Resources

Welcome to our resources page!!! We have been traveling since 2018. At the time of our departure, we thought we were pretty well organized. The truth is that there is always something new to learn and to experience!

Here we want to share with you all the valuable tools we have been using in these years that have been very helpful in simplifying our full-time traveling life! We are only recommending what we know about or have used personally. We hope it may be beneficial to you too, whether you start a full-time adventure or a vacation. Feel free to ask us any questions!

Hopefully, through them, you may find something that works well for you as well!  In some cases, we also have some special discounted offers if you use our codes:

Accommodation

Whenever we visit a new place, we always take very carefully into consideration a few things:

1. How long are we going to stay there?
2. If it is a pricy area.
3. What will our plans be for exploring the location?

For example, if we are visiting a big city only for a few days, most of the time we look for a hotel in a very central location or close to good transportation. If we plan on staying longer, an apartment may be a cheaper and better solution. Instead, if we are staying in the countryside, most of the time a house is our first choice. These are our go-to accommodations websites. Keep in mind that depending on the country you are visiting one might be more convenient than another. For example, when booking a hotel I usually check on one or more sites to see which gives me the best option.

• Airbnb. After traveling for so long, we often prefer having a real house with a kitchen and bedrooms, especially if we stay longer. However, we have learned that it is more popular in some countries so you will find better pricing. For example, you also get a better deal if you book for the whole week, so consider using it for more extended stays! If you want to join, you can use our discount code by clicking here! You will get up to $50 off a stay and $15 toward an Airbnb Experience of $50 or more.
• Booking.com. This website gives us the largest options in most places we visited. We often use it also to understand better whether staying in a hotel or house is more convenient. Depending on the country, you will find both options! We like to use the map to make our search. We put the area, dates, and preferences and then we look at the map based on the results. This helps us pinpoint the area, especially if we have never been there!
• Agoda. This website is very similar to booking.com but we have found here most of the best deals in Asian countries as well as Australia. However, I feel that is growing more and more and it is a big competition. Often we will find some properties on one rather than the other and most of the time Agoda has a lower price.
• Hotels.com: Just like the two above, we always confront prices, and at times, we will find better deals here.
• Trustedhousesitters. If you cannot afford the costs of hotel rooms or house rentals? This site offers you a great alternative. You can house or pet-sit someone’s home anywhere in the world! We know many people who use it as their main way of traveling. We have only applied a few times for now, but the dates and length didn’t work out. However, we always check what is available in the area we are visiting. There are a few things you have to consider, though. You have to be okay with the dates and the conditions that the homeowners give you. You cannot always tour the city you are staying in during your sit. On the other hand, you will probably have a chance to live more of the local atmosphere. So it is a great opportunity! If you would like to join, you can use our discount code by clicking here and you will get a 25% discount on their membership too. It’s a win-win!

Phone

We still maintain one of our US numbers. Our bank account, credit cards, and so on have a place to reach us, most of the time. However, we don’t have a contract but a prepaid card. What does this mean? This number does not work in all countries! In fact, during the lockdown in Nepal, we realized that our US number wasn’t working. This gave us all kinds of issues! For example, Visa sends you a message to confirm payment. I could not receive those messages and could not make payments for our flight out.

On this occasion, we found out about Text Me. This is a cross-platform messaging application that allows you to send text messages (real SMS) to any phone number in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and 100 countries in the World for FREE. You can get multiple phone numbers and voicemails, including international numbers. You pay a fee to have the same number all year without any ads and it has been working great!

We buy a new SIM card in each country we visit. This makes it easier to have an internet connection in most places and also to quickly contact local numbers. Some countries offer great tourist offers, so make sure to check this option out!

Credit Cards

We have had the same credit card for years and we love it: Capital One.

What do we love about it? We earn unlimited miles on every purchase, every day. We can then use these rewards towards travel purchases whether it is airlines, Airbnb, hotels, or car rentals. Or we can pay off our credit card.

Click here to apply for your Capital One Venture Rewards card

Mail

How do we manage our mail now that we don’t have a home anymore? We are still US residents, and although we have tried to make everything paperless, we still receive some mail.

Luckily we found Traveling Mailbox. This excellent service provides mail scanning solutions that allow individuals and small businesses to view their postal mail online anywhere in the world.

How does it work? They provide an actual physical street address that is unique to you. When your mail arrives, they scan the outside of the envelope and then you tell them to scan the contents, forward the item, shred it, return it, or hold it.

This service has made our life so much easier especially when tax season comes around!!!!

Flight bookings

We have learned a lot about flight bookings in all these years!

When we started our travels, we booked most of our flights through Airtreks. This company offers a unique service to find the best travel deals for obscure flights and multi-stop round-the-world tickets. We told them where we wanted to go and what our possible travel dates were and they found the best deals. In fact, originally our adventure started simply as a gap year experience so we knew our timing very clearly. As we started traveling so did our intentions for the future and this service wasn’t for us anymore. We didn’t want to be stuck on specific dates, but rather take our time and improvise more.

During the past few years, we have developed our method of booking flights which work well for us, but I’m sure there are other great ways to do it as well. This is our booking process:

• We check flight options on Google Flights first. You can put a date and see how the prices vary depending on the day. It is very helpful in deciding what day actually to leave! Especially if you are flexible with dates and times.
• Once we figure out the date, we check the routes offered. Keep in mind that if you find a low cost in the options, the luggage is never included, and it can change completely your budget! We carefully check stopovers and how long the wait is between flights.
• Once we find the best option, we go directly to the airline website (you cannot book through Google Flights). I have also realized that it has been cheaper to book now through the airline than through third-party companies (although we do that as well at times). Most airlines offer 2 or 3 pricing options; we tend to pick the middle one that usually includes the luggage. However, every airline is different! In our case, we have to consider that we travel with 1 suitcase each so that is a cost that we will have on any airline, we just have to cover it in the most reasonable way!
• We also make sure to sign up for the airline alliances. Many are connected, so you can use the same code for different airlines. We did get points and were able to get discounts on flights!

Car Rentals

In most of the countries we visited, we had to rely on rental cars. How do we decide which company to go with?

Our go-to website is Rentalcars.com. It has been a money saver on most occasions!

What we love about it is that it gives us a variety of options to pick from. We can see what rental companies are in the area we are visiting and what are the best deals. Most of the time we also get better offers than if we book directly with the rental company!

One thing to keep in mind though is that when you purchase auto insurance with Rentalcars.com it isn’t the same insurance that the rental car company offers. In fact, the rental car company will remind you that if you have an accident, you will have to pay them and then ask for a refund to the third party.

In the few cases where we didn’t find any rental options with Rentalcars.com we searched on Google for rental companies in the area. For example, on Exuma Island in the Bahamas, there were only 2 local companies, so we tried to find the best price with one of them. In other locations, we had to rely on different types of transportation, for example, Thailand and the Philippines! Every place is different, and you must remember to check out all your options!

Travel apps

• Xe is what we use for a currency converter. You can download up to 10 different currencies at the same time. The top one will be the one you are using currently and as soon as you add the amount it will give you the correct conversion in the different currencies. Very useful, especially when you are grocery shopping in a new country!
• Google Translate is our favorite translating app, however, there are many to pick from. What we love about it is that you can use both by typing in what you need to translate as well as verbally. We have been able to communicate much better with hosts as well as in restaurants.
• Car services. Uber is a platform where those who drive and deliver can connect with riders, eaters, and restaurants. In cities where Uber is available, you can use the app to request a ride.  In Southeast Asia, instead, you can find mainly Grab Cars. The Grab app assigns taxis and private hire cars to nearby commuters through a location-sharing system. These services are not offered in every country or at times only in some cities. However, when they are available it makes it so much easier to move around especially for a bigger family like ours when we don’t have a rental.

Books

•  Pdfdrive.com. There are thousands of book pdf here, free to download!!! 
•  Epic!. This is a digital library for kids. It offers unlimited access for up to 4 kids for $ 7.99 a month. There is an incredible variety of books, with new ones added weekly. They also offer learning videos. It also sends parents emails telling you what your kids are reading, so you always know what is going on.
• Book exchange: We love to read actual books! So when possible, we try to buy used books, exchange them, or at times buy them new too. In my post The book exchange experience I share more about how we manage to always have books with us while traveling.

Homeschooling/Worldschooling

We have 2 whole posts How our kids learn…what learning tools we use and How our kids learn…Our worldschooling experience is about how our kids are learning during our travels. However, all this is combined with visiting museums, exploring new places, and living for some time in a new culture. Learning happens every day all around us!

A great resource for our kids as they decide to self-direct their learning toward specific topics is Outschool! There are classes offered for any topic may come to mind, some are on going, some are offered for a limited time. Some are live and some are recorded. There is something for everyone! The great news is that by clicking on this referral link and signing up we can offer you $20 in Outschool credit so your child can try a class to see if he/she enjoys it like ours do!