Discover Your Bliss

2 go-to social travel websites

If you'd like to socialize more when traveling, then read on to discover two new travel social networking websites. 

Dopplr.com - their tag line - Dopplr makes your travel planning smarter.  Have you even returned from a trip and discovered that your college roommate was there during the exact same time?  I recently found out - after the fact - that one of my friends from Northern California was at Disneyland on the same day I was - ugh - missed connection.  What Doppler does is create a secure way to share your travel plans with those you trust - and never miss a connection travel opportunity again! 

InterNations.org - a global expat community with 230 local branches.  Here's your go-to place to find locals that speak your language.  Who knows...you just might discover someone living in Japan that went to your college!  I know that for my next "non English-speaking country of travel" - I will search for an expat that can make my trip more memorable...and possibly create a new connection!  

How can expanding your connections in the world, support your energy?  What does connection do for you?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Ease jet lag naturally

If you're looking for a natural remedy for jet lag, then check out FlyRight Jet Lag Formula.  

 

Thankfully, I rarely have negative side effects from traveling, yet shied away from any of the remedies because of their chemical base. 

Now there's a more natural option that might find its way into my bag on my next international flight. 

I always like to share my discoveries. 

Where does jet lag show up in your everyday life?  What's the one thing you need to overcome your daily life jet lag?

I'd love to her your insights and discoveries. 

2 go-to travel sites

I discovered two travel sites that offer a wonderful combination and mix of travel tips and information.

MatadorTrips.com - gives insight to those that love to travel and are willing for more adventures - like traveling by cargo ship or what NOT to do in Egypt.  The site offers general travel tips (10 multi-use items you should consider packing) as well as those specific to a particular destination. 

 

Chowhound.com - want to find a great place to eat Chinese food in Dallas?  What about hidden vegetarian restaurants in Paris?  Chowhound is the food lover's guide to eating.  If you want to find great places to eat, then head to the experts (b/c that's what on their minds 24/7 - and they should know!). 

 

Even if you're not planning an upcoming trip, how can you use travel to spark your creativity?  What's the one thing that travel (or the thought of travel) gives you?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Best time to book a flight

The best time to book a flight is at 12:01am Wednesday morning in the timezone  where the airline is based.  Pick up the phone to book instead of booking online.  

One more cool travel point to ponder! 

One stop shop travel planning: I Go U Go

I'm always on the lookout for the latest and greatest travel sites.  Thankfully, I found a site that might enter my top ten - IgoUgo. 

IgoUgo combines social networking with travel planning (it lets you search all of the online travel agencies like Orbitz and Kayak).  

The site also has a social networking spin that allows you to search others' posts - as well as - add your own travel experiences to help others.  

Give a little (of your own travel experience) and get a little (of others' travel tips) as well as search for your next big adventure.  

What search engine might you use to find your next big adventure in life?  If you could take a mental vacation - where would you go?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and discoveries. 

Are you hip to Where's Cool?

I'm making no bones about this - I found it in my Budget Travel:

"Like a hipper, budget-minded version of Yelp, Where's Cool is a network of in-the-know friends who will point you to surprising spots in just about any city." 

It's true - it's like having a "cool" buddy that tells you about the best place to eat, shop and hang out. 

I love the site's tag line:  A budget travel community your mom wouldn't find useful. 

What's cool about "Where's Cool" is the local travel aspect.  You can explore your home city as if you were visiting it for the first time. 

You might also want to remember "Where's Cool" the next time you travel outside of the United States - since the international community is growing and finding hip and interesting budget travel spots with your passport is always "cool."

Where's cool in your life?  If you had to list your top ten cool things - what would they be?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Plan ahead for road trip music

Planning a road trip?  Don't forget to plan your tunes along the way. 

If you like to listen to the radio, then you might want to visit radio-locator.com. 

Just plug in the various cities you'll pass through on your road trip and this cool site will list all of the AM and FM stations by frequency and genre - no more skipping around to find something you like. 

Simply print out the stations for the various cities you'll drive through and - presto - you'll have instant access to local traffic and weather - as well as - music that you'll enjoy. 

You might even consider searching your home city to find stations and genres that you'd like to listen to in your home area. 

What's the benefit of planning ahead?  How can you invest your time prior to a project, event, etc. that would support you? 

I'd love to hear your comments and insights. 

How to organize your vacation pictures part 2

Ready to get those vacation pictures closer to the world of organization?  Read on to discover more tips. 

From last week's post, we learned the first three steps in organizing your vacation photos:  delete, rotate and create folders. 

Assuming your goal is to create a photo book from you vacation pictures, the following steps might support you in achieving your goal in a more timely fashion.

I prefer Shutterfly over Snapfish or other online photo retailers.  I am not getting a kickback by Shutterfly for saying this - I love their quality and ease of photo book tools. 

Please note that these tips are for digital photography.  If you prefer to print out your photos and physically scrapbook and organize them, then many of these step will also apply.

Uploading Photos

Instead of uploading all of my vacation photos to Shutterfly, I prefer to do a bit of pre-organizing prior to upload so I don't get overwhelmed by my choices - plus once you've uploaded your photos, you might not be able to see them as clearly since they will not appear as large on your computer screen. 

I work on one day of vacation photos at a time in order to make the process simpler. 

Step one:  grab a scrap sheet of paper and pen so you can write down which photos you want to upload.

Step two:  decision making time - go through one day's worth of photos to determine which ones you want to put in your album. 

You might think that they all should go in your album (and that might be the case) yet with some careful comparison, you can weed out any repeat and not as interesting photos. 

Let's say you took several photos of the Washington Monument.  How many of the photos do you use? 

I prefer to use one or two - max (unless there is something spectacular about your photo subject or you have a certain theme or style you are creating).  One of my photos would be of the full-sized monument and the possible second photo might be of a detail or special angle. 

What if you took several photos of the Washington Monument, then took several more that also included your husband?  Choose which one looks the best and only include it as your "main" photo focus. 

Constantly ask yourself - Is this photo important to my book?  What's the value of my adding or excluding this photo from my book?  

The more you do this, the easier it will get for you to determine which photos will work best in your book. 

Step three:  write down the photo numbers/jpegs/names that you want to include in your ablum so it will be easy to upload when the time comes. 

Step four:  once you have your day one photos selected, then upload them to Shutterfly (or similar site) so you can select them for your album use.

Step five:  After you've added the photos to your photo book project, then you can start building your book...one day at a time. 

More great vacation photo tips to share next week. 

What's your process when tackling large projects?  Where would you like to ask for support? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.  

How to organize your vacation pictures pt. one

So you just got back from vacation and with that - you now have hundreds, possibly thousands of photos to organize.

Sound fun and exciting?  Well, for some people this is a HUGE chore that never gets done simply because it feels too overwhelming after a week or more of vacation time. 

Never fear, help is here.  I will be sharing my easy-to-follow tips and tricks on getting your photos organized so you can share online, in print or create a photo book.

Step one:  Delete, delete, delete. 

I'm assuming that by now everyone has a digital camera - yet this can also work for traditional film cameras as well (it was much harder for me to do this with traditional prints in the beginning). 

Go through your photos and delete anything that's isn't usable.  Horrific lighting.  Heads cut off.  A stranger blocking your subject. 

The one exception to this rule:  don't delete that blurry picture you took of the Loch Ness Monster or big foot - for some reason no one can get a clear shot of either one.  

If this task feels too overwhelming, then give yourself a set number of photos to go through each day until you get this all-important task complete. 

By deleting first, you will save yourself time and frustration later. 

I would have uploaded examples of my bad photography, yet I've already deleted it - so go me!

Step two:  rotate all photos into their proper upright position. 

This step is important for two reasons:  1.  it will save the necks of your viewers - so they're not constantly turning their heads from side to side to see you standing in front of that ferris wheel.  2.  yet another time and frustration saver when you re-visit your photos or use them to create an online album.

Step three:  Create individual day folders for your photos.

Step three is optional and can be accomplished in a variety of ways.  Basically, find a way to group your photos so it will be easier to find a photo or create projects. 

I do this step as I upload my photos to Shutterfly.com so I can create an online photo book that I can order for myself as the ultimate souvenir. 

An example of this might be:  09 7 14 Beijing day 1 (I put the date first so it's easy to search)

Remember - step three is optional, yet might be a life-saver at a later date. 

Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to accomplish each step and break up your work into short spurts of time so you don't get vacation photo burnout on the first day. 

You have one week to delete, rotate and categorize your photos.  Part two to follow next week.

If you need support with this task - please - by all means - ask for it. 

For me, nothing feels as good after a vacation like a finished photo album...except for another vacation!

How does breaking down a big task into small steps support you?  How do you know when you've reached your daily, weekly and monthly limit with a task before it is no longer productive?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Volunteer Vacations

I know I've written about volunteer vacations before, yet I don't want to leave anything out when it comes to "do good" travel. 

If you'd like to do the searching yourself, then visit charityguide.org or globalvolunters.org

Charity Guide is really cool - you get to choose how much time you have to make a difference - 15 minutes, a few hours or a volunteer vacation. 

If you'd like to do something specific, then check out the following places for vacations that make a difference:

• Washington Trails Association - maintain backcountry trails throughout Washington state.
• Earthwatch Institute - volunteers assist scientists in sustainability-related field research.
• Hands Up Holidays - repair orphanages, build houses or plant trees around the world (in between sight-seeing)
• The Tandana Foundation - support indigenous communities through volunteer activities like teaching, providing medical care at health centers and constructing grain storage facilities

How does the idea of volunteering while traveling feel in your body?  How can you take a local volunteer vacation? 

I'd love to hear your comments and insights.