The Tux in the Backpack

Low season often means less tourists around and cheaper prices, allowing the Flashpacker to pay good accommodations at sometimes even half price, and overall to have a better lifestyle spending a lot less. Low season often means also that it’s easier to get to know ans chat to the residents, who won’t be overwhelmed by hordes of tourists.

Good news is that low seasons vary throughout the year from destination to destination. And low season in many tropical places doesn’t mean no sunshine or miserable weather. In many locations in South East Asia for example, the rainy or wet season is not at all monsoon season, it simply involves having a refreshing one-hour thunderstorm in late afternoon.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

We all know how to use Google and its products, there are however some features that are very useful indeed while travelling, and not everybody is familiar with them. Here’s the 20 most useful ones.

They’re not in a specific order, because their importance depends on what you are or are not yet familiar with. I’m not adding links to every specific feature, product or user guide. If you’re not familiar with them I thought you could.. ahem..do a Google search!

1. Hotels/Hostels websites after checked reviews on Tripadvisor, Hotels.com, etc.
Most hotels and hostels have a website nowadays. After checking reviews from previous customers on Tripadvisor or any other comparison hotel website, type the name of the hotel in Google to find the original website and book directly with them. It will save you the comparison websites’ commission (and some of them do take a big cut!)

2. Airline Travel Info
Your family wants to know if your plane has landed? Meeting up your travel buddy at the airport? Just type the flight number in the search box (e.g. KE 526)

3. Currency Conversion
How much is 1000 Indonesian rupiahs again? just type in the search box unit + currency + to + destination currency (e.g. 1000 IDR to USD)

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Popularity: 13% [?]

When traveling around – especially if in a country where you don’t speak the language – it’s easy to end up chatting to people who speak your language. Quite often they are visitors like you (doesn’t matter if flashpackers, backpackers or honeymooners) or foreigners that live there, expats.

While visitors, especially tourists, are often over excited about the place and can’t wait to share their fantastic experiences with you (oh, you must absolutely do that!), expats are more relaxed and often not too bothered to talk to yet another visitor like you.

So keeping in mind that talking to the locals would be the ideal solution to get to know more of a culture, here are the 10 reasons why expats are a better chat than tourists while traveling:

1. Expats just know more about the place, in any aspect. Simple and straightforward: they’ve been there way longer than any temporary visitor.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Like every year Travel + Leisure World’s Best is out. The list, voted by travellers and readers, compile the best touristic cities, islands, hotels, airline companies, cruises, etc.

So what’s in there for the Flashpacker?

While some of that info are irrelevant to Flashpackers, some are quite useful. Best hotel in the world? Well quite surely it will not be in a Flashpacker budget. Best touristic city? Does that mean chock full of tourists? Best airline company? Well for short distance flights usually Flashpackers will travel on low-cost airlines, consoling themselves thinking that it’s still better than a 19 hours bus ride.

When it comes to long-hauls flights though low-cost airlines haven’t got there yet, and often prices online are quite competitive even for the best companies. So if you have to, while not doing it on an airline company that will sure give you a great service?

Long-hauls Flashpackers, here’s the Travel + Leasure list of the best Airlines for this year.

1. Singapore Airlines
2. Emirates Airline
3. Thai Airways International
4. Cathay Pacific Airway
5. SilkAir
6. Japan Airlines (JAL)
7. All Nippon Airways (ANA)
8. Virgin Atlantic Airways
9. Air Tahiti Nui
10. Korean Air

All details and the rest of the Best of 2008 here. Wishing you all a Happy and Stylish Flashpacking.

Popularity: 9% [?]

If you read about that perfect, secluded, off the beaten track destination on a guidebook remember there are thousand and thousand more that like you read and are going to read that same page.

Finding destinations not yet full of tourists, and as a consequence with a still original culture and cheap prices (remember Flashpacking is not only about having a big budget) is getting more and more difficult. Internet if you avoid LonelyPlanet and similar websites can be very helpful. Here’s how Escapework.net sees it. India (Goa in particular), Thailand and the Caribbean are no longer the realm of the itinerant traveler.

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Popularity: 23% [?]