Travel for the Over 30s

Continuing on with our website reviews series, today we are looking at Budget 4WD Travel

This is a site about travelling by 4WD around Australia. The author drove 35,000 kilometres around Australia and has used this site to document some of her hard-won lessons on camping on a budget

This site has some great information particularly for those people looking for camping gear reviews or basic how-to’s to set up a camping holiday. There are also some nice descriptions of some of Australia’s iconic drives such as the “Big Lap” - right around Australia and the Gibb River Road in far north Western Australia.  The site is using a pleasent WordPress theme which rotates a number of posts in the “feature” spot which is a nice touch for the visitor.

There is also an attached eBay store which allows the visitor to see the current cost of used 4WD’s in Australia. As with any site which mentions prices - things change, particularly the price of petrol (gas) and diesel - but overall this site has a lot of general useful information for anyone contemplating a trip to Australia - or even wanting to know which camping lights to buy!

I came across this site a while ago and its the real deal. Developed by someone who really has travelled the world and has some great advice on how to  travel the world  to share.

The site is a beautiful example of flexibility of WordPress and how nice a site can look - especially if the owner is a talented photographer as well.

How To Travel The World takes the wanna-be traveller through the whole process of deciding if to travel, pre-trip preparation, finding a place to stay and even returning home.

Its focused mainly on the younger backpacker market but there are tips and tricks for all ages here. Not sure whether you should buy point-to-point or round the world ticket check out the RTW tickets pages. Even if you are not down to last $10 - why waste money on unnecessary items, my pet hate is over-paying for a so-called “hotel” when a hostel would have been cheaper and better quality!

I think these types of websites are going to really take off as people get tired of over-paying for vacations but still want to travel - the bonus is that the cheaper you travel the more likely you are to have a great travel experience

SY over at Golden Prague asked me to write a post about living in Australia as an ex-pat.  I am a New Zealander and have lived overseas in a number of countries: from Papua New Guinea, Canada  to England but I guess Australia is, in reality one of the easiest countries in the world to live in.

Lets look at the pluses for living in Australia :

• I live in Perth Western Australia - its late March - I just got back from the beach - at 6pm at night, its around 28C - the surf was up
• They speak English- mainly
• The culture is fairly close to my usual home - New Zealand.
• Within the cities its a fairly tolerant society
• The landscape and scenary is amazing - and generally, particularly outside of the east coast, empty.

Its not all beer and barbie though - and anyone who is actually thinking of moving to Australia should consider these points:

• Its a big country a long way away from - everywhere. Perth is the most isolated city in the world - the nearest city is Jakarta, its 3.5 hours flying time to Melbourne, 7 hours to New Zealand, around 5 hours to Singapore.
• Outside of the cities is very much still a heterosexual, racist society - bare this in mind. Sure Sydney has a vibrant gay society - but that’s the exception not the rule.
• There are far too many levels of government: local, state and federal means that doing business or simpling moving from state to state where neither car regulation or school systems are compatible can be less than easy.
• Drinking is a serious activity - drink to you drop -rather than a social event.

Its a nice movie - but its highly unlikely that the Priscilla Queen of the Desert “queens” would have made it from Sydney to Alice Springs with no broken bones.

For another view of an expat - check out 100decisions who is an American who has lived in England and is currently living in Alaska - nice photos to! I’d love to see Alaska - but even Vancouver was too cold for me!

Although its better than the old days of travel guide books and nothing much else its still pretty hard to get decent local information on a place you plan to visit. The large sites such as Lonely Planet - which used to be pretty reliable have now gone very corporate and bland - but bloggers are stepping into the breach. No I don’t mean the 90% of travel bloggers who tell you step by step how they couldn’t find a soy decaf in Sweden or bacon in India for breakfast - but those that actually live and blog about their home town.

A recent example of a great local site written by local expats is a Mexico Blog I found whose owners live and blog about their home of Manzanillo.  Mazanillo was just a small resort town on the way to Puerto Vallarta from Acapulco  when I passed through in the 1980’s - and basically the bit I remember most had something to do with Magaritas - having gone authentically local and learnt to drink the lethal concoction while in the country.

I get the impression from the Manzanillo Blog that the town has grown up a bit - certainly I didn’t stay anywhere as nice as the Dolphin Inn which they reviewed recently. The site is a nice mixture of local reviews and advertisements but all very professionally done and a nice clean layout. I really like the look and feel of the site - its a very nice example of a “magazine style” WordPress Theme.

Its a relatively new blog - about six months old -but there is a wide variety of posts which include a weekly series of local photographs - nice photography from one of the partners I suspect. Manzanillo is a retirement destination for Americans as well as a shorter term vacation destination so there is a mixture of articles on how to live in Mexico, English-speaking services, and relevant how-tos for those who come for the surfing, fishing and diving.

Nice site guys - keep it up!

One of the weird things living in Internet-land is that most people live in the Northern Hemisphere - so right about now they is lot of chat about spring and finding a sunny beach hotel for their upcoming holidays - or vacations if they are in North America.

Now I understand the desire -  my home doesn’t get that much sun in the winters either - or in the summer sometimes! But its weird now that I live on arguably one of the best beaches in the world Scarborough Beach, Perth - where do  I go on holiday? Well let’s face it I am not travelling for sand and surf - got that all just down the road! I don’t need to be holiday - I can just pop down after work for an hour or so!

I guess the point is that we travel to have what  we haven’t got - I’ve gotta say that as usual as humans we want what we can’t have. I would love to get to Europe again: mainly because I have forgotten what history and culture are living in Western Australia! I’d love to check out some of the castle hostels in Germany or maybe a Jumbo Jet hostel in Sweden.

As it is I am far more likely to catch a quick flight up to Asia - where the beaches are excellent and  food good and cheap. The next trip is going to be up the coast in Western Australia to swim with whale sharks, which is a whole lot different! And what do the local newspapers promote  to tempt West Australians to travel: ski holidays in Japan and New Zealand this week!

Golden Prague from Prague Expat Life has been missing my posting so has tagged me to get me out of my writers block! The rules are:

• link to the person who tagged me, done.
• share seven things about me you might not know, see below.
• tag seven people and link this post to them, see below.
• let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs!
  

Thanks and here is my take on seven things you might not know about me:

• I am a competitive ballroom dancer, but rarely dance socially anymore;
• I love the sea but have twice nearly died - both times by drowning!
• I don’t miss going to work at all, I hadn’t realised how much I hated corporate life until I stopped;
• I eat almost anything, except tofu;
• I do not believe in Astrology - but I am a typical stroppy, short-tempered, passionate Aries;
• I speak English and some American and very bad Spanish;
• Travel is my passion, but I yet to figure out how to make money from it online!

And I tag:

Susan from Literary Lunch

Benson from Hong Kong Today

Grannie from Grandma Stories

Connie from Travel Writer Today

Stephanie from Rocket Scientist

Laura from Single Frugaton

Chameleon from Coffee Break