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Guest post – Why the world needs more laptop friendly cafes

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Karen Bryan

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I found a link to the Laptop Friendly Cafes site, which lists cafes which offer free wifi in a user friendly environment, in one of my Google Alerts and my ears pricked up. Since I bought my netbook in February 2009 and my unsatisfactory experience with the FON wifi community, finding free, reliable wifi has become a real issue with me. I contacted Craig, the founder of Laptop Friendly Cafes, to ask him to do a guest post for Europe a la Carte.

“Whether you’re a traveller, a student, or someone who likes to work away from the home or office, a good laptop-friendly cafe can make your life a whole lot better!

Laptop friendly cafes

Below are some good reasons why we need more laptop friendly cafes:

Travel
When travelling, especially on a budget you need all help you can get. Internet cafes are good, but can sometimes be a bit of an unpleasant experience because there are so many people packed in to a small place. So if like myself and a lot of other travellers, you take your laptop with you on some trips, laptop friendly cafes are perfect because you get a free internet connection – saving you money, power outlets to keep you up and running and a more pleasant environment to catch up on your emails, post your travel pics and generally surf the web with a good coffee in a
comfortable chair.

Working off site
As more and more of us are spending a great deal of time in front of our laptops at work meeting impossible deadlines, it’s important that we are productive. A lot of offices are quite hectic with phones ringing, chatter from meetings and general office banter, all taking our attention away from the task at hand. If you do have the luxury of working off site, a good laptop friendly cafe is the perfect environment for getting some work done in an uninterrupted, productive environment with the use of free wifi to keep up to date and in touch with your work emails.

Studying
Being a student is tough, you’re normally sharing a house with possibly 4-6 other people, and a quiet space to focus on study can be hard to come by. A broadband connection in a shared house can also be expensive and all too often slow or unreliable. A free wifi connection and a quiet corner with a table and chair in a cafe can be great escape from the madness that is student housing. The best time to go to the cafes is the off peak times, mid afternoon onwards as you avoid the morning coffee rush and most cafes are happy to have customers in seats buying the occasional coffee in quiet times.”

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Posted in Guest interviews, Technology by Karen Bryan | 4 Comments »

Guest interview – Otto Stricker of Earth.org

Thursday, June 4th, 2009Karen Bryan

I first read about Earth.org on the TravelBlogExchange site. I though that the idea of a non profit travel wiki sounded interesting. Otto Stricker, the founder, tells Europe a la Carte about the site.

earth.org logo

1 What is the aim of Earth.org?

Imagine a destination with free and trustworthy travel information. Imagine that all this information comes from YOU and your fellow travellers from all over the world. Now there is a destination for you to find travel information and share your knowledge: Earth.org is a newly launched, collaboratively written online travel guide with a non-profit-approach. With Earth.org, we all write travel guides, together.

2 Why did you start Earth.org?

Our wish is to provide responsible travel information that travellers can trust. Reliable and trustworthy travel information can be difficult to find on the Internet. At the same time, we have always had one overwhelming thought: Can we build a house if everyone brings one brick, contributing one little piece at a time? It is a beautiful idea to all work together to build this house. Just like the house, the collaborative editing of articles is a perfect way to assemble knowledge. This is also called a Wiki. So, the collaborative process of assembling information online is the perfect way to provide reliable and trustworthy travel information.

We also want a project that gives back – selfishly for our lives and holistically for our beautiful planet earth. This refers to our non-profit approach. Our only interest is the Earth.org traveller!

3 What has been the hardest aspect of setting up the site?

Earth.org is built from a 100% remote team. Remote work is new. Remote work is independent in respect to the workers location. It is working together from remote locations through the Internet. Be it a bedroom in San Francisco or a beach in Bali. Most of the team members have never seen each other. That’s somehow strange. Some have seen others, some have seen only few, many have also seen no one, but no one has seen all! And we are 100% remote- which means: No one is sitting next to anyone. We have no office, but it works! That also means that we have to cope with different time zones and even different seasons. Imagine, Justin in the US, Otto in Australia and Anne in France. At least one person has to be prepared for a late-night chat :-). As we have grown, we have found communication tools that allow us to work more efficiently. It certainly has been a learning process with ups and downs!

Remote work has had its challenges, but we are pleased to work with the best from all over our beautiful planet earth. So, whomever works for Earth.org can work from anywhere, and in anyway. The only thing required: A positive attitude.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened while working on the site?

A part of the team started working for Earth.org in the beautiful country of India; just some people sitting together in an office in Bangalore. Aside from the frequent powercuts (once we had higher voltage and a computer burst into flames…), we had to face a few uniquely “Indian” incidents. Flooding in front of the office and the scantily clad prayer who sacrificed our computers and scattered flowers in the elevator are examples that come to mind. We all enjoyed the time in India and team members became good friends. Now, as we are spread all over the world, our time in India works to keep our relationship strong. We live differently, we have different languages and cultures, but we are tied together through our wonderful project Earth.org.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

In the very beginning we tried out work situations with programmers from India and volunteer interns from all over the world. Most of the interns eventually returned to their home countries or (as those of us in this line of work tend to do!) went travelling, and we frequently had to search for new team members to replace those who left. The turnover prevented the stable and steady progress of our project. With the benefit of hindsight we would select a team of professional remote workers from the first day on.

In general and without reservation, we would not hesitate to start this project again, giving Earth.org the chance to grow and giving people all over the world the chance to be part of a very special project.

My comments – I totally agree about it being hard to find reliable travel information on the interent, there’s certainly plenty of information but how to differentiate between the wheat and the chaff is the challenge. I can relate to remote working as my partner on the recently launched travel aggregation site, Top Travel Content Europe, is a new Zealander and with a thirteen hour time difference you have plan times for communication.

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Posted in Guest interviews by Karen Bryan | 1 Comment »

Guest interview – Yigal Schleifer and Ansel Mullins of Istanbul Eats

Monday, June 1st, 2009Karen Bryan

Istanbul Eats, with the strap line “a serious eater’s guide to the city”, caught my eye as the May 2009 Guardian Travel Blog of the Month. Founders Yigal Schleifer and Ansel Mullins tell us about the blog.

Istanbul Eats

Ciya Sofrasi Restaurant, Istanbul

1 What is the aim of your blog?

Istanbul Eats aims to navigate serious eaters through the culinary backstreets of Istanbul, celebrating the best in local Turkish no-frills dining (and, occasionally, more upscale places that we think deserve more attention).

2 What prompted you to start your own blog?

We recognized a serious informational void on our beloved subject of dining in Istanbul, so we decided to do something about it. We started Istanbul Eats in order widen the perspective of dining in Istanbul and share our favorite lesser-known spots with others. Until Istanbul Eats there was no real resource on these great local eateries. Most visitors never had the chance to try the yeni dunya (loquat) kebab or a perfect lahmacun, because they had no way to find it. We like to think that our blog helps people in Istanbul decide what to eat and where to eat it.

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your blog?

We didn’t fully realize before launching just how much the blog is a beast that demands to be fed and one that can very easily take over your life.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your blog?

Since starting the blog, we’ve been watching, with some amusement (and alarm), our waists expand.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

I think we would’ve done more careful planning on the design and functions of the blog. We were eager to launch, but a month after launching in a fairly simple format we had the blog totally redesigned. We are still working the kinks out of the new look.

My comments – If I ever make it to Istanbul, I’ll be printing out Istanbul Eats recommendations for local eateries. Your expanding waistlines are surely a testament to the great food. You’re making me feel at bit nervous about the current revamp of the Europe a la Carte Blog to magazine style by saying that there are glitches a month after your redesign.

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Posted in Blogs, Guest interviews, Restaurants, Turkey by Karen Bryan | 1 Comment »

Guest Interview – David Kamm of The Greek Cat

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009Karen Bryan

In this guest interview, David Kamm of The Greek Cat gives Europe a la Carte some background into his blog. I came across David on Twitter and initially I was unsure of whether The Greek Cat meant the cat (animal) or the Greek term “cat” which means a young male who is a smooth operator with the opposite sex. As soon as I clicked on David’s blog and saw the beautiful photos of the (animal) cats with stunning Greek island backgrounds, I emailed David to ask him to do a guest post, even although I’m not personally a lover of cats.

The Greek Cat

David Kamm of The Greek Cat

1 What is the aim of your blog?

The primary aim of my travel photography blog is to highlight some of the ‘real’ cats of Greece (cats of the Greek Islands in particular), as found in their everyday settings and activities. The reality is that there is a serious problem with cat overpopulation in Greece, so stray cats are certainly easy to find for photographic subject material. And while many of these cats are in pretty good shape and seem to be living well – at least during tourist season – in most cases they are not the idealized, model cats and kittens you see pictured in the calendars sold in the Greek tourist shops.

I don’t really think of myself as an ‘animal activist’, but I do care about animals and pets (we used to have two cats), so this was a fun travel photography self-assignment. My blog also includes links to some animal welfare groups that are trying to help the stray/feral cats of Greece.

And just to mix in some other things while still staying true to a Greek theme, I also include some photographs that are more typical of travel photography in Greece – landscapes, food, people, etc. But this blog will for the most part remain focused on the many cats we encountered there.

In the end, my hope is that people who like Greece, cats, photography, and travel – or any combination of these – will find something to enjoy in my blog.

2 What prompted you to start your blog?

The short answer is that I had accumulated a decent number of cat images from two recent trips to Greece, and decided that a niche travel photography blog would be a good outlet for them.

For a little more background, my wife and I first went to Greece in 2002, and we noticed all the cats near our hotel on Samos island, which is off the coast of Turkey. I was just reviving my interest in SLR-based photography back then, and didn’t really come back with any great photos of anything. We went back (to the Cyclades islands) in 2007, and that’s where I first really focused on shooting ‘cat portraits’ with my Pentax K10D DSLR. Everything in the blog so far is from that trip. Then we traveled to the Saronic Gulf islands last fall, and I knew ahead of time that I’d be working to add to my collection of cat images while there. I’ll be posting and writing about those images a little later this year.

Also last fall, I became increasingly interested in social media tools, such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., for personal and professional reasons, and so decided to dive in using the Greek cats theme as a basis for that. It’s been a great way to learn the ropes, and hopefully some people are enjoying the output from my efforts.

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your own blog?

I think it’s got to be the discipline aspect of posting on a reasonably regular basis, and trying to keep it interesting for readers. The blog definitely is an important complement to my photography now, but it does take time, and unfortunately has to take a back seat to my day job. Still, it’s a great way to show some (hopefully) decent images that would otherwise just be sitting on my PC’s hard drive, or in some online gallery with no real story content and reader interaction.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your blog?

It’s got to be that I now have actual ‘cats’ following me on Twitter. Who would have guessed that some cats are smart enough to sign up for Twitter accounts, post little profile pictures of themselves, and tweet about their daily routines? :-) The same thing has happened on my ‘Greek Cat’ Facebook page, which I’ve really not spent much time on at all. I guess these aren’t really blog-specific examples, but they all tie into one another, with the photo blog as my content anchor for everything else.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

The main thing I wonder about is my decision to use a fully-hosted blogging tool, vs. a self-hosted platform such as Wordpress.org. But so far I’m fine with the simplicity of the hosted option. And since I own the www.greekcat.com domain, I’ll probably point that to my blog pretty soon.

The other thing I may reconsider is my image sizing. I currently post the photos at 400 pixels wide, which isn’t large enough to maximize their impact. But it fits my Blogger template, so that’s how I got started with that sizing. I may decide to link those blog images to larger versions at some point.

My Comments – I certainly remember lots of cats gathering around restaurants tables when I was on the Greek Islands. Your photos really do capture the essence of the Greek islands.

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Posted in Greece, Guest interviews, Photos by Karen Bryan | 2 Comments »

Guest interview – Bart van Poll of Spotted by Locals

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009Karen Bryan

When I read about SpottedbyLocals.com, which aims to help readers “experience cities like a local”, I thought what a great idea, as I’m all for seeing beyond the usual tourist destinations when travelling. Bart van Poll, co-founder of Spotted by Locals talks to Europe a la Carte.

Spotted by Locals founders Bart and Sanne

Spotted by Locals founders, Bart and Sanne van Poll

1 What is the aim of your blog?

Spotted by Locals is a publisher of 21 cityblogs. On these cityblogs, locals write about their favorite spots (bars, restaurants, art & culture, places to relax, etc.) in the city they love.

With our cityblogs, we aim to make travelers experience cities like a local. Our aim is to make travelers learn about other cultures and habits, by making travelers experience places like a local would. We are convinced that understanding other cultures makes the world a better place. We hope we can make a modest contribution…

Our blogs are not for everybody. It’s usually experienced travelers who are attracted to our cityblogs. They are looking for a different, more authentic experience then just visiting the highlights…

Another mission of ours is to help launch the careers of our talented Spotters. Many of them are aspiring journalists, writers or photographers. We have already been able to publish their names and pictures in other publications like Le Monde (France) Guardian, Bild (Germany), Blick (Switzerland) and La Vanguardia (Spain)

As for our concept; we think a few things makes us different from our “competitors”.

First of all, tips are written by “real” locals (”Spotters”), who speak the local language. Not by travelers or professional writers, like in most travel guides and on user generated travel websites. Visitors can see who’s the person behind the articles, because all Spotters have a personal profile and picture on the cityblogs. Spotters are not motivated by money, but write because they love the city they live in, and want to share their passion for their city! We handpick all Spotters ourselves, after a personal meeting in their city.

All our tips are always up-to-date. Our Spotters only write about places they visit regularly, and update the information in the article whenever necessary. Which is usually very often, because spots tend to change a lot! The problem with a paper guidebook, is that they often cannot keep up with the rapid changes in a city.

Finally, all tips are in English. Most individual city-bloggers write in their native language

2 What prompted you to start your blog?

We are mad about traveling. and experiences other cultures. We visited more than 40 countries together since we met in 1998. We married in 2006.

A perfect life for us would mean lots of traveling together, meeting new people all around the world, while also contributing a bit to a better world. This future dream, together with a belief in the concept (see next paragraph) made us start Spotted by Locals.

Sanne sold her company at the beginning of 2008, the same time I quit my job. Since then, we’ve both been working full-time on Spotted by Locals

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your own blog?

There are so many enthusiastic people, passionate about their city, who want to become a Spotter! We get e-mails from all over the world, from Accra (Ghana) to Vilnius (Lithuania). As we focus on quality, we want to meet all Spotters before they start. We make a strict selection in the people we meet, as we only want 3 to 6 Spotters per city. It’s often very difficult to disappoint enthusiastic people that want to become a Spotter for the love of their city.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your blog?

A few months ago, Pedro Ghinaglia, one of our Barcelona cityblog bloggers (”Spotters”) told us a very funny story. He was sitting in one of his favorite spots, that he obviously wrote about on the Barcelona cityblog. Two German speaking people sat next to him, and started talking about the Spotted by Locals tips they had printed out. Pedro was very excited when he heard this. He approached them, and told them that he was one of the Barcelona Spotters! They had a very nice evening together, and now Pedro has friends in Austria!

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

It’s a boring answer maybe, but: no. All the phases we have gone though up until now, have been a lot of fun, and quite succesful. The next phase we’re just starting, attracting sponsors and advertisers, will be a new interesting challenge though I think.

My comments

Thanks for talking to Europe a la Carte, Bart. I hope that all goes smoothly with the further development of SpottedbyLocals.com. It is a challenge to attract sponsors and advertisers. It’s all very well to create great content, as you have, but if you are both working full time on the business you need to see a financial return for your time and effort.

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Posted in Blogs, Guest interviews by Karen Bryan | 3 Comments »

Guest interview – Stella Stopfer of European Travelling Advisor

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008Karen Bryan

Stella in Northern Ireland

Stella in Northern Ireland

I came across Stella’s European Travelling Advisor in a Google Alert which picked up her piece about European Festivals in October. I always like to promote other sites which feature useful and interesting content about travel in Europe for readers, so I contacted Stella to ask if she’d do a guest interview for the Europe a la Carte online magazine. I think that you’ll agree that European Travelling Advisor does what is says in the title.


What is the aim of your blog?

Education. I think that people today lack education about travel. What I mean by that is getting away from hundreds of guides that all talk about the same thing and agencies where you buy «instant pleasure» as I like to call it. We all know what happens when you come into a travel agency; you are offered a few coulourful papers, already made itineraries that are supposed to satisfy travelers with different tastes and interests. People don’t think much about the trip itself, only about the destination. They go there because they might like it or because somebody else liked it. I’m trying to bring about awareness about all the possibility and variety of travel experiences. Also, getting into a lot of aspects of travel, teach people that they, themselves, can plan better itineraries than the agency would provide them with. Not only accommodation wise, but budget wise too. And the foremost benefit, teach them how to personalize their travel adventure, by meeting their needs, their interests…

What prompted you to start your blog?

I guess two things. Searching the internet about travel, I was surprised that there are almost no websites that provide travelers with good advice. There are a lot of websites and blogs where people talk about their experiences, what they saw and did travelling to certain places, which I like to read myself because I have a lot of travel experience and fun days on the road. The rest is just rewriting articles from magazines or talking, giving advice about cities and places they haven’t visited.

The second thing that prompted me to start writing my blog were the conversations I had with other people. I was surprised how little people knew about travel and all sorts of events going on around Europe. Or the fact that they didn’t have the answer to a simple question like «Why did you decide to go to Spain?» and getting them excited when talking about what they can do at a certain place they were interested in. At the end of conversation though, I would get the same comment: «You have planned so many trips, you have the knowledge, the experience, but I don’t know what you know…» and right there they would give up on something that put a smile on their face just seconds ago.

What has been the hardest aspect of having your own blog?

I enjoy every aspect of it, from deciding what subjects I will bring every week, the writing itself to seeing what pleases to my readers the most. Something that is maybe a little challenging is providing really good information to my readers in a way that appeals to them but at the same time staying true to my writing tone and my point of view.

What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your blog?

Very quickly I started getting comments to my blog and the first time it happened, in just a few days, people posted a lot of comments. I have been writing a lot about different subjects for a long time now because I enjoy it. But I have never shown my work to anyone, except my best friend and sometimes a few other people. So the first time I started getting comments was a little overwhelming and I was going crazy thinking «OMG, there are people actually reading my work!» …of course they were, I made it public, with a clear goal but I just wasn’t expecting to appear to me so real in such a short period of time. Silly, I know…

Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

I wouldn’t do anything differently, I can always introduce new topics and later on engage my readers more in creation of my blog, considering their interests. But I will stay true to my style and my point of view. That way you stay recognizable and show that you walk your talk which is one of the most important things if you want to connect and gain trust.

My comments – Stella and I are certainly on the same wavelength about the advantages of planning your own trips in Europe to see what really interests you and get better value for money. Yes, there is loads of travel content on the internet but it’s not always easy to find quality content which is relevant to you and your travel preferences.

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Posted in Blogs, Guest interviews by Karen Bryan | 6 Comments »

Guest interview – Andreas Palikiras of Ionian Weddings

Friday, October 17th, 2008Karen Bryan

I read about Ionian weddings in a press release and was astounded by the excellent value for money weddings that they arrange in Greece. I wrote about the hiring your own Greek island for your wedding ceremony and a reception for 20 guests which costs 3800 euro in the Wandalust blog. I contacted the founder of Ionian Weddings, Andreas Palikiras and asked him if he’d do a guest interview for the Europe a la Carte blog.

1 What is the aim of your business?

We want to be the number one wedding planning consultancy for brides and grooms planning to marry in Greece. This means a bespoke, unbiased and personal service here in the UK right up to the couple’s departure matched by professional and friendly planners at our featured destinations to make each wedding experience unique and unforgettable.

2 What prompted you to start your own business?

Our own wedding in Corfu. Even though I am Greek, speak the language fluently and understand the culture, my wife and I found that we spent a lot of time and money researching venues, chasing replies from local suppliers and we realised how difficult and stressful it would be for a British couple
who didn’t speak Greek to try to do this, especially from a distance. At the same time we realised that Greece had huge potential for weddings as there are some stunning venues to choose from, the weather is fantastic and it costs a fraction of the average UK wedding. When our guests (both Greek and English) commented that ours was the best wedding they had been to and joked that we should organise weddings for a living we decided to make a go of it!

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your own business?

As we specialise in the Greek islands, we spend a lot of time on resort and venue inspections, meeting our partners and constantly developing new wedding ideas. We always try to combine these trips with some holiday time but it never quite happens! But then, we’d rather be working on a beautiful Greek island than in a stuffy office in central London!

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your own
business?

We have a policy of speaking to the couple rather than other people on their behalf. Sometimes parents ring up or enquire and on one occasion we were dealing with the father of the bride. When we asked to speak to the bride to get her views, he wrote back saying “The bride is my daughter who has been sat here with me reading your mails. Believe me she is not bound and gagged even though it may sound like an arranged marriage by dad”.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

Starting Ionian Weddings earlier. We have witnessed a huge increase in bookings in a relatively short space of time and people are now searching for our brand name which is fantastic. We love what we do and wish we had taken the leap to starting our new business earlier.

My comments – Andreas, I can relate to planning to have a holiday and it ending up being a business trip, it is hard to switch off when you are running your own business. Unfortunately the increase of the value of the euro against the British pound must have increased the cost of Greek weddings to British clients but it’s still fantastic value for money for a romantic wedding in a beautiful, sunny location.

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Posted in Greece, Guest interviews, Themed holidays by Karen Bryan | 3 Comments »

Guest interview – Brittany Averette of Euros Ate My Dollars

Friday, August 29th, 2008Karen Bryan

I stumbled upon the Euros Ate My Dollars blog and asked Brittany one the co-authors to talk to Europe a la Carte to tell us more about the blog.

1 What is the aim of your blog?

I guess the boring answer is that a blog was a way for our friends and family to keep up with us while at the same time keeping a journal of our trip. In the end, we put a lot more information on the site than we’d planned–we were inspired by all of the travelers/bloggers that had helped us out on our journey, and wanted to share what we’d learned with the travelers who might come after us. Okay, really, we’d just bought a new camera and wanted to use it. And there’s no way I couldn’t use the internet for eight months!

2 What prompted you to start your blog?

Our biggest inspiration for taking this trip was the blogs of other travelers. So when we decided to take a trip of our own, it just felt natural to share our experiences in the same way.

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your own blog?

The hardest thing is probably being in situations where you REALLY want to post an entry, but are unable to for some frustrating reason. Like not finding internet access for less than $9/hour in Europe or looking everywhere for a WIFI signal and then realizing you’re in rural Cambodia.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your blog?

Speaking of Cambodia, I think the funniest thing would be the time we randomly ran into two fellow travelers at Angkor Wat who we’d corresponded with months earlier. Because when you’re climbing a mountain in Cambodia, the last thing you expect to happen is for somebody to turn around and ask “hey…do you have a blog?” Check out the story here.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

Get cell phones! We used Skype. It’s a great program, but no internet = you can’t email OR call. Not a very comforting feeling.

My comments – Staying connected to the internet and at a reasonable cost is a major challenge when travelling. Skype is great for making free or cheap calls to other countries but I wonder if you would be able to get cell phone coverage in rural areas. I know in some parts of Scotland coverage is patchy.

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Posted in Guest interviews by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

Guest interview – Austin Hill of Travellious

Monday, August 25th, 2008Karen Bryan

Austin Hill is co-founder of the Travellious blog which urges us to travel smarter, often and rebelliously.

1 What is the aim of your blog?

Travellious is a blog for the independent traveler: offering advice, inspiration, and resources for planning your own travel adventure. Too often we’ve seen and experienced what we call “passive travel,” where the urge to run through a checklist of landmarks overshadows a real travel experience. Rather than providing you with a travel guide, we’re setting out to educate and empower others to create their own unique travel experience. If we can get just one person to travel who has never traveled before, or get someone to reconsider how they travel, we’d consider it a success.

2 What prompted you to start your blog?

We’ve both been avid travelers for the past 10 years or so. The more we’ve traveled, the less we found ourselves relying on travel guides and more on our friends’ advice, our intuition, and the virtual advice available from the Internet. The impetus to start a website came from our want to share our approach to travel: traveling simply, smartly, and actively. The site reflects those goals and provides a forum for our advice, inspiration, and education with the intent to instill our readers with the confidence to travel on their own.

3 What has been the hardest aspect of having your blog?

Letting ourselves just go and not be so calculated about it. We spent months planning and brainstorming trying to build a strong foundation, which has been a great asset. However, we sometimes need to remind ourselves to just go for it and learn from experience, just like in travel.

4 What is the funniest thing that has happened to you running your blog?

We’ve been blessed to not have any major incidents (knock on wood), so unfortunately we don’t have any tales of woe to recount. The closest we’ve come was our latest site upgrade, which kept us up all night . It reminded us of studying for exams in college….too much coffee and sleep deprivation can lead to delirium and some funny conversations.

5 Is there anything you would do differently with the benefit of hindsight?

We would have spent less time planning and just start writing. Yes, a blog needs a strong foundation and direction, but the process is what helps you define and redefine your goal and message. Experimenting, brainstorming and just trying anything and everything is what got us to the point we are today.

My comments – I totally agree with you about many people’s idea of travel being having a list of landmarks and feeling that they have missed out if they don’t manage to whizz around them in jig time. I’d advocate seeing less properly than this mad dash. during which you see nothing properly. I love the advice from Jan Morris, “The best way to find out about a place is wander around. Wander around, alone, with all your antennae out thinking about what’s happening and what you see and what you feel.”

I think it may be a positive thing that you spend a fair amount of time planning your blog, rather than just launching into it. There are so many travel related blogs out there and I believe that one’s blog has to have something unique to attract and retain readers, whether that is the personality of the author(s), the style of writing and/or the focus of the content.

It must be great to have a blogging partner, so can discuss things and share tasks as it can be quite isolating working away on a blog on your own.

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Posted in Blogs, Guest interviews by Karen Bryan | No Comments »

Is a Hostel Really Right for Me?

Monday, August 18th, 2008Karen Bryan

In this guest post Jennifer Gregory advises travelllers to consider if a hostel will suit their needs.   Jennifer is a writer with a passion for travel. After completing her degrees in Social Work and eBusiness, she traveled through Europe, across America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. She now writes for On the Go Travel Blog.

My first trip across Europe was an amazing experience. I was on a limited budget and had little cash to spend on rental cars, cabs, expensive restaurants, and fancy hotels. Instead, I opted to hike, bike, eat locally, and spend my evenings in hostels.


Hostel by Ranciedad

Hostels are an inexpensive, and sometimes free, alternative to costly hotels or motels. While most hostels will meet your basic needs, they definitely don’t provide the amenities or accommodations you’ve come to expect from regular hotels. Hostels aren’t for everyone, and that’s ok.

It’s incredibly important, however, to determine whether or not staying in a hostel is going to be right for you before you leave on your trip. You don’t want to waste your time in Europe scrambling for a last-minute hotel room when you could be taking in the sights on what is likely going to be a once-in-a-lifetime vacation experience!

Take the following into consideration as you plan your trip:

Hostels provide travelers with a certain degree of flexibility. It’s often easier to find a hostel at a moment’s notice than it is to book a hotel room. While some hostels will allow you to make reservations in advance, some do not. Make sure you purchase a good guide book so that you’ll have information on all of the area’s hostels before you arrive. If you have a set agenda, making reservations in advance is recommended. Staying in hostels allows for a certain degree of flexibility in that you aren’t wedded to a particular destination each day or evening – you can change your travel schedule without worrying about hotel cancellation fees and late arrival charges. If you are anxious about not knowing where you’ll stay each night, hostels may not be the right choice.

Don’t be surprised when the hostel receptionist asks you if you’d like to sleep in a same-sex or co-ed room. Some hostels offer both types of rooms while others do not. Decide in advance and know what you’ll do if presented with this situation. This is most uncomfortable if you should happen to be traveling alone and find yourself at a hostel with co-ed rooms only. Otherwise, you’ll likely enjoy a same-sex room unless you are traveling in mixed company, in which case you might want to stay together.

You may have to rent sheets or purchase shower tokens. You’ll want to make sure you have flip-flops to wear in the showers, and you’ll have a limited amount of time to spend depending on the number of tokens you’ve purchased. Learn to shower quickly. If you can’t live without a 30 minute shower, you may be better off in a hotel.

Ask about the hostel’s opening and closing schedule. Arrive early enough to get a good night’s sleep while planning to rise early. Most of your roommates are likely to get up early, and they will start making noise, so it’s not likely that you’ll have an opportunity to sleep in late – ever. If you’re planning a leisurely vacation, and want the flexibility of sleeping late or getting up early, a hostel may not be the best choice.

There are, of course, quite a few things to consider when deciding whether or not to stay in a hostel during your travels. Be sure to research the area in which you’ll be traveling by checking out the websites or calling the hostels you might visit. Gather as much information as possible and, whether you choose a hostel or a discount hotel in Europe, you’ll always be prepared!

My comments – I think that there’s a lot of confusion about the definition of a hostel versus a budget hotel, I’ve written about this in the Wandalust post,” Hostels – Doss Houses or Trendy Budget Accommodation“. I stayed at the Generator Hostel in Berlin when I attended the ITB in March 2008, mainly because hotel prices were so inflated due to the Travel Fair and I wasn’t prepared to pay more than 100 euro per night for a hotel room.

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Posted in Accommodation, Budget options, Guest interviews by Karen Bryan | 7 Comments »

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