Ever stumbled upon the perfect café, sequestered deep in the quietest corner of a buzzing city, and just had to share the secret? Ever wanted to be part of that secret? Travelistas Lynn Lau and Abby Bender combine their journalism and travel experiences to bring readers Notes From A Café: Travel stories from the deep end, a refreshing cure to the usual stodgy travel resources. Notes From A Café revolves around the love of travel, with articles covering countries from Belgium to Norway to Malaysia, along with tips and resources to fellow travelers interested in the non-touristy side of exploring the world.
Celebrating the joie de vivre of traipsing the globe, Lynn and Abby feature their stories and secrets under headings such as "Voyage Vignettes" (focusing on the thick and thin of personal travel accounts), "Foreign Foibles" (cultural gaffes and taboos), "Travel Tips" (a grab-bag of information and suggestions for travelers), and "Roaming Reviews" (frank guides on true must-see's and definite stay-away-from's).
A random selection of our articles:
So you’re going to be stuck in a plane for several hours, where the dry, stagnant air sucks the moisture right out of you. It doesn’t help that recent airline regulations limit the amount of liquids and moisturizer you can bring aboard. I don’t know about you, but whenever I’m in a plane for long periods of time, my skin turns positively gray. So what’s a traveler with sensitive skin to do?
Include Burt’s Bees Carrot Seed Oil Complexion Mist in your carry-on, that’s what. You may only be allowed to bring a quart-sized bag of liquids, but a good mister is absolutely worth the space. And with 100% all-natural ingredients such as rose oil, carrot seed oil, and patchouli oil, this particular mister gets a big thumb’s up. Just give a shake and acouple of good spritzes whenever your skin starts to feel drawn and tight, and you’ll find yourself remarkably refreshed.
Its website description says the Carrot Seed Oil Complexion Mist is specially designed for “mature” skin, but don’t let that deter you if you consider yourself young-at-heart. Carrot seed oil has amazing properties, including relieving stress and rejuvenating skin. Indeed, its anti-inflammatory nature is known to help treat dry skin, rashes, and dermatitis. An all-natural way to relieve eczema? Count me in!
If you’re old-school by nature, Burt’s Bees also offers the complexion mist in lavendar. The best part is, a mister is not restricted to just plane travel. Weary after a long drive with the air-conditioner on full-blast? Spritz on! Dull eyes after hours in front of the computer screen? Spritz on!
If you’re shopping for other kinds of misters, remember to avoid anything with alcohol in its contents. Alcohol-based products are bad for the skin, and terribly drying, which is the last thing you need when you’re on the go. Read the ingredients carefully before buying.
If you’re the crafty type, you can make your own complexion mist. Just be sure you know what you’re doing, as working with essential oils needs careful attention. For a lot of oils, pure equals extremely potent, and that can sometimes counter-intuitively harm the skin. You’ll have to dilute carefully measured doses with distilled water. Your local aromatherapist can be a big help in showing you how to make a mist that’s tailored specially for your needs.
A Travel Tip about soothing dehydrated skin would not be complete without a reminder to drink lots of water. So chug the H20 — just because you’re on the move doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look fresh and fabulous, so fill ‘er up!
No matter what you do or don’t bring, or how much time you have to pack, there are a number of things that can help keep your head on straight before a trip. In part two of the series, we take a look at another way to organize and ease the way. Slick like butter, baby.
All In The Books
Sometimes you have the good fortune of being able to rely on one great guidebook that covers anything and everything about the city you’re going to visit. Let’s Go: Paris is a terrific example of this—it contains concise profiles on each arrondissement, social tips, restaurant highlights, and even manages to fit a bit of Parisian history within its conveniently-sized pages.
If you’re venturing to a lesser-known area, however, chances are you’ll have to vary and diversify your choices—selecting certain pages from four guidebooks, picking out maps from the shelves, printing out sections from websites, even scribbling down random recommendations from friends. But you don’t want to be carrying that pile over, or be forced to rifle through them during your journey. In such a case, how does one keep all that together?
The key is to keep them together, preferably in an order that you know you’ll refer to them by. If you’ve borrowed the guidebooks from your local library, photocopy the relevant parts to keep. If you’ve already purchased multiple guidebooks, but not any one of those contains all the info you’ll need, then grab a pair of scissors and—brace yourself—begin cutting.
Relax. It’s only paper.
» Read the rest of Travel Checklist #2: It's All In The Books ...
Click to see the whole set!
This week, we feature an article by guest writer Emily Ding, who traveled to Stromboli, Italy. Emily notes of Stromboli: “‘Bigger than my body,’ John Mayer sang. Indeed. It was an exhilarating feeling, like standing on top of the world. Originally written on June 12, 2006 and edited for clarity upon return.”
I’m currently lazing around on Stromboli island, which is one of the islands of the Aeolian group above the Sicilian mainland. My two travelmates (Jo + CH) and I, we’ve been trying to kill time the whole day, pretty unsuccessfully. We’ve been in Stromboli since yesterday and we’ve basically seen most of everything we needed to see, but because the cheapest option to Naples is a 10 pm ferry tonight (which will get us there in the morning) we have to spend a whole day here, doing just about nothing. It’s rather painstaking, to be honest. It’s such a small town that we’ve walked the same route at least three times, and seen the same people over and over, even gone to the same café twice.
I bet all of the residents are gossiping about “those three Japanese kids.” Though of course we’re not Japanese, but everyone thinks we are.
» Read the rest of Scaling Stromboli, by Emily Ding ...
Looking to travel cheaply within key parts of Southeast Asia? One budget airline that has fast become a popular choice is Air Asia, which serves Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, even China on ocassion. Air Asia is worth a look if you’re hoping to cut costs for your trip. But remember: like all budget airlines, there’s usually a reason these costs can be cut!
Mind you, by no means is Air Asia a terrible airline (unlike some). In fact, there’s a reason it’s vastly preferred by the locals. So long as you know what you’re getting into, it can actually be a good choice if your schedule is flexible and your budget limited. Below is a quick pro-and-con sheet on flying Air Asia. Read on, and deduce from it whether you prefer the comforts of a major airline, or if maybe this budget airline might be right for you.
» Read the rest of Air Asia: Good Budget If You Can Handle It ...