Author: The Trip Doctor

Intentional Travel Spotlight: WWOOFING

Featured, Intentional Travel

Have you ever wanted to harvest wine grapes in Napa Valley? Press olive oil in Italy? Milk a cow in Maine? WWOOFING can take you there.

WWOOFING stands for “Willing Workers on Organic Farms” or “World Wide  Opportunities on Organic Farms” depending on who you ask. Regardless of what exactly the acronym stands for, WWOOFING is an excellent way to travel intentionally. As we’ll talk more about later, intentional travel is any travel done with the purpose of having positive outcomes for yourself and your destination. Lets talk about some of the main points of information you’ll need if you’re thinking about being a WWOOFER:

  1. WWOOFING involves staying and working on an organic farm somewhere around the world.
  2. You live with your host on the farm. Stays vary from as short as two days to as long as six months.
  3. You are expected to work around 4-6 hours per day on the farm in exchange for your room (and sometimes board).
  4. There are an incredible number of things you could do on the farm, from milking cows to planting a field to harvesting grapes.
  5. To find a WWOOFING experience in the destination of your choice, head to the WWOOF International or Federation of WWOOF Organizations website.

WWOOFING became a thing in the early 1970s in England when a woman named Sue Coppard organized travel for people who lived in the city to stay and work on organic farms in the countryside. Fast forward from humble beginnings to the year 2000, when the first International WWOOF conference was held with representatives from 15 countries. These days there are myriad WWOOFING organizations across the globe, and many more that operate outside of the formal structure provided by WWOOOFing organizations in varying countries. As the number of travelers who care about being sustainable grows, WWOOFING has grown in tandem.

Why is WOOFING a type of intentional travel?

Intentional travel involves any travel that revolves around having positive impacts in your travel destination on purpose. There are plenty of trips where we unintentionally have good impacts – we do things like spend money at local businesses or have positive social interactions all the time. Intentional travel involves planning trips where those positive impacts are the focus of the trip.

There are a great deal of positive impacts that come from WWOOFING for both the traveler and the farm host. Economically, the benefits of tourism tend to be focused on urban areas and tourism enclaves near natural resource attractions. WWOOFING helps bring those benefits to rural farm areas where they would normally not be found, helping spread the economic love around. In terms of interactions, the WWOOFING experience is just about as authentic as it gets – spending time on the farm creates excellent opportunities for organic (pun intended) interactions between hosts and guests, as well as among guests from various places.  Those who undertake WWOOFING experiences usually leave their trips with knew knowledge that they may find surprisingly useful in their every day lives – there are many a story of WWOOFERS returning home to start gardening in their own back yards. Finally, travelers who spend time WWOOFING often leave with a greater appreciation of where their food comes from and the hard work it takes to raise and harvest much of what we consume. In a time where much of the food in grocery stores comes pre-packaged in single serving sizes, learning more about food systems is increasingly important.

The bottom line

There are an incredible breadth of options when it comes to WWOOFING, and travelers of every personality type can likely find something appropriate. Some farms are more rustic than others, so be sure to do your homework when it comes to the experience you are looking for. More adventurous travelers might be interested in jumping head first into an experience with livestock, while those who are a little less sure about staying on a farm might go for an experience at a vineyard or orchard.

Learn More

If you’re interested in WWOOFING, your first click should be the WWOOF International or Federation of WWOOF Organizations website. If you want to learn more about planning a trip that includes a WWOOFING experience, head over to my travel planning strategy guide. If you want to learn more about tourism impacts and sustainability, head over to my page on impacts and sustainability.

The ethics of involving animals in tourism

Podcast

In our travels around the world, we are liable to encounter animals in a variety of ways. Sometimes, they’re the main attraction. Zoos and aquariums are built around featured animals for the public to see. In other instances, animals like horses, camels, or mules are used as transportation to and from our primary destination. Yet still, sometimes animals are the centerpiece of culinary tourism experiences with iconic dishes like foie gras, osso buco, and blue crab boils drawing tourists from across the globe. The thing about animals in tourism, however, is that nobody has asked them if they want to participate. In this episode, The Trip Doctor interviews Dr. Carol Kline, an associate professor at Appalachian State University. She recently edited a book called Animals, Food, and Tourism, and is a co-founder of the website Fanimal.co, a membership site for animal lovers to laugh, learn, and make a difference. In this interview, we’ll be discussing the ethical implications of involving animals in tourism and what you can do to be a better consumer of animal based tourism experiences, as in many cases the experience for the animals involved can be extremely negative.

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Do anticipated social media likes influence where we travel?

Podcast

Think about the images you’re bombarded with every day on social media. Chances are, you’ve got friends, family, and random celebrities constantly posting pictures of themselves in larger than life travel destinations across the globe, doing anything but the mundane tasks we all engage in during the vast majority of our days at home and work. It turns out, people may actually be traveling to those destinations we see on social media specifically because they think you’ll like their posts. In this episode, The Trip Doctor interviews Dr. Bynum Boley about his findings from a paper titled: “Social return and intent to travel” in the journal Tourism Management. In this study, Dr. Boley asked the question: does the number of likes or comments we think we’ll get on a picture of our travels influence the places that we go? It turns out, it does.

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Looking for the truth in AirBnB reviews

Podcast

So – you’re booking a trip, and have decided to use AirBnB to find your accommodations. You put in your destination, your dates, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms you need; and you get back a couple of places that all fit what you’re looking for. You’re trying to decide which one to pick, but almost all of them have a slew of 5-star ratings. How do you know which place is going to be the best? It turns out, review comments may reveal more than the 5-star ratings that each of these properties has. In this episode, The Trip Doctor interviews Dr. Camilla Vasquez about her article titled: “If nearly all Airbnb reviews are positive, does that make them meaningless?” in the journal Current Issues in Tourism. In her analysis of the language people use in their AirBnB reviews, she made some interesting discoveries.

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Travel basics: Local currency – when and where to get it?

Featured, Travel Basics

There are almost an unlimited number of nuances to traveling, especially traveling abroad, and things that some travelers have learned through trial and error, others haven’t had to deal with yet. For others, we may think our way is the best way and haven’t considered alternatives. I’ve created a series of Travel Basics posts aimed at less experienced travelers and travel pros who may have been doing things the same way for a long time and are looking for a refresher.

No matter how you decide to get cash for your trip, the first thing you should always do is notify your bank when and where you’ll be traveling. This will help eliminate a number of potential headaches that could crop up down the road if your bank thinks your account has been compromised.

Getting local currency is especially important when traveling to places where using credit cards or digital payments for everything is not the norm – which is the vast majority of the world outside of the United States (Of course there are places that are moving quickly toward a cashless society (like Sweden), but MOST places are not). There are essentially three options when it comes to when and where to withdraw your cash:

  1. Get it from your bank before you leave.
  2. Take cash with you and exchange it when you get there
  3. Get it from an ATM at your destination

Getting cash from your bank before you leave. Getting foreign currency from your bank is probably the most comfortable option for many. You have some level of trust with your bank as they already have all your money, so why not go to them for getting foreign currency as well? For starters, a lot of banks (especially smaller banks, smaller branches, credit unions, etc.) only keep a small amount of foreign currencies on hand, and many of them have none. The exchange rate at your bank is likely to be pretty good, but may be slightly higher than the market rate. If you want to avoid using an ATM for your entire trip, you’ll have to get all of the cash you think you’ll need before you leave. This poses two problems: 1. You never know when an unplanned expense might come up, and 2. Carrying a boatload of cash with you is always risky, no matter where you are. For this reason, I only recommend getting as much as you’ll need for the first few days of your trip, and then you can get cash from an ATM at your destination (which, coincidentally, is my preferred option for getting foreign currency).

Taking cash with you and exchanging it when you get there. This is the worst option for getting foreign currency on a trip because of the costs associated with using a third party exchange company. You’ll see exchange companies like Travelex in airports, railway stations, and tourism destinations all over the globe. Those exchange companies are private, for profit businesses that make their money by giving an exchange rate that is much worse than market rates.

Getting cash from an ATM at the destination. This is almost always your best option for getting foreign currency in terms of exchange rate and convenience. However, it is important to note that not all ATMs are created equal. Here are a few things to consider when getting cash out of ATMS:

  1. How much does your bank charge you to get foreign currency from ATMs? Banks will sometimes charge a small convenience fee, plus a fee for using an ATM that is not owned by them, plus a percentage exchange rate fee. Even with all those fees tacked on, usually you end up getting the best deal going this route. I recommend checking to see if your bank has any partner institutions in your destination that would let you use their ATMs for free. For me, my credit union is part of the co-op network, which lets me use any other credit union ATM for free. If your bank charges you a big service fee for getting cash out, I recommend taking out larger amounts at a time to avoid paying that fee multiple times. No matter what, it is always smart to talk to your bank to see what you’ll be charged when you take your cash out.
  2. ATMs inside the airport terminal (especially those owned by exchange companies, rather than major banks) will sometimes charge big fees to get your cash out. These fees are usually charged ON TOP of whatever fees that your own bank may charge. I always recommend leaving the ‘secured’ area before getting cash out of an ATM. In most cases, airports will have a whole slew of ATMs available near the baggage claim – these ATMs will usually not charge the huge fees that can come with taking cash out inside the terminal. I usually slow things down when I arrive and watch what the locals are doing while I’m waiting for my bags. Are there certain ATMs that are being used a great deal and certain ones that aren’t? Most of the time I’ll play it safe and go to the ATM that is frequented most by locals.
  3. Go to an ATM that is associated with a major bank. That way, if you have any sort of issue, you know who to contact to resolve your problem. I’m always wary of any ATM that has big bold writing saying things like “FREE CASH WITHDRAWALS HERE!!!”
  4. One thing I always watch for when I get cash from an ATM is skimmers. I try not to be alarmist when it comes to getting your information stolen, but paying attention for things that don’t seem quite right on an ATM could save you a lot of trouble. This is something that you should really only be concerned about if you’re using an ATM in a public place that isn’t covered by security cameras (like ATMs in some public spaces).

If you’re really unsure of the best ATM to get foreign currency within your destination, the concierge of your hotel, Bed and Breakfast host, or AirBnB owner can be a great source of information.

Where to learn more about exchange rates?

My go to website for looking up exchange rates is xe.com. It is simple, efficient, and updates constantly to provide you with the most accurate exchange rate details based on currency markets. I caution against checking exchange rates too frequently –  don’t fret over whether you should get your cash out today or tomorrow because you think the exchange rate might fall. Usually these things change fairly slowly!

What to do with left over cash?

So your trip is about to end, you’re heading the airport, and you have a bunch of foreign currency left over – what do you do? If you think you’ll head back to your destination or another destination that uses that currency, you can always hold on to it. My personal favorite thing to do is go on a duty free/”buy local” shopping spree in the airport, buying gifts for family, friends, and myself. In terms of duty free – there are all sorts of great booze/perfume/candy options. In terms of local gifts, most airports have a shop in them that sells all sorts of local things from the destination – in a lot of cases they have items that are composed of multiple small items that are great for gifts when you return home.

The bottom line

For most people, money is the biggest source of stress in their lives. This goes double for when you’re traveling. Do your homework before you leave to figure out when and where the most comfortable and least expensive option is for YOU in terms of getting foreign currency. My recommendation is to use an ATM at your destination.

 

When to travel to save money and beat the crowds

Featured, Strategy

Traveling during the high season can be a bear – very hot or cold weather, long lines for attractions, crowded streets, and higher prices can make your hard earned vacation less enjoyable than you deserve. The high season is usually during holiday periods like Christmas/New Years and dates when children aren’t in school, like the summer and spring break. Businesses know that these time periods are when people want to take time off to travel, and will take advantage by charging more. That is why I recommend traveling during the shoulder season.

What is the shoulder season?

The shoulder season is different for each travel destination, but tends to fall sometime during the fall and/or spring. Traveling during the shoulder season is a great way to get a top notch travel experience with less of the hassles you’ll find during the high season and lower prices. Lets look at some of the reasons the shoulder season is a great time to travel:

  1. Way fewer tourists – Less crowds means a more relaxed vacation and less time spent waiting in lines, etc.
  2. Cheaper – Because there are fewer travelers during these periods, you can usually find good deals.
  3. The weather – For many destinations, the summer can be sweltering and the winter chilly. The shoulder season is usually a happy medium.

Drawbacks of traveling during the shoulder season

While I believe the pros of traveling during the shoulder season greatly outweigh the cons, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be aware of what those cons are. Here are some drawbacks to traveling during the shoulder season:

  1. The weather  – If you want to lay by the beach and work on your tan, the shoulder season might not be for you as the weather tends to be much more mild.
  2. Businesses may have reduced hours – This is especially true in less popular destinations and also for some museums in Europe.
  3. Some destinations shut down all-together – For some business owners, the lack of steady income during the shoulder season means they’re taking their own vacations.

The shoulder season and sustainability

For many destinations, seasonality is both a boon and a curse. In the high season, things are really good. In the low season, they aren’t. In some cases (especially destinations that are dependent on a certain type of weather like snow (ski chalets) or sun (summer beach towns in colder climates)), businesses will only open for a 3-4 month period, in which they need to make all their money for the year. For those destinations, the shoulder season is usually very brief or non-existent. For other destinations whose attractions are not climate based, the shoulder season provides businesses an opportunity to extend their income generating period and related economic impacts farther than normal. Having travelers visit during the shoulder season can also alleviate much of the crowding and congestion that is associated with the high season, and many residents feel as though they can create more authentic connections with travelers during this time. Finally, traveling during the shoulder season can reduce stress on natural resources and waste management systems during the that are heavily used during the high season.

The Bottom line

As long as you do your  homework about when the shoulder season is for your potential travel destination, you should be able to have a positive experience in most destinations. Be sure to look up seasonal hours for any attractions you’re interested in and/or other activities you’re planning on doing when you travel.

Learn more

Travel and Leisure has published a handy guide to when you can find shoulder seasons across the globe – check it out here. To learn more about some of the impacts you just read about, start with my discussion of impacts and sustainability. If you’re ready to start booking your shoulder season trip, head over to my travel planning strategy guide to start learning more about booking your own trips – including some of my favorite travel booking sites.

Travel destination types and your traveler personality

Destinations, Featured

As a traveler, you have a huge number of options (barring budget or time constraints) in terms of the places you could travel. Learning about different destination types can help you decide where and when you want to travel. How and why a tourism destination develops over time has important implications for the type of experience you’ll get there, the type of traveler who will find it appealing, and the potential impacts that travelers could have on the community. Knowing your traveler type will help your understanding of this post – Head on over to take the Traveler Personality Quiz before you read on!

One of the best ways to understand how destinations develop over time is through a model called the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC), that was developed by a guy named Richard Butler in 1980. The TALC essentially says that destinations develop on a curve, and as the number of visitors increases over time, local control over development slowly regresses. This model runs in unison with another old-school tourism model called Doxey’s Irridex. Doxey’s Irridex says that as the number of tourists visiting a destination increases over time, residents of that community react increasingly negatively as a result of impacts in the community.

Exploration stage

Tourism destinations at the beginning of their life cycle usually have little in the way of tourism infrastructure (things like airports) or superstructure (things like hotels), but usually have some unique natural or cultural attraction that people may find interesting and want to see. At this stage in the destination life cycle, usually the only travelers to a destination will be trendsetters, as it is likely difficult to get to the destination, stay in the destination, and communicate with those living in the destination. Impacts on the community are usually positive at this point, as the little money that travelers spend stays in the community, venturers socioculturally sensitive and inquisitive – meaning their interactions with locals in the community are usually positive, and a small number of tourist visits doesn’t usually lead to environmental degradation. An example of a destination in the exploration stage would be something like a small village in rural Laos, like Vieng Phou Kha.

Involvement stage

Once a few travelers visit a destination, people living in the community begin to realize that there is money to be made. At this point in the destination life cycle, locals often begin to start tourism related businesses, opening guesthouses, restaurants, tour guiding services, and even some attractions. This means that the destination begins to be a little bit more comfortable, so explorers might be willing to travel to the destination as they hear about it from trendsetters who return from their travels. At this point, positive economic impacts tend to grow a little bit, sociocultural impacts stay relatively the same, and both positive and negative environmental impacts tend to increase slightly. The environment is impacted positively as the community realizes that any natural resource based attractions need to be preserved in order to keep tourists coming. The environment is impacted negatively as tourism development begins to tax resources like the water supply, and new construction leads to resource use and runoff. An example of a destination in the involvement phase would be any of the Maasai communities around Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.

Development/Consolidation

As more tourists visit the destination, development starts to be undertaken by major tourism organizations. In many cases, tourism infrastructure becomes more developed, with access improving by road, rail, and air. With increased access comes increased demand, and new tourism businesses are usually developed by large multinational corporations to meet that demand – think branded hotels, restaurants, attractions, etc. These changes pave the way for visitation by adapters and daytrippers, while trendsetters and explorers seek out new places to go. Unless the destination makes a concerted effort to become a sustainable tourism destination, the impacts of tourism are likely to change. At this point, local businesses are likely still in the market, but increased competition makes their lives more difficult – meaning the positive economic impacts of previous stages decline and potential over-reliance on tourism can start to happen. Socioculturally, development by outside companies can wash out local culture, and demand from tourists can cause commodification. Environmentally, increased attention can lead to increased preservation of areas that are of touristic value, but continued development can create all sorts of environmental degradation issues.

Stagnation, Rejuvenation, and decline

As the destination reaches full development (nearing carrying capacity), eventually stagnation will occur. At this point, relaxers travelers join the party, as the destination has likely gained a reputation and has all of the comforts of home. Once the destination reaches this point, it can either go into decline or become rejuvenated. Which of those occurs depends on the destination. If the destination innovates and adjusts its products and services to the ever changing tourism market, it will rejuvenate. If the destination does not adjust, it will go into a slow decline and lose market share to other destinations. An example of a destination that stagnated and then rejuvenated is Las Vegas, Nevada, which is constantly rebranding itself. An example of a destination that stagnated and has gone into decline is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The bottom line

First, I want to point out that just because a destination has reached the stagnation stage does NOT mean that you cannot find locally owned and operated tourism businesses. While not all destinations follow these development steps exactly, this process should give you some idea of how it often happens. When you are thinking about your travel destination, you can consider where it may be in terms of its destination life cycle, why or why not it might be appealing to you, and the potential impacts you may have traveling to the destination.

Learn More

If you’re interested in exploring tourism destinations that might be appealing to you, I recommend heading over to my travel planning strategy guide – I’ve provided a lot of great resources there for you to explore new and exciting destinations.

Airline types and their impact on your wallet

Featured, Strategy

First things first – there are three main categories of airlines that we’ll be discussing – legacy airlines, low-cost airlines, and ultra-low-cost airlines. Knowing about these three basic categories will give you some idea of what to expect in terms of add-ons you may be asked to pay for during your travels. The key to understanding the differences (at least in the United States), is a short history lesson. Prior to 1978, airline and airport operations were heavily regulated by the federal government – specifically the fares, routes, gates, and schedules were all determined by the Civil Aviation Board. Over the next 39 years, competition (in combination with technological advances) brought the average ticket price down significantly and led to the airline industry as it exists today. Here are a few important things that happened:

  1. Consolidation. More than 100 airlines (including some of the major ones like TWA, Pan Am, Northwest, US Airways, and Continental) were either liquidated, consolidated, or merged. This has left us with 3 major ‘legacy’ airlines in the United States that have roots in airlines that existed prior to 1978 – American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines. Similar ‘legacy’ airlines exist throughout the world – Lufthansa, British Airways, Qantas, China Southern, Air India, Cathay Pacific, LATAM, EgyptAir, etc. These legacy airlines are considered ‘full service’ today, although you still have to pay for checked bags on most of them.
  2. Low cost airlines became a thing. We’ve even seen the rise of ultra-low-cost airlines as well. Low cost airlines include U.S. airlines like Southwest and Jetblue. Ultra-low-cost airlines include US airlines like Spirit and Allegiant. These airlines created a business model where they only fly routes between major cities, and usually only fly one type of plane (in most cases a single aisle mid-size jet like the Boeing 737 or Airbus A321), which significantly reduces maintenance and training costs as they only need so many sets of one type of spare parts and employees only need to be trained on one type of aircraft.
  3. Moving away from the hub and spoke system. The hub and spoke system refers to the practice of funneling regional flights (co-branded but operated by regional airlines a-la American Eagle or United Express) into a main airport hub (e.g., Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York), then taking a flight between major hubs, and then getting on another regional flight to your final destination. An example of this would be Buffalo to New York, New York to Los Angeles, and Los Angeles to Sacramento. Low cost and ultra-low-cost airlines have foregone this model and mostly offer point to point flights.

So what does all this mean for you? As airlines have consolidated over the last 10 years, there have been some significant changes that affect the way you fly. The first and probably most visible change is something that came about as a result of 1) surging fuel prices and 2) a major economic recession. In 2008, oil was around $150/barrel and the economy was tanking. American Airlines was the first legacy airline in the U.S. to announce fees for checked bags, and the rest of the industry followed suit. Strangely enough, the only major airline in the U.S. that does not charge for checked bags is Southwest, a low cost carrier. It is important to note that since then, fuel prices have gone down significantly, but the airlines had learned that consumers would bear the cost of checked bags and never looked back. This is something that likely would not have been possible in a market with a greater number of players.

Other than the bag fees, legacy airlines generally still offer the usual amenities like snacks, beverages, and sometimes entertainment systems – although those are often being shifted to BYO entertainment systems (where you can connect to in-flight wifi and stream entertainment options to your own device) on most flights except those on transcontinental routes. These days, the services offered by legacy airlines and low-cost airlines is increasingly similar – legacy airlines have continued to pare down what is included in the cost of a ticket, now even offering an extra low-cost ticket on some flights that doesn’t even include a carry on bag (which is inching toward ultra-low-cost status). The only major difference that still remains between legacy airlines and low-cost airlines is the available routes, as low-cost airlines do not usually make it into smaller airports.

Ultra-low-cost airlines are different than legacy and low-cost airlines in that essentially your ticket price only includes getting your butt in a seat. Basically everything else is an add on that you can choose to pay for or not choose to pay for. Drinks, carry on bags, food, entertainment, checked bags – each of these items will cost you an additional fee. A lot of travelers I know are beginning to appreciate this business model, as you are well aware up-front that anything beyond your seat is going to cost you extra. While ultra-low-cost airlines traditionally were smaller than legacy airlines and low-cost airlines and limited to certain regions, there are now quite a few international airlines like WOW airlines focusing on this segment. When you are looking at purchasing flights – be sure to do your homework on what type of airline you want to fly and what extra fees you are or are not willing to pay – answering these questions can help keep your trip enjoyable and on-budget.

The bottom line

When you are booking your flights, it isn’t always obvious what is included in the price of your fare. Be sure to read all of the fine print, regardless of whether you’re booking on a legacy, low-cost, or ultra-low-cost airline. As you’re planning your travels, be honest with yourself about how many and what type of bags you’ll need to bring. Traveling with kids? You may need an extra bag or two and want those free snacks and drinks. Solo traveler that doesn’t mind packing light? You may be able to take advantage of the a-la-carte style of ultra-low-cost carriers. Either way, be sure to do the math before you book; the cheapest fare doesn’t always result in the lowest cost of travel.

Learn more

One great way to avoid charges like bag fees is to get a co-branded credit card – read more about this in my page about frequent flier miles. If you want to know more about booking flights, head over to my flights page for booking tips and links to my favorite flight booking sites.