Links
General Information from UK and US governments
- UK Foreign Office travel advice by country: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice
- US State Dept travel warnings on a world map: https://travelmaps.state.gov/TSGMap/
- US State Dept travel advice by country: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages.html
- CIA World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/
Money
- Check exchange rates:
- OANDA forex: https://www.oanda.com/currency/converter/
- XE forex: https://www.xe.com/
- Make the best of your money on the road:
- Wise account and debit card: an international account ideal to transfer/spend in local currency with no hidden fees and very competitive exchange rates: https://wise.com/us/account/
Weather
- Weather Underground: https://www.wunderground.com/
- World Climate and Temperatures: https://climatemaps.romgens.com/
- Weather, Timezones, Calendars etc: https://www.timeanddate.com/
Other practical bits
- CDC travel health: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/
- Translations: there's Google for text and web pages https://translate.google.com or the very good DeepL https://www.deepl.com/translator alas for text only
- Online Maps: https://maps.google.com/ or if you prefer to stay away from Google: https://www.openstreetmap.org/
- Offline Maps: https://osmand.net/ great to use on your phone
- Travel Guides: from Stanfords, THE travel bookshop in London with an interactive map where you click on a country and see their assortment of books and maps about this country.
- For those long stop-overs: the wifi passwords of airports around the world and a guide to sleeping in airports (or how to save money on an airport hotel by sleeping in the airport).
Websites to help you plan your trip:
- Nomadic Matt: tips, guides and much more. It did work well for us to get some ideas while planning some of our trips.
- Rome2Rio: to find transport connections between places. Can be sometimes frustrating if you're looking for off the beaten trail destinations.
- The source for train travel: https://www.seat61.com/
- First-hand information on your next destination from travellers to travellers: https://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page
- Ideas for worldwide outdoor trails (hiking, cycling) with maps and GPS files: https://www.wikiloc.com/
- A-Contresens: a good site (unfortunately only in French) with a planning tool including budget and weather information.
- To help you set your budget: https://www.budgetyourtrip.com/
- Indian Travel: https://www.indiamike.com/
- General information and a travel forum: https://www.tripadvisor.com/
Blogs from people whose trips we follow (or followed)
They are still travelling and sharing their stories:
- Ellis travelling solo: https://www.backpackadventures.org/ (English)
- Alexandra travelling solo: https://www.lostwithpurpose.com/ (English)
- Mikki and Michelle: https://www.cheekypassports.com/ (English)
- Mi-fugue, mi-raison: https://www.mifuguemiraison.com/ (French)
They made it back home but their blogs are still online with good stories, photos and tips:
- Magy and Mr. Shushtari: https://magickervan.com/ (Bulgarian and English)
- Laurent: https://onechai.fr/ (French)
- Ivonne and Edwin: http://babakoto.eu/ (Dutch and English)
- Quentin et Mariette: https://shoesyourpath.com/ (French and English)
- Arimo: https://arimotravels.com/ (English)
- Anaïs and Nico: https://www.enpassantparlemonde.com/ (French)
- Annemarie: http://www.bikeworldtour.com/ (German and English)
$updated from: Welcome.htxt Mon 04 Mar 2024 16:04:49 trvl2 (By Vero and Thomas Lauer)$