Tips for Planning Cultural Trips

Posted in the cultural traveler

I bet you are actively looking for some tips on planning your next cultural trip.

Here are some tips:

Festivals/Holidays – An easy tip, plan your trip around a Festival or National holiday in the destination. Festivals are a blast and a great way to celebrate with the community. Go to India/Nepal during Holi or visit Paris during Bastille day. You can explore, while enjoying one of the best parts of the year for the country.

Accommodation – stay in people’s homes with AirBnb instead of in a hotel or hostel. Find a family that wants to show you around the town instead of reading a map.

HelpX, Wwoof, Volunteer – find cool places to stay amongst the communities. Spend a month picking rice in Vietnam, or in the vineyards of Australia, or at a farm in the south of France. You can stay with your family

Visit the countryside – go to the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua and just “be” amongst the indigenous tribes. Get out of the city and go explore new areas.

Take public transit – instead of taking a plane from Kathmandu to Pokhara, Nepal, take the public bus so that you can meet some of the locals and experience normal everyday life for them.

Get lost – walk down random streets and find off the beaten path bars and restaurants. Get far away from the tourist streets and find hole-in-the-wall places. Spend time in the Ruin bars of Budapest instead of downtown bars.

Eat like the locals – find food markets, picnic in parks, go to farmer markets, ask locals where to eat. Stay away from HardRock Café. Instead of going to the main restaurants in the city center of Krakow, Poland, go to milk bars around the city for a locals experience.

Watch street performers – for a real local experience, watch some street performers for a fun time.

Themed walking tours – In Edinburgh, I took a Dark History walking tour and learned about Edinburgh’s witchcraft, grave diggers, well known murder stories, and much more. These are not too expensive either and are really great for exploration.

Go on a Pub Crawl – especially for places that are notorious for bar crawls. Such a fun way to hang out with the locals.

Do research – Learn about the history, culture, dance, food, music, and more about the country before you go. Then you know what to look for when you are there and how to find it all to have a true cultural experience.

This is just a starting list, let’s chat more about other things you can do!

The Ultimate Thai Delicacy

Posted in travel blog

Thai Cuisine

I am not exaggerating when I say that one of the main reasons I was dreading leaving Thailand was that the food is just so, absolutely, fantastically, wonderfully, “bloody” amazing! I swear that each dish I tried just got better and better.

To begin, the exotic fruit. I believe that I have found a new obsession, Mangosteen. They are these delicious little balls that hold the richest and sweetest tasting fruit inside. I guess the best way to describe the taste is a beautiful combination of a ripe cherry and a tangerine combined into one little fruit. I averaged 20 a day. Another exotic fruit called Durian comes with a warning: DELICIOUS BUT DO NOT LEAVE IN A SMALL CONFINED SPACE. The reason for this warning is because it smells like serious body odor, but is actually pretty deliciously fascinating. I unfortunately did not heed to the warning and left the fruit in my room over night. I woke up the next morning, smelling every article of clothing until I could find where the stench came from and BINGO, durian was the winner!

One of the best parts about Thailand is that street food is probably better than restaurant food. Don’t be afraid to try food, you will likely not regret it!