Rules that work in any country.
The habits that make arriving somewhere new go well, learned the slow way across thirty-six years of work in seventy-seven countries.
Guides
Renting a Car Abroad: Insurance, Permits, and the Usual Scams
The rental counter is where most travel budgets quietly break. Know what you are covered for before you reach it.
How to Build an Honest Cost-of-Living Budget Abroad
Online cost-of-living numbers are averages of other people’s lives. Your receipts are the only budget that tells the truth.
The First 30 Days in a New Country: A Practical Checklist
SIM, cash, transit, a bed, and one good meal. Then the slower work of making a place function. A working checklist for the first month.
How we approach it
- 01The First 72 Hours. Data, cash, transit, a bed, and one good meal. In that order. Plan nothing else.
- 02Rent Short First. A short furnished stay first. Pick the long-term neighborhood after you have walked it.
- 03Eat Where They Eat. Find the counter the neighborhood actually uses, and go back.
- 04Keep Every Receipt. It is the only honest budget. Internet averages are other people's lives.
- 05Two of Everything. Cards, banks, chargers, ways to receive a code. Something will fail; have the second one.
Eight Road Rules
The First 72 Hours
Data, cash, transit, a bed, and one good meal. In that order. Plan nothing else.
Rent Short First
A short furnished stay first. Pick the long-term neighborhood after you have walked it.
Eat Where They Eat
Find the counter the neighborhood actually uses, and go back.
Keep Every Receipt
It is the only honest budget. Internet averages are other people's lives.
Two of Everything
Cards, banks, chargers, ways to receive a code. Something will fail; have the second one.
Learn Twenty Phrases
Greetings, numbers, how much, where is, sorry, thank you. Then food words.
Walk It
You learn more on foot in a week than from any amount of maps.
Be a Guest
Copy local manners, ask before photographing people, and assume the rules are there for a reason.