Wow. 2022 was actually really good to me! I don't think that is going to be a very popular statement to make, but it is true.
Despite anti-LGBTQ legislation like we've never seen before, ongoing violence against minority groups, a war in Ukraine, and so much else going wrong in the world, yes—2022 is in stark contrast to the last few years for me.
The vaccine, the boosters, and COVID-19 becoming just "a part of life" really opened up opportunities for me this year in the ways of travel, work, fun, and friendships. Everything really took off for me in some of the best and most unexpected ways.
From traveling overseas again to a work-related connection to New Zealand, I am happy to report this mostly positive reflection on my year.
Nobody saw a pandemic in 2020 coming. Okay except maybe scientists, Barack Obama, and Bill Gates.
But us regular folks, us travelers, us bloggers—we were not ready. None of us were ready. And it seems we’re still not doing a very good job of adapting and defeating this virus.
While my travel plans shifted this year, so did my approach to this blog. I went from writing about long-distance international and domestic adventures to writing about walks to my local park.
That is what deviating is all about, though. We deviate, we adapt, we evolve beyond the current norm. Although we all found ourselves in a “new normal” this year, we still had to find ways to make it through responsibly and with our sanity in check!
Sometimes we just need to get away! Taking care of your mental health is so important especially when locked down in quarantine during a global pandemic. I decided to do just that for my birthday a few weeks ago—and it was so wonderful!
I decided to spend my quarantine birthday in a tiny house North of Miami. I took a short drive there from my South Florida residence so I could try out this living experience for a few days.
I was also interested in checking out a nearby wildlife reserve. I had my inflatable kayak with me. I was ready to spot some manatees and view the blue glow of bioluminescent plankton in the water at night.
I managed to experience all of this and so much more during my tiny house stay in July. Read on for the full story!
Out with the old and in with the new—we’re onto a new decade, y’all! I am so excited to enter the roaring 20’s in a new city and with new perspectives and lessons learned from this year. There have been ups and downs, for sure. But all of it has strengthened who I am and what my values are in this life.
In this post, I reflect on what I gained personally from 2019—including finding my adventurous side again and facing a challenging friendship situation. I discuss how my travel priorities have shifted as a result of my move to Miami. I also reflect on my favorite travel moments from this year while gearing up for whats in store in 2020!
I can’t believe it! My blog has been going for 5 years now! The date came and went a couple of weeks ago, but I still wanted to take a moment to mark this occasion.
I am proud of the fact that I have kept this blog completely ad-free and non-monetized. I earn nothing for the content I post. And after 5 years of consistently posting at least every other week, there’s a lot of content.
This means my posts have naturally been picked up by search engines and are still offering people some of the best tips on travel hacking and travel in the countries I’ve visited. Although modest in comparison to other travel blog giants, I am proud to share for the first time some of the analytics that represent my totally organic readership!
Call me crazy but I love change. I thrive on change. Lucky for me, I have come to understand that change is the only, reliable constant in life.
And so here comes my next big adventure…I am moving to Miami! I am moving for a new job. It’s my dream career, in fact. And I am so very excited about it.
Learn more about this move and my thoughts on it in this quick update post.
Happy New Year!
This year was amazing for travel—I fulfilled childhood dreams and pushed myself out of my comfort zone. It was a wonderful year for travel opportunities all around!
2018 was also a year that presented some challenges for me personally.
This blog is often a place for deep, personal reflection. I do it in most of my blog posts, but also intentionally through random life updates. I did this on a monthly basis during my extended trip 4 years ago (4 years ago, whaaat?!). Now, I only post updates about once a year around the new year. I love making the celebration of the new year into a time to look back and look ahead in a more intentional way. It's good for the heart, mind, and soul!
For this post, I look back on my travels this year, including my top 5 favorite travel experiences! I also share my reflections on life and personal growth behind all the travels. I do this mostly for me. But I know readers also appreciate the honesty and clarity about what's going on with me!
So here we go! This was 2018.
Hello readers!
I've decided to write a quick little update for you because my blogging schedule is about to change.
From now on, I am going to be writing 2 posts per month, instead of 4 (or more). I'll be posting on an every-other-week schedule. Call it a New Years resolution to my body...
The is an unedited interview I did in 2015 with Ronny from Israeli magazine, Masa Acher (meaning, "A Different Journey").
I have a confession: I accidentally broke into the Audubon Zoo while visiting New Orleans.
Well, perhaps breaking in is an exaggeration. I wandered in through the exit without realizing I was bypassing the admission fee.
Sometimes people make honest mistakes in their life. Sometimes they take advantage of loopholes. My situation fell somewhere in between. And I'll tell you why I felt guilty about it. No, I did not feel guilty that I didn't pay. I felt guilty because I had an epiphany: The caged animals in that zoo are a mirror image of the human race.
Allow me to explain.
Following from Part 1, this part of the guide to deciding where to travel goes a bit deeper. Actually, it turns the conversation from the outer, external components to your decision and focuses your attention inward.
This post is more specifically for the worriers. The people who have a bit of fear about travel will benefit from this post whether they are worried about getting lost in an unfamiliar place or about not enjoying themselves as much as they thought they would.
This is your guide to the personal considerations when deciding on your travel destination(s).
One of the hardest parts of travel is deciding where to go in the first place. When the world is so enormous and the destinations so numerous, it feels like we'll never see it all. In truth, we most likely won't see it all. So we are left with picking and choosing what we can manage in one lifetime.
If you're like me, you like to be as informed as possible when making any decision. So for the thinkers, the planners, the people who used to be indecisive but now they are not so sure, this post is for you. This is your guide to the practical considerations for making the most informed decision possible about choosing your travel destination(s).
Last week, I posted a throwback to my time in Iceland. This time, I'm giving you another throwback but to last year when I was living in New Zealand. Reminiscent of all of the waterfalls I saw in Iceland, this post is about a waterfall I visited in Hawke's Bay. Hawke's Bay is on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. There's tons to do there, including several easy hikes that make for great day trips.
When Spring had finally sprung in the Southern hemisphere, Jono and I immediately took to the outdoors to cure our cabin fever. After a hike to Cape Kidnappers, we planned another jaunt to the famous Shine Falls. The walk to Shine Falls goes through the Boundary Stream Reserve. It has some impressive views through farmland and native bush (forest) with plenty of birds to hear and observe along the way. The waterfall is deep in the reserve and its stunning—the perfect example of typical New Zealand beauty!
There is nothing quite like having photos to remind you of the good times from your travel adventures. But you know what's even better? Having video of it.
I was not exactly religious about taking video of my experiences in the beginning of my 15-month journey in 2014 to 2015. I was barely familiar with my new camera during my first stop in Iceland. I also did not really have any ideas in mind about how I should film or what I should film. What resulted was a random selection of moments—what I think perfectly summarize my time in Iceland.
In this post, I share the raw, uncut footage from these moments. You'll see the Blair Witch-style in which I film and you'll get an idea of the carefree mindset I was in. The following are a sequence of videos from the start to the end of my 9 days in Iceland. It includes my starts and stops and the times I let the film roll when I suddenly felt the urge to capture the moment. It's random. It's fluid. And I think I naturally ended up capturing some of the best moments from my time in Iceland.
Once I landed back in New York, I did like all New Yorkers do: I hit the ground running. I began flitting around the city, catching up with old friends, and eating my favorite American foods. Then I shot upstate to spend time with my family and reacquaint myself with American consumer culture.
In this post, I'll give you a fast-paced run-through of my arrival back in New York. But then I'll slow it down a bit, as it wasn't until I was tucked away in upstate New York that the full impact of my travels settled in.
Inevitably, I returned with knowledge of languages, cultures, people, and foods that have all become a part of my every day thoughts. Most importantly, I have returned with the challenge of integrating lessons from my travels with my lifestyle back home. During my travels, I learned how to resist planning ahead and allow my innermost wants to guide me. Now it's time to apply these same lessons to the chapter ahead.
Fremont, California's popular hike to Mission Peak boasts gorgeous views over Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. The mostly exposed trail rises steadily through cattle farms before reaching the summit. There, a summit pole doubles as an art piece and artifact emphasizing environmental and social awareness.
I had never hiked to Mission Peak before, but my best friend has made it her yearly ritual ever since she moved to the area from New York. This time, we would hike to Mission Peak together. With me at the close of my travels and her at 6-months pregnant—we were both celebrating milestones in our lives and preparing for the next chapter to come.
On my last full day in Bali, I hopped on the back of a motorbike with a local who showed me the highlights of the lower Karangasem Regency. My tour guide was Han, a local who offered to take me around the region. His tour turned out to be the perfect wrap up to my time in Bali.
There really is no experience like the one you can get from a local showing you around. I got a personalized tour of the region with opportunities to learn about Indonesian culture and take in some of the sights on my own terms. Han ended up driving me to 5 separate locations, including a traditional Bali village, two water palaces, a chocolate and soap factory, and a chilled-out, sandy beach. Below, I describe my experiences visiting each of these places, but the real story to share is how wonderfully well-rounded Han had made this tour.
Hi everyone! I've been itching to update the design of the blog for a while now. I finally got around to giving it a fresh makeover this week. Maybe you've already noticed it! I got rid of the old home page in favor of a welcome page and a page outlining my journey. There's also an about section, a contact form, and a photo gallery on the site now.
You'll see the blog is still there in its usual form. The travel hacking page is also still there and the itinerary page is, too, but it's now incorporated into the story of my journey. Take a look around when you have a few minutes. And if you feel like it, let me know what you think. I'd love to hear from you!
Deviating the norm is all about remaining true to your authentic self. This means constantly looking within to identify which path or direction you'd like to take on your journey. Solo travel is the best kind of travel for becoming an expert at tuning into your own needs and desires. When you allow those innermost needs and wants to lead you, you evade the guidance of some prescribed norm or the expectations of others.
As a solo traveler, I feel out a new place by looking within and deciding on my own time when it's right to move on to a new destination. I quickly felt out of place when I arrived in Ubud. I wasn't connecting to it in the way I had thought I would—and that's okay! Not every place we go will be a good fit. I came to appreciate many aspects of Ubud during my stay. However, there were two prominent features that were missing for me: a body of water and mountains. I realized these features are truly the bread and butter to my happiness as a solo traveler. Now was the time to embrace it.
Wow. 2015 was a year full of incredible travel experiences. I gazed upon some of the most stunning natural scenery in locations well off the beaten path, connected with humanity in dozens of unexpected ways, and was pushed far beyond my comfort zone both voluntarily and involuntarily. It's going to be quite difficult to look back and try to narrow things down to the top moments!
I've decided to limit myself to describing 15 for 2015. I will highlight 15 travel experiences from 11 months of travel in this post. If you recall my New Years post last year, I wrote about my 10 favorite travel moments. I had only been traveling for less than 4 months and keeping my list of favorite experiences down to 10 was a struggle! So this is going to be tough. But I'm up to the challenge. Read on for my top 15 awesome travel experiences from 2015.
![How to Decide Where to Travel: The Personal Deviation [Part 2 of 2]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53b6ec86e4b09a1fb529c6b8/1466135190761-45GJ3BS24CRTNTICK4IR/P2187235.JPG)
![How to Decide Where to Travel: The Practical Deviation [Part 1 of 2]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53b6ec86e4b09a1fb529c6b8/1466133761153-CUY4HZLHS84OSN9FG0LT/P4239036.JPG)
![Video Extras [Uncut] from My Icelandic Adventures](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53b6ec86e4b09a1fb529c6b8/1461209434703-PUV03V33GYI7CZUHKQ2Q/P9041572.JPG)
