Like India, Vietnam can be a sensory overload of beauty and complexity. The scenery is diverse—the mist-covered mountains of Sapa, the seemingly endless swarms of motorbikes in Hanoi and the tower limestone pillars of Ha Long Bay. I consider travel the best teacher, and there’s no better place to get a lesson in world history than this Southeast Asian nation. I visit Vietnam at least once a year for work, so I decided it was time to compile a travel guide of my favorite and least favorite spots. (I’ve worked for multiple travel companies running trips across the country. In addition, I did a ..read more

Left: Artillery left over after the Vietnam War is on display at the Ben Douc tunnels, part of the Cu Chi Tunnels. Right: The entrance to one of the tunnels. (Please note this post was written in 2019 but some readers just did this trip in June 2024 and confirmed the bus numbers and route are the same!) Why visit the Cu Chi Tunnels? Cu Chi is a rural area about 30 to 40 km from Ho Chi Min that’s famous for a legendary spiderweb of tunnels used in the 1960s by the Viet Cong to control the area during the Vietnam War. There are two sets of tunnels: Ben Dinh and Ben Duoc. Ben Dinh is the most ..read more

Lismore Lighthouse, Scotland // I’m currently on a three-month trip to Europe and bought my insurance policy through SafetyWing.  I live a very unconventional life—I travel most of the year for either work or fun. I am part vagabond, nomad and business traveler. Often, I’m gone for months and never quite know exactly when I’ll be flying back to the U.S. My life is a series of one-way flights, which makes it difficult to find flexible travel insurance since I never really know when my trip will end exactly. I’m a huge fan of SafetyWing’s flexible policies and monthly travel insurance op ..read more

From a ski trip in the French Alps to backpacking South America, travel insurance is one of the most important things to purchase for any trip. When it comes to insurance, you insure what you can’t afford to pay yourself. Unlike health insurance in the United States, travel insurance is very affordable.  SafetyWing is currently my go-to travel insurance company. In this post, I share their insurance and coverage options along with my personal experience. Why do you need travel insurance? Travel insurance covers all the things that go wrong – the flight delay that left you stranded in ..read more

Travel insurance is the most important thing to pack for a trip. Photo credit: Pexels.com  The key to insurance is simple: You insure what you can’t afford to pay yourself. Unlike health insurance in the United States, travel insurance is very affordable and one of the most important things to purchase for any trip! Why do you need travel insurance? It covers all the things that go wrong – the flight delay that left you stranded in Istanbul for the night or the bout of food poisoning that hits a few hours before your flight home from Mongolia. Both are true stories from my travel adven ..read more

In the latest Travel Tuesday Interview, I chat with Jessie Beck, the associate director of SEO and video at AFAR, a travel magazine and media company. From studying abroad in Malta to living in Madagascar for the Peace Corps, she’s a lifelong traveler. In this interview, she talks about her career, the latest travel trends and the future of travel media. And, her favorite hacks for cutting travel costs! AFAR magazine’s associate editor of SEO and video, Jessie Beck, has lived across the world from Madagascar to Malta. Here she’s on Naoshima, Japan’s art island. Photo courtesy of Jessie Beck ..read more

The UNESCO site of Sambor Prei Kuk is complex of more than 180 singular brick temples dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva. These pre-Angkorian temples are the highest and biggest brick towers in the Cambodia.   My first travel story for National Geographic was published online in early April! Since I always share my pitching success stories with a business class I teach at Texas State University called Freelancing for Media Professionals, I thought it might be fun to share it as a blog post as well. If you liked this, let me know, and I’ll include more posts like this! NOTE: While cold p ..read more

A work trip to Egypt in January helped me earn American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum status thanks to a stopover in Dubai and flying oneworld alliance airlines. This shot of a camel in front of the pyramids near Cairo was one of my favorite images from the trip.  I recently achieved American Airlines Platinum status, my first elite status on any airline.  How did I do it? Is it worth the effort? Let’s dig into that in this post. American Airlines Status Levels There are four American Airlines status levels: Gold (40,000 loyalty points), Platinum (75,000 loyalty points), Platinum P ..read more

  Last year, I went to 22 countries—an epic year of travel. While it’s not always easy to work from the road as nomad, it is possible to create a productive work environment anywhere with the right tools. Here’s a recap of my current favorite travel and productivity apps. These are all nomad essentials! The majority of these apps are free or low cost and available on all phone platforms.   1. XE Currency Converter (Free) XE is my favorite currency app. It allows you to add up to 10 currencies and switch easily been them. The best part is that it even works offline using the la ..read more

A long exposure shot of Kuang Si waterfall outside of Luang Prabang, Laos  I kicked off 2023 in Sydney, Australia and will be ringing in 2024 in Thailand. In the last 12 months, I’ve been to 22 countries, which is why I took the last two months to sit still in Chiang Mai, Thailand to recharge. Reflecting on the year is always an exercise in gratitude for the beauty and diversity of the world and my experiences.   People often say I’m “lucky” because I get to travel for a living, which I wrote about in an old post. I’ve always found that slightly offensive because it devalues al ..read more