What is the Favorite Place That You Have Visited?

On June 26, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Travel Tips21 Comments

It is a question that we get asked frequently and one that is sure to make us cringe. How can we pick a single place? So many of them are wonderful for different reasons and as soon as we even try to pick one, it is immediately followed by “but we also loved…”. Perhaps if they were to ask us our favorite exotic location, food destination, place to go hiking, etc. Maybe then we could give an answer that is actually meaningful. Otherwise, we just end up listing a few of our favorite places and why we liked them.

What is the metric that is supposed to be used to determine your favorite place? Is it based on the variety of sites that you visited, how much you liked the people that you met, or is there a measurement for how unique a place might have been. The time of year that you visit, the festivals that you enjoyed, or the food that you ate might also weigh into the decision. The day we start giving the places that we visit a score based upon some factors would be the day that we stopped traveling.

View of the Giza Plateau with Cairo in the Background

View of the Colosseum from the Roman Forum

Obviously there is no way for us to avoid that question, people are truly interested and want to know our thoughts. We wish we could honestly give a single answer, but each experience is so unique in it’s own way. Do you have a travel question that frustrates you whenever you hear it?

The Erechthion in the Acropolis in Athens

Lighthouse on the Northern Coast of Africa in Morocco

Take Time to Visit Small Towns

On June 21, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Travel Tips24 Comments

Obviously the major cities are on everyone’s list when deciding where to go when visiting a country that they haven’t visited before. Part of that is because they are often the main transportation hubs and they also usually have a large number of things to see such as churches, palaces, castles, and museums. However, if you really want to get a true sense of the culture of a country, get out of the large cities and go to some of the small towns. The people are authentic, the restaurants providing local favorites, and the sights, although sometimes simpler, are often truly unique. Don’t expect people in these smaller towns to speak anything other than their native tongue, though, hand gestures and translation apps are an absolute must.

Regardless of where we have traveled, we have found the smaller towns to be some of our favorite memories. Especially if you are fortunate to visit during a time when there are holidays or festivals. There is something truly special about enjoying events such as these where you are the only foreigner in the crowd and you know that what you are enjoying isn’t done for tourism, but simply for the enjoyment of the locals who live in the town and its surrounding farms. We also find these to be great places to look for local artists who might have something that can’t be found anyplace else.

Waiting for Santa Claus in Stratford Upon Avon

Although it is often pleasant to stay in one of these smaller towns, they can also be visited as part of a day trip to get out of the city. Clearly, if you can spend at least a night in one of these towns, you will get an even better sense of the culture. If you spend a few days or even a week there, you might be treated like a local by the time that you leave. Always be sure to ask other locals where to get a good meal as they will be sure to point you in the proper direction. Be sure to slow down while you are visiting these smaller towns, they typically live life at a more leisurely pace, they work hard, but are not in a hurry to rush around and neither should you.

The same is true of your own country. We have enjoyed going to many small towns across the United States and it really is a different view of the area that you are visiting. The people are friendly and, in many ways, it is often like stepping back in time. If you have the opportunity to talk to a local, ask about the history of the area, you will often get a very unique view that you could never get from any sort of guide book. You will definitely be a better traveler if you are willing to get out and explore as many local towns as you possibly can.

Tips for Balancing Life, Blogging, Travel, and Work

On March 5, 2018March 5, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Blogging4 Comments

There are days when wake up and don’t know how we’re are going to get everything done that we need to do on that particular day. With so many obligations and expectations, people often ask us how we manage to get it all done without losing our minds in the process. The short answer is that we don’t get everything done all of the time and that sometimes we simply do the best that we can. Somehow we manage to find the right mix to balance all of the demands that we have on us, but it certainly isn’t as easy as people assume that it is. In many ways, it simply comes down to doing the best that you can with the time that you have and not stressing about the things you can’t get done. To be clear, these tips are for people who want their blogging to be more than a form of social media and sharing with friends and family. With that said, here are a few tips that might keep you from going insane on a daily basis.

Create a Weekly Recurring To-Do List by Day – Obviously, organization is key to staying on track and writing your tasks down will definitely help. There is no way that you can do everything every day, so if you break tasks up into a daily to-do list, it will allow you to focus on items without bouncing all over the place. For example, there are things that we do once a week and we pick a day and make sure we do that task on that day. We create a spreadsheet with the days of the week as columns and the recurring tasks as rows. We then put an “X” in the cell for the day(s) that we intend to complete that task. The rows in the spreadsheet can include things like publishing a post, doing activities on social media, contacting affiliates, etc. If you have other daily tasks that you need to take care of personally, add those to your list as well. When a task is completed, cross it off of the list for that day. There is a certain amount of satisfaction that you receive when you cross items off of you to-do list as being done. Then, at the beginning of the next week, print out a new copy of your to-do list so that you have a fresh copy to work with.
Cathedral Towers in Amsterdam
Use a Calendar to Schedule Your Time – Setting specific time each day to take care of tasks is important. It takes a certain amount of dedication to say that you are going to work on something at a specific time during the day and then not letting other obligations overtake that time. Obviously there will be times when something comes up that is more important and has to happen during the time that you have blocked for a task, but it should definitely be the exception and not the rule. It is easy to let yourself get diverted by other things, especially if a task isn’t your favorite to do, but to be successful, you need to use your time wisely. Clearly, if you are like us, and have full-time jobs on top of blogging, forcing ourselves to schedule our time is extremely important. It allows us to get our posts completed without interfering with our jobs and also making sure that we have time for our personal lives as well.
Lava Eroded into Cliffs in Iceland
Hold Yourself Accountable – We often see posts from people apologizing for not posting for several months because life has gotten too busy. There probably isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t think to ourselves that we just don’t have time to blog and there is the temptation to just let it slip. When you are blogging, you are both the boss and the employee, so you need to put your boss hat on and remind yourself that you have made an obligation to yourself to complete your tasks. If you don’t do something that you are supposed to do, no one will know other than yourself. Therefore, nobody is going to hold you accountable to getting those things done except for yourself. The same is true about making time for your family. You need to be sure that also make sure that you don’t let work, blogging, and other things interfere with your ability to spend quality time with the ones that you love.
Colorful La Paz
Learn to Multitask – To be fair, tests have shown that no one truly ever multitasks, they simply change focus quickly from one task to another. It might sound unfair to say that you need to learn how to multitask, but like almost any other skill, it can be learned with practice. There are certain tasks that take your complete and undivided attention for an extended period of time, but it is likely that the majority of them can be handled in conjunction with other tasks. We often find ourselves working on two, three, or even four tasks simultaneously. Multitasking doesn’t mean that you don’t do your best on each of the tasks, it is more about changing focus quickly and when you are focusing, you give it the full attention that it deserves.
Temples at Mahabalipuram
Give Yourself Time to Take a Break – Right now, you are probably saying that we are being hypocritical to say that you need to give yourself time off. Far from it, everyone needs a break every now and then, especially as complicated as all of our lives are. We use travel as our opportunity to get away from all of the normal work stresses, blog stresses, and even family stresses. That doesn’t mean that we just drop everything and run away. Just like any job, taking time off means getting things in a state prior to leaving where your presence isn’t necessary. That might mean getting a few blog posts written prior to leaving and scheduling them ahead of time. It also might mean just letting everyone know that you will be out of touch for a while. Sometimes, we just take a few minutes during our travel to give a quick update on where we are and what we are doing. Traveling doesn’t always mean that we spend weeks flying around the world, it can be as simple as going someplace for the weekend or even a long weekend if we want to go someplace farther away.
Bridge at Ronda, Spain

No one is perfect and you shouldn’t expect yourself to be “super human”. Be realistic with your expectations and goals. If you are working a job that requires ten hours a day, it certainly isn’t reasonable to expect yourself to spend another four hours a day working on your blog. Perhaps it is something that you only do on the weekend or you work a couple of hours one or two nights a week. Work and life balance is exactly that, it is a balancing act. If you find yourself leaning too far one direction or another, you need to adjust and bring it back in line. How do you balance everything going on in your life?