Earlier this month, Siesta Key (“America’s #1 Beach” as they like to remind us) hosted its second annual Crystal Classic Master Sand Sculpting Competition, which is basically the World Championship competition for doubles. We went on the second day of the five-day competition and many of the sculptures were already shaping up into some amazing things.

Check out a few of them below:

This sculpture won third place. (Check out a photo of the final sculpture on the World Championships facebook page.)

This “Nightmares” sculpture won first place. It later had a small girl huddled in the middle of the horses. (Check out a photo of the final sculpture on the World Championships facebook page.)

This sculpture won second place. (Check out a photo of the final sculpture on the World Championships facebook page.)

We also checked out the World Championship Sand Sculpting Competition (Solos) at Fort Myers Beach. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and only had my iphone to take pictures with, but here are a few shots of some impressive sculptures:

See more photos of the sculptures at the World Championship facebook page.

Here is the list. (They say this is still a provisional list and there is still a possibility of change in outcome, but I doubt it.)

The Amazon
Halong Bay (Vietnam)
Iguazu Falls (Argentina/Brazil)
Jeju Island (South Korea)
Komodo (Indonesia)
Puerto Princesa Underground River (Philippines)
Table Mountain (South Africa)

But I have to wonder, are some of these places really that spectacular? To rival things like the Galapagos, Mount Everest, Uluru, the Sahara, and the Great Barrier Reef (or, if you ask me, Ningaloo Reef), which somehow didn’t make the list?

In answer to New7Wonder’s announcement, Gap Adventures made their own list, which I think I tend to agree with more. (Though I think there should be a place for Iguazu and Uluru on there — perhaps in place of the Grand Canyon, Ngorongoro Crater or even, I dare say, Antarctica.)

While I’ve heard Jeju Island in South Korea is incredible, having not been there it is hard for me to imagine how it could beat out a place like the Galapagos. Same goes for the underground river in the Philippines. (Though it was definitely on my to-do list when I was in Southeast Asia, but I just didn’t have the time — or money, in the end — to fly to the Philippines after my semester in Thailand.)

Of course, I can’t necessarily comment on the places I haven’t been, but I also don’t think one should exclude a place because they haven’t seen it yet. This could have been a factor in how the voting went. Not to mention I know some places/countries get very into the competition and hound people to vote for their “wonder.” The voting could have been skewed this way. I remember when they were voting on the 7 man-made wonders and when I visited places that were in the running they actually had signs posted urging people to vote for them.

What do you think of the list?

While I kept an excel sheet, I didn’t exactly carry my computer around with me everywhere, so I had this little moleskine journal I kept in my purse with me at all times. Every time I grabbed something to eat or drink, bought a bus ticket, picked up a souvenir, etc. it went right into the book. I was also attempting to track my spending by category (food, activities, transport, etc.) so I had a highly sophisticated system of doing this as well… by which I mean, I just wrote what the money was for above it.

By the end of my three month South America trip, I had a journal packed with hardly legible, chicken scratch-filled pages like this. And also pages of to-do lists, hostel recommendations, people’s names and e-mail addresses, etc., like these:

Sometimes it was a pain keeping track of my spending, but I do think it is one of the keys to thrifty travel. It really helped me stay on my tight budget, which also allowed me to afford some dream splurges like visiting the Galapagos.

In the back pages I also kept a track of my movements and main activities each day. I could look back and see where I was on any given day along with a quick list of what I did. I kept a real journal during my whole trip as well, but my mini tracking journal is a great way for me to look back and get a quick look at the big picture — and some of the most minute details. It’s also helped me to give advice to other people planning a similar trip, as I can easily look back and see exactly how much I spent on this or that or what state of mind I was in while planning this or that.

Furthermore, looking back at my little journal is a fun way to relive my trip now. It’s a different but interesting keepsake from that journey. Again, those little details like to-do lists, people’s names, or random little observations I had while wandering around, bring back different kinds of memories than my regular journal, blog entries or pictures do.

If you’re under the age of 30 and from one of many eligible countries around the world, getting a Working Holiday/Work & Holiday visa for Australia is almost unbelievably easy. Furthermore, if you’ve entered the workforce in the past few years, going to Australia to work for a year might even help further your career!

Even though they talk a lot about the GFC (Global Financial Crisis), Australia has remained remarkably sheltered from many of the huge negative economic effects other places in the world have experienced. After I graduated in 2009 (with a degree in Advertising, an area not doing the best in such an economic climate) I could not find a job for the life of me. When I returned from my trip to South America and my visits to Sweden and Jordan, I made the decision to move to Australia more for personal reasons (aka a Swedish boyfriend and a vague “non-goal” I’d had for the past ten years). It wasn’t until I got to Australia that I realized what a great decision it was for other reasons.

Find better job opportunities

The unemployment rate in Australia is half of what it is in the US. While in the States we have a job shortage problem (with five unemployed workers for every job opening), Australia has a skilled workers shortage (with less than two suitably skilled applicants for each job vacancy). It was likely for this reason that in Australia I was able to get two really amazing jobs that I could never have gotten so easily in the US, especially considering all my experience included was a degree and a few internships. And if I hadn’t been on a somewhat restrictive visa (you can only work six months at each employer) I probably could have gotten even more jobs, even more quickly.

If you are moving to Australia to work in a specific field, you may have to send out a ton of resumes, but if you are based in any of the big cities I am confident you won’t have too big of a problem landing something, even with the visa limitations. If you’re in any kind of a situation like I was (and, er, am again…) in the States, you will just be happy to GET a job. (And if you’re not picky, you can easily get any kind of job in retail, street marketing, telemarketing, or even fruit picking, farm work or hospitality, almost right away.) And that’s only the tip of the iceberg of why Australia is such a great place for a Working Holiday.

Make some serious cash

The pay in Australia is incredible. Yes, the cost of living is higher, too, but after returning to the States I can look back and say that the ratio is much better in Oz. And I can tell you now that I made more money in one week at my job in Sydney then I make in a month at my much-less-glamorous job back here in the States. (Full disclosure: I work only part time in the States, but it’s not by choice, it’s because I can’t find anything else!) The minimum wage is double what it is in the States, and if you’re in a regular office job you’re probably going to be making double that. In other words, again, I made three times more an hour at my job in Oz than I make now back in the States. (Again, full disclosure: I am not in the best area of the country to be looking for work, especially in my field, so I’m just kind of in settling-for-now-to-save-some-money mode until I can move and find something better.)

Gain valuable experience

My job in Sydney was AWESOME. I worked in my field (marketing). I got to be creative, meet and work with really cool people, learn a lot of new things and basically enjoy what I was doing. Not only did a gain some great experience, but I gained some great international work experience, which can really never be a bad thing.

My job in Perth was also interesting, fun and in my field. I again got to be very creative and involved, worked with some really cool people, and I learned a lot through all the responsibility I was given. And even though I made less money (still way more than in the States), I got to basically make my own hours and work from home. Now that’s something that sounds like a scam to me here in the States, but was a totally legit and awesome job in Oz!

Enjoy a better work environment

The work/life balance at my job in Sydney was fantastic. (I actually worked a 9-5!) Australia in general does a good job of promoting work/life balance and a pleasant (often more laid back) office atmosphere. Everyone in my office was super friendly. I got all kinds of great perks (like flying around Australia, being treated to ridiculously nice meals, receiving free perfumes I would never actually buy for myself, etc.), and there was an office birthday — and therefore free cake — at least once every week. Oh, and they have really great paid vacation time, if you are able to enjoy that benefit. (Four weeks is the standard in Oz… And we’re happy to get two weeks?!)

Explore a new country and culture

Oh, and all that is not even taking into account all the traveling I got to do around the entire country. On the Work & Holiday visa, you can work as little or as long (up to six months) as you want, at as many jobs as you want. So as soon as you’ve saved some money (and I saved a TON after five months of work in Sydney), you can quit your job and go traveling!

Australians are so into travel themselves, you might even find a job that will let you take significant time off (or temporarily “quit”) to travel and come back. Or you might even join up with one of the many backpacker job opportunities that actually involve traveling (such as street marketing), where your travel costs and sometimes even accommodation are paid for as you travel around the country.

Live in one of the best cities in the world

Wherever you do settle to work and live for a bit, there’s also the fact that many of Australia’s cities are considered some of the most liveable cities in the world. I had spent so much time in Sydney in my three visits to Australia that eventually I was ready to get out and see more of the country, but looking back I still can’t get over what a perfect place Sydney is. It’s a perfectly sized and geographically-appointed city, filled with fantastic parks and gardens, lined with spectacular beaches and anchored by an iconic harbor (Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge, anyone?). It’s a very liveable and easily navigated city — not too big or too small, with pretty good public transit — boasting great weather year-round, tons of diversity and incredibly friendly people. What’s not to like? (And if anyone knows of a city like this in the States, please let me know! I wish I could transplant Sydney to the US.) And Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth all claim similar near-perfection.

Embrace a lucky lifestyle

There’s a reason Australia is one of the happiest countries in the world. Better job opportunities, more money, fantastic work/life balance and quality of living, friendly people, tons of diversity, excellent lifestyle, great cities to live in, and spectacular places to travel to experience great natural beauty, wildlife and epic adventures… Have I convinced you yet?

If Australia is at the top of your travel wish list, or if you’re dying to go traveling but you aren’t sure about putting your career on hold, then working abroad might just be the best decision for you!

If you begin your round the world trip in Oz, then it may be a fine idea to include it… although you better budget accordingly or you may find a yearlong RTW trip turning into nothing but a two-month RAT (Round Australia Trip). That being said, over at BootsnAll they do make a good argument for using Australia as a destination to begin your round the world trip. After all, it is a nice place to ease into a big trip (especially if it’s your first) with a friendly, English-speaking population and a fairly familiar and comfortable Westernized culture.

However, during my year living in Australia, I met up with two of the people I had previously befriended while traveling in South America, as they were each continuing their RTW trip in Australia, and both of them were eager to get out of Australia after spending very little time there.

The problem is, Australia is expensive and, in a way, impersonal compared to places like South America or Southeast Asia (two places people often visit before Australia on a RTW trip). Even in just the past two years, Australia has become prohibitively expensive for anyone not earning the Australian dollar. Therefore, a lot of the travelers (especially backpackers) in Australia are there on a Work & Holiday visa. The few people who do come to Oz just to travel (especially solo) find the hostels less friendly and with a social atmosphere less conducive to backpacker bonding, as almost all their fellow hostel-mates are living there while looking for a job and/or an apartment.

And if you are on a backpacker’s budget (especially as part of a larger RTW trip), you probably aren’t going to be able to see and do everything you want to because it’s just too expensive. (Not to mention Australia is huge and quite empty, making it not just an expensive but also a time-consuming place to get around.) You may want to dive the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef, ride camels on Cable Beach, wrestle crocs in Darwin, watch the sunset at Uluru, and hike in Tasmania, but these places are all VERY far apart. Renting a van to drive all the way around Australia would take months and buckets of cash, and flying around it will cost even more. And that’s not even taking into consideration the cost of each tour and activity.

Contrast this against South America, for example, where they are so many (highly varied) places and experiences that are accessible to someone on a budget. In Australia, it’s very pick and choose, and almost everything you do will still have a hint of painfulness to it when you think of how much you’re spending. Even the simple things in life, like going out to eat or for a night on the town with friends, are so expensive it could cost you more than an entire day’s budget in many other places on your trip.

One other thing one of my friends mentioned — which for some may be a positive, and of course goes with the earlier argument for beginning one’s trip there — was that Australia was too easy. The excitement and adventure of finding your way across less developed countries is hard to replicate in Australia. Everything is so ordered and planned, it’s easy to start missing the real feeling of travel you get in places like South America. The challenges of finding your way, deciphering a foreign language and handling cultural differences — and the camaraderie you develop with fellow travelers also dealing with these challenges — aren’t as prominent in Australia.

Certainly adventure can still be found, and you can find ways to push yourself physically and mentally in harsh environments (hello Outback?), challenging circumstances (say, driving across Australia — including a couple thousand nearly-empty kilometers across the Nullarbor), and in its paradoxically huge cities and tiny towns. However, these tend to come at a greater cost in time, money, and sometimes social interaction. (As I mentioned, the social backpacker scene has changed a bit in Oz, and if you are tackling these big activities you are likely to find yourself always surrounded by the same few people you share a van or tour with, and meeting very few others along the way…. unless you are just partying your way up the East Coast, in which case you might have less of a problem.)

I am not at all saying that you should not visit Australia. I’ve been there three times myself  (which has especially allowed me to see these changes in the backpacker scene and these increases in costs), and I just spent an entire amazing year there. It is an incredible country full of awesome people, spectacular sights, epic adventures and adorable critters. It is for this reason I think it is worth spending three, or six, or even twelve months there rather than just one small chunk of a huge RTW trip. Australia is worthy of a trip of its own, and will be best enjoyed in this way. Some of the best places take a bit of extra effort to see (Esperance, Kangaroo Island, Cape Tribulation, Ningaloo, Shark Bay), and so many people miss out on them while trying to squeeze Australia into their trip. So many people see only one side of Australia, party-hopping along the East Coast or taking expensive tours that are rushed along to fit in as much as possible, and so some of them end up leaving disappointed.

If you are going to include Australia on your RTW, the most important thing is to do your research and get your expectations in line. Budget properly, in both time and money, and realize that it is one place that you will only get out of it what you put into it. And think carefully about where to fit it into your trip: in the beginning, in the middle as a break from extensive traveling in challenging countries, or as a finale to help ease you back into the ways of the Western world. Even if you are a by-the-seat-of-your-pants traveler, Australia is one place you’re going to have to suck it up and do a bit of research and planning on to avoid disappointment.

Planning a RTW trip? Check out my tips on pre-trip planning and thrifty budget travel.

Have you made up your mind to add Australia to your itinerary and think a road trip is in order? I’ve also put together some tips for taking an Australian road trip.

And if you’re convinced a longer term Aussie trip is in your future, read more about working abroad and getting an Australian Work and Holiday visa.

From Sydney to Perth, crossing the Nullarbor, taking on the 90 Mile Straight (Australia’s longest straight road), and winding through the Southern Forest and along gorgeous coastal roads, this was one road trip to remember!

While this may not really be weird, it is wonderful. Morocco was the first Arabic country I’d ever visited, and seeing this sign upon arriving at the dinky little Marrakesh airport I definitely felt the thrill of traveling to a totally new place and culture.

And this would be the second thing I encountered on my arrival to Morocco — a man who grabbed our bags out of our taxi upon arriving at the Djemaa el-Fna in Marrakesh and insisted on carting them to our hostel, which he claimed to know the location of. The fellow travelers we were with believed him, I was skeptical… After thirty minutes of wandering the endless mazes of the markets we were all finally convinced he wasn’t taking us anywhere except racking up a tab…

I had never seen anything like this. It was a park that had computer/Internet stations scattered throughout it (see below). This is something I had never seen before and never since, but it was pretty interesting to see tons of Moroccan boys crowded around a computer in the middle of the park, playing computer games!

Just another day in the Cyberparc, Marrakesh, Morocco.

Again I was entranced by the Arabic stop sign, but even more weird and wonderful are the forms of transportation represented in the background, painting a pretty good picture of the randomness of Marrakesh: pedestrians, bike, old car and… carriage?

All kinds of crazy things go on in the Djemaa El-Fna in Marrakesh, including, apparently, fishing for Coke bottles.

Also only in Marrakesh’s Djemaa el-Fna: shoes, shoes, and giant shoes for sale! I give you good price!

Driving through the Atlas Mountains from Marrakesh to Merzouga is gorgeous but can get a bit repetitive. Fun little statues and roadside “attractions” like these can really break up the long (sometimes nausea-inducing) drive.

More fun statues.

Egyptians in Morocco? Or the outside of the Atlas Film Studios in Ouarzazate.

And the closer you get to the Sahara, the more you need places like this supposed “Place of Relaxation” (see photo below!).

…And this would be said “Place of Relaxation.”

You’ve got to get water somewhere: wells in the Moroccan desert.

Of course it doesn’t get more weird and wonderful than the ugly-yet-endearing camel to take that legendary ride into the Sahara Desert.

Discover more Weird and Wonderful Things in other cities and countries around the world.

Spotting this on a dumpster near my hostel in Chiang Mai, I couldn't help but laugh. I wonder how many people over how long of a time had to pee here to get someone to write this warning!

Love the translation on this sign in Erawan National Park

I admit I had to look twice at this sign in Chatuchauk Market... Door of Art or Fart?

I know this photo is terrible quality, but I just LOVE this Thai version of "We Can Do It!"

I suppose it must be hard to figure out when you should squat and when you shouldn't. Rule of thumb, if the toilet seat is a seat, a foot or two off the ground, and without foot grips, it's probably not a squat toilet!

It's not every day you see a dog driving a motorcycle. Then again, in Southeast Asia this was far from the weirdest animal I saw on one...

The reason I find this so weird and wonderful is because Lumpini Park in Bangkok is where pretty much everyone goes to work out. It's full of people speed walking, running, or participating in group exercise classes. And yet they stick a giant ice cream cone (is it a statue or a playground piece?) in the middle to tempt/tease all those sweaty exercisers.

There's just something about this statue at the Grand Palace in Bangkok that makes me giggle. Come on, you know you agree.

Just another one of those great translations, on a restaurant menu in Muang-Ake, Thailand. Yes, I do Love Happy.

While it's just funny to see a "No Hawking" sign in Thailand, that's not what caught my attention about this. It's that hand in the "No Littering" image. It's so creepy for some reason. And it looks more like it's picking up rocks than littering... And it's missing a finger.

Discover more Weird and Wonderful Things in other cities and countries around the world.

Transportation

Everyone has different comfort levels when it comes to transportation. While it’s easy to say you should always take the cheapest method possible, that isn’t always an option for everyone. Safety, time and other constraints can affect what kind of transportation you can or will take. As someone who has had to deal with those issues, here are a few of my tips.

In general, try to walk. I can’t imagine how much money I have saved over the years (and how many pounds I’ve probably kept off!) just by choosing to walk rather than take a taxi or bus. Of course, you shouldn’t walk alone at night or in sketchy areas, but for the most part, especially in cities, there are going to be tons of other people walking around too. Walking is the best way to get to know a city (even — or especially — if you are absolutely horrible with directions like me!), to discover

hidden treasures… and maybe even meet some friendly locals. Even if it’s just from the bus station to your hostel while dragging your backpack, it will often make arriving that much sweeter!

Consider all  your options and take the cheapest one you’re comfortable with. Let’s face it, traveling alone in South America I often took the somewhat nicer overnight buses rather than “chicken buses,” and I was happy with that decision. After being robbed on a cheap night bus in Indonesia the year before, I knew what my limits were. While I spent more money, it was nothing compared to what it would be in other parts of the world, and I made an effort to balance that spending by walking, splitting taxis, or taking cheaper day buses whenever possible. And of course, if you are taking an overnight train or bus, you can save by choosing the cheapest options (seats or semi-recliners vs. beds). But even if you do spring for the bed, remember that you are at least saving money on a night of accommodation!

Investigate transportation deals and consider buying a pass (Eurail, city bus, subway, even air passes) if you’re going to be using transport a lot. Also, in some places you might be able to pair up with people and get a group/family discount pass. In Munich, I was traveling with three friends but we discovered if we had two more people we could get a group transportation ticket when going to Neuschwanstein. We found a couple other people in our hostel who wanted to go and voila, we saved some money! Go for whatever discounts you can get. (ISIC is worth looking into if you’re a student/under 26 and traveling somewhere like Europe or Australia.) We’d also asked for Eurail passes for Christmas that year which meant we spent very little on train travel between countries, making Europe one of the cheapest trips I’ve ever done! (Unbelievable, I know!)

Do some research, especially for flights. (Some pre-trip planning can really go a long way in saving you money!) Look online at websites like kayak, skyscanner (best for Europe), or iwantthatflight (Australia) for deals on flights to or within your destination. There are so many cheap airlines now, especially in Europe, Asia, Australia and the US, that sometimes it is cheaper to fly than take a train or bus. South America is the one place I’ve been where this is not the case. Also when researching flights, check multi-city and open-ended tickets (you can do this on kayak) as well. I found I could actually fly cheaper from Cleveland to Buenos Aires and back to Cleveland from Quito than doing a roundtrip flight to almost anywhere in South America, allowing me to do my entire trip one way overland without having to buy any extra flights.

If you’re not sure what the cheapest mode or company is, don’t rely solely on guidebooks  — search online, go to online forums like Thorn Tree and AFAR and ask fellow travelers. This is where you’ll find the best, most current information.

Accommodation

This is another category that varies greatly depending on where you are going. Believe it or not, hostels are not always the cheapest option!

Again, do your research. For one, if you’re looking at hostels online don’t look only at one site. I’ve often found that prices can vary greatly between the big sites (for example,

hostelworld charges booking fees while hostels.com and hostelbookers don’t always). And even then, once you’ve read the reviews you might be able to choose a hostel and then find its website and get a better price that way. Or you often may find that the cheapest place isn’t even bookable online and it’s better just to wait until you’re there.

Broaden your search. In Italy during winter and early spring, we found that, especially in less-touristed place in the south, guesthouses and hotels were actually cheaper than hostels. In fact, after three months of traveling around the country pretty much every weekend, we only stayed in one or two hostels the entire time. In places like Southeast Asia, hostels are few and far between, and you’ll find guesthouses and bungalows are your cheapest options. In Australia, hostels are expensive and caravan parks can be a much cheaper option. And in most places in the world camping will be cheap (if not free).

Split the cost. Even if you are traveling alone, finding other travelers to split a room with might be your best option. It’s just like staying in a smaller, more private dorm. In Southeast Asia I traveled a lot with friends and we’d often spend just $1-2 each a night because we’d get one bungalow for four of us and all sleep on one or two big beds. If you’re comfortable with this, you can save a ton! I found also in South America that some guesthouses/hotels had awkward hostel-ish rooms with, say, three beds that they would happily stick you in for a good price if you happened to have the right number of people. And of course in Australia, especially if you’re keen on the experience of an Epic Aussie Road Trip, there are backpackers aplenty to choose from to split the cost of a van, petrol, and camping.

Look into discount cards. Sometimes it might be worthwhile to get a card for a chain of hostels (sometimes these are free or pay for themselves after a certain amount of stays), such as Hostelling International. Research where you’re going ahead of time to see if there are enough of them along your route (and in your budget) to justify getting the card. (Sometimes it’s not worth it because you’ll find you enjoy independent hostels better and they are often cheaper — I found this to be the case in New Zealand but was stuck having to stay mostly in HI hostels.) There are also organizations for caravan parks (such as Top Tourist Parks in Australia) that have similar programs. (If you’re renting a van, this will probably be included.)

If you’re desperate… be creative. Sometimes you’re budget really just can’t handle another week of $20/night hostels. Of course the top recommendations are to try couchsurfing, or get on Facebook and make sure everyone knows where you are and where you’re going in case one of your friends happens to be studying/working/living abroad or knows someone there. In either case, be sure you’re up front and clear about what’s expected of you. If you’re staying more than a few nights, you might be expected to help out with rent or chores or cooking. Some kind of thank you gift or treating to a meal or drink out might be expected. The last thing you want is to be about to leave and find that they want $100 out of you that you weren’t expecting to spend. Also, you don’t want to show up and sit on their doorstep all night because they didn’t know when to expect you.

Of course, if you’re desperate sometimes you really have to make the most of your situation. While I really don’t recommend it if you can avoid it, I have spent nights or early mornings sleeping on the beach, in a hammock, in the hostel lobby, inside or outside the airport, on a bench, etc. Sometimes it’s not worth spending money on a night’s worth of accommodation if you’re arriving late or leaving early.

Food & Drink

How you spend your money on food and drink is something that varies greatly between people. Some people travel with an emphasis on experiencing the local food, others travel with an emphasis on partying. Moderation and proper judgment are the keys to making these things a part of your travel experience without breaking the bank.

Try, try, try the local food. Notice I put an emphasis on “try”? A great way to try fresh, local food and fill up your tummy without spending too much is to visit the local markets. Learn “May I try…?” in the local language and go to town! Of course, be a good citizen and buy, buy, buy some of what you really love. Prices will already be a bit more affordable at the market, usually. Vendors will love that you are taking an interest in their culture (and language!) and will be happy to let you try some things… and accept your money! You’re making a ground level difference in the lives of the locals, you’re trying some great food, and you’re saving money. Using this method I’ve gotten tipsy off making the rounds of limoncello tastings in Italy, full off fruit and cheese in Australia, and tried some crazy things in Thailand (in a supermarket in the mall, no less!)

Hit the streets. Street food — it’s cheap, usually extremely fresh, and allows you to really interact with the locals. In Europe my diet consisted mostly of falafels and pastries, I won’t lie. In Thailand, chicken and pineapple on a stick were favorite snack-meals. In South America, I often made a meal of alfajores or empanadas…. The (cheap, cheap, cheap) food of gods, I tell you! Even wandering the cities of Australia, New Zealand or the US you will find street food to be the cheapest way to get a delicious meal.

Hit the supermarket. While in parts of Asia and South America you might find it cheaper to eat out (especially if you’re alone), it’s quite the opposite when it comes to

eating out in Australia, Europe, and other more developed countries. Traveling around Oz/NZ you will find most backpackers lugging around extra reusable bags from Woolworths full of food. Of course, sometimes traveling solo it can be a pain to buy bulky boxes of pasta or rice and have to carry them around until you use it all up. Cooking is less fun when it’s for one.

But if you aren’t making friends in the hostel kitchen to share with, there’s always what I call the traveler’s diet. For me, the staples are yogurt and chips (easily found in convenience stores if there aren’t any big supermarkets around), but whatever it consists of, it’s usually a bunch of cheap stuff that can be combined into a meal (or snacked on throughout the day). It may not be the healthiest diet, but it’s cheap! One of my favorite examples is from Italy, when my friend and I gathered together a small feast costing us €1.75 each. It was a combination of bread and yogurt stolen from breakfast (which we had already eaten as lunch and dinner the day before) with some cheap additions from the supermarket to “spark up” the meal.

Spread out your splurges. Especially if you’re traveling in a group, or solo and meeting new friends, it’s tempting to go out for meals. Even (maybe especially) in cheaper regions like South America, it’s easy to find yourself justifying splurges on slightly nicer restaurants, bigger meals, etc. This is a great part of travel, but you have to watch that you don’t get into a pattern. In South America I found myself traveling with a couple girls at one point and we ate out all the time. And then we’d have dessert… maybe a wine or beer… It all added up. As opposed to when I was alone and ate when I was hungry, often snacking on street food or cheap things from the market.

The same goes for drinking. Sometimes it might seem easier to meet people if you go down to the hostel bar and have a few drinks, but even if you’re somewhere where a beer is only $1, you’ll usually end up spending more than you planned. It’s great to have fun and enjoy yourself with new friends while you travel, but it’s important to keep track of your “splurges” and make note of how much you’re actually spending. And if you are going to splurge, keep an eye out for coupons and specials that are often displayed in hostel/hotel lobbies or in traveler magazines and brochures. There are sometimes really great deals for restaurants or bars.

Activities & Attractions

For me, this is one of the expenses on a trip that is the most flexible (obviously you need to eat and sleep somewhere and get around), and can really make a perceived “expensive” destination more budget-friendly and a perceived “budget” destination more expensive. Because of this category, Europe was actually quite cheap for me while, say, South America was a bit more expensive.

Find out what’s free. In Europe or the US, some cities have tons of free attractions. Many famous icons or great museums are free or cost only a small donation. (In fact, some make it appear that there is a set cost when really it is a “suggested donation.”) And many cities have a day of the week or month that most museums or attractions are free. Make sure to research these and make a list so you can save as much as you can.

Look into the ISIC card. Again, this is most useful in Europe (perhaps a bit in Australia), where it can get you some great discounts on museums and attractions. On the

ISIC website you can search by city to find out what kind of discounts you can get. I admit I didn’t use my ISIC a ton, but I probably got at least my money back. In some cases just your student ID card is sufficient, so bring that along. (Especially if it doesn’t have an expiration date — I was so lucky, until it was stolen along with my purse in Jordan.) Also, ask at your accommodation if there are any discounts you can get by staying there. In Melbourne we decided to go see a movie and found that just because we were staying at a hostel we got a really great discount on our tickets. What a great surprise!

Make a list. I guess I’m a bit of a list-obsessed person as it is, but sometimes it helps to make a list of all the big-money things you could possibly want to do on a trip and sort them out by importance. Price out your must-dos and go from there with the rest of your budget. And allow some money for unforeseen opportunities. Which brings me to…

Be flexible. No matter how much you research, you might not realize that you’ll ever want to go whitewater rafting, until you meet some fellow travelers who talk you into it. Or perhaps you love diving so much you absolutely have to do it again. In New Zealand, there were just so many adventurous things to do, and I was a point in my life where I really needed to push myself and “Just say yes!” I gained invaluable confidence and guts from those experiences.

On the other hand, when I went to South America I knew going to the Galapagos was one of my life long dreams, but because of the cost I just couldn’t allow myself to bank on going. After talking to other people about it and mentally realizing, “But I am here and it is so close!” I knew I couldn’t NOT go. I made the necessary adjustments, I skipped out on a few other budget-draining activities, and I made it happen. And I’m glad I did. Sometimes you have to think about it as being thrifty in a different way… you can either spend the money now and do it while you’re here, or spend even more money later to come back and do it — because some things you’ll never be able to let go! And that’s what travel is all about: experiencing life and adventure and making things happen!

One last tip

Sort of tying everything together, I offer up one last tip that really requires the most discipline and dedication. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it is probably THE best way to stay on a budget. What is it? Keep track of all your spending. Carry around a small notebook, keep a running spreadsheet on your computer. This is the one way where you can truly see how much you spend in certain areas and realize what adjustments you need to make to keep from going over budget. No, it’s not fun (well, maybe it is for some people — it is kind of interesting to analyze later on), and it’s not always easy (“Wait, how many beers did I have last night?”), but it works. I definitely don’t always do this, but I did it almost religiously in South America and on our second Australian road trip (mostly to keep us from fighting about who spent more on what), two trips I really couldn’t afford to run out of money on.

Good luck on your thrifty travels!

Brooke vs. the World has asked travel bloggers to put together their best thrifty and resourceful travel tips for a helpful, free ebook. If you think you’re thrifty and would like to participate, check out the official rules.

So when planning our road trip, we concluded we would skip the peninsula on the way up so we could have more time to spend at Ningaloo, and probably give it a miss altogether unless we had the extra time on the way back down. In the end, despite how much we love-love-loved Ningaloo, we had grown tired of snorkeling and beach bumming quickly (which was most of what there was to do in Exmouth/Coral Bay since a recent cyclone had wiped out many of the roads leading to hiking areas) and decided we had the time to check the area out.

While most people seem to focus on the dolphins at Monkey Mia — and in fact I was told there was absolutely no reason to head out to Shark Bay and Monkey Mia at all unless I was super-obsessed with dolphin — there are actually a lot of cool things to see in the area, and even more than we were able to do if you have a 4WD. Francois Peron National Park is supposed to be incredible, but you can only access it and really enjoy it if you have a 4WD vehicle or take a tour. In fact, there are some cool-looking ATV day tours if you have the money to spring for it.

But first, let’s talk about those dolphins. Because of all that negative talk, I had actually decided I didn’t care at all about the dolphins and wasn’t keen on seeing them. However, I did want to see dugongs so we ended up still having to go to Monkey Mia Resort (turns out you still have to go there, and pay to get in, to go on the dugong spotting tours).

The tour was supposed to be leaving at 10:30 or 11am, so we headed over around 9:30 as we were assured we would have no trouble booking on the spot. That was when we found out we had to pay to even get to the jetty, which set us back $6 each, but because it was later in the morning (and we had missed the first two — of a max of three — dolphin feedings, which again is the main reason people go to Monkey Mia) we were told our entrance tickets would be good for the next two days if we wanted to come back again the next morning. It turned out we’d have to come back, as we found out that the tour boat we’d wanted to go on wasn’t running that day due to a mechanical problem.

So since we were there, we figured we’d at least hang out on the beach and look out for dolphins. We were told it was unlikely they’d come back into shore — the rest of the week they’d only come in twice to eat and they’d already done two feedings that morning. We hung out anyway, and after 30 or 40 minutes the dolphins, which had been swimming around not too far out from shore, suddenly started to come in. About five of us gathered down at the shore, and even once all the dolphins (around 14 — a large amount at once, we were told!) were in, swimming around, the group only grew to maybe 8 or 9 people. Not at all the huge crowd of tourists I’d been expecting. The volunteers assured us we were lucky, as it isn’t too often the dolphins actually outnumber the people! Even the next morning, when we saw the earlier feeding, there weren’t that many people there. There was definitely more of a crowd, but I didn’t feel it was ridiculously large in any way. Perhaps we had good timing in a lower season (this was in early March), who knows.

The dolphins just swam around, one dolphin (aged 35!) and her son particularly liked to swim up around us — flipping to her side to get a good look at us and give us what looked like a big smile. The volunteer guides shared a lot of interesting information with us — a lot of things I didn’t know and some I kind of wish I didn’t! (Let’s just say I didn’t realize what jerks male dolphins are!) After a while they brought out buckets of fish and a few people (Oscar included) were selected to come feed the dolphins. Only a few select dolphins are allowed to be fed, and even still they are only allowed a small amount of fish each day — I believe only up to 10% of their daily diet.

It was necessary to add these regulations as back in the day, when anyone could just buy some fish and feed the dolphins willy-nilly, some of the dolphins would spend all day at the beach and ignore their babies (not teaching them how to fish and survive on their own!) — who would then die. Very sad.

While I’ve seen dolphins plenty of times before, and even touched them before at Sea World as a kid, there was something very special and cool about seeing real, wild dolphins swimming right up around you. It’s interesting to see how playful they are without being taught tricks or being at all domesticated. To see the mothers and their babies, to see how they interact. How they swim together, how some like each other and some don’t. It was quite fascinating. I didn’t think I would be impressed, but I definitely was.

And dolphins aside, Monkey Mia is a beautiful spot. For us, it was kind of nice to be at a “resort” and have a bit of a vacation-y feel to our trip. We spent that night at the resort’s caravan park ($35/night -  they have everything from villas to the caravan park and campground) and were able to make use of the private beach, pool and hot tub, and even grab a beer at the resort bar, watching the sunset over the water. Nice. There was also a little family of emus running around, which was quite fun. They came to check out our spot in the caravan park right after we settled in, and all us caravanners had a good time watching them run around and check out our vans.

However, as I said, there is a lot more to Shark Bay than just the dolphins at Monkey Mia. First, as I said, there are boat tours where you can see dugongs, manta rays, sea turtles and more. On our tour (on the Aristocat 2 – there were only six of us!) we saw a few dugongs, including a mother and baby, but apparently we had just missed better conditions (there’d been some rain and strong currents churning up the water) so it was harder to find and see them. Shark Bay has the largest area of seagrass and the largest amount of seagrass species in one area in the world, so it attracts tons of dugongs — the largest population of them in the world. We had a better time spotting sea turtles — including some huge ones that moved insanely fast! We even had some dolphins come along and playfully race the boat.

In fact, the one thing we didn’t see in Shark Bay were sharks. No kangaroos at Kangaroo Island, no sharks at Shark Bay, definitely no monkeys at Monkey Mia, and no emus at Emu Bay (or Emu Beach) — funny how Australia seems to work that way!

One of the other things Shark Bay is quite famous for are the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. Stromatolites, often called “living fossils,” are one of the oldest living organisms in the world. (Shark Bay’s particular stromatolites are around 3,000 years old.) While that’s a cool fact, I have to be honest and say they aren’t exactly the most amazing things to look at. We pretty much had our glimpse and moved on, as it was hot and the flies were aplenty when we visited Hamelin Pool. Also, if you’re really keen to see stromatolites you don’t necessarily need to go all the way up to Shark Bay to see them. They can also be seen in Cervantes.

For me, one of the real highlights was Shell Beach. It is exactly what it says, a beach made of shells. Cockle shells, to be exact, and it is believed to be at least 10m (that’s 30 ft!) deep of just shells. It’s one of only two beaches in the world made entirely of shells. (Anyone know the other one? I can’t seem to figure that out!) It’s hard to really explain this — it’s something you just have to see for yourself. And feel. And walk on. And the lagoon is also super cool. You can just walk out for what feels like forever — it’s very shallow. And very saline. When we visited there was a guy kite surfing on it and it looked very cool. If I knew how to kite surf I think I’d definitely make a point to do it there.

There are a number of other stops along the World Heritage Drive into Shark Bay (you even cross the 26th parallel in and out of the official North West), and all are worth a look. Every lookout is unique and gorgeous. Eagle Bluff is usually a a great spot to see sharks in the shallow water below (alas, we weren’t so fortunate) and there’s another lookout, which I don’t believe has a name, where you can climb down to the beach below and walk along a huge sandbar (actually made mostly out of shells) out into the water. A very cool experience! (You might even spot some rays in the water around you as you walk out.)

Of course you should also make a stop in pretty little Denham, the most westerly city in Australia. If you aren’t keen on staying at Monkey Mia Resort, this is the place to stay. The caravan park at the end of the road into Denham, Seaside Tourist Park, has great caravan sites (we paid $32 with Top Tourist Discount) overlooking the water. It’s also a good spot to get petrol and do some grocery shopping.

If all that isn’t enough, there are plenty of other things to see and do and places to explore (like Dirk Hartog Island) which I may not be able to talk about firsthand, but can be read about in any of the Shark Bay tourist brochures you’re sure to pick up along the way.

And finally, to answer this post’s primary question — in my own humble opinion — yes, you should visit Shark Bay! Be sure to manage your expectations, perhaps check on whether it’s the high or low season, but it is certainly a worthwhile addition to any West Coast Road Trip.

After staring glumly out the window wishing I could actually enjoy my semi-proximity to the beach for once, an idea hit me. I had a pool! So I threw on my bathing suit and hopped in the pool.

Swimming in the rain was fun, freeing, spontaneous — it gave me a bit of that special travelin’ feeling. And it brought back a memory of another time I went swimming in the rain…

I was coming off a semester studying abroad in Thailand. Most of the other students had flown back home, and I was faced with two months to kill until I had to be in Australia for my summer internship. No use flying across the globe and back when there was traveling to be done!

So I began my first real solo travel experience – far, far away in Southeast Asia. After a short stint in Laos, I had traipsed all the way across Thailand and into Malaysia (overland — a story in itself!), destined for Pulau Perhentian Kecil, an island a friend had recommended to me.

My first afternoon on the island was pleasant but lonely. I laid on the beach for a bit and met a couple people, but no real connections were formed. Everyone seemed to be on the island to dive, and that’s all they seemed to talk about. In the evening it poured, a cyclone-like funnel appearing in the distance, and I was beginning to regret my decision to come to the island. I was having difficulty meeting people, the weather was less than wonderful, and I wasn’t exactly impressed with my accommodation. The island was expensive (comparatively, after so much time in Thailand and Laos) and staying at the cheapest bungalows on the island I was still paying a whopping 25 ringgit ($6) for a basic hut (read: bed and mosquito net) at the Rock Garden “guesthouse” up a big set of stairs away from the beach.

The next day the rain continued and I spent most of my time reading and eating. By the following morning I was more than decided to ditch the island and find some other way to bide my time before heading back to Bangkok. I was returning from breakfast, walking up the stairs to my hut, when I was called over by a couple guys. Two of them were workers at Rock Garden, the third a guy from Canada. They coerced me into trying some fish chips (eh) and we got to talking. Soon I found myself actually laughing and having a good conversation, something I had so desperately needed after so much time alone with my own thoughts.

It turns out I had met one of my favorite kind of people on the road — a strangel (as in, solo travel angel — or stranger angel if that better suits you). A strangel is a person you meet when you’re feeling at a particular low on your travels, struggling to go on. It can be tough traveling solo, sometimes you can go days and days without having any kind of meaningful conversation with another person and you begin to wonder what the heck you were thinking going it alone. But when you meet a strangel everything turns around. They remind you why you’re traveling — they inspire you, or invite you to do something crazy, or just bring a little fun/happiness/meaning into your day. My strangel was a mysterious Canadian (in true strangel fashion, I don’t even remember his name — sometimes the people who make the biggest difference aren’t going to end up as your friend on Facebook!) and he was about to turn my trip around.

I had told the guys that I was probably going to leave that afternoon. They urged me to reconsider, insisted the weather would get better, etc. I was still pretty sure I didn’t want to spend any more time on the island. But my strangel got the better of me with a crazy suggestion that my more reserved self would usually turn down. “Let’s go swimming!” But it’s raining….

Suddenly I thought, who cares? I ran back to my hut to put on my swimsuit and met the Canadian on the steps to the beach. We raced to the ocean and jumped in among the waves. The water felt amazing, and the rain just added to the experience. (And obviously made it memorable!) The rain was also causing some decent sized waves — it was like being at the wave pool at a water park, but it was real. Soon we were joined by a bunch of other travelers who were sick of spending their vacations huddled under their huts, and the beach was brought to life.

From there, my whole trip turned around. One of the guesthouse workers from before, “Joe,” had come out with a boogie board and we were surfing the waves and talking. He offered to take me out snorkeling the next morning if I promised to stay (how could I say no?) and assured me he would do his best to help me spot my most desired sea creature: the sea turtle.

So I stayed. That evening the guesthouse guys invited me to eat dinner with them. I had a very authentic dinner with some true blue locals — I’m talking fish and rice, all eaten with our bare hands! It was one of those experiences you travel for. And that night I had a great time getting to know locals and travelers alike — I had finally come into my own. The next morning Joe stayed true to his word and took me to his favorite secret snorkeling spot (which was quite an exhausting hike across the small island over lots of rugged, rocky terrain) where not only did we see some of the most incredible huge, bright coral I’ve ever seen and spectacular fish but also the elusive sea turtle! (My first spotting — though I have been lucky enough to have since seen them in the Galapagos and Ningaloo as well.)

I’m glad I stayed and enjoyed Perhentian, and I’m glad I found my Canadian strangel. It’s a funny thing about travel, how you can think back on people who really left an impact on you, people who you think about now and again even though you don’t keep in touch, may not even remember their name. It’s an incredible (though admittedly, a bit bittersweet) thing. Since then I’ve met many, many other strangels on my travels, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been one a couple times as well.

Do you have any special strangel memories? Please do share, I find them fascinating! I hope to share a few more of mine in the future as well.

I still have lots of travel stories up my sleeve (I did travel around Europe, Southeast Asia and New Zealand before I even started this blog!) plus lots to share about the reality of moving back to the States after a year of living and working abroad and basically almost six years of transitional living (college and traveling). It’s a weird, tough, interesting, sometimes terrifying, often complicated and polarizing, adjustment.

And with that, I leave you with a promise that there will be a new post hopefully as early as today, definitely sometime before the 4th of July!

My brain tossed and turned, combining ideas until the most amazing solution came to my mind: a Traveler’s Club. It’s a lounge, like all those elite airline lounges, except nothing like them. Perhaps there is a small membership fee, $15 or $20 a year, or a one-time visit fee of maybe $5-10. It’s nothing fancy, no big leather couches and fancy workstations. Maybe there’s free/cheap wifi, maybe there isn’t. That’s not the point of this lounge. The point of this lounge is similar to the underlying point of hostels (besides price): to meet people. It’s really more of a social club.

When you’re traveling solo (or even with the same person or people you always travel with) it can get a bit boring. There are plenty of people in the airport in the same predicament, but it would be a bit weird to walk around looking for them and trying to strike up a conversation. So just head to the Traveler’s Club lounge. Inside you can chill at a (probably a bit tattered) table or group of chairs. You can borrow a board game or deck of cards from the front desk and play a mind-bending game of Scrabble, a manipulative match of Monopoly, or a laughter-inducing round of Cranium. This isn’t like those other lounges, silent and cold, this is a place to be a bit loud and talkative and have fun. Maybe they even sell beer and soda (at a slightly cheaper price than everyone else in the over-priced airport).

The Traveler’s Club is about making connections and having fun. Why do layovers and early check-ins have to be so boring, quiet and miserable? Now I know it’s not cheap to get a space in the airport, which of course presents a problem for this sort of idea. But really, does that have to be a problem? If enough people join, if enough people buy drinks and snacks, even if they charge small amounts for wifi and borrowing board games/cards/books/etc., could they possibly make money? I think so. If all the major airports had them (and especially some of the medium-sized ones too), this could be big. Why not?

Hostels do pretty well down the street from big fancy hotels, why can’t a “hostel-lounge” do well right down the terminal from Elite Airlines’ Gold Room? Imagine, if it got big enough they could really go all out: a TV room with movie screenings (or even just so you can watch something besides hours of CNN), a small cafe serving those cheap, beloved “backpacker” meals (or bread and jam breakfasts – haha!), maybe even an actual adjoining hostel with beds for those nights you’d otherwise be stuck sleeping on the airport floor.

Though it probably shouldn’t become too hostel-ish; it should attract a variety of people. Nobody should be doing tequila shots or anything. But wouldn’t it be cool to just go sit and have a chat, chill out with some cool fellow travelers? Whether it’s a 35-year-old guy on a business trip who wants to just relax for a bit, a 19-year-old girl on her first trip abroad, or someone in between, the Traveler’s Club could have mass appeal.

What do you think? Would you pay a bit to join or enter this kind of “lounge” on your next extended stay at an airport?

However, there are plenty of other things to see  and do around Kalbarri. Numerous gorgeous red cliffs populate the area, all with fantastic views. There are tons of opportunities for hiking and exploring, and many people choose to do a 4WD tour through the more rugged areas of the park. 

One of our favorite things to do in Kalbarri we did only by chance because we couldn’t go out on the river. Australia has converted me to a bird lover, at least when it comes to beautiful and exotic birds (which are pretty common, and sometimes even viewed as pests, in Australia). I wasn’t sure if Rainbow Jungle, a parrot park, would be worth the price though ($13.50). Well, I was wrong!

The little park was awesome, and took over an hour to go through. There are a number of different areas, most of them with the birds in cages, but all of the birds were gorgeous — many we had never seen before. A few of them had big personalities, and talked (or danced, sang, swung and much more) or came around to check us out.

One of the best parts was the open area where there were tons of parrots flying about freely. It was a huge area with tons of trees, bird feeders, ponds and more, so it was fun to walk through and try to spot different birds. Some sat boldly in the feeders eating without a care, others hid in the trees or rafters.

We had a blast checking out all the different birds and wandering the beautiful grounds of the park. There was also a viewing tower with great views around the area, from which you can supposedly spot whales in season. You can even buy a bird there yourself (mostly cockatoos) if they’ve won you over and you can’t leave without one. It’s pretty amazing to think about how old many of these birds get and to see how smart (and beautiful) they are as well.

On a different bird-related note, one of the other more popular activities in Kalbarri is the pelican feeding. Every morning around 8:45, a volunteer comes with a bucket of fish to feed the pelicans and a large group of tourists gathers. Having already seen plenty of pelicans around Australia, we didn’t really care that much but decided to drop by and see it since it was free. The pelicans themselves weren’t terribly interesting, but it was fascinating to hear some of the facts the volunteer had to share, as there were a number of things I never knew, such as that the darker yellow the circles around the pelican’s eyes, the older she is.

From rugged red rock gorges to relaxing beaches, Kalbarri has something to offer everyone. It’s a great destination within a relatively reasonable drive from Perth (about 6 hours — which is nothing in Western Australia!) and a worthwhile addition to any Northwest Australia road trip.

Accommodation:

Murchison River Caravan Park ($28 with Top Tourist discount) – Decent park, right in center of town and across from the river. Best bathrooms I’ve ever seen in a caravan park!

After a 19 hour layover, I finally made the last flight (my shortest at just three hours) to Fort Myers, FL where an hour drive to my parent’s house finally brought the end to my long, long journey of 54 (or 56 if you include transport to and from the airport) journey. That’s 2.25 days of almost straight travel, the first 32 of which blended together as one insanely long day from my 11pm red eye flight from Perth to my arrival in Chicago at 6pm the next day (or 6am two days later in Perth!). My trip stretched from Thursday in Perth to Saturday in Florida (which would be Sunday morning in Perth). Where most people gain a day, arriving in the US before they’d even left Australia (thank you International Date Line), I still managed to arrive home two days after I left Oz. It was a long trip.

All that being said, I’d like to make a list of some of my observations and thoughts upon arriving back in the US, from LA to Chicago to Florida.

- I at first had a lot of trouble getting used to everyone’s accents. My brain was constantly going “He/she/they sound American!” It’s just not normal — why does everyone sound American? And of course, even when people sound American, I still found myself thinking, “Yeah, well they’re probably Canadian but they sound so American.” Also, in LA and Chicago I found myself actually really annoyed by the American accent. And I’m not sure if being gone so long I’d just formed this weird warped perspective of the accent or what, but everyone (females in particular) seemed to have that really obnoxious American accent that just sounds ditzy and annoying. Like bad reality TV. Do people actually talk like this? Have I just forgotten? I still shudder a bit every time I hear it, which is all too often.

- TAX! Arriving at my hotel in Chicago I was starving, so I picked up a sandwich from the cafe. The sandwich was $7.50, which didn’t have me feeling “Oh, wow this is so cheap!” but then again I was in the Hilton in an airport, and it was still cheaper than a similar sandwich would be in Oz. But then when I went to pay she told me it was $8.73. Huh? I started to correct her and say, “But the sandwich was labeled $7.50!” then I remembered: TAX. Why do we do this to ourselves? Honestly. Why can’t we be like every other country in the world and include tax in the labeled price? Is that so hard? I REALLY miss knowing exactly how much I was going to pay, and always paying nice and even amounts. The prices we see aren’t real, we are always going to spend more. How lame.

- TIPPING! Then when I got the receipt there was a place for a tip. I had another “Oh crap” moment where I didn’t know what to do. I mean, she didn’t really do anything, except put the sandwich in the grill. Do I still have to tip her for that? Instinctively, I just added 27 cents to make a nice even $9. Then I realized, that’s what I used to do when I worked in Sydney at the cafe next door because I knew I didn’t really have to leave a tip. I probably just totally offended this girl. After a year not tipping, I really didn’t miss it. It feels so stressful, and I can now understand why visiting foreigners can get frustrated by it. It was so nice never having to worry about if you needed to tip anyone. Everyone gets paid to do their job, and people generally do a good job just because it is their job and they’re getting paid. No tipping incentives needed.

- When my parents were driving me home from the airport, at first I didn’t notice anything. But as soon as we got off the freeway and started driving on normal streets, I started to feel very bothered by driving on the “right” side of the road, which now felt very wrong. After spending so much times in the passenger seat of vans, driving on the left side of the road, I kept feeling this scared feeling that we were way too close to the right side of the road and driving on the wrong side. Even though I knew that it was correct, my brain kept sending me warning signals.

OK, enough complaining. Now on to some good things.

- In LAX I wandered into one of those typical airport convenience shops. I was instinctively drawn to the wall of magazines, and I started darting through looking at the prices. They were pretty much all $4-5. These exact same magazines in Australia cost $9-12. No joke. Now, I’m not much of a magazine person as it is, and even before in the US I always felt it was a waste of money for something I’d flip through once and just toss out. But there were definitely occasions in Australia where Oscar or I would feel in the mood to pick up a magazine for some fun reading, and we could never justify the price. Going to Walmart in Florida was practically a religious experience; I could not get over how cheap everything was. A $12 pint of Ben & Jerry’s cost only $4 here! Candy bars were 50 cents! Bath towels for $4! Cases of wine glasses for $3! I was in heaven.

- Stumbling into my hotel room in Chicago and passing out on the bed, I excitedly turned on the TV to get my dose of current American television. Before I even had to flip the channel I was met with quite the sight for sore eyes: Wheel of Fortune! It honestly hadn’t even crossed my mind that it would be on, but I think I might have let out a little scream of joy when I saw it. It was already almost over, but it didn’t matter. One of the staples from my television diet over my entire life was right there before me and it felt so good to watch. Too bad I’d missed Jeopardy! Even just watching commercials on TV I was reminded of how good and powerful American television can be. And how terrible. (I ran across Jersey Shore and watched it for about two minutes for the first time ever… Need I say more?) In general, they know how to get a cry out of you (and/or exploit people better?) on American TV than Australian. Oh, and I spent an entire Sunday lounging in front of the TV watching Oprah Behind the Scenes on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Ridiculous TV marathons, how I missed you. It felt good.

Alligator bites in Florida - I can always find something new to try!

- Food: BAGELS! I really, really missed bagels in Australia. They don’t do bagels. You might find one brand and one kind at the supermarket, hidden in the bottom corner of the bread aisle. Maybe. But they aren’t very good. It isn’t impossible to find them in a cafe every once in a while, but for some reason Australians seem to think they’re supposed to be like donuts and they put this sugary/icing crap on top. Nasty. The two times I ate a bagel in front of an Australian they asked me what it was and had never seen or tasted one before. So in O’Hare when I saw “The Great American Bagel” shop I almost died. The line was long — because we eat bagels here! Woo! I had a really, really hard time deciding which bagel to have. In Australia there only seemed to be Blueberry. Here there was Blueberry, Poppy, Whole Wheat, Onion, every kind of cheese you can imagine, Sesame, Everything and on and on and on. And the cream cheese was real cream cheese! The first bite I had of that amazing bagel I definitely let out a little “Ohmygod” and might have earned some strange looks, but no lie it was THAT GOOD. Oh, and the bagel and a Diet Pepsi cost me only $5. In an airport! Heavenly. Seeing anything on a menu that was listed as $2-something made my eyes pop. Holy cow!

- Drinks: As I mentioned, I grabbed a Pepsi at the bagel place. The bottle felt really weird. The sizes are a little different (it’s 591ml here and I think it’s 600ml in Oz), but the shape is different as well. It at least seems to me that the US bottles are shorter and fatter. And of course the packaging is really different (for both Pepsi and Coke — I note this a weirdo who collects Pepsi labels from every country I visit). As little and strange as it sounds, just seeing the old labels of things like Pepsi and Coke, which you pretty much see every day wherever you are, was a weird feeling. It was like remembering something you forgot, something you obviously don’t think about otherwise but just nudges at you that this is different.

The US has beaches too!

The thing about coming back to the US is just that: it’s not that different. Australia and the US have a lot in common: same language (well, technically), similar way of life, living conditions, even store and food chains. They operate in similar ways, and day to day life and generally getting around and functioning in each is not so different. Because of this, all the little things stand out just that much more, reminding me where I am. Just sitting in an airport it’s easy to forget which country I’m in: the signs are the same, and there’s people of all languages and accents wandering around. Until I see the old school American EXIT sign or hear the slightly more understandable announcement over the intercom and am reminded that I am “home.” Mostly, it feels nice to be back, but I think after my year in Australia, really getting into the daily life there and becoming so immersed in the country, it feels a little bit like “home” too.

What I wish I had in Perth: a pool

Arriving in Southwest Florida (which is not my usual home), I realized it is a lot like Perth. Thankfully, it’s a little bit cooler (in fact, at 80 degrees I was feeling a bit chilly!) and we have A/C. And a pool. Very nice improvement. I will definitely write some kind of post on Florida because it truly is a destination in itself. Within a short drive from the house I can see manatees, alligators (not that I have seen either yet), turtles and tortoises, and all kinds of huge birds — herons and storks and so much more, all just chillin’ on the side of the road!

As I write this update I am actually waiting in the tiny Punta Gorda airport for my flight to Knoxville. With bad storms in Florida, I was originally told my flight would be at least two hours delayed. However, lucky me, after only a semi-long wait in a very, very crowded little airport (all planes flying in were grounded), I was just told that my plane is thirty minutes away, meaning it will only be an hour and a half or so late (fingers crossed!) Hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself by typing that! Anyways, I will be in Tennessee for the next week and a half, so my life will consist of finally seeing some of my best friends for the first time in a long time and doing a little bit of work on the side, meaning I may not have the chance to update here for a while. We’ll see!

The problem with the Great Barrier Reef is twofold. For one, you must go on a boat tour to get out to the reef, which is pretty expensive and means most people will only make it out one time during their trip. If the weather or water conditions (waves and/or visibility) aren’t great that day, then for most people that’s just too bad. Hand in hand with this is the second problem: the conditions often aren’t very good. Every time I have been snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, in winter and spring, the water has been extremely choppy and the visibility has been less than good.

It wasn’t until after I had been snorkeling up in Southeast Asia that I realized how unimpressive the few coral and fish I could see really were. In general, the coral was average, the fish were few and the colors were fairly dull (and in many of the deeper areas, especially if you’re on a combined snorkel/dive tour, they are so far away you can’t see them well and don’t really feel immersed in the experience).

This may not be true on a multi-day dive trip or a more expensive luxury trip to an exclusive part of the reef, but it was true for all three of my experiences. I am not knocking the Great Barrier Reef, I think it is an experience worth having and I can understand many people might feel they’ve missed out if they go Australia and don’t visit it (do the helicopter ride in that case!!), but people should know that there is another, better option.

Enter Ningaloo Reef, the answer to all these problems. Located about halfway up the coast of Western Australia are Ningaloo’s two major visiting points, Exmouth and Coral Bay. In these two spots, the reef is so close to shore that you simply hop into the water and swim to it. Almost immediately, just meters from shore, you see impressive marine life and coral. Our first dip into the drift snorkel at Turquoise Bay (just hop in and let the current take you along!) we came across a shark. After being in the water for less than 10 minutes! I nearly died from fright, but it was also pretty amazing.

However, I always prefer calm waters, so we ditched the drift snorkel for the other side of Turquoise Bay (which is postcard-perfect gorgeous) and decided to try our luck there, in the still sea that more than lived up to its colorful name. We hopped in and out as we pleased, staying in for as long or as short amount of time as we felt like without having to worry about getting the most out of our time. We saw some of the most fantastic coral I’ve seen — both in size and color — as well as tons of fish of the kind of exoticism you long to see, as well as starfish, sea cucumbers, an eel, a few manta rays, and even a sea turtle! In just a few snorkels and less than a couple hours altogether, we saw pretty much everything we could have ever hoped to see. It was incredible!

Of course, there’s plenty more of the reef to see than just what you can reach offshore. The difference is, if you are going to spend the money to take a tour out on Ningaloo, you’re going to see some much more spectacular marine life than at Great Barrier Reef. You’re likely to see manta rays three times your size, sea turtles and, depending on the season, you might even be able to swim with whale sharks, the largest fish in the sea.

And while you’re avoiding seasickness by snorkeling from shore, there are some great things to see and do around Coral Bay and Exmouth. Coral Bay is another picture-perfect location, with some of the most gorgeous beaches and crystal clear waters you can find anywhere. It’s a relaxing beach town where everyone’s happy to be on holiday — a great place to kick back, relax, catch a tan and wile away your days snorkeling and observing marine life. Or be a bit more adventuresome and go hiking or four wheel driving around the area. The Tropic of Capricorn is also a bit south of Coral Bay if you’re into crossing imaginary lines.

Exmouth itself is a town about 30km from the reef. To get to the reef you first have to enter Cape Range National Park, which is worth a visit in itself. In town and in the park you’ll be sure to see huge numbers of emus, and you might also spot some red kangaroos, rock wallabies and a variety of other wildlife (including nesting sea turtles in season!). The scenery in Cape Range is also fantastic, and it’s a good idea to spend a night in the park, where you can fall asleep to a spectacular night sky, wake up to a sunrise on the beach and catch the wildlife while it’s still out and about at dawn.

If you think I’ve made quite the case for visiting Ningaloo, you must be wondering, “What’s the catch?” Well, the catch is that Ningaloo is not exactly the easiest place to get to. Until now, getting to Ningaloo meant either a very long drive (though there are plenty of other things to see on the way up from Perth, and I highly recommend it if you have the time) or a very expensive flight. This all changed this month when Qantas began very reasonably priced flights to Learmonth Airport (near Exmouth) not only from Perth, but from all major Australian cities.

The areas around Ningaloo are extra special because as amazing as they are, there are so few people. While any time you visit the Great Barrier Reef you’re sure to be on one of many boats packed full of tourists, it’s nothing like this at Ningaloo. After spending the night in Cape Range National Park, we were able to spend the entire morning snorkeling in Turquoise Bay (probably the most famous and most visited beach in the park) without a single other person around. But you better visit soon, because who knows how this might change with these new flights as more people realize how amazing Ningaloo really is.

This post is part of my participation in Blog4NZ, an effort by the travel blogging community to promote tourism to New Zealand after the Christchurch earthquakes. Many people are postponing their travel or are afraid to plan trips to NZ after the earthquakes, even though most of New Zealand was unaffected. And even affected places like Christchurch could still use the help of outsiders. Tourism is a big industry for New Zealand, and while the country is suffering enough from this natural disaster, we should not make their economy suffer more by avoiding traveling there.

New Zealand is the land of adventure, and just about any crazy, thrilling or outdoor activity you can imagine, you can find there. Places like Queenstown are hubs for adventure activities, but there’s tons to do all over the country. From zorbing to bungee jumping, there are some things that are quintessentially Kiwi. Other things are just plain awesome anywhere you do them, but especially in NZ. New Zealand is a place to lower your inhibitions and do those crazy things you never thought you’d do, getting your fill of adrenaline and pushing yourself to the limits. It’s also a place to truly experience nature, taking in all the beauty and wildlife the country has to offer. The following are what I consider the top 10 activities to do in New Zealand and the best places to do them.

Skydiving – Taupo

It’s almost sacrilege to go to New Zealand and not try skydiving. You can do it all over the country, but I found Taupo to be one of the most amazing places I could ever imagine skydiving. (It obviously left an impression as it is the banner for this site!) In the air you’ll find yourself above Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand — and the same size as Singapore!

You’ll also have fantastic views over Tongariro National Park, where you might recognize some scenery from Lord of the Rings (including the mighty Mt. Doom). It doesn’t get much more thrilling than skydiving, and I have to say this was one of the coolest, most insane things I’ve ever done, anywhere.

Canyon Swing – Queenstown

While bungee jumping has become synonymous with New Zealand, it’s not everyone’s idea of fun. I personally have this fear of my back snapping or throwing up in my own face while the bungee flings me up and down… Lovely, I know. The Canyon Swing is probably the absolute best alternative to bungee jumping. You get the same thrill/exhilaration/blinding fear as bungee jumping, without the nasty backlash (literally). And you can choose how you go off the edge, with a huge variety of different jumps rated by “dirty underpants” as to how scary they are. (I made the crazy decision to do two of the scariest rated ones — backwards and handstand — which literally left me begging them not to make me go!)

After screaming your lungs out, you’ll probably find yourself laughing giddily as you fall into a huge, gentle swoop at the end of your rope, swinging through the canyon in the comfort of your attached seat. (Click on the previous two links to see my own jumps. The following video of another guy’s jump, from a unique position above, is a little shaky because I’d just come up from my first swing!)

Glacier Climb – Franz Josef

One of the top things I’ve ever done in my life was climbing the Franz Josef Glacier. (Fox Glacier is also an option.) The climb takes 6-8 hours, and you have a good chance of having some rain, but the tour comes with the proper gear for the long day. You’ll be so mesmerized by the scenery and the experience you’re having, you’ll forget about being a bit cold. Waterfalls gush around you, blue ice tunnels wait to be explored, and you literally create a new path (with your guides hacking out steps just ahead of you) on your journey up the glacier. Walking around in crampons is pretty cool, too!

If this kind of a trek sounds like a bit too much for you, there is the option of taking a helicopter to the top. But personally, this hike was an experience of a lifetime for me and if you can handle it, I highly recommend going for it.

Whale Watching – Kaikoura

I’ve been whale watching a few times, and Kaikoura was by far the best experience I’ve ever had. In a little over two hours we saw eight whales — six sperm whales and two humpback whales. It was absolutely incredible! The boat tour itself was a crazy adventure. It was a bit rocky and the captain would speed off to find whales, then yell for us to all get up and scramble out to the deck to see the whale (and try to capture the elusive tail shot). Then he’d yell for us to get back inside to our seats, and the process would start again. It was a smaller boat, and everyone interacted and got excited together which made the whole adventure a lot more fun. Even once you’re off the boat, Kaikoura is an adorable little town to explore for a day, and you will likely spot a bunch of sea lions relaxing on the rocky shore near town. You can get pretty close, but be careful not to disturb them too much!

Sandboarding – Cape Reinga

Sandboarding is a fun (though slightly exhausting) activity that you can come across in different parts of the world, and everyone seems to do it differently. In Cape Reinga, in the Far North, we took the sledding approach (laying on your stomach with your feet up and your face first). It’s admittedly a little bit scary, as you go down the dunes really fast, and they warn you to watch your feet and movements or you could flip and hurt yourself… Scary! In fact, I got a little too excited as I neared the end of the run and ended up flipping and rolling to the end. I wasn’t hurt at all, but did get a fair bit of sand in my mouth — yum! It definitely got my heart racing and was a really fun activity — but that climb up the dune after every run gets to you pretty fast!

Zorbing – Rotorua

More and more places in the world are trying to recreate zorbing, by putting the big zorb balls in water and letting people try to run around in them. Don’t buy it — that is not real zorbing! Rotorua is where the real zorbing is at, and it’s one of those activities you really have to try while you’re in New Zealand. There are a few different ways you can try zorbing — you can do it wet (the original and best way, where the ball is filled with some water), strap yourself in and do it dry, or even do it with another person!

Zorbing is fun from the very start. First you have to jump through this tunnel-like hole just to get into the ball, and then you find yourself slipping and sliding (if it’s wet) as you attempt to stand up (you’ll probably fail). Then they push you down this hill (where you may go in a straight line or zig zag like crazy!) and you slip and slide like crazy around and around down the hill. That might sound miserable to some people, but I promise it is really good fun!

Paragliding/Hang Gliding – Queenstown

Queenstown is rife with adventure activities. If you’re still keen to take to the air, paragliding or hang gliding (in season) might be your thing. I was hoping to go hang gliding myself, but it wasn’t the right weather/season so I had to opt for paragliding instead. The scenery alone is worth every penny, and I was rapt with the views from the top of the mountain I was about to run off of(!). However, I did feel that paragliding was a bit ho-hum after skydiving, so if you’re planning to do both in New Zealand, try to go paragliding first. Again, though, the views are simply to die for, and you will enjoy the time to really soak in and enjoy them as you slowly and calmly float down to the ground below.

The actual jumping-off part (where you literally have to run as hard and fast as you can toward the cliff edge — almost pulling the tandem guide behind you) can be a bit terrifying — especially when they tell you to wait for the right wind, then say, “OK we’re just going to have to go for it and cross our fingers,” like they did to me! However, once you’re in the air it is one of the most relaxing and wonderful things you can imagine.

Bungee Jumping – Auckland or Queenstown

Most people would say a visit to New Zealand isn’t complete without a bungee jump. AJ Hackett is world famous for his bungees and he is a Kiwi. Both Auckland and Queenstown offer fantastic bungee experiences, so whether you want to group all your adventure activities together in Queenstown or try to spread them out across your journey, you’ll have no problem fitting in the perfect bungee jump, and you’ll have plenty of different jump types to choose from as well!

Wildlife Spotting – Otago Peninsula

New Zealand has some fantastic wildlife, from bird to whales to penguins and sea lions. The latter two can be found on the Otago Peninsula on the South Island (easily reached on a tour from Dunedin). You can wander the beach with your guide and come thisclose to sea lions. (Just be careful not to accidentally wander in on one napping in the grass and scare him!) When I visited, we were surprised to find out that all the sea lions were males, so the larger ones had taken some of the smaller ones to be their “cuddle” partners, and treated them submissively like females. It was quite a sight to see, especially when they start to fight over who gets to cuddle with who!

But what really makes Otago is the penguins. You can watch from higher up on the cliff as the yellow-eyed penguins make their way to shore, usually in pairs for safety. They hurriedly run past the sea lions, hoping none are hungry, and waddle their way up the cliff to safety where they can air out their wings in peace. While you can’t approach the penguins, if you’re lucky some might waddle right up near you and afford you a really great look at these adorable little creatures.

Hiking – Anywhere

New Zealand is the land of the outdoors. Both the North and South Island are chock full of gorgeous and varied landscapes — everything from stunning beaches to imposing glaciers and mountains, temperate rainforests to bubbling thermal pools. Everywhere you look on the map there is great hiking (or tramping as they liked to call it). One favorite day hike is in Tongariro National Park. An easy to reach and manageable hike (though sometimes closed in winter), this trek is through some of the most fantastic scenery you can imagine — taking in many spots used in the filming for Lord of the Rings, including Mt. Tongariro (AKA Mt. Doom). Other great “Walks” include the world-renowned Routeburn Track, Milford Track and Abel Tasman Coastal Track.

Interested in more about New Zealand? Read my previous post on New Zealand’s Far North: Reflections on Solo Travel or check out the Blog4NZ website for heaps more posts on this fantastic country.

This post is part of my participation in Blog4NZ, an effort by the travel blogging community to promote tourism to New Zealand after the Christchurch earthquakes. Many people are postponing their travel or are afraid to plan trips to NZ after the earthquakes, even though most of New Zealand was unaffected. And even affected places like Christchurch could still use the help of outsiders. Tourism is a big industry for New Zealand, and while the country is suffering enough from this natural disaster, we should not make their economy suffer more by avoiding traveling there.

I myself had an incredible experience spending a month traveling solo around New Zealand back in May 2008. So in accordance with this effort, I will be sharing a few posts about my most cherished experiences in New Zealand over the next few days (March 21-23). To start with I’ve decided to focus on the last couple days of my journey through the country. I spent this time on the North Island, in what’s called the Far North of New Zealand, where I finally found some time to reflect on my trip as a whole and my first experiences as a solo traveler. In retrospect, these last few days were some of the most important and enriching days of my journey, ones that I would look back on for guidance numerous times in the following years.

I was glad I did the Far North last on my monthlong trip around New Zealand. The last place I visited was one of the most gorgeous (yet totally un-hyped and virtually unknown) places: a town called Omapere. In this small, quiet little Kiwi town I stayed in a wonderful little hostel called Globe Trekkers Lodge, owned by a friendly, well-traveled English woman. There were only a few people staying there: an elderly American couple, a girl from New Caledonia, a young British guy (who was sleeping in his van in the driveway) and myself. We all got along perfectly and everyone seemed to have a fascinating story to tell. Interesting conversation was never lacking!

My first night in Omapere (which neighbors Opononi, a town famous for its former attraction “Opo the Gay Dolphin” – about whom you can still watch an old, somewhat humorous video in the visitor center), I did the acclaimed Footprints Waipoua walk, which is a night walk hosted by indigenous Maori guides that focuses both on the area’s spectacular nature as well as Maori culture.

Your Maori guides take you out into the kauri forest, showing you some of the biggest and most ancient trees you’re likely to ever see (including Tane Mahuta, the Lord of the Forest, which is the largest known kauri tree, and Te Matua Ngahere, which could be up to 4,000 years old and possibly the oldest rainforest tree on earth).

They tell many traditional Maori stories and sing songs, which are haunting to hear in the very dark black night (especially after everyone turns off their flashlights). Paired with the quiet drip of raindrops falling in the forest after some earlier rain, I found the walk to be a powerful experience.

The next day I hiked up to the lookout at Arai-te-uru Recreation Reserve, which has some amazing trails. I walked the cliffs above the coast, which in parts felt almost desert-like — reminiscent of the American West — while in others it was nice, rolling countryside. The different parts varied among extensive plains of beautiful grass, clambering reaches of rock and stone, scatterings of driftwood and stretches of soothing sand.

Down below was an isolated beach, that alternated between sandy and rocky areas. I had it all to myself (except when an interesting family of two people, three dogs and one goat passed through). Sitting on a washed up log in the middle of the peninsula, watching the sea wash in over the sand and crash up on the rocks, was remarkable. Even the lighting was different down there — it was incredible.

The sand dunes across the harbor in Ompaere were also unbelievably gorgeous, and can be a great spot for sandboarding when the ferry is running. I was so glad I made the decision to go up north. Up there, among the quiet, windswept beauty, there was plenty of time for reflection. It was there, on the isolated beach in Omapere, that I wrote the following journal entry, reflecting on my emboldening month-long trip around New Zealand.

I really do think I’ve grown and changed quite a bit since starting this trip on my own. I think I truly have embraced the “Just Say Yes” mentality, which I was inspired by after spotting it scribbled on a van in the South Island. At times, invitations, suggestions, etc. that I’d usually hesitate and agonize over whether or not to do, whether to say yes or no, whether to go or stay, I instead just went with it. Sure, why not? And it’s led to good things — great experiences and memories. Instead of running scared, I pushed through the discomfort and prospered. Now I just do what feels right. And it has all worked out rather well.

I’ve still felt nervous at all kinds of things, but I went ahead with them anyway. From sandboarding to dinner invites, you can feel nervous all the same, but it’s completely up to you if you overcome that and go for it anyways, and that’s what I’ve come to realize.

It’s hard to really think about traveling alone when you haven’t done it. Sometimes it seems like it’d be a breeze, other times it seems nearly impossible. In reality, there are times it’s really hard and really sucks, and there are times when it’s amazing and things happen that you know would never have happened if you weren’t alone. In the end, there will be moments you wish you’d had a good friend with you, but overall you will be glad you went for it, and you can’t help but feel that you’ve grown and changed. You faced up to the challenge and didn’t give in when it got hard.

When I was debating about going solo on my trip to South America in 2009, I went back and read my journal from New Zealand, and this entry (part of a larger reflection on the trip and solo travel) was what really encouraged me to go for it. I now know I would have missed out on a huge, amazing adventure if I hadn’t gone! I am eternally grateful for the lessons I learned on my travels on New Zealand, not to mention the crazy adventures I had (stay tuned for more on that!), the gorgeous places I saw and the wonderful people I met. It was an experience I could never forget.

While I am taking a short break to post this New Zealand content, I will be back to posting about my last trip in Australia, and my return to the US, very soon — I promise!

Interested in more about New Zealand? Read my post on 10 Awesome New Zealand Adventures or check out the Blog4NZ website for heaps more posts on this fantastic country.

So, with that said, I’m really not able to do an update on our trip right now. Instead I’ll post a quick summary of our itinerary of our Coral Coast Road Trip that we took up Australia’s west coast in our deluxe campervan, and I promise I’ll get to posting some new content once I’m back in the US this weekend.

Our Coral Coast Road Trip Itinerary:

Day 1: Perth – Kalbarri (~588km, 6-7 hours)
Day 2: Kalbarri – Carnarvon (~442 km, 4.5 hours)
Day 3: Carnarvon – Exmouth (~365km, 4 hours)
Day 4: Exmouth, Cape Range National Park
Day 5: Exmouth – Coral Bay (~153km, 1.5 hours)
Day 6: Coral Bay – Shark Bay (~577km, 5.5 hours)
Day 7: Shark Bay/Monkey Mia
Day 8: Shark Bay/Monkey Mia – Northampton (~378km, 3.5-4 hours)
Day 9: Northampton – Jurien Bay (~247km, 2.5 hours)
Day 10: Jurien Bay – Perth (~275km, 2.5-3 hours)

There is a lot to tell and I promise I will as soon as I get in the right mindset. For now, I have so much on my plate, this will just have to wait. Catch you on the other side.

Relaxing by the van

We’ve just returned from our incredible road trip up WA’s Coral Coast, and we had an amazing time. The destinations were spectacular, to say the least, but the trip was even more enjoyable because we had a wonderful deluxe campervan, courtesy of the awesome folks at Traveller’s Auto Barn. I constantly found myself wishing we’d had this van on our month-long Epic Aussie Road Trip because the van has so many little things that really make a huge difference.

For one, there is so much more SPACE. The van can sleep three people, so when you’re just two that gives you a lot of extra room. (And if you are three, it saves you lots of money splitting rental, camping and fuel costs!) In the front cabin we had much more space to spread out while driving, and in the back you can actually stand up in the kitchen area (as opposed to a smaller van where the back is taken up entirely by the bed, which you can only crawl into).

Sprawled out in the back of the van

All this space definitely helps preserve your sanity on the road, not to mention your relationship with your travel partner! We would have really enjoyed the extra storage space on our last trip as well, since we were lugging around everything we owned. In this case, we never had to worry about our backpacks as they were easily stored in the above bed area and out of the way when we didn’t need them.

The deluxe campervan also has screens on the windows that open in the back. This is something easily overlooked when you’re choosing a campervan, but this was a huge savior for us on this trip! During most times of the year in most places in Australia it is pretty hot, and this was definitely the case in northwest Australia in late summer. Nighttime is no different; it is still really hot, especially in the van. We would have surely overheated at night if we didn’t keep the windows open, but we would have surely been bitten to death by mosquitos and/or kept up all night by buzzing flies and other insects if we didn’t have screens on the windows. I honestly don’t know how we would’ve survived without this feature!

Escaping the mosquitos by cooking in the van

The comforts don’t end there. The van also has a normal sink (so nice not to have to pump out water — especially when washing your hands or dishes!), fridge, microwave (we excitedly used this to lazily make some Easy Mac our first night on the road) and gas burner inside the van. I emphasize this because there are a lot of times when you really don’t want to stand outside the van to cook (like you have to do in most campervans) or even go out to use a camp kitchen (if you even have access to one). Whether it’s raining or there’s just a huge amount of flies or mosquitos lurking about, you will often find yourself extremely happy that you can prepare your meal within the safe, dry, insect-less comfort of your van.

Finally, having tried a few other basic/budget campervans before the deluxe, Oscar and I can safely say that the deluxe campervan had the best A/C (again, something you will probably have great need for), drove the best, had the best storage, and was overall the most comfortable of any vehicle we’ve tried. Little extras like an exterior light for finding your way back from the toilet at night, extra cupholders in the front, a mini closet with hangers for those easily wrinkled (or wet) clothes, all add to the appeal of the deluxe van.

Drives like a dream

We were also beyond thrilled to find the van came with a copy of CAMPS 5, something that can you save you considerable money on your trip with its maps and listings of free and cheap campsites (another thing we really wish we’d had on our long trip last year). Oh, and it’s pretty nice to have a normal looking van, as not everyone likes to drive around in a graffiti-covered van that screams for attention. Pretty much the only negative I could find in the van was there was no ipod hookup (which the Chubby from Traveller’s Auto Barn does have), and we only had one CD with us for those long stretches of driving where there were no radio stations available. So just be sure to burn a few mix CDs before your trip and you’ll be good to go!

Overall, the comfort and value you get from a deluxe campervan far exceeds the extra cost (I say this even as the hardcore budget travel nazi I am). This is especially true on a longer trip, where you can easily get really tired of living out of a van and in such close proximity with your travel partner(s). I can guarantee there will be a lot less fighting in this van!

Crossing the Tropic of Capricorn

And while we were really lucky to be sponsored by Traveller’s Auto Barn for this trip, we went with them having already used them on our Epic Aussie Road Trip paying full price, and both times we had an exceptional experience. Everyone we dealt with (at both Melbourne and Perth branches) were extremely friendly and helpful. We never had a single problem with either vehicle from TAB, which is pretty incredible considering how much driving we did in both vehicles (well over 3,000km on this trip alone). Pickup and dropoff are quick and easy. And even when we did have a problem at pickup with the bond the staff bent over backwards to help us work the situation out so we could get started on our adventure!

Look out this week for more details on our trip up the coast (somewhere in between my packing and preparing for my trip back to the US). Or if you need an immediate fix to satiate your Australian road trip desires, check out my WhyGo Australia guest post on the Top 10 Things to See and Do Along the Nullarbor as well as my Tips for Taking an Australian Road Trip.