Travel Lean

Are GPS apps rendering part of your brain inactive?

How to vastly improve your experience with maps and keep your head from getting lost in the map on your smartphone.

By Brad Beckstrom

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Cartography – The study and practice of making maps.

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Remember paper maps? I’m talking about the big unfolding kind they used to give you at tourism offices, AAA or full-service gas stations. How about the slick plastic coated ones that you could access with one hand on the steering wheel trying to navigate in a city like Rome or Washington, DC? Or the jumbo 50 page city or county map books they used to sell at office supply and convenience stores for about 18 bucks, still popular with some realtors and salespeople who work in remote areas or haven’t jumped on the smartphone bandwagon yet. Or the mother of them all, The Rand McNally Road Atlas hundreds of pages just waiting to be explored. I always had a thing for maps. I was always up for exploring out-of-the-way places, and maps helped me get there.

The frug globe

When my boys were younger, we used to play a game called “spin the globe”, wherever you land, you have to go there. I remember once my oldest son spun the globe and landed on Yakutsk, Russia generally considered to be the coldest inhabited city on earth with average temperatures of -58°F. He immediately added the city to the weather app on his phone and kept an eye on the place, occasionally sharing the sometimes ridiculous low temperatures. I don’t think I’ll ever see Yakutsk but I have a feeling he might.

Once GPS came along I knew I was hooked. (Finally an answer for my lack of direction in life.) I played around with some of the earliest handheld GPS units, the kind where you had to load a CD onto your computer then somehow transfer maps to the GPS unit. These early units were popular with boaters because it’s very important to know where you’re going on the water. You also need to know about a third dimension, the depth of the water so you don’t end up on a sand barge, as I occasionally did. At least I can blame the fricking GPS unit versus my lack of preparation with paper navigation charts. [Read more…] about Are GPS apps rendering part of your brain inactive?

If you’re traveling on a budget, plan a trip to a 4 star resort on a Greek Island.

07/16 by The Frug Leave a Comment

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By Brad Beckstrom

Wait, The Frug hanging out at a four-star resort in the Greek Islands? That doesn’t sound very frugal. The fact is, it’s never been more frugal. This has a lot to do with the strength of the US dollar versus the Euro which is regularly hitting 10 year lows, but it has more to do with Greek hospitality and choosing the right time and the right island to visit.

Location, Location, Location

While I was researching Greece, I was a bit disappointed to see pictures of summer crowds in places like Santorini and Mykonos. One website even included photos titled “perception” and “reality” showing a photo of beautiful whitewashed houses and windmills on Santorini next to a photo of the same spot, covered in tourists, with every alleyway bursting at the seams with dreaded shoppers and selfie stick wavers.

From the start, I wanted to avoid the crowds. That was going to be tough as our kids weren’t getting out of school til late June and, like many other families. we’d all be hitting the highways and airports about the same time. The strategy we came up with was to visit a few Greek islands that most Americans have never heard of, Paros and Antiparos. We talked to some Greek insiders including a celebrity chef my 14-year-old son had been chatting up on Twitter and got the scoop on these two islands. They’re in the same Cyclades chain of islands with Santorini and Mykonos, but because Paros is a ferry hub, it’s often the first stop coming and going on the ferry from Athens. This would be our destination.

Timing

The other key element in our plan was timing. [Read more…] about If you’re traveling on a budget, plan a trip to a 4 star resort on a Greek Island.

7 reasons you should travel like a Viking this year!

05/16 by The Frug Leave a Comment

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By Brad Beckstrom

Vikings are back. Well, I’m talking about the popular History Channel TV show. Whenever I watch this show I’m amazed at the spectacular scenery. Where is it filmed? Norway? Finland? It’s actually filmed in Ireland and Canada. Regardless, there’s something about the show that just makes me want to explore new lands. So, here are my 7 reasons you should travel like a Viking this year.

New discount Scandinavian Airlines are on a mission to pillage and plunder other airlines business Viking style.

Did you know that the Vikings were the original settlers of Iceland? Now I can fly there direct for $99 on Reykjavík based WOW airlines. This isn’t some firesale you click on and it’s gone. It’s been on their website for months. The cool thing about flying to Iceland is that you’re only about three hours away from Europe. This makes their flights to Europe very competitive. They have a cool calendar view on their website that shows you the cheapest day to fly. If I am willing to fly on a Tuesday, I can get to Copenhagen for $189. The tickets are one way and you’ll be paying some bag fees, so travel light, my Viking friend. Another airline up for some plundering and pillaging is Norwegian Air. They have some eye-opening flights out of some Northeast airports, like $69 to Martinique. Yes, that’s the French Caribbean, I might just like to hop on that flight and not look at a map. It’s only $69 from my local airport, I can’t get to Cleveland for that. They also have a one way ticket to London for $194. I also like that their flights don’t have ridiculous layovers or require much travel hacking. I purchased tickets to Paris (in June) for $700 round-trip that have a total travel time similar to major carriers charging about 60% more. I’ve put together a list of great travel hacking tools for low airfare here and here.

We will ransack your treasury and devalue your currency.

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Over the past year, the US dollar has hit all-time highs, multiple times, against the euro and other currencies. When this happens US travelers can often find amazing deals. The breakfast buffet at my four-star $53 per night hotel in Mexico City set me back a full $4.25 with tip. For lunch I had the best sandwich I’ve ever had, portobello mushroom with avocado and swiss cheese and other secret sauces, along with a cold Mexican microbrew, that set me back $5.50. [Read more…] about 7 reasons you should travel like a Viking this year!

How to enter the airline matrix and pounce on invisible fares and discount codes.

11/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

By Brad Beckstrom

I recently wrote about creating a frequent flyer points machine, using everyday expenses, including healthcare and utilities, to rack up 2X, 3X, 4X frequent-flier points. As a follow-up, I wanted to provide an update on the latest tools I’ve found for spending those points.

Once you’ve figured out how to earn points twice as fast, the real benefit kicks in by spending fewer points, making them go twice as far. Anyone can do this by finding the cheapest days to travel combined with fare deals from your local airport. If you can find the lowest fare, then you can spend your points more efficiently and get the specific flight you want by using your points through your credit card providers travel service. (I use Chase Sapphire Ultimate Rewards for an added 20% points bonus on booking.)

I found the key to doing this is having the exact flight you want to book at hand when you call to apply points to the total price. You don’t want to depend on the agent to find you the best fare, and you certainly don’t want deal with airlines directly which often charge you for the privilege to book. Airlines also like to drastically limit the frequent-flier seats available, unless of course you’re willing to cough up more money or double points.

So how to do it? [Read more…] about How to enter the airline matrix and pounce on invisible fares and discount codes.

How to create a Frequent Flyer Points Machine.

10/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

The tools you need to automatically earn 2% or 2X points on nearly every dollar you spend, creating a perpetual flow of frequent flyer points.

Most airline frequent flyer programs have become a joke. When I started travel hacking years ago, you could get a decent domestic ticket for 25,000 points and get tickets to the Caribbean and Mexico for around 35,000 points. No more. Sure you might be able to find one of those 25,000 point tickets they promote between two Rust Belt cities with a 5 AM departure and a three hour layover. Forget about flying anywhere near the holidays and get ready to hear them laugh if you’re looking to cash in points for a family of four directly with the airline, to let’s say the Caribbean, Europe, or even Florida. The airlines seem proud of the fact that they’ve become so superefficient through mergers and online ticketing algorithms that they only need to cough up a few regular seats per plane for frequent flyers, unless you’re willing to pay the premium, double sometimes triple points (then the seats will appear). I plan over six months out and I still can’t track decent ones down.

Unless you are flying alone, dealing with airlines to use your points is a waste of time. If you do get lucky and find a seat you can use points for, some airlines like British Airways will hit you with a $500+ “fuel surcharge” on top of the points you’re coughing up. On more than one occasion that surcharge to the UK or EU was more than the entire cost of the ticket from another discount airline like Norwegian Air or WOW airlines. Check out their $199 fares to Europe.

There is a solution.

I’ve been able to travel with our family of four once, sometimes, twice per year using high 2% reward credit cards. And yes, we were all on the same flight departing from and arriving to the airport we wanted. To do this we created a frequent flyer points machine using two cards from Chase, one business, one personal and an American Express card from Fidelity. [Read more…] about How to create a Frequent Flyer Points Machine.

Creating a high tech, paperless office that can fit in a backpack.

09/15 by The Frug Leave a Comment

11 Creative and free ways to declutter your office, and work from anywhere.

By Brad Beckstrom

I’ve always admired digital nomads. Those folks who can work from anywhere. They can get stuff done in a noisy seaside café in or a mountain cabin with no Internet access. They are extremely mobile, in fact, many of them can stay mobile all the time. The ability to travel light and run a small business or creative endeavor from a laptop takes less wizardry than you may think. You don’t have to be a vagabond or a digital nomad to benefit from the technology that is making this more possible than ever before.

So, for those of you who have not gotten the secret memo, you can work from anywhere, skip the commute and simplify your work environment to the point where you can grab it and go. All of the technology I am recommending here, I’ve used for years and believe it’s more secure than most office environments.

All of the applications are cloud-based, backed up, and protected by two step verification (defined below). They will all work on a Mac, PC, tablet, or smartphone and automatically sync n save. The setup also allows you to work with clients and other folks who still work with ancient versions of Microsoft Word, request that things be faxed or snail mailed (like certain Fortune 500 healthcare, banking and insurance providers), or try to move large video files and presentations around by email.

So, here’s the setup I recommend for anyone who’d like to work remotely. It will work well even if you never travel. It will allow you to go paperless, reduce your office footprint, and simplify your work environment. Most of the software listed below is free or free with very reasonable rates on cloud storage.

A Mac. I’ve used the same laptop for five years. I’ve upgraded the RAM on my 2010 MacBook Pro to keep up with modern software and newer operating systems that seem to be released every six months. I generally stay one cycle behind the current operating system. So, for instance, if Apple is releasing OSX 10.10, I’ll stay on 10.9 until the next release 10.11 etc. is announced, then upgrade. This allows everything to run smoothly as other providers upgrade for the latest OS while fixing bugs for the next one.