My favorite travel resources and other stuff
Below are the main resources I use for travel. I have no association with the companies or products listed. These are not affiliate links; they are provided for reference.
Travel
Research & Trip Planning
Wikitravel: Where I start with big questions like local customs, transportation, crime, and other important information.
U.S. State Department: Get visa, safety, passport, vaccination, and other critical information from the man.
Lonely Planet: Many Lonely Planet books are available for free with Amazon Prime. Search “lonely planet” in the Kindle Store and refine by “Prime Reading Eligible” in the left panel.
TripAdvisor: Used almost exclusively for restaurants. While not ideal, since most reviews are written by tourists, it’s the most wide-spread resource for finding good restaurants and filtering by price range.
Google "Things to do in [city]": Perform this search and click on “[city] travel guide” in the right panel. Click on the “Things to Do” tab at the top to get a plot of the city. Excellent for figuring out good areas to stay.
Rome2Rio: Handles long-distance transportation way better than Google Maps.
SeatGuru: Research the best and worst seats on a plane.
Flights
If possible, I buy flights through my travel card program. If not, I consider purchasing directly from the airline, since they should have more control over reservations if something goes wrong or needs to change.
Skyscanner: For discovering cheap flights from anywhere to everywhere.
Hopper: For finding the best dates to fly and monitoring when to buy plane tickets.
Google Flights: Another way to search for and track flights. Always good to check multiple sources.
Airline Ratings: Provides airline safety ratings. A neurotic indulgence.
For the flight:
Pink Noise: Lifesaver for drowning out flight announcements, coughing, crying babies, mobile game beep boops, other distractions. Download on Spotify, Amazon Music, or Apple Music to ensure offline access.
Housing
Airbnb: Many hosts offer discounts for long-term stays. Weekly rates apply for 7-27 night reservations and monthly discounts kick in at 28 nights.
Hostelworld: Best tool for researching hostels. However, some hostels offer perks like free breakfast or discounts at the bar if you book directly through them.
Language Learning
Duolingo: Probably the most well-known language learning app. Popular programs like Spanish are great. Others, like the Korean course, are abysmal. NOTE: I only recommend using the desktop version, without the word bank. Otherwise it's too easy and nothing sinks in.
Technology
TunnelBear: Simple, secure VPN that's a joy to use. Essential for secure connections and accessing American versions of sites.
1Password: Password manager with a Watchtower feature that monitors compromised websites, informing when to change vulnerable passwords.
The Essential Browser Extension Trio:
uBlock Origin: Ad blocker of choice
Privacy Badger: For blocking trackers. Will occasionally break pages, but easy to disable when necessary.
HTTPS Everywhere: Forces encryption on websites
Finance
These are the services I use, but they might not be right for everyone.
YNAB: Essential for financial planning and sanity.
Photography
Google Photos: Unlimited photo backups since I have a Pixel 3. Otherwise, I'd use Amazon Photos.
Adobe Photography Plan: Comes with Photoshop and Lightroom, the standards for photo editing and RAW photo management.
Writing
Ulysses: Favorite Markdown editor with good organization features.
Highland 2: Used occasionally, mostly for smaller documents and when I want to make a lot of notes while developing a script.
Scrivener: For large projects that require heavy organization and multiple documents.
Final Draft: While far from perfect, it’s still the standard for finished documents. Mostly used in the polishing phase, not development or otherwise.
Grammarly: The popular grammar checking tool. Catches details other spellchecks and services don't. Also, it's fun to disagree with.
Productivity
TickTick: Intuitive and powerful to-do list app. Even includes a Pomodoro timer.
Toggl: For time tracking, when needed.
Education
Lynda.com: Great place to spend hours mastering Microsoft Word. Most libraries grant free access.
Overdrive: Free audiobooks and ebooks. Not sure why they have another product that is essentially the same thing.
See my gear list for a more material inventory.
