Indie Travel Podcast

It's summer here in New Zealand, and we're trying to make the most of it. The weather is a little erratic, but it's definitely better what the Northern Hemisphere is experiencing at the moment. If you're heading this way for a touch of sun, or if you plan to visit next summer, there are a few ways to really experience a Kiwi summer. That said, these tips also apply to Australia, if you change the slang a little bit. For more, visit http://indietravelpodcast.com/podcast/enjoy-nz-summer/

New York City hardly requires any introduction— people in even the most remote corners of the world have heard of this dynamic city, and most travelers — regardless of their budget — aspire to pass through this so-called “crossroads of the world” at some point. But there’s the New York City of TV and movie fame and the New York City of guidebooks. Both are different from the New York of New Yorkers. New York City means different things to different people… maybe that’s why it has so many nicknames. One writer has documented as many as 98, though I’d never heard of half of them. The three most popular nicknames — and the ones you’ve probably heard before — are The Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps, and Gotham. For more visit http://indietravelpodcast.com/podcast/new-york-travel-guide/

American road trip to four beautiful spots: Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon near Paige, Arizona, Virgin River in Zion National Park and Bryce National Park.

Tokyo, Japan is a busy city full of interesting sites and sounds, but what do you do if you are in Tokyo for Christmas, or New Year's Eve?

This week we speak with Kirsty and Carly Stark who have recently completed a six-week roadtrip in New South Wales, Australia as part of the WorldNomads Vantastic programme. Kirsty and Carly are sisters from South Australia, so they felt it was a great chance to see the sights and experience another part of Australia as they travelled from Brisbane down the coast to Sydney. They won the gig by putting together a cool video as part of their application. I love the stop-motion; great stuff! See videos and photos at http://indietravelpodcast.com. In the end, their number one road trip tip was to try to see less in more time. Even with six weeks the coastal highway through NSW was still too long! There were too many things to do and not enough time. There are still two chances to be part of Vantastic, so check out the application process.

Sometimes you want to travel but it’s just not possible – perhaps you can’t get the time off work, or you’re saving for something important. But it’s always possible to keep the travel mentality alive, by being a tourist in your own backyard. We’re definitely not recommending you scrap your travel plans and have a “staycation” (and oh, how we hate that word), but there’s a lot about your home town or region that you’ll never have seen because you just weren’t looking. And we’re not just talking about the tourist attractions, either. How to be a tourist in your own backyard 1.Take a camera Start small, by taking a camera with you. Head into the city, alone or with a friend, and decide on a number of photos you’d like to take. Keep your eyes open, and if you see anything worth taking a photo of, take it – even if it’s something you’ve seen a million times already. 2. Get a tourist brochure Go online or into the tourist information office and get information about your town. Usually there will be a list of recommended sights to see. Do them all. Take photos at each attraction, and blog about it afterwards. If there are a lot of things to do, divide the list into regions and spend a day in each region, but try to do everything, no matter how many times you’ve done it before. 3. Go public transport If you’re like us and you drive everywhere, using public transport can be an adventure in itself. But even if you catch the train every day, you can still make it exciting. Get a map of the public transport network, close your eyes and point at it; the stop closest to your finger is your destination for the day. Buy a ticket, hop on the bus or train and just wander around. How is it different to your neighbourhood? How is it the same? Take photos and blog about it afterwards. 4. Choose a theme Perhaps you don’t feel like doing touristy things, or the things in the tourist brochures feel a bit stale. Or maybe you’ve just followed our advice and DONE all the things in the tourist brochure. No worries – you can still dig deeper. Choose a theme and explore everything your city has to offer in keeping with that theme. You could visit all the parks within a 10km radius of your house, or all the cafes in the central business district. You might need to make a list and tick it off as you go – and make sure you keep taking photos. Theme ideas: visit every park visit every cafe visit every winery visit every children’s playground and go down the slide visit every building that’s over 100 years old, or that was built in a certain year have a picnic at every beach do a pub crawl 5. Become a collector Becoming a collector is similar to choosing a theme, but a little more refined. Instead of choosing things to do, you’re choosing things to find. They might be things you can pick up and keep, or things you can only take a photo of. Once you’ve chosen, head out and start collecting. We were once in Vienna for an extra day after missing a flight and didn’t feel up to visiting any of the tourist attractions – we’d seen everything we wanted to, and felt a bit bitter about still being in the city. So we decided to head out and collect photos of stencil art – small street-art paintings spraypainted onto walls and fences using stencils. We saw a side of Vienna we’d never seen before, and chose to go down streets we wouldn’t normally have taken. Plus, we turned a negative experience into a great memory. What does your town have to offer that you’ve never considered looking for? You could collect photos of posters, or of different street signs. Or you could collect physical items like funny-shaped leaves or the sugar sachets from different cafes. Collection ideas – photos street art (stencil art, graffiti, posters) road signs interesting letterboxes or fences flowers Collection ideas – physical items sugar sachets beer mats admission tickets For more visit http://indietravelpodcast.com

In today's show, Craig and Linda express the itchyness of their feet and desperate need to hit the road again. At the same time, there's plenty of work to be done in preparation! This show gives you a good overview of the practical aspects of preparing for long term travel, including: Health checks and vaccinations. Passports, visas and red tape. Selling stuff and downsizing. What not to leave behind. Doing a travel budget and saving for travel. PASSPORTS WITH PURPOSE which was started last year. Travel bloggers work together to find sponsorship and raise funds for a charity. This year, our goal is to raise US$13,000 to build a school in Cambodia (through an approved US-based charity). The fundraising lasts until December 21 and the community has already raised over US$10,000! For each $10 you donate, you can elect to go into the draw for one of many great prizes supplied by travel bloggers and the travel companies they've roped into taking part. We were sad we couldn't afford to contribute anything this year, but look forward to doing so in the future. Please donate: http://passportswithpurpose.com

Travel magazine number two from the Indie Travel Podcast! Lots of travel information and travel advice from around the world. http://indietravelpodcast.com/magazine

Prague, the Golden City, appears a magical fairytale of a place, with ancient buildings and cobbled streets. It's romantic, centrally located and a pedestrian-friendly city to visit, making it a perfect place to visit. In this free Prague travel guide, we talk about our experience of Prague, Czech Republic and how you can enjoy it too. Accommodation Prague is a bit of a backpacker haven, thanks to the cheap places to eat, play and to stay. The two big names that we hear again and again are Sir Tobys and Miss Sophies … these hostels are pretty much Europe-renowned for their fun atmostphere and great people that they attract. Hostels seem to be spread right throughout all the main central areas and, to be honest, most things are an easy walk. We stayed in a rather soul-less apartment block-hostel kind of thing, which was only a 15 minute walk from Stare Mesto - the old town. Camping is also a popular summer option. There are campsites along the Vlatava river, close to the Zoo. These tend to be small and crowded during the high season, so book ahead or have a backup plan! Food and drink Lunch is the big meal in Prague, with red meat and potatos being a main feature of a serious sit-down meal. We found that magical cover charges appeared on our restaurant bill that weren't in the menu and had some difficulty getting them removed sometime. If in doubt, ask before you order. The same goes for sides like bread that comes to your table unasked for. Prices for that kind of thing should be very, very small though. If you don't touch it, you shouldn't pay for it. Street vendors where everywhere, which kept Linda happy. During winter there's lots of mulled wine going on and hot dogs to be eaten. The hot dogs were a little on the tasteless side, so take the mustard even if you're not a great fan! Another favourite was a sweet dough, cooked on a circular steel tube then rolled in sugar and cinnamon. The Czech Republic is serious Pilsner country, with the famous brand Pilsner Urquell being the formost. There's also the real budweisers … you know, the beer from Budwies or Budovice. The local Prague beer though, is Staropramen, which is an excellent lager and dirt cheap in most bars throughout Prague. For more visit http://indietravelpodcast.com/podcast/travel-prague

Hostels are excellent places for meeting like-minded travellers. With a constant flow of people from all over the world, hostels are a global melting pot for people interested in the region where the hostel is based and the people who live there. It seems that hotels create a feeling of individualism and people tend to be closed and reserved. On the other hand, hostels have common rooms and a friendly vibe that promotes meeting your fellow travellers. I’ve found most of my best “secret” travel tips and destination pointers in hostel common rooms. Need to know the cheapest way to get there? What the border crossing is like? Where to get a good exchange rate? Need a travel companion for a couple of days or weeks? Hostels provide. Really enjoy it by being friendly, helpful and avoiding dumb arguments. Share travel information without being overbearing. Be considerate of the group’s mood and individual needs and move the party to a local bar mid-evening... For more, visit http://indietravelpodcast.com/podcast/7-reasons-hostels-rock/

With holiday travel season approaching, we talk about staying sane while travelling over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holiday time. Family can be stressful enough, but the huge numbers of people doing "vacation travel" over late November, December and early January definitely adds lots of stress to family events. And nobody needs more of that. If you can avoid Christmas holiday travel, then make sure you do. It's the busiest, most expensive time to jump on a plane. Airports are horrendously busy, there's likely to be more congestion, less turn-around time for planes and less slack for the airline staff. If you have to fly, book now. Airline prices really aren't going to get any cheaper, so if you're going to book a flight and you haven't already, you may as well do it now. The best holiday travel guide tip, is to travel earlier, stay later. http://www.farecompare.com/articles/holiday-travel-2009-guide-for-buying-cheap-holiday-flights/ Farecompare had some really interesting stats on when people flew and how much the tickets cost over the last few years. Pack light (one bag!) and consider posting your gifts ahead of time. It'll help you avoid the Christmas shopping rush and, depending on your airline, might actually save you a big chunk of cash on bag-handling fees. Now, of course, this could get quite expensive depending on where you are and where you're going but it's definitely worth looking into. Electronic gift certificates and things like that are also going to be a great way to get around the weight issue. It's hard to lose an email. If you're travelling within the US, WorldNomads (our providers) can insure you if you're travelling more than 100km from home. We like them because you can sign up and extend from anywhere and they do ultra-short term packages too.

See the man burning and more at Burning Man Festival (BurningMan) 2009.

In this short show, we speak about the trials and tribulations of planning and booking our round the world travel for 2010 and beyond. Thanks to your suggestions, we have a good idea of what to look out for as we make our plans for 2010. However, we're hamstrung by a combination of cash and freedom. The round-the-world ticketing options that we've found have either a) been too expensive, b) been too restrictive, or c) not gone where we want to go. We're currently looking at buying two tickets from STA travel. 1. A return ticket from Auckland to South America (either Santiago or Buenes Aires) 2. A RTW flight landing in Vancouver, Frankfurt and Bangkok. Given the centrality of these locations, we can easily string together budget flights and coach and rail travel to go where we want, when we want then return to the airport city to fly out again. By reducing the amount of flights we're committed to, we get the freedom we want and we might end up saving on money. In any case, we don't need to pay for everything up front. Resources We've used the following resources to help us plan and make these decisions: *Chris Guillebeau's Travel Ninja. We're going to be making use of his new air miles book too (reviews coming soon). *Go Green Travel Green's How to find cheap airline tickets (review). *We're probably going to be booking through STA travel. *The Global Traveller has given us heaps of time and advice on RTW fares and strategies. We're both a bit sick this week, so apologies for the short show!

Interested in Tongan tourism? The island of 'Eua off Tongatapu is beautiful but very far from the tourist trail.

Rome - the Eternal City. This free audio travel guide takes you through the tastes, sights and attractions of Rome alongside practical info on where to stay, getting around and where to go next. Layout Modern Rome is huge and sprawling on both sides of the Tiber, but first-time tourists and short-term visitors will want to base themselves in "old Rome". With the spread of the city over time, it's now much bigger but you'll probably want to see the sights in Piazza de Spagna, Via Veneto, Quirinal, Esquiline, Lateran, Caracalla, Aventine, Palatine, Forum, Capitol, Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navona, and Piazza della Rotonda, and then Vatican, Januculum and Trastavere on the west of the Tiber. Accommodation If you're going to be spending just a short time in Rome, it's probably best to stay near the popular sites. Find yourself a hotel or hostel near the Pantheon and Campo de Fiori. The area around the Termini station is also convenient and in the right area. Hostel beds tend to cost less than 20 euros a night but — depending on the quality of the establishment — prices can drop as you move further away from the centre; in fact, they get really cheap. Although it's one of the world's most popular tourist destinations, competition keeps prices in check for the lower- and middle- ranges of the market. Even better value are the campsites out of the city center, combining great facilities such as swimming pools and scenic country views with easy access by metro into the city. Food Although Italian cuisine is well-known worldwide, we tend to combine all sorts of regional specialities into a big conglomerate. Roman cuisine tends towards pasta, sauces and cheeses with lots of deliciously prepared meat and vegetable dishes. One that caught our eye was Trippa alla Romana: a dish of tripe and tomatoes. Transport Public transport runs regularly and quite often. Buses, metro and trams are all integrated in the public transport system, so you can hop on and hop off within your time period. The cheapest ticket is 1 euro, which lasts for 75 minutes. If you're doing more than four journeys, more than 75 minutes apart during the day, you can get a 4 euro daily ticket. Three, seven and 30-day tickets also exist, as do yearly passes. Guidebooks With a culture- and history-heavy city like Rome, you'd expect Rough Guides' angle to treat Rome well, and it does. Time Out has the best guide to nightlife and the eating, drinking, party scene while Lonely Planet provides solid background and good on-the-ground choices and tips for getting around. Where to next Being the capital, you can get pretty much anywhere from Rome. Trains run in all directions; budget and legacy airlines lead all over Europe and the world. Special thanks to Jessica Stewart from Rome Photo Blog for supplying the photos for this episode. http://romephotoblog.blogspot.com/ For more, visit http://indietravelpodcast.com.