• How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Travel

    I began my first full-time job out of college in Jacksonville, FL, in April of 2010. In the time period between April 2010 and October 2013 (about 3.5 years), I’d traveled to the following places: Los Angeles, and Spain (Barcelona and Madrid). Those were fun trips, but that was basically it. My weekends consisted of watching sports, movies, TV, reading, and the occasional video game (Football Manager, if you must insist!). Sort of like the “nerdy single guy lifestyle”, if there is such a thing (if there isn’t, I’m claiming it). Travel was always in the ether, always something that I thought about, but never in a serious enough way.  I’d…

  • Weekend at Holiday Inn Club Vacations Orange Lake

    It was another weekend, meaning we’re off to another adventure! This time, we decided to go back to Orlando to try the Holiday Inn Club Vacations Orange Lake Resort, one of the biggest hotel complexes we had ever been! What follows is a review of the property and at the bottom is our cost table. First off, we booked this hotel because it seemed like a great deal and was listed as one of the best uses of IHG points at a few other travel blogs I follow. When the price of the hotel was $130 and had all these amenities plus a chance to get more points c/o of…

  • Is it more dangerous to travel now than before?

    Is it More Dangerous to Travel Now than Before?

    Last week, I read a story about a female tourist murdered in Belize (a beautiful but drug-troubled Caribbean island).  A few months before that, there was another female tourist killed in Nepal.  A few months before that, there were a few horror stories of some European women being raped in India.  And then the story of a French professor who was killed while trekking through Algeria’s mountains.  These stories are tragic, of course, and give one pause, even if you don’t have plans to travel to those countries, but then I am reminded of the wonderful actor and traveler Michael Palin, who summed up Westerners in two words: Wealthy and Worried. Which brings us to…

  • Travel Depression and Coping with it

    This weekend has been particularly tough for me. I realized I’m not enjoying my full time job, and I would like to do something else that will allow me to explore and travel the world. I can’t particularly quit, not just yet, as I am still learning the ins and the outs of making enough income from various means instead of maintaining a desk job. And so, I wrote this post about travel depression & coping with it… in the hopes that I’ll be able to help other people who are going through the same thing that I am. It’s odd though, if you are an adrenaline junkie, you crave…

  • What's it like traveling on Amtrak

    What’s It Like to Travel on Amtrak (Review)

    Train travel is not new to most parts of the world. In fact, it is a daily necessity for people who live in Europe, in India, China, and the Northeast Corridor of the United States. But for many people who live in America, train travel in the United States is mostly overlooked. In this article, we talk about my personal experience on what it’s like taking an Amtrak train: the pros, cons, and everything in between. What’s It Like to Travel on Amtrak For the purposes of this article, we will talk about the Silver Star line, which goes from Miami all the way up north to New York’s Penn…