10 Things to Pack in Your Travel Medicine Kit

If you adventure hard enough, you’re going to want (and need) at least a small medical kit with you. I personally measure the awesomeness of a trip by how many bruises I get (and how f*ed up my mani/pedi is at the end). Bonus points for breaking skin.  Even if you don’t intend to adventure…

Budget Travel Hack: Free Pickup/Drop-Off

There are so many costs involved in traveling—from airfare to hotels, ground transportation, tours, food and souvenirs, and they can add up quickly. I’ve been lucky enough to book most of my hotel and airfare expenses using points and miles—and ever since I signed up for the Chase Reserve card last year, I started adding…

Adventure, Party of 1

At the intersection of hope and fear, we find adventure. That’s precisely where I found myself last week when I was 37,000 feet above the Caribbean heading out on my first solo international trip. My mood was a healthy mix of nerves and excitement. Excited because I was heading to an island I’d long wanted…

Travel Tip: Go with the Gondola

Gondolas. One cannot think of the city of Venice without picturing those long, skinny, beautifully crafted boats and their perfectly uniformed gondoliers. As my S.O. and I were preparing for our escape to Italy a couple of years ago, we struggled with the question of whether or not to spend money on a gondola ride.…

Swimming with Sharks…Literally

For most of my life, I have been afraid of swimming in the ocean. Maybe it was the giant wave that sent my six-year-old self tumbling head over heels through the surf, maybe it was the stingray I almost stepped on in middle school, or maybe it was that time one of my high school “friends”–knowing…