Planning – Have Blog Will Travel

How to Plan the Perfect Itinerary: A Series

Travis — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 05:13:14 +0000

One of the questions we get asked the most is “How did you decide where to go and what to see?” – the answer, as unpopular as it may seem, is lots and lots of work. Whether setting off on a weekend roadtrip, taking a week off to soak up the sun at a beach resort, or undertaking a round-the-world adventure, crafting a solid and well thought out itinerary is one of the most vital and sometimes overlooked steps in the planning process.

Don’t get us wrong, we love a little spontaneous adventure or detour as much as the next backpacker, but gone are the days when travelers can throw caution to the wind and set off without any semblance of a plan – at least without an unlimited budget or unlimited patience. With the increased accessibility to travel for much of the world, booking transportation and accommodation ahead of time and having a plan is becoming more important to make the most of your travel time and budget. This was very evident during our last trip through Europe, where we quickly realized that being organized and well planned out was the only way to ensure we had a bed to sleep in or a seat to sit in when we needed one most.

Crafting a perfect itinerary means striking a perfect balance between rigidity and flexibility – most of us don’t want to get to the point where each and every minute of every day is accounted for (although this may work perfectly for a select few), but we also want to know where we are sleeping before nightfall begins to creep in. While this balance of planning vs staying aloof is different for everyone, with a little trial and error you can figure out what works best for you.

It is for this reason that we’re focusing on travel planning in this series. For us, planning is one of the most enjoyable (and sometimes frustrating) aspects of travel. Sorting out where to go, how to get there, where to stay while we’re there, and what to do is a lot of work – but it also lets us fantasize about the trip before it even begins – sometimes the only way to stay sane between trips. Hopefully everyone will find a suggestion or new idea that will help with their next trip.

If there’s anything you want to know about or you have any questions for us, let us know in the comments or contact us via email or our social networks!

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Road Tripping Essentials – Iceland Edition

Travis — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 17:08:47 +0000

This post was inspired by RelayRides‘ Road Trip Essentials campaign. We were asked what our “must-haves” for any road trip were, and this question sparked some interesting debates between me and Calli. Here’s what we came up with.

Growing up in North America, the road trip is a quintessential part of our travel arsenal. With thousands of kilometers of highways stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic, travel in Canada and the United States is car-dependent, and we wouldn’t want it any other way. However when it came time for our first international road, three days through the rugged terrain of Iceland, we quickly realized that this trip would be different than any we’d taken before. With this in mind, here are our road trip essentials with an Icelandic twist.

A lengthy playlist – music is an essential part of any successful road trip. No matter how much your travel companions want to talk, you will inevitably hit a wall. When the time comes and you find yourself staring out the window in silence, crank up some awesome music to quell the awkwardness.

With Iceland in mind, remember that rental cars often don’t come with auxiliary inputs, making your fully loaded iPod useless. Bring along as many CD’s as possible – listening to the same one over and over gets boring really fast. Trust us.

A stash of snacks – while a large part of a road trip is about getting out and exploring, it’s also about getting from point A to B at some point, and a stash of snack foods will ensure you don’t need to make any unnecessary stops. For us, a Tim Horton’s Iced Capp is the most important snack for a Canadian road trip, but the options really are endless.

With Iceland in mind, it’s important to note that the number of convenience stores and fully stocked gas stations pale in comparison to those back home and finding food on the road can be extremely difficult. Stock up on some sustenance providing foods in addition to snack foods and don’t expect to find your favorite American snack stocked on the grocery store shelves here. For its silky texture and filling levels of protein Skyr yogurt get’s our recommendation – just remember to pack a spoon.

A Camera (with extra memory cards) – to document all the beautiful, breath taking, and sometimes strange things you’re bound to come across, a camera is a must-pack item for any road trip.

With Iceland in mind, the scenery is unlike anything you have ever seen before or will ever see again. Pack extra memory cards for the thousands of pictures you’re going to take, but don’t forget to peel your eye away from the camera every now and then to soak in the moment as well. Pictures really can’t compete with the real thing.

Extra clothing – you never know when your road trip might hit an unexpected bump, leaving you stranded over night or sleeping in your car when all the hotels are booked up. An extra pair of clothing, warm blanket, and an emergency kit will keep you safe and should never be overlooked.

With Iceland in mind, ensure that the car is in safe condition before driving it off the rental lot and remember to pack an extra layer of clothes and some food even for short day trips. As the weather in Iceland is the definition of unpredictable, these extra clothes will also come in handy should you find yourself outside when the rain rolls in (or when a misjudged wave soaks the bottom of your jeans).

A laidback attitude – even the best planners need to take a breath and relax during a road trip, part of the fun of this type of travel is the element of surprise at what you may discover by taking a wrong turn or making an impromptu stop. Sit back, relax, and try saying yes more often than no.

With Iceland in mind, with only a few short days to see as much as possible, getting lost or wasting precious time looking for a gas station that will accept your international credit card can be stressful. However it’s part of the process and the quicker you accept that the more enjoyable the trip will be.

This post was inspired by RelayRides‘ Road Trip Essentials Campaign. What’s “Relay Rides” you ask? Well, Relay Rides is a peer-to-peer car sharing network that allows travelers in need of a car to get one from someone with a car to spare. That means you can get a car for way less than your standard rental, and you can even get paid if you have a spare car or one you don’t use all the time. You can even pick one up at most major American airports to avoid those exorbitant airport parking fees! Relay Rides is coast to coast in the USA right now and (hopefully) coming to Canada soon. You can check them out on Facebook or Twitter to if you have any questions. As always, all opinions expressed are our own.

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Guest Post: The Emotions of Prepping for Long Term Travel

Ashley Hubbard — Fri, 02 May 2014 21:03:20 +0000

This is a guest post from travel writer Ashley Hubbard of A Southern Gypsy. This week we’ve partnered with Ashley to bring you a two part series all about the emotions of travel. As Ashley prepares for long term travel see how she’s embracing the change in comparison to the feelings Travis and I have surrounding our return from backpacking through Europe. You can find our post on Ashley’s website here.

As I have just surpassed the halfway point between when I made the decision that will forever change my life and actually leaving because of that decision, the reality sets in more and more that I will be leaving in just six short months. I’ve found that I’m overwhelmed with so many different emotions – both positive and negative. While I can’t wait to board a plane carrying the only things I own with no specific plans, I would be lying – and I think anyone would be – if I said I wasn’t nervous. I can’t say that these feelings haven’t affected me in many different ways as well.

Not new to travel, here’s Ashley exploring Vatican City

In the past eight months, besides the basic functions that humans have to partake in such as eating, bathing, sleeping and unfortunately, working, I’ve done nothing but immerse myself into the travel mindset. I’ve gorged myself on fellow travel bloggers’ stories, hundreds upon hundreds of photographs of gorgeous places I’ve yet to see but will soon, tips on leaving my life behind, packing said life into one small backpack, and somehow making it all work long term.

When I first started planning my long term travel endeavors last September, it was an almost surreal feeling. I knew without a doubt that I was going through with it, but it was so far off – 14 months to be exact – and it felt like it was in the very distant future. While I started the process early, I felt like I had for.ev.er before I was leaving. I felt like I had plenty of time to get things done. Fast forward eight months – hello! and goodbye! halfway point – and I don’t know where the hell the past eight months have gone.

Strolling the charming streets of Devon, England

Like I said, I jumped the gun a little bit though. I did things a tad backwards from what others in the same situation have done. I sold almost all of my belongings in the beginning since I was moving out of my apartment and into my mom’s house. With that came a whole hell of a lot of stress. Selling everything you own without getting ripped off – all within a month, moving, working full time and starting a blog is no simple task. Luckily, with having to be out of my apartment, that stress couldn’t really last long. I kept telling myself that no matter how exhausted and stressed I was, it could only last two more weeks, or one more week, or one more day. Tip: I highly suggest not doing all that alone if you don’t need to – both mentally and physically, it’s exhausting.

As the year and a half turns into less than a year and then into months and slowly into weeks and days – 187 but who’s counting – the emotions turn from surrealistic and stress to ones of realization, anticipation and a little bit of fear mixed in.

At the Colosseum in Rome

The realization that this is actually happening is constant lately. I’m not just dreaming of a different life, of escaping the smothering, monotonous day-to-day life that I’ve grown to loathe, of finally doing what I love – traveling and sharing those travels with everyone – I’m actually doing it. There’s still that bit of denial and surrealism lurking behind the shadows, and I don’t know if that will ever go away and I’m not quite sure that I would want it to go away. As that realization sets in, so does the feeling of extreme anticipation.

I have this problem of keeping myself grounded. When I know of something very exciting happening, I tend to obsess. A lot. If you look in my bag that I carry around with me, it has Lonely Planet’s Southeast Asia on a Shoestring and a legal pad with a plethora of notes scribbled on pages of things to do and when to do them. To say I’m excited is an understatement. I’m not quite sure if this helps my day to day attitude. The more anticipation I feel, the more antsy I feel and wonder how I’m going to be able to wait another six months. But, having something to look forward to also helps me not throw my computer through the window at work at times as well. I’ll call it a draw for now

Venice Italy on a sunny day

Of all these emotions though, there is the dreaded one but also the one that solidifies for me that I’m making the right decision – fear. The fear of the unknown. Not knowing what to expect. Not knowing if I can be successful. The fear of having to come home before I’m ready to. This fear is what drives me. It’s what pushes me to keep working even when I feel like I can’t anymore. It pushes me to keep going even when I don’t feel like I have a support system backing me up. It pushes me to do everything absolutely possible in my power to better myself so that if it doesn’t work out, I can’t regret having not done something differently. The fear may scare me, but it’s also comforting in a way.

Want to know more about Ashley and get all the details on her upcoming trip? Check out her blog, A Southern Gypsy. It’s full of inspiration and helpful tips for anyone wanting to make a change and adopt a travel-based lifestyle. For more inspiration Ashley can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

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Destination Anticipation – Bosnia and Herzegovina

Travis — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 08:08:12 +0000

Bosnia and Herzegovina is our first real venture into a more unknown region of Europe, and is one of the few places that we really don’t know what to expect. Only now, just over 15 years removed from the war, is Bosnia really beginning to attract intrepid travelers keen to discover all that this country has to offer. For us, this will also be the first predominantly Muslim country we have been to, and this is something we are definitely intrigued about.

The Old Town and Old Bridge of Mostar

Being that we were unsure about what there was to do and see in this fairly unknown country, we have decided to give ourselves just under two weeks – split evenly between the hubs of Sarajevo and Mostar. We hope this will give us enough time to venture out into the smaller towns and villages and give us an authentic taste of what Bosnia and Herzegovina has to offer.

What are we most excited about seeing and doing in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

For Calli, it’s going to be all about bridges in BiH – more specifically the Old Bridge in Mostar (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and the Latin Bridge in Sarajevo (the location of the start of WWI). For Travis, he is most excited about exploring the high-elevation village of Lukomir and witnessing the mixed heritage and culture of Sarajevo.

The traditional Bosniak village of Lukomir.

Have you ever been to Bosnia and Herzegovina? What did you like most?

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The Pros and Cons of Writing a Travel Blog with Your Significant Other

Calli Duncan — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 05:14:18 +0000

In some ways, writing a blog with your significant other is a blessing, especially when blogging from the road where the task of writing makes long travel days even longer. In this one person you have a fact checker, editor, destination expert, collaborative partner, and someone to help finish your sentences when the task of writing has taken it’s toll. Without Travis I would have wasted countless hours on research, looking up facts already in his brain and ready to be recalled at will. And if you’re like me, it’s nice to have someone to fine tune your failed attempts at humor – for the sake of our readers.

Editor, fact checker, collaborator – and male model

A writing companion is also great motivation, for those moments you’d rather turn in early, or veg out in front of the tv, trying to follow a poorly dubbed version of The DaVinci Code in Austrian (hey, Tom Hanks voice doesn’t sound like that). After writing a particularly draining two part series on our visit to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp outside Berlin, I turned to Travis and exhaustively informed him that I was empty of any and all writing ability, and that was ok, he gallantly took over for a few days to give me a break, and then got me back on the horse when my excuses grew old and tiresome (and there was too much work for him to tackle alone).

Working and traveling so closely with someone for a prolonged period of time also brings you together in ways above and beyond cohabitation. For 120 days, we were the only person each other knew abroad, and for a number of these days, we were the only person each other talked to at length. After long days sitting on a train, exploring cobblestone streets, or wandering through marble floored museums, I recorded my thoughts and feelings, and Travis was the first to read them, raw and unpolished and not yet ready for publication, and that has a way of bringing two people together.

Christmas 2013 in Prague

However in some ways, writing a blog with your significant other can quickly spiral into a task from the devil himself. Collaboration calls for compromise, which in our case usually results from prolonged arguments followed by profuse apologies (and then Travis gives in, about 99% of the time). Although relationships are full of compromise, at home most “discussions” can be put off until both sides have caught up on sleep, or filled a grumbling stomach. When traveling on the other hand, poorly reasoned, ugly emotion filled arguments pop up at the most inconvenient of times, usually after a sleepless journey aboard a night bus when, at 5am the last thing two hungry people should be doing is trying to find a hotel while simultaneously debating the validity of moving to a new blogging platform. Without some serious anger management training, 60% of the time this task will result in a complete meltdown every time*.

Writing with another person, while on the road or not, is a minefield of potential issues, disagreements over different writing styles, formatting and layout preferences, and subject manner are enough to make you walk away – or determine a flight home costs too much money so you might as well stay put. Perhaps our initial struggles to settle on a name should have been seen as a warning, a red flashing light we both ignored, of just how difficult the blogging road ahead would be for our future backpacking selves.

Taking on a task as momentous as documenting your trip through written essays and (stunning) photographs also sucks up the majority of your free time – something we, as new travel writers, most definitely underestimated. As bloggers, any and all spare moments in the day are quickly swallowed up by our to-do list and self-imposed deadlines, which do little to support romance and the notion of quality time together.

Travel alone is testing on a relationship, while the task of blogging quickly escalates the situation. Forget the rose ceremonies and backstabbing, if big television networks really want to test a relationship, while simultaneously attracting millions of viewers, I’ve got the winning formula – a new reality show where couples are sentenced to travel for four months with the simple challenge of not killing the other person. But wait, here’s the twist, they’ve been stripped of all comforts from home, must create filling meals for only a few dollars, and walk a minimum of 5 kilometers each day – oh, and they have to complete challenges from The Apprentice, Top Chef, and The Amazing Race while handcuffed together. It’ll be called Nomads In Love: Decent into Deceit, and easily NBC’s highest rated show.

All joking aside, when it comes to travel blogging knowing someone has your back is a great comfort, blogging or not, and far outweighs the occasional tiff or disagreement.

*A little Anchorman humour to keep things light

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Where we’re off to next!

Travis — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 04:33:00 +0000

After some subtle foreshadowing here and there, Travis and I are over the moon to announce we are throwing on our backpacks again and hitting the road starting in September this year!

After returning from Europe just before Christmas, we weren’t sure what the future had in store. Although we love the new and interesting experiences traveling brings, we weren’t certain we wanted to be away again for so long, or could continue along this course of procrastination from careers and responsibility. However, after job hunting for a few months, and living back at home with our parents (as our house is still rented out), the decision became easier until one Saturday, just a few weeks ago, we bit the bullet and purchased two one-way flights for early September.

A few days later, I spotted a job posting online and (jokingly) sent it to Travis questioning if it was too late to change our minds and settle down – what it confirmed, if we had any last minute doubts, is that we both want nothing more than to continue to wander aimlessly for the foreseeable future.

And with that, there was nothing left to do but start mapping out a preliminary itinerary.

A few of the cities and regions that have made the cut, do you recognize any of them?

As with all trip planning our itinerary grew and grew as we listed more and more exciting places to see, however in the end we settled on Europe – again. If our family and friends weren’t so supportive (read: if I hadn’t already snapped a few times on innocent recommendations from those wanting to live vicariously through us), I’m sure they would question our motives further.

“Why Europe, you’ve already been there, don’t you want to see the rest of the world?”

In a simple answer, yes, we want to see and do absolutely everything on this planet, and then some; However, the reason we’ve chosen to return to Europe is quite logical (we think). After looking at our list of dream destinations, and considering how our ability to travel will be restricted once we settle into careers and the like, we found that none of the other places we want to visit strung together as perfectly for a prolonged trip as Europe.

With that thought, a compromise was born, to head back to Europe now and see as many of the regions we missed the first time around while also trying to step outside of our comfort zone whenever possible.

With that goal in mind, our preliminary itinerary currently looks like this…

Vancouver to Berlin with a stopover in Iceland – Poland – Hungary – Slovenia – Czech Republic – Germany – Bosnia & Herzegovina – Serbia – Romania – Turkey – Sicily – Malta – Tunisia – Scotland

**We should take the time to point out that we haven’t set a return date yet…our trip will most likely end sometime in February, but the date will depend on flight prices, how well we stick to our budget, etc.We’ll include the individual cities and a map on the “Our Trips” page as soon as we find time to do so. Although I’m sure tweaks here and there will be made, we are very excited about how this is shaping up!

As for the rest of our dream destinations, they will unfortunately have to wait.

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In with 2013…

Travis — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 04:27:00 +0000

After a whirlwind Christmas, including three turkey dinners and a zillion hours excitedly recounting our favorite travel moments from the past four months, it’s time to get back to normal life here at home. However, without jobs or a house, this means catching up on the posts we’ve let lapse while recovering from jet lag and working off the pumpkin pie we scarfed down last week.

In addition to a detailed account of our time in Salisbury and Bath, including a visit to Stonehenge, we have a growing list of posts to share over the next little while. As well, we are looking at the plausibility of another adventure, or two, in 2013 to satisfy our travel bug.

While we work at getting back into the swing of things, here are our New Year’s Resolutions for 2013…

Give more time to exploring our local attractions
Expand our travel-blog reading list
Rework our blog’s format and add a few more features
Carry the camera around at home as we do while traveling
Venture out of our comfort zone on future trips
Try new foods in the countries we visit
Remember what we packed needlessly in 2012 and pack lighter
Snap more photos of ourselves – in addition to the scenery
Indulge on occasion and worry about pinching pennies a bit less
Recognize each day how fortunate we are to be able to explore the world

As we welcome 2013 and the travel opportunities before us, we are excited to share every detail here and hope you’ll follow along!

Have you made any travel resolutions for 2013?

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The Insurance with the Mostest (Part II)

Travis — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 07:00:00 +0000

With a $500 price-tag looming over our heads for medical and travel insurance we decided that, although a wonderful and comprehensive plan, it was time to look at other travel insurance options – bring up the Excel spreadsheet.

For a quick comparison we used BCAA, as their website also lets you generate an insurance quote online. Of course, there were some major discrepancies between this BCAA policy and what World Nomads offers that we weren’t overly thrilled about; although, BCAA offers ten million emergency medical and unlimited medical transportation, all other coverage, including trip cancellation and personal effects, must be added on at an additional cost. However, the price was much more reasonable at $147 per person.

With this new price we let out a sigh of relief, we would be able to afford basic coverage for the duration of our trip without reconfiguring the budget. However we still had one significant issue; as I mentioned in Part I of this post, backpackers often have expensive electronics in their packs and we are no different, with a DSL camera, iPods, and laptop. Therefore, going with the basic, and cheaper, travel insurance, didn’t offer protection for our personal effects.

There are a few different options available to bridge this gap with the first being almost free – often these items are covered by homeowners insurance and therefore additional coverage isn’t always necessary. Unfortunately as we are renting our place out our home insurance isn’t comprehensive enough so opted to buy additional coverage which set us back $20 each when combined with the basic travel insurance. Again, it’s best to shop around as you can buy individual policies for certain items or general coverage up to a dollar limit (ours covers up to $1500 in damage, theft, etc…).

Personal effect coverage and taxes included, our insurance came out to about $200 each – a $100 savings each over the policy offered by World Nomads. It’s worth noting that we didn’t buy trip cancellation service and with this additional cost added in World Nomad’s offering becomes even more competitive.

Travel insurance is both important and very personal, so be sure to look around, compare prices, and find the best option for you

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The Insurance with the Mostest (Part I)

Travis — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I’m going to go out on a rather sturdy limb and say, in addition to your passport and some cold hard cash, travel medical insurance is crucial for a successful trip abroad. In Canada, it’s not uncommon to obtain insurance before driving across the boarder for a weekend in the United States.

We’ve heard great things about World Nomads Travel Insurance so we decided to look into it; the policy is actually quite comprehensive, in addition to the common elements (five million emergency medical, additional medical transportation, additional medical expenses), World Nomads also includes additional coverage that doesn’t often come standard (trip cancellation, trip interruption, luggage/personal effects, and sporting equipment). As a backpacker, it’s quite common to have electronics or sporting equipment in your pack and this coverage, without additional costs, is fantastic.

In addition to the policy itself, we found a few more things to love about World Nomads:

Choose the duration of your coverage from one week to twelve months
Coverage for individuals or families (hint: price compare if you’re traveling with someone)
Purchase or extend coverage while abroad, even after you’ve left your home country
Coverage for a range of exhilarating adventures/activities (think snowboarding or whitewater rafting)

However, like all things travel related, price is a major factor in the decision making process and after working up a quote online we realized travel insurance through World Nomads will cost $614.90 CAD for both of us (or $300+ each).

In addition to this $300, we also need to sign-up and start paying premiums for our Provincial medical program (previously covered by our employers and not optional as a resident), a $230 expense per person for four months.

All together we are quickly breaching the $500 range – per person! Honestly, this number has us a bit freaked out, and isn’t really in our budget which means… we need a second opinion.

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Preparing to Spend Smartly

Travis — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 06:01:00 +0000

When it comes to personal finances we like to consider ourselves pretty savvy. After graduating from University debt free* we were able to purchase our first home in February 2010, and since then we’ve been tediously stashing savings away for travel.

Now I’ll be the first to call myself cheap – Travis pokes fun at my frugal ways whenever the opportunity presents itself – so you can imagine my reaction to the thought of paying the bank to let me access my own money while abroad.

(via)

If you haven’t traveled much, or checked your bank statements after a trip, you might be surprised to discover all the sneaky fees banks add on when paying or withdrawing money abroad. Foreign currency conversion fees – or what you will be charged for using your debit and credit card outside your home country – can really add up, especially if your trip is lengthy like ours. Although I was able to find a lot of information about the big bad banks in the US, and a movement towards US credit cards eliminating the foreign transaction fee, finding information specific to Canada (where we live!) was a bit harder.

What I was able to find…

Debit Cards: It seems that most banks charge a standard $2-3 per debit withdrawal for using a foreign ATM, as well as a fixed percentage foreign currency conversion fee on the total amount withdrawn – 2.5% is common but this rate varies from bank to bank.

Credit Cards: Again, a fixed percentage foreign currency conversion fee in the 2.5% range is charged on your purchase, once it’s converted back to your home currency – however some banks add in an extra step by first converting the purchase to US dollars before Canadian. Here’s a great chart from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada that compares credit card fees.

Is it just me or does it seem like they’re double dipping a bit?

Because the banks don’t have your best interest at heart, and have become proficient in hiking fees and hiding extra charges, it’s important to do your homework before hopping across the border for a weekend of shopping or taking an extended trip halfway around the world. Call up your bank, or go online, and investigate a bit, I didn’t know what my bank’s international charges were and I was quite surprised once I found out!

It’s also important to note that the debit/credit card system that works for you at home might not be the best choice when traveling abroad. For example, President’s Choice is my primary bank at home and I’m very happy with them, however when it comes to travel I don’t want to pay the fees they charge. Unfortunately they aren’t alone in charging these fees – in fact I haven’t found a single bank in Canada that doesn’t charge foreign currency conversion fees and only one credit card (Amazon.ca Rewards Visa card) that has eliminated it.

But that didn’t deter me and after searching around I found the TD Canada Trust Select Services Account. This account has a monthly fee of $30 (waived if you maintain a minimum balance of $5,000) and although they still charges a fixed 2.5% foreign currency conversion fee, there are no fees for non TD ATM use anywhere in the world.

Yes, you read that right, anywhere in the world! That means that I’ll save the $2-3 per transaction and only have to pay the foreign currency conversion fees. Since this will be our joint travel account we don’t think the minimum monthly balance will be an issue – we wanted to keep an “emergency fund” of about $5,000 anyways – and the ATM savings could amount to $40-50 over the length of our trip. While it might not seem like much, when you are planning a budget trip every little bit helps!

A few other options you may want to consider if you’re looking for a travel credit cards, I’ve read great things about Capital One’s Travel Rewards cards as well as MBNA Platinum Plus MasterCard.

*Credit goes to our parents who let us live at home rent-free while studying, and some great summer jobs that covered tuition and books.

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