Adventures, food, photos - come here to read and see all the shenanigans we've gotten in to on our travels.
Getting sick on the road is the easiest way to slow down or force you to cancel your travel plans. The ills that can await you in foreign countries are often very different from those you’ve faced on a daily basis at home. In addition to travel health insurance, travel vaccinations are an important part of being prepared to stay healthy in your travels...
We are big believers in never paying full price for anything. So when we started gearing up for our trip, we focused our efforts on websites with great deals and sale sections. Below are the top 3 sites we used to purchase our gear. You’ll notice that most of them are rather specific to outdoor clothing (travel, hiking, etc.) because we wanted items that were light, quick-drying, moisture wicking, breathable and easy to wash.
I’m pretty sure we purchased more than 70% of our apparel from Sierra Trading Post. At least. On top of their extensive sale section, you can sign up for their newsletter and they’ll send you daily deals with further discounted items. Talk about savings! According to them, we’ve saved more than $800 off MSRP for pieces from Columbia, Icebreaker, Lolë, ExOfficio, The North Face, and more.
Note: The items are so much cheaper because STP sells seconds, overstocks and closeouts. A lot of the time, you end getting older models. However, we’ve found that since they look nearly identical to the current models, it doesn’t make much of a difference.
This site is unlike any other in that it runs new deals every thirty minutes (or less if the product gets sold out). This section, or what they call “current steal”, will include outdoor clothes as well as equipment. We found a great price on our packing cubes here. They also recently launched their “gear cache” section, which is similar to other flash sale sites.
Okay, Amazon does not specialize in outdoor clothes but they always seem to have good prices on a lot of items. What we like most if their wide variety of brands and... the reviews! Since we bought most of our clothes online, Amazon reviews came in really handy.
Other sites we used include:
The Clymb: flash sale site that specializes in outdoor gear
Shop It To Me: great site that searches leading retailers and will email you a daily or weekly summary of new items that go on sale in your size
They don’t have all the brands we like but Tyler found his North Face soft shell for almost half off with Shop It To Me
Moosejaw, Backcountry & BackcountryEdge: similar to STP, they provide great deals and sales
We purchased our packs on sale from BackcountryEdge (23% off) and received a free Platypus Platy Bottle for signing up for their newsletter!
Please stay tuned as we’ll be sharing our packing lists in the upcoming week!
When we first started thinking of taking this trip, I assumed that most people did the same thing - take huge packs and carry everything you might possibly need. I mean, what else would you do? Who knows when you might need those dress shoes or that third hat? Then I spent way too much time reading all the posts from the minimalist crowd and one day I thought, man, that’s awesome! I’d love to travel the world and never have to check a bag. I rushed home that night to tell Anaïs about it...
Read MoreSo, we earned all these miles through churning credit cards and spending money. How are we going to use them? Keep reading to find out...
Read MoreEarning the miles is only half the battle: you still have to redeem those miles to get you where you want to go. Here are your options and some general advice on how to book your awards.