Never Keep All Your Money In One Place

I’ve learned the hard way never to keep all my money in one place when traveling, not even when I have access to an in-room safe. On more than one occasion, my room safe has failed. In each instance, I was amazed how easily hotel staff could access a master key and how simply the … Read more

Stop Junk Mail Forever

When I began traveling around the world in 2007, one of the issues I had to deal with was my mail. Fortunately, my roommate was an angel; she opened all my mail and emailed me about anything that had to be attended to while I was on the road. However, when I returned home I … Read more

Travel Safety Tips

It's always a good idea to check with the Department of State to learn about travel safety issues

There’s good news and bad news. The good news is that I am a fearless solo female traveler. The bad news is that I am a fearless female traveler. I used to be fearless to the point of taking foolish risks, until a few years ago, when I was camping on the island of Kauai … Read more

Credit Card Security Breach

CitiCard

It’s been a bad week for credit cards. Last Sunday I received a phone call from CitiBank Fraud Early Warning Department, informing me that they were canceling my CitiCard MasterCard because of a “merchant compromise.” They explained that someone had hacked into a merchant’s database and stolen all their stored credit card information. When I … Read more

Travel Packing Tips for Long-Term Trips

travel packing tips

Since so many of you have expressed amazement at how I am able to travel long-term with so little luggage, I thought I’d share some of my travel packing tips. For anyone considering a trip around the world my first advice is to understand that the travel equipment companies like Magellan’s and REI offer SOME … Read more