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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 I landed in Bangkok for the first time in 2009 with a 35-liter backpack, a Lonely Planet that was two editions out of date, and the absolute certainty that I had prepared enough.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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Understanding Vatican Dress Code Basics My father worked for 38 years saying he’d travel when he retired. He retired and then kept finding reasons not to go. I watched that happen and promised myself I wouldn’t do the same thing — which is how I found myself standing outside St….

Understanding Cultural Clothing Expectations I’d never traveled alone before this trip. The thought honestly terrified me — no one to split decisions with, no one to blame if something went sideways. That was also exactly the point. What I hadn’t fully prepared for, though, was how much what I packed…

Understanding Cultural Dress Codes When Traveling We’d been saying “we should all go somewhere together” for six years. After the fourth postponed trip and two weddings that got in the way, we stopped talking and just bought tickets. What we hadn’t done — not even a little — was think…

Understanding Dubai’s Dress Code I found a fare alert on a Thursday afternoon that made absolutely no sense to ignore. By Friday morning I had a ticket and no real plan — which turned out to be the best way to approach the whole thing. Dubai has this reputation for…