give you 30 tips to travel long-term really well. Travel is on a mission to make it easier to travel long-term. So much information out there today about travel. almost all of it is geared towards vacationers and uh you know people planning travel sabbaticals and adult gap years just often don't know where to start. So we are aiming to fix that.

So tip number 16, if you haven't seen the first 15, go back and watch them. What are you doing? Tip number 16 is check if the credit card you are going to travel with has foreign transaction fees. So I want to say upfront I can't give you financial advice. These are personal decisions for you. Um, but I'll talk about what I've done in my experience and the resources I use because I think they can be really helpful. Um, so when we were taking our adult gap year, I checked if any of the credit cards that we were bringing had foreign transaction fees. In fact, at some point, I think I Googled, is this credit card good for international travel?

And the reason I did that is because foreign transaction fees, which sometimes um are included in how your credit card charges you, can add like a couple percentage points to every single thing that you buy. Um couple percentage points of increased cost. So foreign transaction fees, especially when you're a long-term traveler, oh boy, can they add up. So knowing what you're getting into really valuable.

Um resources like the points guy and nerd wallet, they have a ton of information about what credit cards have foreign transaction fees, which ones are best for traveling. These are personal decisions for you. I paid close attention to making sure that our credit card was really good for international travel so that we could keep our costs as low as possible. We weren't adding unnecessary fees for international travel.

The unfortunate reality is it pays literally to know all the different ways that you can get kind of screwed in uh in paying with an American card or in withdrawing cash when you're traveling abroad. I'll talk about them in a later video, but there are all kinds of I would just call them scams when it calls uh when it comes to how conversion rates, exchange rates are calculated with point of sale machines, with ATMs. Um so, it really pays to pay close attention to those.

But for today, tip number 16 is check if your credit card has foreign transaction fees. Um go down that rabbit hole. It is absolutely worth it.

Uh guys, this is a new channel. Travelries uh is on a mission to make it easier to take your adult gap year or travel sabbatical to give you the information you need to make it happen. You can help us out massively with a like and a subscribe on here. You can also follow us on threads, on Instagram, on Substack. We've got a monthly mailing list. We have a Facebook page. Um, we're really on a mission here to make it easier to travel long-term. And if you have questions about your specific situation, head to travel.com, book a free consult with us. We are more than happy to chat with you and see if we can help you overcome hurdles in the way of your travel or potentially even help you plan your whole trip. See you guys tomorrow for tip 17.

Tip #17:

Hi guys, Maria here, founder of Travelries. Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to travel long-term. There's so much information out there about travel. It is almost all geared towards vacationers and traveling long-term on an adult gap year, on a travel sabbatical, it's just completely different. So, we are here to help you out. We're launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are on day 17. If you haven't checked out the first 16 tips, I highly recommend going back. There's a ton of really valuable uh information in there for you.

But without further ado, tip number 17. This ties to our theme of not burning out on your travel spat or adult gap year. We talked about this a little bit in the past. Um one of the great ways to avoid burning out on your trip is to do less. How much less? I'll tell you in a sec. Um, so just to underline why this happens, most people are used to vacation style of travel, fitting in everything they want to do. If you're sick, you power through. You still go kayaking. If you're tired, you're still going to wake up early. You're not going to sleep in. You've got all these things planned. And taking that kind of mindset to long-term travel, it does not work because in essence, you're living abroad. And at home you had weekends.

Now you don't have weekends. You've packed them full of things to do. So you're going to be physically tired. Um I talked before about ways to build in buffer days to give yourself a break and how much to do that. I think that was even our first tip in this series. So definitely go back and check that out. But doing less and planning to do less goes a long way for setting yourself up for success to not burn out. So how much less should you do?

My rule of thumb is plan to spend uh to go to no more than in terms of countries two times the number of months you are traveling. So if you're traveling for 6 months don't plan to go to more than 12 countries. Now look this is a rule of thumb. If you're going to China or India or the US, these are massive countries. So, if you really want to see that country versus just a small region of it, you're going to need more than 2 weeks.

Um, that might be 6 weeks versus if you're going to go to Andorra or Luxembourg or San Marino, you don't need two weeks. Singapore, um, you know, you might take a couple days.

So averaging out to about 2 weeks, this can be a good barometer for you on if you are trying to do way too much or way too little. Now I will say the hardest part in this is not the execution of planning this. It is accepting that you need to do less. I don't know about you guys, but I will say when we started planning our adult gap year, we were planning on going to 60 countries and that would have been an insane itinerary. Like absolutely insane.

Instead, we went to about 23. Um, and the reality is the more countries you plan to go to, the more transit days you are going to have. And those transit days where you're hauling your backpack on a train, on a bus, dealing with airports, they're going to be the most exhausting.

So, the more places you go to, the more transit days you're going to have, the more exhausted you're going to be, and you really won't get to take advantage of all the places that you're traveling to. So, who wants that? Um, so do the best that you can to accept now. Doing less is going to help your experience long term.

And worst case, you can always decide to do more that you have the energy while you're traveling. It's just it's much easier to add than to subtract from your itinerary while you're traveling, both emotionally and logistically. Uh so that's the tip for today. Number 17, don't burn out by doing less.

Guys, this is a new channel. Be sure to like and subscribe. Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to take your travel sabbatical or adult gap year because serious mileage requires serious expertise and we are here to help. You can subscribe on here. You can also follow us on Instagram threads, Facebook, Substack. We have a mailing list through our website that we send out monthly. Our Substack is weekly. Um, and if you're curious about what long-term travel could look like for you, feel free to book a free consult with us through our website. We might be able to help you with planning your whole trip. Or maybe you just want to chat.

Tip #18:

Hi guys, Maria, founder of Travelries here. Travelries is on a mission to make it easier for you to take your travel sabbatical or adult gap year. So much information out there for travelers today. There is such a disappointing amount of information for long-term travelers. So, we are here to make it easier. Uh we're launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are up to day 18. If you uh haven't seen the first 17 videos, definitely go check them out. There's a ton of valuable information in there. Let's get started.

So, tip number 18 is have a don't chicken out policy. What is this? Okay, travel sabbaticals, adult gap years. These are the the trips that everyone wants to take and somehow very few people pull them off. more people than you'd think, but people chicken out. Um, and that's maybe an unfair way for me to phrase this, but uh, you know, life happens. And it's easy to say, I really wanted to do that, but it just doesn't make sense anymore. I'll do it later. And then later never happens.

So, one thing that my husband and I did when we were planning our adult gap year was we had a don't chicken out policy. and I'll tell you what ours was and then I'll give you a couple examples of what yours could be soon if this is something that you are interested in adding into your plans. So, our lease was up in like June, July. We weren't planning on leaving until December. And our don't chicken out policy was we put all of our stuff in storage when our lease was up.

And we had, you know, a couple bags with us and we went and booked a long-term Airbnb in Anchorage, Alaska, which we happened to love. And we stayed there for a couple months and then we went and visited parents until we left. So, we saved money on rent, but the real motivation in doing that was it made it so much harder for us to change our minds because if we had said, "Actually, we don't want to take this trip," we would have had to take all of our stuff out of storage um and find a new apartment. So, quite the insurance policy. Now, what could this look like for you? You could do something similar.

I mean, I would I would say it's a pretty aggressive insurance policy. You're welcome to try it. Um, but this could be as simple as telling someone you really admire all about your plans. Um, someone who you would be really embarrassed to tell them, "Ah, actually, we didn't quite make it happen."

Um, or you can work with a company like Travelries. Um part of my job truly is being a cheerleader but also being an objective perspective for um for clients who are facing a number of travel hurdles and their view is oh I can't do it anymore. But my view as an objective outsider who knows a lot about long-term travel is oh of course you can like here are your options. And I look very fondly on all the conversations I've had where someone has said all is lost and I've you know just over text said wait couldn't you just and then the problem goes away. So having an objective source like Travelries or just someone who knows a lot about travel who you can share the hurdles that you're facing with um goes a long way to keeping you on track towards actually going on your long-term travel sabbatical or adult gap year.

Uh guys, this is a new channel for travelries. We are sharing 30 days of 30 travel tips. As we get started, you can help us out massively with a like and a subscribe on here. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook threads, substack, we put out weekly articles. We have a mailing list that we send out monthly through our website, travelries.com. And if you're curious to see what could long-term travel look like for you, um, check out our website. You can book a free consult with us and we're happy to help and see how we can help plan your trip or just help you think through what kinds of hurdles you need to overcome. Tomorrow, tip 19. Tune in. Bye guys.

Tip #19:

Hi guys, Maria from Travelries here with your 19th of 30 travel tips in our kickoff series. Travel is on a mission to make it easier for you to take a travel sabbatical or adult gap year. There's so much information out there for uh vacationers. Not a ton of travel information out there for long-term travelers. So, we are here to help. Tip number 19 is use packing cubes.

Packing cubes. They look like this. They're little bags. They can be really big or really small. And they are super important when you are living out of a backpack. Um they do a couple things. One is they help you keep your stuff organized. So when you are at the airport and you need your charger and it's at the bottom of your bag, you are not having to like sort through underwear and try to be discreet in the airport and not let your stuff go everywhere. You've got like three travel cubes in there. You take them out, you grab your charger, and you put them back. Easy.

Your stuff is so organized. You also know where your things are. You're not constantly like, "Where are my socks?" Because you can get different sized ones. So like, you know, put your socks and underwear in this one. put your bigger clothes in this. Very helpful from an organization front. They can also be helpful from a packing front because you can get packing cubes that literally compress. So, uh, this is from REI Co-op. It's a pretty big packing cube and it has this bottom zipper so you can fill it up pretty large. And then zip it closed. And now it's half the size.

So when you use packing cubes, it's a great way to take a bunch of clothes and compress them down so that it's not taking up as much space in in your bag. It also just makes packing like super easy um in the first place because everything fits. Um so much nicer experience. stay more organized. If you do not have packing cubes, I've used the REI Co-op one. I like that really well. And then these are Osprey. They're really good, too. You can't see inside this. You might find it helpful to have a mesh so you know what you're looking for, but um I don't really mind that so much. But yeah, check out Packing Cubes.

Guys, this is a new channel for us. Please help us out with a like and subscribe. support our mission to make it easier to travel long term. Uh you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook threads. We send out a weekly substack and we've got a monthly mailing list through our website travelries.com. If you're curious about what long-term travel could look like for you, feel free to book a free consult through our website. We're happy to chat with you and might be able to help you um even plan your whole trip. Uh make it super easy. See you guys tomorrow for tip number 20.

Tip #20:

Hi guys, Maria here with Travelries. Travelries is on a mission to make it easier to travel uh well long term. There's so much information out there for vacationers. There's really not a lot of travel of information for long-term travelers. Uh and we are here to help because serious mileage requires serious expertise. So, we are launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are on day 20. If you haven't seen the first 19 tips yet, go back and give them a watch. Um, I promise they're super valuable.

But day 20, what is our tip? Tip is pack clothes made of fabrics that you know you can rewear several times before you have to wash them. You don't want to bring a ton of clothes, but one way to set your up to set yourself up to have to bring a ton of clothes is if you bring clothes that are going to last one wear. Um, you're going to do laundry while you travel. I talk about that in tip number two. Uh, and ways to make that really easy, but you don't want to be doing laundry all the time. Um, and you want to set yourself up to just make your trip as easy as possible.

So, bring clothes made of fabrics you can rewear at least a few times without them wrinkling or developing a smell or just generally looking quite worn out. So, um, what fabrics do I think hold up really well? I'm going to tell you about four.

So, one is merino wool. Um, sounds hot. It's not. You can get t-shirts made out of merino wool. And in my experience, you can rewear them several times. Even guys can uh several times before washing them. Is it rude to say even guys can? Maybe a little bit. Um, it's kind of crazy to me how well they hold up. They don't smell. So, um, getting merino wool t-shirts, very handy.

Second, polyester. Um, I know people have feelings about polyester. I have a couple of like strappy black spaghetti tops um that are polyester and they just, you know, if there's something on them, I can wipe it off. Um, they they hold up super super well. I could wear them five or six times before having to put them in the wash. Um, and because they're spaghetti strap tops, they're not up against the armpit. So, it's like a very airy um very airy shirt.

Third, anything that is a dry wick um fast drying material can be really good, especially for hiking pants or for like a pullover jacket. Side note, pullover jackets can be really helpful for women when you are traveling to countries where you have to dress modestly. Uh I was in Morocco in June, really hot. I wore this like Nike pullover jacket that was like a dry wick material all the time. Um, and it stayed pretty clean in between washes, which just helped make it easy for me to stay modestly covered and not attract unwanted attention and be respectful of local culture. Uh, so drywick fast-drying material can be really helpful.

And then last, kind of a surprise, but jeans. Um, jeans are heavier. I wouldn't bring more than one pair, but jeans hold up incredibly well. They're also warmer, so if you're going somewhere colder, it's just a good option to have in your bag to keep your legs warm. But they hold up well. You know how often you wash your jeans at home, so I'll just leave it at that. Um, and they're really handy to have when you travel.

So, if you're worried about packing space when you have those, you can't do this every time, but you can always wear your jeans to the airport and that'll save you a little bit of packing space. Obviously, don't be gross. Wash your stuff when you need to wash your stuff, but uh it's really handy not to have a wardrobe that requires you to wash it immediately after wearing it to have a shirt that lasts more than an afternoon. So, those are my tips for what fabrics you can rewear to keep keep your uh packing as minimal as possible.

Guys, this is a new channel for travelries. Help us out with a like and subscribe. Support our mission so we can make long-term travel um and long-term travel planning easier for the average Joe. Uh you can also follow us on threads, Instagram, Facebook. Uh we release a weekly substack and we've got a monthly mailing list through our website travelries.com. And if you're curious about what long-term travel could look like for you, you just have questions, you want to chat with me, you can always book a free consult through our website, we can help you out in the moment or we can figure out a plan to help you potentially plan your entire trip. See you guys tomorrow for tip 21.

Tip #21:

Hi guys, Maria here, founder of Travelries. Travelries is on a mission to make it easier for more people to take long-term trips. All the information out there is geared towards vacationers. There's not enough information out there for people who want to take adult gap years and travel sabbaticals, and we are here to change that.

For day 21 of our 30-day series on tips for long-term travelers, we have uh an important one. How to haggle. I love haggling. Um I want to dismiss the notion that I think a lot of westerners have um when they travel to a place like Morocco or India for example. It's it's not in poor taste to haggle. It's really normal. It's part of the culture and it is very much expected. And I think when you're not used to it, you can look at haggling and say, "Oh, that's like a really confrontational experience. I don't want to deal with that. I'd rather just pay whatever they say. Um, but it can be really fun. It could also be a polite and happy experience. It does not need to be confrontational. So, let me give you my approaches for how to haggle and I'll tell you, I got really good at this. Um, I can haggle in another language and I think it's fun.

So, first, be nice. This does not need to be confrontational. You don't need to criticize the product. You don't need to criticize the store. Um, you could say you like the product. That's totally fine. Be nice.

Um, second is instead of trying to lower the price, ask for more stuff. And what this means is when you go into a store, if you see five things you really like and want to buy, don't tell anyone about three of them. Pick out two uh to negotiate the price. And then for the other three, when you get your price, say, "Okay, well, how about that price, but we add in these other things." That's a really great way to keep the price lower um but get more more value for money.

Third, pay in cash. Um this can be really helpful. Stores often prefer paying in cash versus card. with a card, they will have to pay a percentage fee. And so you're saving the store from paying that fee. And so you can say, "Okay, you're telling me 50 bucks by what if I pay in cash? Could we do 40 or 45?"

Um, similarly, you can offer to pay in USD or in euros. If you are somewhere where the currency is less stable um or just sometimes not preferred, offering to pay in USD or euros will um potentially allow you to ask for a lower price. So you can negotiate, okay, instead of blah blah blah in Moroccan Durhams, how about I pay you this in USD and based on the exchange rate, it's actually a lower price.

Uh and then last is leave. just leave politely, diplomatically. You can say, "Oh, you know, I'm sorry. That's just it's too much. I'm going to go." And when you leave, if the store owner really wants to make a deal and can go lower, or the um salesperson, they may come running after you offer a better deal.

So, be nice. Ask for more stuff instead of trying to lower the price. Pay in cash. um pay in different currencies and leave politely. Um if you take those approaches, you should be able to get a pretty good deal.

Uh guys, this is a new channel for travelries. This is our YouTube launch. We are trying to provide the serious expertise that you need to when you're taking on serious mileage as a long-term traveler. Uh here to support those travelers. You can follow us on here, like and subscribe. You can also follow us on Instagram, threads, Facebook. We've got a substack and we have a mailing list through our website, travelries.com. And if you have questions about long-term travel, you can always book a free consult with us. We'll see you guys tomorrow for tip number 22.

Tip #22:

Hi guys, Maria, founder of Travelries here. I founded Travelries to make it easier for you to take long-term trips like adult gap years and travel sabbaticals because while there is a ton of information out there for travelers today, it is mostly geared towards people on vacation and that doesn't help you if you want to take a long-term trip. That kind of travel is super different. So, we are here today with tip number 22 in our 30-day series of tips for long-term travelers.

And my tip for you today deals with what to book in advance. Because when you travel long-term, you really have to think about, okay, do I want to book a year's worth of things up front or does it make more sense for me to um book a couple things and then book things and route? And my tip for you is really try hard not to book too much in advance.

And the reason is long-term travelers benefit tremendously from flexibility. And let me explain a little bit why. So on one hand, you as a traveler might not be the traveler you imagine yourself to be. Uh a few months down the road. You might change. You might get tired. You might deal with a injury. I hurt my back while I was traveling. Those things impact your trip and they impact how much you want to do.

And you know, this is a moment where as an adult, you your time is your own. That is rare as an adult. And so, uh, you know, you want to be in a position to take advantage and do the things you want to do versus do the things that the you a year ago or 6 months ago said, "Oh, well, I'll definitely do that. I'll definitely squeeze that in." So, that's one piece of it.

Second thing is the world is always changing. Things are going on. There's a big weather event. There's a crisis. Your itinerary might change due to factors totally outside of your control where you realize um it's not safe, for example, to go to a particular area. Now, if you evolve or if there's a crisis and you decide you're going to change your itinerary, if you have booked everything in advance, you have raised the price of flexibility because now you have to put in time and labor to undoing everything. Unbooking, cancelling accommodation, activity, transit, it's complicated.

And worse, some of that might be non-refundable. So, that's a high price to pay and that's why I really recommend booking as little as possible. However, you do need to book some things before you start your trip um or by certain points along the way. So, what do I recommend you definitely book in advance? It's a few things. One is your entry and exit into uh whatever country you are heading to first. and to any country subsequently before you enter, you need your exit booked.

So, let me give an example because I didn't phrase that great. If I'm flying to Italy, I need my exit flight, train, whatever out of Italy booked before I get on the plane to Italy. And the reason is border control might ask to see that I am going to exit the country and have proof. And if they don't ask, in fact, the airline might ask when you check in at the gate, they might ask to see proof that you have transit booked out of the country. If the next country I'm going to is Spain or uh well, that's in the Shangen zone and that's a whole thing, so we won't get into that. Let's say I'm going to Kenya after. Before I get on that flight to Kenya, I need to make sure I have my exit transit out of Kenya booked in advance.

Um, second thing I always make sure I book in advance is the first couple of accommodations. I want to lock in a price. I want to make sure I'm able to stay in the area that I want to stay in. I think about booking this um like booking a vacation. You might book a couple months in advance. And so the first couple accommodations, maybe that's your first month, maybe it's your first two months, you can lock in. um definitely more helpful if those are uh refundable if you change your plans, but if it's close in proximity, I'm never too worried.

And then third, anything that's going to sell out, I would book in advance. So, this comes up most frequently in Europe where you have these super touristy sites that sell out like seeing the coliseum, seeing the Last Supper, these tickets where you can book it 3 months in advance and once they go on sale, they get sold out. Those kinds of things you want to think about booking in advance if it would break your heart not to see those things while you're there. There are often last minute tours to allow you to see those sites where you join a tour group that in essence has bought those tickets a while ago and now they're selling you a higher ticket tour so you can see them. Uh those are very very expensive. So, if you're on a budget for your trip and you desperately want to go to a number of very well-known, very touristed sites, check, especially if they're in Europe, if you need to book them well in advance and set a reminder because chances are you will not be able to book them on the fly when you're there.

Now the last thing which is a personal preference of mine, you have to make your own decision on this um because it's in the financial world and I can't give you financial advice but my personal preference is if I am booking anything on credit card points I book it as soon as I can. And the reason is I have noticed that my credit card points quickly get devalued. Um, I would far rather instead of hoarding a bunch of points, oh my god, I have a million credit card points. I would rather be spending those on the trip pretty much as soon as I can so that they're not losing value over time. What I usually apply them to are major long haul flights. I'll even check the dollar to point conversion ratio to make sure in my own mind I'm getting um I'm getting a good deal. But that way I'm not letting those credit card points get devalued. And I'm actually buying myself a little bit more flexibility because when you book on points typically you can um cancel or change your trip without uh without as many issues as if you had booked in cash. There's a little bit more flexibility in the system.

Again, make the decision um based on what makes sense for you uh and your own finances. Don't take financial advice from me, but that's something that I think about for what I want to book for myself in advance. So, quick summary, entry and exit into the country you are about to uh enter. First couple of accommodations, anything that's going to sell out, and then I also am keen to use my credit card points well in advance. Doing all of that buys me a ton of flexibility. Um, and that way I don't have to undo too much if we're uh changing our trip down the line, which by the way we did plenty of times. Now, all of this doesn't mean you should not have a clear plan for what you're going to do, what you're going to need to book in the future. That is phenomenal to research up front. You're going to save yourself a ton of time down the line. Don't wing your plan. Um, but whether you actually click the button to book, that's a different story.

All right, that's tip 22. See you guys tomorrow for 23. If this was interesting to you, if you are curious about long-term travel for yourself, help us out with a like and a like and a subscribe. Uh, Travelries is also on Instagram threads, Facebook. We've got a weekly substack and we publish a monthly mailing list through our website, travelries.com. And on our website, you can also, if you're curious for yourself, book a free consult directly with me to chat about what long-term travel could look like for you. See you guys tomorrow for tip number 23.

Tip #23:

Hi guys, Maria here from Travelries. I founded Travelries to help make it easier for people to travel long-term. There's a ton of information out there for vacationers. There's really not a ton out there for long-term travelers. And I'm working hard on making it more accessible, making it easier so people can enjoy adult gap years and travel sabbaticals. So, we are kicking off our YouTube launch with 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are up to day 23.

And my tip for you today is have a miscellaneous budget for your trip. Um, you know, most budgets you build, you're going to think to include accommodation, food, transportation, activities. Those don't cover all the things that can come up, though. And uh even if you're really good at budgeting, you're probably not going to predict, oh, I'm, you know, I'm going to rip two pairs of pants on this trip and need to go shopping for new pants or, you know, how sick you might get and how much you're going to need to spend on uh cold medicine at the pharmacy. That can actually cost a bunch of money depending on where you're traveling to. And you know, you might face exchange rate fluctuations which devalue your home currency and now everything you're buying is a bit more expensive than you had planned or than it was when you looked at the price.

So, you know, my point is here there is too much to predict period. And even if you are really good at budgeting, you should probably have a miscellaneous budget. Um because you can't make a perfect budget and you can't also say while you're traveling, well, I just have to make it work with this amount, right? Um you might be stuck and need to spend money on a pair of pants because you don't have pants anymore or cold medicine. So um you know a good budget is realistic and that's why I think it's important to have a miscellaneous budget to catch all the things you didn't think of or to make space for things to go wrong. So then you come to the question well what how much should that be?

Um and my take here is that this is where it varies based on your level of expertise with budgeting. If you like me are very very experienced with budgeting and forecasting and you know you're excited to show people your spreadsheets. By the way guys, do you want to see my spreadsheets? Um you can set a small buffer. I would say 5% of your total budget.

If you are brand new to budgeting, this is a really new experience for you, set something higher, 10 to 15% of your total budget. um set it aside as the miscellaneous budget to make space for mistakes, for things to go wrong, for things you didn't think about. Uh but just such a helpful catch all when you're traveling. Um because you really cannot think of everything. So that's tip number 23. Have a miscellaneous budget.

Guys, this is a new channel. Help us out with a like and subscribe. Uh you can also follow us on Instagram, threads, Facebook, Substack. Uh you can join our mailing list on our website. And if you're curious to uh talk about long-term travel for yourself, you want to explore an adult gap year or a travel sabbatical, you can always book a free consult with us on our website. Uh we can chat with you one-on-one, see if we can help you out. See you guys tomorrow for tip number 24.

Tip #24:

Hi guys, Maria here from Travelries. Uh, I founded Travelries to help more people learn to travel long term. There's a ton of info out there for vacationers. There's really not a ton out there for people who want to take an adult gap year or do a travel sabbatical and Travelries is here to help. Um, so we are launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips and we are all the way up to tip number 24. If you haven't checked out the first 23, go check them out.

The tip today is do not ignore the weather when you are making your travel plans, especially serious weather like monsoons. Um, so you know, look, if you're a backpacker or a bougie backpacker, you might be especially inclined to say, "Whatever happens with the weather, like whatever the temperature is, I will deal with it. I'll be happy to take advantage of traveling in the off season because things are going to be cheaper." Sometimes that's true. And especially traveling in the shoulder season can be really great.

Um, and not all weather is created equal. But I will say when it comes to really serious weather, I advised again I advise against totally setting this aside. And I think where American travelers get uh especially stuck here and don't anticipate the seriousness of this weather pattern is with monsoons because we don't really get these in the US. But these are pretty common in a lot of areas that backpackers, bougie backpackers, long-term travelers uh go to like Southeast Asia, like India, and they are absolutely no joke.

I was in Hue, Vietnam, uh late in 2023, and I'll tell you, we arrived, it started raining, it did not stop raining. The streets flooded. Uh, our hotel lost power. We had no food on us. We had to figure out how to get to an open restaurant. We put on, you know, dry fast clothes and waited out into this um brown silty water to walk for like 30 minutes, not being able to see where our feet were going, not sure if we were stepping on the edge of a curve or um you know, something else. and you know mucked through that to get to a restaurant to eat lunch and dinner back to back and then weighed back through before it got dark. Um you know we were really unprepared. So I advise everyone to pay very close attention to monsoon seasons. Uh paying off paying attention here can really pay off.

So here's the deal. It is tricky to figure out um when monsoon season is. You have to look at a pretty granular level. The monsoon seasons vary by region and they sometimes even vary by country. The most southern part of Southeast Asia has a totally different schedule of monsoons than the more northern parts. And some countries like Vietnam even have multiple monsoon seasons. So the south has a different season um from the north. So you really have to pay close attention. When I was planning our trip originally, I made a heat map of each area and where uh where when it was great to travel, when it was okay to travel, when we definitely shouldn't travel. Uh and you do need to look at a pretty granular level to make sure you are avoiding the worst of the worst with the weather.

So tip number 24, do not ignore monsoon season. Take it seriously. Do not get flooded into your hotel like we did. Um guys, this is a new channel. We are on a mission to teach more people the serious expertise they need for the serious mileage they want to take on. You can like and subscribe here. It would really help us out as we get started. You can also follow us on Instagram threads, Facebook. We have a substack where we publish weekly. We've got a mailing list where we publish monthly. And if you're curious about long-term travel for you, you can always book a um a free consult with us through our website. We're happy to chat with you one-on-one. See you guys tomorrow for tip number 25.

Tip #25:

Hi guys, Maria here from Travelries. I founded Travelries to help make it easier for people to travel long term on their adult gap year or travel sabbatical. There's a ton of information out there for traveling for travelers, but it's all geared towards vacationers. Really not a ton out there for people who want to take an adult gap year or a travel sabbatical and we are here to help. So, we are launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips and we are up to day 25. Uh, if you have not seen the first 24 tips, I highly, highly, highly recommend going back. There's a lot of really valuable information in there. So, if you're seriously considering a long-term trip, uh, go check them out.

But tip today is all about cooking. Sometimes long-term travelers say, "I'll cook the whole time to save money. I love cooking." My tip for you is do not assume you can do that all over the world. you have to research if that is viable uh in every place you plan to go. Uh so I get the impulse to say I'm just going to cook everywhere because it's going to keep your cost lower. Um the reality is that's not always the case and it's not always possible. So, you cannot, for example, plan to cook if you can't find an accommodation with a kitchenette or some kind of cooking situationship for for yourself.

And there are plenty of regions in the world where it is much harder to find an Airbnb or place to stay where they have a kitchen. I really struggled to find places in Southeast Asia that were within our budget that had a kitchen at. You also cannot cook if you can't get to a grocery store or a market. And you may be on occasion in a position where getting to the store requires you to have a car or a moped. And maybe renting a car or a moped isn't in your budget or that actually makes cooking more expensive for you overall. So, um you know, there's some real viability questions to consider before you say, "I'm definitely going to cook."

Um in my experience, cooking is really a viable option uh for saving money in Europe. and you could save a lot of money. Um, it's pretty easy to find Airbnbs that have a kitchenette. You can definitely get around by public transit or by walking. And this will save you a ton of money versus what you're going to pay in a restaurant. In Southeast Asia, I really didn't see the benefits as much. It was hard to find a place with a kitchenette. Um, and the food in the restaurants, at least for us at the time, with the conversion rate against the dollar was pretty cheap. And so cooking would not have saved us a ton of money.

So uh my point here is the value of cooking and how much it will actually save you. It's going to vary around the world and simply planning on doing it everywhere uh may not save you the money that you expect and it may not even be an option in the first place.

Um guys, this is a new channel for us at Travelries. Help us out with a like and subscribe, especially if you want more content about long-term travel. Uh we're also on Instagram threads, Facebook, we've got a Substack that publishes weekly and a monthly newsletter through our website travelries.com. And if you're curious about long-term travel for yourself, you can always book a free consult with us on travel.com. We're happy to meet with you one-on-one, see if we can help set you on your way for your travel sabbatical or adult gap year.

Tip #26:

Hi guys, Maria here, founder of Travelries. I founded Travelries to make it easier for people to travel long-term. There's a ton of information out there for vacationers. There is so little information out there for people who want to take an adult gap year or a travel sabbatical. So, I am here to help because I loved my own adult gap year. So, launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips. We are on day 26. If you're just joining us, let me tell you, you got a lot of good content that you should go check out the first 25 days.

But the tip today is on how to save money for breakfast. And my tip for you is to find the local bakery. Um, this is a quick tip. So, if you're not cooking and uh you're eating out, the restaurants that serve breakfast, in my experience, are sometimes few and far between. And eating breakfast at a restaurant can get kind of pricey, but I have always been able to find a local bakery. I don't need a huge breakfast. I need a cup of coffee and a pastry, something like that. Um, but in my experience, bakeries are cheap. And you can get a bunch of pastries for the next couple days, keep them in your room as long as they stay fresh. Um, great way to get breakfast really quickly and for not a ton of money. Um, or you can just have a lovely time going to the bakery every morning and smelling the lovely smells of fresh pastries. So, um, if you can swing it and you can find a bakery nearby, just swing by there for breakfast. It's a great way to save money.

Guys, this is a new channel. Help us out with a like and a subscribe. Uh, we're also on uh Facebook threads, uh, Instagram. We have a Substack that publishes weekly. We have a monthly newsletter. and we're on a mission to make it easier to travel long-term. So, you can support our mission by following along and liking and subscribing. It would help us out a lot. If you're curious to travel long-term yourself, uh you can always book a free consult with us through our website, travelries.com. You can chat with us one-on-one and we can see if we can help you out. See you guys tomorrow for tip 27.

Tip #27:

Hi guys, Maria from Travelries here. I founded Travelries to make it easier to travel long-term. There is a ton of information out there for people who want to travel, but it is all geared towards vacationers. We are focusing on long-term travelers because uh trips like travel sabbaticals and adult gap years can be totally life-changing. But right now, they're pretty hard to do, pretty hard to plan on your own because there's just not a ton of information out there. So, we are launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips, and we are up to day 27, almost at the end of our series here, guys. If you haven't checked out the first 26 tips, go back and take a look. They're pretty helpful.

But our tip today is plan to have a returning home budget. Uh, so what does that mean? Well, I talked earlier about the importance in having a miscellaneous budget. This is just another bucket to include in your budget for what are you going to spend when you come home. And I'll tell you, this is actually something that I missed in my own budget. When we came home, we were lucky enough to have job offers.

We got job offers on the last day of our adult gap year. Um, so I wasn't, you know, worried about not having this budget, but I realized just how much money uh it costs to return home. We had to put down first and last month's rent. We had to pay a deposit on our new apartment because we had um ended the lease on our prior apartment. We ate out for a bit because um we didn't have a place to cook initially.

Um there were really a number of things that fell into this big returning home bucket that I hadn't thought about in advance. So, if you're like me and you want to be pretty granular with your budget, you want to know what you're going to spend in a very all-inclusive way on this trip leaving and coming back, then you need a uh returning home bucket in your budget. So, what do you put in there? You put all the things that you took care of on the way on the way out. Make sure you take care of them uh in your returning home budget. if you're ending the lease on your apartment and you're getting that deposit back, you need to plan on a deposit going somewhere else um when you're returning home.

So, you know, I I can't get super granular in this tip video on everything that you should include, but I think as you're leaving, if you're taking close note on sort of what you're shutting down in your life in the US, as you plan to travel long term, that should give you a pretty good guide for what you need to budget for. um what you need to put in this bucket for coming back home. Um all right, that's it. Tip 27. Have a returning home budget.

Guys, this is a new channel. We are new to YouTube. Uh help us out with a like and subscribe, especially if you want to support our mission to help make it easier for people to travel long-term and have these life-changing travel sabbaticals or adult gap years. Um, you can uh obviously like and subscribe here, but you can also follow us on Instagram threads, Facebook. We have a weekly Substack and a monthly mailing list through our website, travelries.com. And if you're curious to explore long-term travel for yourself, you can always book a free consult with us through our website, travelries.com. We'll chat with you one-on-one and uh see if we can help you take your dream trip. See you guys tomorrow for our third to last tip.

Tip #28:

Hi guys, Maria here, founder of Travelries. I founded Travelries to help make it easier for people to travel long-term. Uh there's a ton of information out there for vacationers. There's really not a ton of information out there for people who want to take adult gap years or long-term um travel sabbaticals. So, we are here to help. We're launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips. And we are already up to day 28. Um check out the earlier videos if you haven't already. There's a ton of valuable information in there. Today, we're going to talk about ATM scams. And uh this is such a bummer that this is an issue, but it is really important. So, here's my guidance for what to do in the scam you probably didn't even know about, uh which can happen anytime you use an ATM while you're traveling abroad.

So, one of the biggest risks travelers face is probably one they don't even think about, which is currency exchange manipulation risk. Um, and there are plenty of ways you can face this without even realizing it. Unfortunately, it's a super expensive risk. um is worth paying close attention to because understanding a few of the ways that exchange rates are manipulated to your detriment and to someone else's benefit can save you a ton of money. So, if you are traveling long-term, this is especially important to know.

Um, and that's why the tip today is all about outsmarting the ATMs by knowing what you are doing. So, if you're a foreigner using an ATM in a new country, you're likely going to be given the option to accept the ATM's exchange rate. And in fact, ATMs, in my own experience, may even use misleading language that words the screen to make it seem like you don't have a choice except to accept this proposed rate. But accepting that proposed rate allows the ATM to decide your exchange rate, and they have no reason to offer you a good rate. So, a good rule of thumb instead is to decline the ATM's proposed conversion rate. That is instead going to force the ATM to use the rate that your bank uh your bank's exchange rate instead, which is typically much better. This is according to an article published by Wise, which I'm going to link below in uh in the description. Um, if you get this right, this can be really helpful, especially as a long-term traveler. Um, anytime you withdraw cash, you do not want to get screwed on the exchange rate.

Um, all right, guys. That's the tip for the day. This is a new channel. Help us out with a like and subscribe, especially if you want to support our mission to make it easier for people to travel long-term and know what they're doing. Uh, you can also find us on Instagram threads, Facebook. We publish a weekly substack and we have a mailing list that we send out monthly through our website. And if you're curious to chat about long-term travel, you want some expert help, you can always book a free consult with us on travelries.com. I will see you guys tomorrow for our second to last tip. Very similar vein with currency exchange rates. See you guys tomorrow for tip 29.

Tip #29:

Hi guys, Maria from Travelries here. I founded Travelries to help more people travel long-term, uh to travel well, to travel safely and effectively. Uh there's ton of information out there for travelers. There's really not a ton of information out there for long-term travelers, though. And I had a pretty life-changing adult gap year. So, I want to set you up for success for your adult gap year or your travel sabbatical. So, we're launching on YouTube with 30 days of 30 travel tips to set you up for success. And we are at day 29. If you're just finding us, go back to day one. Do your part.

Today, we're going to continue a conversation we started yesterday on uh currency rate manipulation, the exchange risks you face, and we're going to talk about um point of sale conversion scams and what you you should do. So, uh, you know, the theme here is when long-term travelers run and any kind of traveler, but especially long-term travelers can, uh, uh, really lose out if they don't know what they're doing here. The theme here is when currency exchange rates are manipulated to your detriment, to someone else's benefit. Um, and you know, we talked yesterday about how that comes up with ATMs. Today, we're going to talk about it with point of sale machines. So, you know, you pay at a restaurant, they bring over that little machine where you scan your credit card. That's the point of sale machine.

Um, my tip for you today is you're going to get a button on that machine and it's going to say, "What currency do you want to pay in? Your local currency, USD for example, um, or the local currency for the area." you're going to face this button all the time and I'm going to give you the rule of thumb for what you should select by the end of the video so that you don't lose out um on and get a bad exchange rate.

So, when you pay with your American credit card abroad, you um you'll see this screen. It'll say, "Do you want to pay in USD? Do you want to pay in the foreign currency?" And you might think, "Oh, I should hit USD because my money is in USD already. So, isn't that easier? Am I bypassing the exchange rate? And no, you are not avoiding the exchange rate by selecting USD. In fact, what you are likely doing is electing into a worse exchange rate because the point of sale machine is relying on something called a dynamic currency conversion, DCC. and for the benefit of telling you in that moment right now um in your home currency what it's going to cost that point of sale machine is likely offering you a marked up exchange rate.

So if you're a long-term traveler and you are paying this way all the time this can cost you a ton of money. Um, now if you reject the DCC rate, the dynamic currency conversion, you will instead get the exchange rate that your bank or your credit card issuer offers. And that is typically a better rate for consumers. So best practice here, rule of thumb is always hit the button for paying in the local currency. This is all according to an article published by Stripe which I'm going to link below um in the in the description so you can read it yourself. Uh all right, that's it. Day 29.

See you guys tomorrow for day 30. Help us out with a like and subscribe, especially if you want to support our mission to make it easier to take a travel sabbatical or an adult gap year. Um you can also find us on Instagram, threads, Facebook. We publish a weekly substack and we've got a monthly mailing list through our website travelries.com. And of course, if you're curious to chat one-on-one about what long-term travel could look like for you, you can always book a free consult through our website. We'll see if we can help you out. See you guys tomorrow for the last tip in our series.

Tip #30:

Hi guys, it's Maria here, founder of Travelries. I founded Travelries to make it easier for people to take long-term trips. There is so much information out there on travel, where to go, what to do, what to see, but it's mostly geared geared towards vacationers, and there really is not a ton out there for long-term travelers, for people who want to take an adult gap year gear or a travel sabbatical. And I'm here to help change that. If you're traveling for a while, you need some real expertise to rely on to do it well, to do it safely, to do it affordably.

So, this is the last series, this last video in our series um for launching on YouTube, 30 days of 30 travel tips. If you haven't seen the prior videos, I highly, highly recommend checking them out. There's a lot of good um good insight in there for y'all. So tip number 30 is to plan to save time to be spontaneous. I'm a big advocate for planning a lot for long-term trips. I think it it broadly sets you up for success.

But if you plan too much, then you're not going to make space for the amazing things you hear about when you travel. You're not going to be able to take advantage of the thing that some backpacker or some other traveler told you about that was totally life-changing for them. you're not going to have time to do it. And you're not going to make any space for how you are going to evolve as a traveler because by the way, you're going to change a lot as a traveler. And uh you might want to do things by the end of your trip that you really couldn't have imagined doing before or didn't even know about.

So you want to make space for these things. So, you know, what do you do? Especially if you want to go into your trip prepared, well planned. I don't think you should fully set aside your plan. My guidance for you is literally to plan to be spontaneous. So, I'll tell you what I did because this worked really well for us and I think it's good guidance for others. We took a year to travel, but we only planned 10 months of travel. The last two months we left totally up in the air and we had a sense that we would probably go to South America. Um we had some ideas for where we would go but we refused to let ourselves commit to any particular location and we asked people where do you think we should go? Um I am so glad we did this.

We actually didn't go to the place we were most thinking about originally. Um, we ended up taking time to go to Patagonia, which was stunningly beautiful. It's amaz Patagonia is underrated as a destination. We stayed in Buenos Cyrus for a while and then we had this very spontaneous last hurrah in the Caribbean when it was clear we were about to come home. We were about to land jobs. I I highly recommend doing something similar, leaving parts of your trip unplanned intentionally. It doesn't need to be at the very end. Maybe it's the end of a particular region. You spend a lot of time in East Africa and you want to leave a week unplanned or a month. It's up to you. But make space for it. Don't go in totally unplanned because especially the beginning and you know the beginning can be six eight months. Um it's really helpful to have a plan so you're not wasting time and you're fully taking advantage of the time off but um you know especially towards the end it's nice to make space for totally spontaneous experiences. So that's my final tip. plan to make space to be spontaneous.

Uh guys, this is a new channel. I hope you enjoyed our kickoff series. Um I'm really passionate about teaching more people about how to travel well long term. I have done the hustle culture in the US and I've also done I've also taken a total break where my time is my own and it really shifted how I think about life and I'm trying to pay that experience forward. So, you can help me out here with a like and subscribe. Of course, you can also follow Travelries on Instagram, Threads, Facebook. We do a weekly Substack, and we've got a monthly mailing list through our website. And if you're very seriously thinking about this for yourself, you can always set up a one-on-one consult with me through my website, travelries.com. Um, we'll meet with you and chat about what your travel sabbatical or adult gap year could look like for you. uh so we can pay this forward and help more people take life-changing trips. There's a lot more to come in this channel. I've had some really cool conversations with long-term travelers with um with schools meant to support families traveling long-term. And I'm really excited uh for y'all to see those, too. See you guys soon.