Dani

I didn’t have any interest in rushing through the country, and decided I’d rather leave it for my next trip to Asia, along with the other countries I ran out out of time for (the Philippines, Myanmar and Indonesia). To commemorate the start of this new era of my travel life I decided to treat myself to a new backpack and retire the one I’d used ever since I took up the vagabond life in 2010. This wasn’t just about a ‘winter escape’ though – and the ever-present urge to explore a new country – it was just as much about hitting the ‘Reset’ button and getting away from my busy New York schedule where I rarely get the chance to spend time with myself, to think about what’s happening in my life, about relationships and successes and failures of the past year, and to simply be. I don’t take it for granted that I am able to go travel for such a long time – especially now after meeting so many people in New York who have a very limited amount of vacation days – and in the case of Vietnam, which I’ve been wanting to explore for such a long time, I feel even more grateful that my lifestyle allows me to do this.

As for rooftop bars – there are over 50 rooftop bars in New York, and while they are fantastic in their own way and make for a spectacular backdrop for sunset drinks, they can’t quite replace the observation decks, simply because they aren’t as high and can’t provide the same far-reaching panoramic views. So, up to you if you want to spend $38 or $58 for the experience, I didn’t think the views from the 102nd floor were better than the ones from 86th floor, and the glass windows made it difficult to get pictures without glare / reflections. 86th floor observation deck: $38 general admission; $65 express ‘skip all lines’ pass; $55 for double admission, once in the AM and once in the PM (ideal to experience both the day and the night view); sunrise experience $125 ( The Heights (31st floor, on top of the Arlo Hotel, this one has a glass bottom); 11 E 31st St, NY 10016 Also check out this comprehensive list of 41 New York rooftop bars; or the 17 best New York rooftop bars as chosen by Conde Nast Traveler.

YES, but after my latest trip to Costa Rica at the end of 2018, I feel a little bit more wary about wholeheartedly recommending Costa Rica as a travel destination – especially to a solo female traveler – than I would have when I visited Costa Rica for the first time, as part of a Central America backpacking trip in 2011, and then again for a two-month housesit in a seaside villa in 2012. asked The Costa Rica Star a few days ago, stating that all of the female travelers who were killed while vacationing in Costa Rica “were seasoned, well-traveled females, who nonetheless wound up as victims of murderers and predators. I know that a lot of travelers, especially female travelers, will now rethink their travel plans to Costa Rica, which is why I wanted to talk about my own experiences traveling Costa Rica and how safe I felt there, and also share some safety travel tips for Costa Rica with you. While I feel that the murders in Costa Rica are still isolated cases (they were not connected to another), I don’t think they should be completely left out of the picture when planning a trip to Costa Rica

To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever rented a car directly through a car rental agency; I’ve always compared prices on various car rental aggregators – websites like Expedia, Priceline or Skyscanner that compare prices at all of the available rental companies for you. First of all, Autoslash is the only car rental aggregator that does not only compare prices for different car rental companies, but in addition, it searches the web for discount codes and coupons that car rental companies offer temporarily and adds those to each quote. I don’t think I’ll ever rent a car again without using Autoslash: It would feel like I’m leaving money on the table. I wanted to see if I would get the same rates if I did the exact same search on each of the listed car rental agency’s websites, and these were the best rates I got when I tried to book with the three cheapest providers that Autoslash had found for me: As you can see, all three providers offer prices that are higher than the rates found through Autoslash.