Just a short break from my wanderings around Asia to let you know about a little travel news worth passing on.

The Vacation Gals recently asked my opinion for the best tropical winter vacation destination and of course I couldn’t resist blathering on about Mexico, specifically Merida in the northeast corner of the Yucatan. Also making the list were Crete, Sicily, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Peru, suggested by some of the top travel experts in the world. If you’re dreaming of warm climates as winter approaches, it’s worth a few minutes to check out this article , which was deemed worthy enough to be picked up by USA Today.

HostelBookers - my preferred hostel booking site

HostelBookers.com, my preferred booking site for hostels all over the world, is currently running an Australian Road Trip competition where someone can win an Oz Experience bus pass. As the folks at HostelBookers say, Australia is a vast country and you would be forgiven for hopping on a plane to reach your destination. But if, like me, you love a road trip, Australia won’t disappoint! This vast and exciting country has a fantastic coastline that offers unrivaled surfing and geological wonders such as the Great Barrier Reef, the 12 Apostles and the Whitsunday Islands. And along the way you’ll find no lack of reasonably priced accommodations such as Syndey backpackers and Melbourne backpackers. For your chance to win, tell HostelBookers about your favorite road trip in the comments section at the bottom of this page. Entries must be under 100 words and the deadline is 5 p.m. on Monday, December 20, 2010. Three runners-up will win a copy of Rough Guides Ultimate Adventures and the winner can choose one of the following bus passes: 1) Matey Pass, Sydney to Melbourne, worth €397 (approximately $632 USD*), 2) Surf Pass, Sydney to Brisbane or Byron Bay, worth €325 (approximately $518 USD*), or 3) Victa Pass, Melbourne to Adelaide, worth €385 (approximately $613 USD*).

*All U.S. currency conversions based on rates as of 11/18/10.

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Just in time for my trip comes this video:

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You'll want to bookmark/favorite this site. Image courtesy of BestTravelDeals.net

If you are always on the lookout for tips and bargains, love to travel, and love to tweet even more, you should definitely check out the Ultimate List of Twitter Travel Accounts just published at BestTravelDeals.net. This very comprehensive list shows the twitter user name for airlines, airports, trains, subways, rental cars, hotels, cruises, pet travel, booking sites, travel guides and reviews, travel tips, and travel blogs.

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Since we’re all driving more and flying less, I want to pass along two very interesting safe driving tips that were emailed to me yesterday.

WEAR YOUR SUNGLASSES WHEN DRIVING IN A HEAVY RAIN:
During a heavy downpour, visibility is bad, even with the wipers on high. Wearing your sunglasses will vastly improve visibility, even at night. The drops on the windshield will still be visible, but not the sheet of falling rain. It also helps to eliminate the “blindness” from the spray of passing semi’s, and the “kick up” if you are following a semi or car in the rain.

NEVER USE THE CRUISE CONTROL WHEN THE PAVEMENT IS WET OR ICY:
Snow, ice, slush, or even rain can cause wheel-spin and hydroplaning. If the cruise control is on when the tires lose contact with the pavement, the car accelerates to a higher rate of speed and takes off like an airplane. Although cruise control can be disengaged by tapping the brake pedal, the extra reaction time required to recognize that a car’s wheels are spinning can be crucial (especially for drivers lured into a hazardous level of inattentiveness on long, flat stretches of road). Better just to turn off the cruise control in bad weather.

I’ve checked out the validity of both tips on Snopes.com. The cruise control tip has been verified, and the sunglasses tip is still being verified, but I checked with a friend of mine who drives a lot and she confirmed that the trick does indeed work.

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Don’t look now but the open road is calling. Faced with onerous security regulations, endless add-on fees, and uncomfortable planes that squeeze customers in like sardines, more and more travelers are opting for the highways rather than the skyways. Americans are rediscovering the joy of driving cross-country with the wind in their hair, the music cranked, and the freedom to check out quirky attractions that would forever have been overlooked from 30,000 feet in the air.

Traveling cross-country in someone eles's car - for free

This resurgent love affair is also revitalizing driveaway companies, services that match drivers with customers who want their cars delivered to distant destinations. Vehicles need to be moved for a variety of reasons, including corporate relocations, military transfers, and quite often in the case of snowbirds who want to have use of their own car at their winter home but don’t want to do the driving. Car owners pay driveaway companies to move their cars and the company contracts with drivers to make the one-way trips. Driver are responsible for all but the first tank of gas, meals and accommodations along the way, and must put down a deposit (generally $300-400), which is refundable upon delivery of the car to the owner.

There are some limitations to this type of travel. Your schedule must be flexible and you must be willing to drive between the destinations required by the customer. The route and schedule are agreed upon prior to departure and offer enough flexibility for drivers to do some sightseeing along the way, however customers will often load trunks and back seats with their personal belongings, so there is room for only one additional passenger and limited luggage. Drivers must also have a clean driving record, three forms of identification, and be willing to undergo a criminal background check. If none of this is problematic, driveaways are an extremely economical alternative to rental cars, especially for those who have no car or own a vehicle that is not dependable.

Although driveaway companies can be found all over the country, some locations need more drivers than others; routes between eastern Canadian cities and Florida or Arizona, for example, are in high demand due to annual snowbird migration in the spring and fall. For more information, contact one of the following driveaway firms, or check your local Yellow Pages under “Auto Transporters”:

Auto Driveway (43 offices across the U.S. and Canada)
Toronto Driveaway (Toronto based)
Cars To Florida (Toronto based)

Photo Credit: Nate Steiner

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When I traveled internationally for the first time after buying my iPhone, I was concerned about the potential for racking up huge phone bills. I’d heard horror stories about people who used their iPhones while traveling overseas, only to discover they had mounted up thousands of dollars in cell phone charges upon returning home. As an underpaid writer, I needed to make very sure this didn’t happen to me.

iPhone 3GS

I started by calling AT&T and was told that I needed to add an International Calling Plan for $24.99 per month. Initially that seemed like a reasonable solution, until I read the small print. The plan provides 20MB of usage within 65 countries, and the list of countries did not include my destination. Additionally, usage over 20MB would have been charged at $.005 per KB. If that all sounds like a lot of gibberish, let me put it in perspective: opening an email with a five megapixel picture in it or downloading a three-minute video on YouTube each require about 2MB of data, so it wouldn’t take long to eat up 20MB of data. Additionally, there are 1,000 KB in each MB, so if I was over my limit, opening a 2MB email would cost me $10! Obviously, this plan was not acceptable.

Since I intended to access my email and the Internet solely through the hotel’s WiFi network, I asked AT&T for instructions to block the cellular network completely. Although it was a struggle to get the rep to agree to send me the appropriate information, she finally offered to send an email with instructions. The instructions were somewhat incomplete, but with research I was able to fill in the missing details and the steps I took successfully shut off the 3G network (I have since traveled internationally for months without incurring any roaming charges). The following are the steps I took for my iPhone 3GS:

1. Make sure that standard International Roaming and International Long Distance feature, if it is included in your cellular plan, is removed (call AT&T and make sure the rep adds a note to your account confirming that you requested this)
2. If you are going to forward your number, do so before you change any other settings (Settings-Phone-Call Forwarding-Turn ON-Enter number to which you want calls forwarded)
3. Disable 3G (Settings-General-Network-Enable 3G-OFF)
4. Turn off data roaming (Settings-General-Network-Data Roaming-OFF)
5. Make sure WiFi is enabled (Settings-WiFi-WiFi-ON)
6. Turn of automatic pushing of email (Settings-Mail, Contacts, Calendars-Fetch New Data-Push-OFF and set Fetch to Manually)
7. Put the phone in airplane mode (Settings-Airplane Mode-ON)
8. Although not absolutely necessary, I wanted to be very sure I was not mounting up the MB’s, so I reset the usage counter to zero in order to monitor it throughout the trip, ensuring my usage remained at zero. To do so, go to Settings-General-Usage-Reset Statistics (scroll to the very bottom).

When I arrive in an international destination, I simply log into an available WiFi network and Voila! I have access to the Internet, email, Twitter, and can even make international phone calls with the iPhone Skype app without incurring cellular charges. When you return to the U.S., simply reverse the process, although you may choose not to reinstate the International Roaming and International Long Distance feature.

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A while back I wrote about HotelPal, the great iPhone app that lets you find last minute accommodations based on your current location and budget. Now a similar iPhone app, Superbreak, is available for Europe.

The application allows users to search for a hotel by date, location, or specific hotel name, and searches can also be conducted using geo-code technology, allowing customers to find hotels near their current location. All 7,000 of Superbreak’s UK and European hotels can be booked through the app and it can handle the whole booking process from start to finish.

Search settings on the iPhone app

Property Information

Although I have not personally tested the app (I haven’t been in Europe recently), the screen shots of the app are so similar to those in HotelPal that I have little doubt it functions in quite the same manner, although search results will certainly be dependent upon the properties that have agreed to participate. To satisfy myself that the company has an adequate number of participating hotels, I went to their website, Superbreak.com, and searched for accommodations in central London for tomorrow night. It quickly returned 81 hotels, priced from lowest to highest, with the lowest being 35 Pounds ($56 U.S.).

The Superbreak iPhone application can be downloaded for free at the iTunes store.

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One of the best things about being a travel writer is that I have the ability to work from anywhere in the world. With a laptop, a camera, and a dependable Internet connection, I can keep my blog updated, write content for clients and publishers, and even design the occasional website. I lived this kind of vagabond life for six months in 2007 when I backpacked around the world, blogging and building my portfolio and loved every moment.

Now available for download at foXnoMad.com for $8

Since returning, I’ve gone back on the road for up to six weeks at a time for travel assignments, but it’s not quite the same as long term, independent travel and frankly, I miss it. Lately I’ve been contemplating heading back out again, as I can live just as cheaply on the road as I can here in the States. But thinking and doing are two entirely different things; I just can’t seem to decide where to go, when to go, or if I should go.

If author Anil Polat is correct, I’m exhibiting classic symptoms that keep people from actually hitting the road long term. In his new e-book, Overcoming the 7 Major Obstacles to Traveling the World, Polat dissects the mental roadblocks that keep us at home. He explains that fear is the biggest factor – fear that travel is too expensive, that we won’t be able to earn enough money to survive while traveling; that we’ll miss our family and friends, etc.

Polat should know; he’s been traveling the world for years and chronicling his journey on his popular travel blog, foXnoMad.com. In keeping with his blog’s tag line: “travel smarter,” Polat has incorporated plenty of smart advice into his e-book, including how to find open wireless networks around the world, how to protect your laptop from hackers, precautions to take if you must use an Internet cafe, and lists of websites where you can watch you favorite TV shows online from anywhere in the world.

Overcoming the 7 Major Obstacles to Traveling the World is available for immediate download at foXnoMad.com for only$8.00 and I highly recommend it. Anyone contemplating long-term travel will find it immensely helpful. In fact, the only negative thing I have to say comes in the form of a warning; although Polat’s e-book is only 30 pages long, don’t start reading it unless you have at least two free hours. Clicking on links in the manuscript took me to his blog, where one post led to another and I was soon lost in a maze of articles so stuffed with valuable information that I found it difficult to tear myself away.

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Google announced today that said it has sent window stickers with bar codes to more than 100,000 local businesses in the U.S. that are popular search terms on Google’s home page and Google Maps. Consumers will be able to receive information about these “Favorite Places on Google” by taking a photo of the bar code in the store windows with their mobile phones. In addition to reviews of the business, in some instances the information could include coupons and special offers.

Favorite Places program launched by Google

The bar codes on each store’s window decal can be scanned with an iPhone or Blackberry and Android phones using a special reader application. Google recommends that users of Android phones download the free Barcode Scanner App, while iPhone users will need QuickMark app. Normally QuickMark costs $1.99, but starting today, Google and Apple are offering the application free for the first 40,000 people to download. The bar codes can be read by other mobile devices as well. To find out what application to use for your phone, Google the model of your phone along with “QR reader.” Some of the other applications that Google suggests include beetagg, neoreader, and Barcode Scanner.

Google intends to roll out the program to additional qualifying businesses over time. I think this will be huge for traveling, so I just downloaded and installed my copy. If you want yours, hurry. 40,000 freebies will go quickly.

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Remember playing tag when you were a kid? Slapping someone on the back and yelling, “Tag, you’re it!” Well, I’ve just been been ‘virtually tagged.’ My friend and fellow travel blogger, Shannon Lane, was ‘tagged’ to participate in the meme known as My Three Best Travel Secrets (a meme, which rhymes with cream, is a catchphrase or concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the Internet). From what I understand, the game was started by Katie of Tripbase.com, the lovely folks who awarded me second place in the category of best North/South American blog of 2009 in their annual Travel Blog Awards.

After sharing three great secrets about her home state of Louisiana, Shannon ‘tagged’ me to be next in line to divulge my best travel secrets. My first reaction was, “Only three?” How could I possibly narrow it down to only three. Should I talk about little known secrets in Sarasota, Florida, such as the $40 annual membership to GWiz Science Museum that provides FREE admission to over 300 other science centers throughout the U.S. as well as other attractions around the State of Florida? Or about my list of little-known coffee shops around the country that let me work on my laptop all day for the price of a cup of coffee, like Sippin’ Internet Cafe in Key West, Pastry Art in Sarasota, or Rev Coffee in the Atlanta area?

In the end, I decided to reveal my secrets for booking last minute accommodations and transportation around the world without breaking the bank. Frankly, I detest being locked into definite travel plans. My preference is to book the first night at a destination (two nights at most), and then wing it from there. Fellow travelers are always eager to share secrets about spectacular, little-known towns or sites they have visited and not being locked into reservations allows me to take advantage of these tips, but it also means I am often looking for last minute bookings, which can be frustrating as well as expensive. However I do have a few tricks to help with this process, which I’ve detailed below:

HOTELS:
In the U.S. I regularly use HotelsCombined.com to find great last minute hotel reservations at affordable prices and the cheapest places to travel. I’ve tested them against the bigger and better-known Hotels.com and much prefer the results I get on HotelsCombined. In Europe, I use Venere.com; in SEAsia and Indonesia I have the best luck with AsiaRooms.com; and in Australia and New Zealand it’s Wotif.com.

FLIGHTS:
In the U.S. I never use the big online booking agents like Expedia or Travelocity because they do not search all discount carriers. It takes a bit more time, but I go to the AIRPORT websites that I want to fly between, search to see which of the discount airlines serve those airports, then book directly on the airline’s web site. Discount or affordably priced airlines in the U.S. include Southwest, AirTran, Spirit Airlines, and jetBlue; in Europe they include Ryanair, easy Jet, and airberlin; in SE Asia try Air Asia, Asiana Airlines, Nok Air (Thailand only), and Tiger Airways (also Australia); and in Australia check into JetStar, Regional Express (REX), and Virgin Blue.

EXTRA DISCOUNTS:
Once you’ve determined which hotel or airline you wish to book through, before making your final purchase, Google the hotel/airline name with the words “discount coupon code.” You will often discover an additional discount that can be applied at the time of making the online reservation. For example, I just Googled “discount coupon code hotels” and found RetailMeNot.com, which provided codes for 15% off Hilton Hotels and 20% off the lowest rates at Best Westerns, among other deals. (TIP: this works well for all online shopping, from Amazon.com to individual stores like Crabtree & Evelyn, and there are numerous sites that search the Internet and display all these discounts on a single site.)

So there you have it, my top travel secrets (OK, I’m cheating; I’ve given you more than three – so shoot me). Now all that’s left is to ‘tag’ five other travel bloggers, and here they are:

• Sherry Ott at ottsworld (oops – previously tagged)
• Mark H at Travel Wonders of the World
• Robin Locker at MyMelange (previously tagged)
• Heather Cowper at Heather on her Travels
• Andy Jarosz at 501 Places
• Sebastien at Colliding Continents
• Lanora Mueller at Writing Travel

TAG! You’re it!!!

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I first learned about HotelPal from my friend Anil, who publishes the travel blog foXnoMad.com. This free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch allows users to search for accommodations at more than 100,000 hotels, inns, resorts, and B&B’s worldwide, making it’s among the most complete hotel databases available anywhere.

HotelPal app for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Immediately, I downloaded it and browsed around the interface. It seemed fairly easy to use: I simply needed to choose a hotel, type in my billing info, and tap “Book Now.” This week I finally had an opportunity to test it out during my tour of the Tampa Bay area. While my experience with the application was excellent, I found myself using it in a totally different manner than the developer intended.

Because I prefer not to be locked into structured itineraries, I rarely pre-book accommodations before leaving home, and this instance was no different. I left Sarasota at 4:30 p.m. in order to have plenty of time to find a hotel, check in, and still on time for my 8 p.m. Yo-Yo Ma concert this past Wednesday. Once I was in the neighborhood of the concert hall, I whipped out my iPhone, opened HotelPal, and clicked on “search.” The iPhone’s GPS automatically determined my geographic location and returned a list of nearby hotels and motels that had rooms available, sorted by price. For each, I could view full-screen photos of the property and see real-time availability and rates. With a touch of the screen, I could change the sort criteria from price to location, or even flip to a map where red pins represented the location of each property.

Rather than booking online, I simply chose the cheapest motel, confirmed that the photos looked OK, and drove to the property. On my first night, the lowest priced rooms were at Days Inn in Clearwater, advertised at $38 per night. Sure enough, when I walked-in, I was offered the price quoted in HotelPal. The following night it was a Days Inn in St. Petersburg, which HotelPal represented as $55 per night. Here, the manager quoted me $59, but when I showed her the HotelPal price it was honored.

Using HotelPal sure beats driving up and down the street and stopping at half a dozen hotels and motels to see of they have availability and are affordable. Not only has it simplified the process of finding accommodations, it has already saved me a lot of money. I love this application and anyone else who prefers unscheduled travel will too!

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When I traveled around-the-world for six months in 2007, many friends advised me to buy travel insurance. Normally I would not even consider such a thing. Frankly, I believe that most people in the U.S. are overly fearful about travel. In all my years of traveling I have had only one instance when insurance might have been a help. But in 2007 I was living on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and a local man, David Creecy, had been critically burned in the 2002 Bali terrorist bombings. At the time, rumors circulated that his health insurance refused to pay for him to be transported back to the U.S.; one of Creecy’s friends told me that he had to raise $25,000 cash before a medical evacuation flight could be arranged.

In addition to concerns about medical evacuation, I fretted over the amount of expensive gear I would be carrying. This trip was to launch my new career as a travel writer, so I would be backpacking with top-of-the-line cameras and lenses, a laptop, multiple thumb drives, and an iPod. So I made all the appropriate phone calls. Would my current health insurance company pay for my medical expenses if I had an accident or got seriously ill while traveling? Sort of. I would have to pay the bills when they occurred and submit receipts for reimbursement upon returning. Did my plan include medical evacuation? Absolutely not.

What about coverage for theft, loss, or damage to my electronic equipment? I considered dozens of policies from many different providers, all of which had very high premiums for six months. For each, I read the fine print until I was cross-eyed. In every case, reimbursement for electronic items was limited to $500, and then only if I could produce original receipts for the equipment. Since my clothes, toiletries, and luggage were worth very little, I decided to take my chances on the potential theft of my equipment, however I did decide that medical evacuation insurance would be an absolute necessity, and I chose MedJet because it was the only company that let me choose which hospital I wished to be evacuated to in the event of an injury or serious illness.

For instance, if I had been injured while on safari in Tanzania, the hospital of choice would likely be Nairobi, Kenya, or Cape Town, South Africa. With MedJet, I could demand to be taken to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Travelers who will be out of the country for less than 90 consecutive days can purchase an annual policy priced at $250 for individuals and $385 for families. Those traveling long term will need to purchase one of three expatriate policies, priced according to the length of time out of the country and ranging from $420 to $655 for individuals or from $535 to $975 for families.

If I were leaving again today, I would do exactly the same thing. Nothing bad happened during my trip. I didn’t get sick in any third-world country, despite eating constantly from street vendors. I wasn’t robbed or even vaguely threatened, though I walked all over unfamiliar cities. And I now know that there are decent medical services available in many areas of the world. Whether or not to buy insurance, and to what level of coverage, is an issue that everyone must decide for themselves, but at the very least, I advise purchasing medical evacuation service.

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Amazon.com has just introduced a new addition to their Kindle family of wireless reading devices: Kindle with U.S. and International Wireless. With this new Kindle, I can receive books, newspapers, and magazines wirelessly while at home or abroad in over 100 countries. Whether I’m in New York, Paris, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Beijing, Tokyo, or Sydney, I can think of a book and be reading it in less than 60 seconds.

Carry around the Kindle or all these books?

I can’t believe I don’t already have one of these! I lug around at least three paperbacks in my backpack when I travel long term. When I’ve finished reading one, I either trade with other travelers or exchange it for one in a hostel paperback exchange library. Unfortunately, the quality of the books I receive in return are never as good as those I trade in. Kindle would solve this problem for me while also eliminating a lot of weight in my pack. I also love the idea of buying travel guides in electronic form, because I inevitably leave the hard copies behind when I leave a country, simply to eliminate weight, and then have to buy the guide book again when I revisit that country.

Amazon’s new Kindle with U.S. and International Wireless is priced at $279 and can be pre-ordered today for delivery starting in two weeks. Their current, best-selling model, Kindle with U.S. Wireless, has been reduced to $259, down from $299, and is available for immediate shipment.

Kindle utilizes the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so I’ll never again need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. There are no monthly wireless bills and no yearly contracts. There is no software to install, and no syncing required. Kindle is as thin as most magazines and weighs less than a paperback, but it but can hold 1,500 books. Its electronic-ink screen looks and reads like real paper with no glare, even in bright sunlight. A long battery life allows me to read for up to two weeks on a single charge. The U.S. Kindle Store has more than 350,000 books, including 107 of 112 New York Times bestsellers, plus top newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Again, why do I not own one of these?

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Remember the days when you could pick up the phone, dial 411, and reach a directory assistance operator who would look up a number for you for free? No? Well, perhaps I’m showing my age….

These days, a directory assistance call costs money – last time I called 411 on my cell phone it cost $1.50. This is not a service that I use with any regularity, but because I travel so much there are occasions when I simply must use my cell to find a number. So I was pleased to learn that Google has launched a new FREE directory assistance service called 1-800-GOOG-411. You don’t need a computer, an Internet connection, or even the keypad on your phone or mobile device. GOOG-411 is voice-activated, so you can access it from any phone, in any location, at any time. Here’s how it works:

Dial (1-800) GOOG-411. When prompted, say the city and state, or key in the zip code. Next, you will be asked for the business name or category. You can name a specific company (for example, Holiday Inn Hotel) or just say “hotels.” The service will respond with a numbered list of area hotels; simply respond with the number of your choice and you are instantly connected.

If you are calling from a mobile device, GOOG-411 can even send you a text message with more details and a map. Simply say “Text message” or “Map it.”

Of course, your telephone company may apply usual charges for making a phone call or receiving an SMS, but you will not be charged any additional 411 fee. Way to go, Google.

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There’s a new girl in town – Hazel is her name and postcards are her game. I’m talking about HazelMail.com, the unique new website allows travelers to create postcards from their very own photos and mail them with only a few clicks and an Internet connection. So now if you’re on safari in Africa and you’ve just captured an amazing photo of a pride of lions that you want to be forever immortalized in the form of a postcard, just follow these amazingly simple steps:

Navigate to HazelMail.com and click on the “Picture” tab at the upper right. On the next page, navigate to the location of the photo you want to use on your computer’s hard drive and click on the “Upload” button. When your photo shows in the box at the left, click on the “Format Image” button.

On the next page, choose to either “stretch” or “fit” the image, choose a background color if you “fit” the image, rotate if necessary, and select the border you wish to use:

When you are happy with the appearance of the postcard, click on the “Write Message” button. On the next page, enter your message and the names and addresses of the people you wish to send the card to. This page also provides an option to upload an address from your personal address book in a .csv format. Click on the “Add Recipient” button to send the same card to more than one person.

Once all your recipients have been entered, click on the “Add To Cart” button, to review your post card before navigating to the payment page. If everything is satisfactory, check the “I agree with the terms of use” box and click on the “Pay & Mail” button. If you have not already done so, you will be asked to set up a free account at this point. You may also proceed without registering, but registered users get the added benefit of being able to save their address book and photo libraries for future use. The $1.50 per card cost includes printing, stamping, and mailing your postcard, and can be paid through Visa/MasterCard/American Express or PayPal (customers can also purchase pre-paid HazelBucks and lock in a discount price of $1.00 per card). For one price, you can send a card to anyone, anywhere in the world where real mail is delivered.

With a global network of printers at its disposal, HazelMail postcard requests are processed, printed, and mailed within two business days. Delivery typically takes 4-7 days from the date ordered, although international delivery may take longer. Using Hazelmail is also Earth-friendly. All HazelMail cards are made from mixed source paper stock (50% recycled, 40% pre-consumer waste, 10% post-consumer waste) and they further reduce their carbon footprint by using only local printers near the recipient’s address to reduce emissions produced by air travel.

iPhone users can even download an app that manages the whole process from their phone, although iPhone users are limited to paying with HazelBucks.

There isn’ really a Hazel. HazelMail was created by Michael Lato, who was inspired by his mother, Hazel:

“My mother encouraged me from an early age to travel and to share my memories. In fact, I recently discovered that my mom kept every postcard I ever sent to her. Memories are meant to be preserved. Digital photos are ephemeral, but postcards can stick to a refrigerator door for a lifetime. I wanted to create a way for people to take a digital photo and turn it a lasting keepsake the receiver will cherish and a sentiment they will feel for a long time.”

Great idea, Michael!

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