This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I landed in Bangkok for the first time in 2009 with a 35-liter backpack, a Lonely Planet that was two editions out of date, and the absolute certainty that I had prepared enough. Within 48 hours…
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The Packing System I Have Used for 10 Years (I Have Never Changed It)
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I used to be a chronic overpacker. Not mildly — embarrassingly so. I once checked a 32-kilogram bag for a 10-day trip to Southeast Asia and spent three days of that trip doing laundry anyway because…
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What 16 Years of Solo Travel Taught Me About Staying Safe
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The first time I got truly scared traveling alone, I was 24 years old on a night train from Budapest to Bucharest. A man had been watching me for two hours. I had no alarm, no…
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The Airport Mistake I Made Once and Have Never Made Again
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. It was 2013, and I was standing at a gate in Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport watching my flight to Tbilisi push back from the jetway. My bag was on that plane. I was not. I had made…
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After 74 Countries: The Travel Insurance Situation That Made Me Rethink Everything
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I was sitting in a hospital in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at 2 a.m., watching a nurse attach an IV drip to my arm, when I realized I had absolutely no idea what my travel insurance actually…
Croatia
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Best Beaches in the Kvarner Gulf: Our Top Picks by Type
I still remember standing on a rocky ledge above the Adriatic somewhere between Krk and Cres, squinting into water so blue and clear it looked photoshopped, thinking: why did nobody tell me about this place sooner? The Kvarner Gulf doesn’t always make the Croatia highlight reel — Dubrovnik hogs the…
Greece
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How to Access and Explore Meteora Monasteries Like a Pro
I’ll be honest with you: the first time I saw photos of Meteora, I assumed they were digitally altered. Monasteries perched on top of impossibly tall rock pillars in central Greece? Sure, okay. But then I actually stood at the base of those formations and looked up, and my brain…
Travel Tips
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Temple Dress Code: What to Wear at Sacred Sites Worldwide
There I was, standing at the entrance of Wat Pho in Bangkok, wearing a perfectly cute sundress — spaghetti straps, mid-thigh hem, the whole tropical vacation look — and a very kind but very firm guard handed me a pair of paper shorts and pointed me toward a changing area….
Thailand
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What to Wear to Temples in Thailand: The Real Outfit Guide
Picture this: you’ve just hauled yourself off an overnight bus, you’re sweaty, slightly delirious from the AC, and you’re standing at the entrance of Wat Pho in Bangkok — one of the most stunning temples you’ve ever seen in your life. And a very polite guard is pointing at your…
Thailand
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Bangkok Temple Dress Code: Rules for Every Major Temple
Picture this: you’ve just sweated through a 45-minute tuk-tuk ride across Bangkok, you’re standing at the entrance of the Grand Palace, and the guard is looking at your strappy sundress like you’ve personally offended the monarchy. A small crowd of equally underdressed tourists shuffles beside you toward a sarong rental…