As part of my Ask Me Anything series, I answer common questions I get from readers. You can read other AMA posts here. In this article, I want to answer the question of how I decide on a place to take my next vacation. If you have wanderlust and want to book a trip, here are some things to think about before that will help you narrow down the destinations.

Readers will sometimes email me overwhelmed with their travel options, because don’t all of us travel-lovers want to go everywhere? It’s all on “our list”. They ask me how I decide where to take my next vacation hoping it will help them decide where to take theirs.

5 Ways to Decide on a Place for Vacation

There are things I consider when I choose my next vacation spot, so I’ll kind of share the thought process I go into when I’m choosing somewhere to visit with the 5 questions you will want to ask yourself.

1. Have I been before?

The first thing I’ll consider is if I am in the mood to go somewhere new or somewhere I have been before and like to return to. I love going back to India, Sri Lanka, London, and so many other places so I try to think if any of them are calling me back.

I know returning to places isn’t as exciting as going somewhere new – but they typically require way less planning and on repeat visits, you get to experience the place more in-depth. You’ll have already done all the touristy things and now you can do the cool things you missed, try new restaurants and bars, and really chill out like a vacation that doesn’t have a checklist of “things to do and see”.

If you want to go somewhere you haven’t been before, think about where friends have gone. Who has told you about a cool life-changing trip they had recently? You can get travel inspiration from Instagram and blogs.

You can also just spin a globe and see where you land! That is what I did in a way with India in 2012. I chose it 100% on a whim. I wanted to go somewhere I hadn’t been before that would provide a little culture shock. I thought, why not India?

2. What the weather like?

It’s important to think about if you want to go somewhere warm like surfing in Maui or you are interested in a cold vacation like playing with reindeer in Finland. Once you decide that, it will help you narrow things down a little bit. Additionally, you’ll have to think about what the season is at the place you want to go – maybe it’s rainy season and all the activities you have in mind aren’t going to be possible at that time.

3. What do I have the budget for?

Do you have the money for flights all the way across the world or just to a few states over? Do you need to take the train/bus rather than fly? Unfortunately, the budget is going to play a major factor. Yes, you can get to places like the Maldives on a budget – but do you want a budget trip to the Maldives or do you want to save it for a luxury honeymoon one day?

Often I will do a close trip – in India, I can do a two-week trip to another state I haven’t visited and spend a lot less than if I flew to Kuala Lumpur for the weekend. In Mexico, I recently did a getaway to Mexico City on a whim. I considered other places but wanted a “big city” break I could afford and it was the cheapest city nearby.

Try using the Skyscanner “anywhere” or Kiwi “anywhere” options with your airport as the departure and “anywhere” as the destination. It will give the results of the cheapest places you can fly to. See if any of them stand out to you.

4. Is it an adventurous trip or a chilled one?

For my bachelorette party, my bridesmaids were up for anything! We could have done an all-inclusive in Cancun and chilled or gone to Lake Tahoe for a relaxing lake vacation. I had to think not just about the destination but about what I wanted to do there. I didn’t want to SUP. I didn’t want to go clubbing or just lay by the pool. I decided I wanted to go to Universal Studios. There is so much to do all day at the parks, it’s sunny, there are bars and restaurants within the park and it makes for an easy trip.

Sometimes I want something really adventurous and want to experience a place I haven’t been. Recently, I wanted to go somewhere new with a friend. Neither of us had been to Central America, so we started there. Costa Rica seemed over-traveled. Honduras wasn’t safe. We went through each country to kind of see what we wanted to do. We decided on Panama because it has the city, the Pacific, the Carribean, whale watching, trekking, culture, pristine islands that hardly anyone travels to, new food we’d never tried, and beautiful boutique and eco-friendly hotels and B&Bs. It had a lot to offer and we could do a lot in two weeks.

If you want an adventurous tip, ask yourself what you are interested in: skiing, surfing, safaris, rafting? You can figure out what you want to do then google “the best places for ___”.

5. How much time do you have?

The last point brought us to this: do you have two weeks to go to Panama? If not, and you have one week, is it worth going all the way to just hit up two cities? Would you prefer instead to go to Costa Rica and do a lot in a smaller area?

Maybe you have just a long weekend and could think about flying to Mexico City for a weekend. You can often get flights there from the USA as cheap or cheaper than flights to Vegas, LA, and NYC. Try to think outside the box and make the most of the short time you have. There are international destinations that work for a long weekend. Alternatively, you can do to places in the USA you haven’t explored like New Orleans, Nashville, or St Augustine.

The post Ask Me Anything: How Do You Decide on a Place for Vacation? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I have a series on my blog called Ask Me Anything and I keep track of reader questions that I get over and over and slowly answer them with a full blog post. So, many of you email saying something like, “How to fly so much? How do you deal with taking so many exhausting long-haul flights? Do you want to quit traveling sometimes?” I’ll answer that and give some tips for long flights. 

Tips for Long Flights:

“How do you deal with taking so many long flights every year? Don’t you ever get tired and want to stop traveling?”

I get exhausted from them just like anyone else and I haven’t become immune to that. It doesn’t get so bad that I want to stop traveling but I have taken breaks from travel for a month or two at a time because the idea of going back to an airport is too unappealing.

I hate flying… I hate getting ready, going to the airport, the whole experience. I’m not chilled out until I’m at a cafe near my gate and can see the name of the city I’m headed to – so I know I’m in the right place. On flights with 5 layovers, this is really tiring. Having anxiety while traveling and being a travel blogger seem like it doesn’t make sense, but it’s actually not that unusual as many people feel this way.

My mom and I recently went from Ohio to Florida and back and that required a layover. This is such a simple journey. So imagine, a restless night afraid my alarm won’t go off, waking up at 6 am, an hour drive to the airport, getting through security and chilling for two hours, the flight, layover chill out, another flight, then getting a rental car and driving to the hotel in Florida… it’s kind of tiring and we didn’t reach until nearly 4 pm. That is a long day to go just from Ohio to Florida – 10 hours – and that is probably the shortest flight route I did all year.

On the way back to India this year I flew: Myrtle Beach to Charlotte to Toronto to Amsterdam to Mumbai to Goa. That’s five flights over nearly two days.

I do these types of journeys a LOT maybe every 2-3 months I do a really big flight. Sometimes I stay in a hotel at the airport to break it up and sometimes there isn’t enough time to even try to nap.

Flying in India always involves flying to Mumbai or Delhi first and because of flight times it usually means taking the latest flight out of Goa at 10 or 11 pm, and waiting at the Mumbai airport for international flights that go out at 5 or 6 am. Not quite long enough for a hotel sleep! So, I start most of my journeys tired before I even leave India.

A lot of people who fly mostly domestically still find it stressful, boring, and tiresome and I do too – so these long ones require a few days to deal with jet lag on a new time zone.

So people do ask me how I manage to take so many a year when they suck so bad, how I still feel energized for more trips when they take a month to recover from their tiring beach vacation.

I get it! Travel is so hard sometimes. It can be draining bopping around all over and it means when you get home you’re likely behind on work and chores.

I do still feel up for more travel usually, although like to take at least 3 weeks between big trips. Last year, after I went to Israel, England, Latvia, and Morocco in one go, I realized that I would never have made it as a “digital nomad”. I mean, how would I ever get work done!? I was so tired that I took two months off and stayed in India before my very long trip to Finland.

But, although I don’t mind the flights too much, there is a limit and once I reach it there’s not much that can get me on a trip. I was invited to a beautiful overwater villa on an island in the Caribbean last year for a THREE-night stay (and would have been paid). That would take like 20 hours to reach each way – I was too tired to extend the trip and travel around that area, so I turned it down. I knew I wouldn’t enjoy it at all and would be jetlagged the whole first day there.

Because I was based in India, I realized I was turning down a lot of offers for press trips due to distance and time traveling. That is part of why I hired writers to go in my place.

How to make the flights more bearable

I’ll share a few tips on what I do to make the most of these long journeys. Some people say that you should try to match your sleep up to the right time zone, but I go by the philosophy of “more sleep is always better” so I will never try to stay awake so I can sleep on a plane. I sleep as much as possible before a flight and on it (I am lucky to be able to sleep on a plane). Then if I arrive somewhere and it’s night time, I go to sleep! haha – the more the better. If I can’t sleep on a plane then at least I had a good sleep before boarding and I remind myself that I can sleep when I reach and just make the best of the plane ride by watching movies.

I pretend there is no food and drink service on all the flights I take – and come prepared. I bring water and try to get a sandwich in the airport. That way, I don’t have to have a tray sitting in front of me for an hour while I want to go back to sleep but am waiting for them to collect, and waste time that could be spent sleeping for a crappy airplane meal.

I only have coffee before a flight if it’s a morning flight for a short trip where I stay in the same time zone (or close to it).

I also make sure I have done all the work I need to do before boarding, pack everything I need in my personal bag (toiletries and fully charged electronics: a good book, movie, and TV shows on my tab), and make sure I’m nice and clean and freshly showered so I feel good! It doesn’t hurt to also wear an outfit that you feel comfy and fab in.

I try to book international flights at night time so I can pretend like I am just going to bed, but even for international day flights I try to “go to bed”. It’s the only way to make time pass faster. I do wear an eye mask, earplugs if they are on the plane, socks, and my TRTL pillow to get fully comfortable. I’m often already wearing all that, ready to go to sleep, before the plane takes off.

How I sleep on the plane…

In this case, above, I’ve let my legs a bit free because it’s just Ben sitting next to me, haha but normally I keep them under me and much more tucked up so I’m not in anyone else’s space.

I sleep a little weird, but it doesn’t invade anyone’s space. Promise! And I only do this on long-haul flights where the lights are out and everyone is sleeping.

Basically, I stand backward facing the back of the plane in front of my seat then sit on my knees, then scooch my butt to the side, and turn my head to the other side and wrap in a blanket so I’m kind of like a swaddled baby. No little bumps will wake me and I’m not even touching the armrests on either side or bothering anyone. I’m actually not that flexible and it still seems to work out. Being curled up on a ball just helps me sleep so much better and I don’t get swollen feet/ankles.

My neighbors even get extra leg space out of it since my legs are tucked up. I can stay like this for like 10 hours (I know, it’s mental). When I wake up my neck and knees hurt, but I’ll probably do this until my body rejects it or I gain weight. If you’re smallish like I am, give it a try! I also love my TRTL pillow for when I face forward (when my legs fall asleep, ha ha, and I have to put them down like a normal person). I wrote a review of it here.

Read more on flying:

• How to book the cheapest international flight
• Review of Kiwi.com (my favorite booking site)
• Travel outfit ideas for planes
• Best pillow for flying

The post Ask Me Anything: How Do You Deal with Taking Long Flight Journeys (Like USA to India) Multiple Times a Year? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I’m trying to write more of these “Ask Me Anything” series posts since I do get asked similar questions very often. I’ve been writing them down and slowly will write posts answering them. One thing I get asked a lot is “Why India?” There are a number of reasons I am still living as an expat in India. “Will you ever move?” is another common question. So, let’s dive in!

Why I Chose India…

I did choose to travel to India and move here but it wasn’t based on an impulse decision. You might know that I met my boyfriend while traveling in India when I was here backpacking solo almost five years ago.

I loved India but truthfully never saw myself living here. While backpacking I loved it but also got scammed, very sick with Dengue, lost, and annoyed quite often. I thought “it’s a great place but I can’t imagine staying forever…” I know this might surprise people, as since I’ve grown to love it as a home so much.

When I got to Goa as a traveler, It was totally different.

Goa is like an island in a sense it’s not like the rest of India. It is very westernized, has amazing food varities, laid-back people, siesta from 1-3, and of course the sea.

I loved Goa.

Then I met Ben after a couple days here. He was here from England working and had been for about 3 years. I went back to the US for a travel nursing assignment and we planned on me moving to India.

It really happened that fast and there wasn’t a lot to think about. It was just a simple decision.

I didn’t think my move to Goa would be permanent. I didn’t even have a job! I didn’t even know Ben and his life well enough to know if his job here would be permanent.

What we do know is that I can’t stay in England very long as a tourist and he can only stay in the USA something like 30 days. Unless we were married, we can’t really live in each other’s countries unless we got work visas, which aren’t easy to get.

So, we stayed in Goa.

We love it here. We have friends here and people who are like family to us. But, we have said that it’s not our “forever place”. Every time we think about moving so many complications come up.

I’ve been here over 5 years now. These are the things we question:

• Where can we move with 3 Indian pets? How expensive and safe is it to ship them on a plane journey that could be 30+ hours overall. We can’t be moving all the time because of our pets so no “nomadic lifestyle” for us. Wherever we choose, we better like because we’ll be there a while.
• Where to go? We’ve thought about Mexico. We know we want to always be on a beach. We don’t want to be in the USA or the UK because 1. visas and 2. it’s really expensive
• Where can we have a similar lifestyle? With India being affordable we are free to eat out at restaurants, see movies, travel by train and more very cheaply. We have a housekeeper, driver, and security. In somewhere like the US, we would be spending all our money just on rent.
• I can work from anywhere since I travel blog but Ben has a very specific job, and it’s one that he loves (building artificial reefs to prevent coastal erosion). He can’t just get that job anywhere and he doesn’t want to go back to a 9-5 (which is why he left Microsoft in London so many years ago)
• If we did move somewhere expensive and supplement with me getting a 9-5 then I couldn’t really travel and then my travel blog would die. Now that it’s kind of a legit career, I really don’t want that to happen and a two-week vacation a year would actually kill me slowly, not just my blog. Now, we get to travel A LOT and I like that.

Do we want to stay in India?

We love Goa. We could stay here and live happily and comfortably but no I don’t think it’s our forever place.

There are so many places in the world I think we could love. I do want to be closer to my family. It’s not cool to only see them once a year. He misses his friends and family, too.

So, what’s next?

Literally, you know as much as me. We have no idea! We are just kind of going with the flow for now.

So, I guess I haven’t really answered the question that well but it’s because I don’t know the answer myself.

I definitely didn’t think I’d be here as long as I have, so only time will tell what happens next!

The post Ask Me Anything: Why Are You Still In India & Will You Ever Move? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I have a series on my blog called Ask Me Anything and I keep track of reader questions that I get over and over and slowly answer them with a full blog post. So, many of you email saying something like, “I want to travel the world! You’re so lucky! How do you get to travel so much?” I want to break it down here and start with how I get to travel so much plus how you can too.

I want to travel the world!

It seems weird to say this, but travel is the “it thing”. Everything online is about cool hotels to see, great places to travel, and Instagram is full of “travel-inspo” getting you pumped for your next trip. In fact, Forbes says the following are true:

• Seventy percent of millennials identified travel as their primary reason to work.
• 5% of millennials identified themselves as digital nomads.

Not only are young people saying “I want to travel the world”, but they are saying “I want to travel the world for a living”.

There are even viral articles about how us millennials are traveling too much and wasting money rather than buying houses that we can’t afford. A study showed that travel was more important to millennials than buying a house, a car, or even paying off debt. Many of the travelers I’ve met are in huge debt from college still. The same survey also looked into how millennials choose their location for the next trip and 75% of those surveyed said social media made their decision.

Many people see travel bloggers like myself on Instagram and Facebook traveling the world for a living and they think: I want to travel the world for a living, where do I start?

How I Get to Travel So Much

I’ll start with how I get to travel so much and how I got “lucky” enough to have this job as a travel blogger/influencer.

I started this blog four years ago on a whim, with no background knowledge of what a blog was. Now, I have over 1 million page views each month on my blog. Travel blogging wasn’t new when I started, but it wasn’t as saturated as it is now. Please check out this article which explains how exactly I got started with travel blogging personally.

I didn’t just become successful overnight and my parents/boyfriend aren’t paying for it (as so many people comment to tell me they think is the case!). It’s competitive and you have to work really hard. After I left nursing and moved to India, I was a masseuse for some time and sold candles on the side while my blog grew into a career. After six months, I made it into a list of top 50 bloggers and I felt like “wow this was easier than I thought” but shortly after that, travel blogging became HUGE and there were millions of travel blogs created – I dropped off the list (and eventually got back on it, currently at #7). They say one is created every half-second! Bloggers were offering retreats to come learn how to travel like them, and people were eating it all up – not that it was bad, but things changed. Travel blogging became a lot more saturated and it was a question of how to stand out. I worked my butt off on the blog and social media, learning everything I could about SEO, Pinterest marketing, photography, you name it! Now, four years later, I make a lot more money than I did as a nurse and finally feel at ease. I don’t work in a hospital anymore and can pick up and travel at any time, while earning money online. I know what people want to know and that is how I make money online, so just click that link and you can read the exact streams of income that I have.

Do I travel for free? Sometimes. I could travel for free all the time if I put the effort into pitching airlines, hotels, and tourism boards or took every press trip offered to me. I don’t, though. I don’t like to be constantly traveling. I’m actually a homebody! I take trips I want to take on my own dime and I go places I hadn’t really considered when I’m invited, like Finland where I got to dogsled with Huskeys! As a blogger, I work with brands to promote them on my travels and not only do I then get to travel for free, but I often get paid for it. That is because I have readers, like you, and followers on social media.

So, the short of it is that travel blogging is my job, and that is how I get to travel so much. It wasn’t handed to me and I didn’t have a background in tech. I learned everything from YouTube videos and had my boyfriend help me set up my website. I love my job but with my work all being online and based on the fact that people are obsessed with travel and social media later, I know that blogging might not be forever, so I always keep a backup plan.

If you think that starting a travel blog is something you’d like to do, then go for it. You can start a blog in 10 minutes for as little as $2.95 per month. Here’s a blog post on exactly how to do that, step by step, with screenshots so you can’t mess it up!

Option #1: “I want to travel for free too!”

Well, the way I do it is blogging, and like I linked above you could blog so that you earn money while you travel. That’s one way! You can read this article on how to start a blog (step by step) for $2.95 per month.

Another way is if you are super hot you can be an Instagram celebrity lol, they travel for free everywhere and don’t even have to make websites! Kind of joking on that one, but not really.

I have a blog post with 14 ways you can work abroad and earn money while you travel, and they aren’t all online jobs, so check that out.

In general, you have to hustle pretty hard to travel for free or you have to have a skillset or job you can do while you travel which can offset costs.

Option #2: “I want to travel the world, but accept I have to pay for it.”

This is a more achievable statement.

I know that you see me traveling for free or getting paid, so therefore you want to do that same thing, and you CAN if you start a travel blog but try to keep in mind that it doesn’t come easy and I pinch myself sometimes to see if it’s all real. It really is amazing.

If you want to travel the world but accept the fact that you have to PAY FOR IT then let’s talk about the steps you can take and options to consider

• Save money
• Choose a job/major in college that allows travel
• Study abroad if you are in school
• Consider a new career if you feel stuck (that’s what I did)
• Teach yourself a new skill to earn money on the side and eventually switch to that skill being your new career. Off the top of my head:
  • Photography
  • Graphic design
  • Video
  • Video Editing
  • Coding
  • WordPress Design
  • Cooking
  • Making a product: candles, clothing, crafts
• See if there are options in your current career to travel more
• Look into volunteer projects that offer free housing and food
• Think about becoming your own boss and following a passion of something you are good at, like these possibilities that you could do on the road
  • Become a yoga teacher
  • Become a masseuse
  • Become a fitness/pilates instructor
• Think about moving abroad and starting as an expat somewhere
• Start taking weekend trips
• Start traveling in your own country first
• Use sites like Next Vacay or the Anywhere Tool with Kiwi.com to fly somewhere really really cheap
• It’s important to cut expenses while you start out. Check out these tips from some of the top travel bloggers out there, about how to save money while you travel.

Those are just some ideas off the top of my head, but basically, you should think about what’s holding you back from traveling. Is it your job? How can you fix that? Is it that you have a pet or child? Can you take them with you? Is it lack of money? How can you earn more?

Think about the obstacles in your way and how you can overcome them.

It’s not easy. It looks easy on Instagram, but it’s not easy to give up whatever you are doing and start traveling. So, you can do it two ways: you can start small by doing weekend trips and build on that momentum or you can do it big, quit your job, move abroad, find work in a restaurant. It’s possible. I meet travelers every week here in Goa who are broke and working random jobs to keep traveling.

You have to think about what works for you and if you actually feel the calling to travel or consider if it’s just FOMO because you on Instagram and see others doing it. Travel isn’t always roses, so don’t base it on Instagram!

I hope that you do start traveling and wish you the best of luck! Leave a comment if you are going to start a new journey.

The post Ask Me Anything: I Want to Travel The World, How Do You Travel So Much? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I have a series on my blog called Ask Me Anything and I keep track of reader questions that I get over and over and slowly answer them with a full blog post. A common question is about if I’ll stay in India forever and regardless, if I did leave, where I want to live outside India. So, for fun I’m going to list some places I can see myself living one day! I always said I wouldn’t live in Ohio where I’m from, so these are some other options.

Where I want to live or could see myself living in the future other than India

1. Malibu

If I were really rich, I would already have a house here! It looks beautiful (I’ve only driven by here) and Ben has possible work here (if a visa were easier). We could surf and eat the best food ever and go to a dog’s allowed beach for our dogs to run free…. that would be nice! Plus, LAX flies so many direct international routes. This is totally unrealistic for me though.

2. Maui

Again, if I were rich, I would 1000% live in Hawaii (not just Maui, but I’ve only been to Maui and Oahu and liked Maui a lot). I love the food, the people, the views, and would happily live in a small basic house if it meant living here. This is still pretty unrealistic even living in a tiny little house. It’s so expensive.

3. England

If Ben wanted or needed to go to his hometown of Tonbridge, I wouldn’t complain although I don’t think I could live there “forever”. Because it’s England, it’s still unique to me. It’s cute, charming, the food is fun, the people are funny, and it’s very normal in Kent; it reminds me of Ohio. It’s close to London by train and Ben would have friends and family nearby. I think it would never happen though as Ben doesn’t want to move back home. London is also a great hub for the cheapest most direct flights.

4. Mexico

This is the most likely option because it’s close to my family and friends without being in the USA (Ben can’t stay longer than 3 months each year). It’s warm, there are some beautiful beach towns, and it would be affordable. The downside is the crime, and similar issues to India with health, safety, scams, and corruption. We’ve been to the Western coast and liked it but were in a dangerous area initially. This last trip we went to Merida which was so safe and cool. There is so much to explore and so much culture to take in… plus TACOS.

5. Portugal

Portugal is kind of the only place in Europe I can see myself living other than England and I’ve never even been there. It looks beautiful, it’s very cheap right now, and the surf is meant to be awesome. It would be fun and means I could travel around Europe more.

6. Somewhere in Central America

Again, never been but I have thought about places like Costa Rica where it’s jungle, beach, and reminds me of Goa but with different food, vibes, and closer to home. I don’t know about this area, but I like that it is jungle and beach both(what I like about Goa). It seems like living there would be that ‘slow chilled out lifestyle” and I’m down with that! I have no idea about logistics and visas, or if it’s plausible to stay long term but from seeing other travel bloggers base here for years, it looks like it wouldn’t be too hard.

7. Ohio

I said I wasn’t going to put Ohio, then I did…

I truly don’t think I’ll ever live in Ohio because I do mostly want to live by the sea and not have such cold winters but being close to family and friends would be so amazing. I love Ohio, but life is short and I have lived there already 22 years of my life!

So, there we go – 7 places I have thought about living other than India. Would any of these places make your list?

The post Ask Me Anything: What Places You Can See Yourself Living Other Than India? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

Welcome back to my “Ask Me Anything” series. I try to answer FAQ every once in a while and something I get asked a lot is “Do I ever consider giving up blogging” & “how do I stay motivated?” I am guessing it’s other bloggers asking this question. It’s a good question because it’s hard to stay motivated to blog it an industry that is very saturated and always changing. 

How do you stay motivated to blog?

1. Because I love it.

The first reason I stay motivated to blog is that I really truly love blogging and love this job. I have not ever considered quitting blogging and don’t see myself ever quitting, although I could see maybe the blog turning into more of a website down the line (when I become boring and have no more stories to share!)

I think you would really have to ask yourself “Do I love to run my blog?” If you aren’t sure of that answer, then I can definitely see how you might lose motivation to continue.

First trip abroad, pre-blogging, 2009, literally used to sleep illegally in parks, hitchhike, and couchsurf. For food? 50 cent baguette from supermarkets. I didn’t start my blog until the end of 2013.

2. Because I feel secure as a blogger.

It’s a hard nut to crack into the travel industry and it can seem like an uphill battle that you just never seem to reach the top.I remember having just 7 readers a day when now I have over 10,000 per day. It was a struggle but I feel like I have passed that “omg am I going to make it” thing. I’m not some famous travel blogger like the many that I look up to like The Blonde Abroad or Adventurous Kate, but I feel like I’ve surpassed all the goals I have set for myself, and that’s really what matters to me.

There are an approximate 1.2 million travel blogs. When I started my blog four years ago, I think this number might have been a lot lower. After a year of blogging, my blog became one of the top 50 blogs based on traffic with just 65,000 UMV per month. This is impossible now. Travel is the “cool” thing to do, people love it, and travel blogs are getting read more than ever. So, starting out it can seem like a daunting task to become a “top travel blogger”.

I was lucky in a sense that I started early when I did, but that’s not to say you can’t still become successful. There are new blogs popping up all the time that are amazing and have something unique to say – so they are becoming top blogs.

Because I was a little lucky to start early, and have grown my blog to the point where I feel good where I’m at, that keeps me motivated to just continue without stress. I don’t feel like I have something to prove or like I need to get my name out there.

3. Because I need to make a living.

Money is always going to be a motivation. I left my job as a nurse to do this. I’m going on 30. I need to have a retirement plan and be able to support myself with this as my one and only career. I don’t want to return to nursing, although I would if I needed money. I have a backup plan in place. If I don’t make money, I can’t keep blogging as a full-time job. That’s some motivation, there!

I have said before on this blog, I did start it with the intent to make an income from it. I love doing it, but it’s a job for me.

That means that one motivation for me is money – and I don’t think it’s bad for bloggers to admit that. We work so hard putting our lives online so people can learn from our travel mistakes and it’s only fair that we earn an income from promoting brands we use and love along the way.

4. Connecting with people.

What is life is we don’t connect with people along the way? I love the people I meet online. I know that sounds lame but in this day and age, I think it’s acceptable, right? I’ve made so many friends from blogging like Alex, Mindy, and Silvia. It’s like how you have your childhood friends, your college friends, and your work friends – well, I work on my couch, so my blogger friends have filled that spot.

I met Anna (right) in Kerala when she joined the GoMowgli trip I co-hosted and she ended up staying with me in Goa after and is who I hired to redesign my site last year. 

Trish, a firecracker who I met in Israel is someone I always stay in touch with now!

Fellow blogger Colleen came here to stay and met my dog, Huck, before he passed away. She wrote this amazing blog post about him which is my favorite thing on the internet. Goosebumps.

It’s not just connecting with other bloggers and online entrepreneurs, even more so, it’s connecting with the people who read my blog and that I met on social media. When I go to a new town, people who follow my blog from that town get in touch and offer advice on where to go, offer to meet up, and sometimes offer me a place to crash.

5. Because it’s something I’m proud of.

I don’t want to toot my own horn here, but I am proud of myself for making this blog. I didn’t know what a travel blog was 4 years ago. I didn’t know how to make a website or what marketing and sales were. I have learned so much and it’s been self-taught. There are many resources online to learn about blogging which I’ve read and a lot of what I learned has been from mistakes I’ve made.

I NEVER saw myself as an “entrepreneur” and sometimes don’t even think what I do is real or that people really are going to read what I’m writing. It’s never stopped being a “pinch me” moment. It motivates me to keep writing and keep working hard to see where Hippie in Heels as a brand can go.

6. Because it allows me to see more of the world.

My blog has brought me life opportunities that have been so amazing and unforgettable. I have been to places like Jordan and Israel because of my blog. I have been flown to Bali to be paid to surf every day. It’s literally a dream job and the more I see of the world, the more I want to see.

I’ve always been interested in traveling and had “wanderlust” before it was a word. This blog is my gateway to that and I don’t see myself stopping!

If you’re interested in starting a blog, check out my article from last month on how to start one from scratch. I won’t pretend like the market isn’t saturated, but if you have a unique travel style and a unique voice or are a great story-teller, then you should 100% give it a go!

The post Ask Me Anything: Do You Ever Want to Give Up Blogging? How Do You Stay Motivated? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

Welcome back to my “Ask Me Anything” series. I try to answer FAQ every once in a while and something I get asked a lot is can I wear a bikini in Goa and can I wear it other places in India too?

The short answer is yes, you can wear a bikini in Goa and no, you can’t many other places in India. I’ll start with just Goa bikini rules – of which there are just a few.

Goa Girls Love Bikinis and that’s okay!

There are no “bikini beaches” in Goa. Bikinis in Goa are seen on most beaches and it’s acceptable (except to some seriously devout old people who probably wouldn’t ever come to the beach anyway). I mean, people lay out topless in Goa. It’s been going on since the 60’s and Goa is really different from the rest of India in not just this sense, but so many other ways, too.

Occasionally, a politician will be riled up about it say they want to ban bikinis in Goa. But nothing ever comes from this. While you can wear a bikini on the beach, you do need to cover up until you get there. You can throw a dress or sarong over it while you walk down to the beach.

Don’t ride around on your scooter in a bikini! That is not okay here.

Are there some beaches you shouldn’t wear a bikini?

Yes. There are none where it’s not allowed but there are some that I, personally, would never get into a bikini at. Those are all the beaches around Panjim and Baga. Baga beach is packed. You’ll see ladies in sarees on the beach and it would definitely feel weird to wear a bikini there! You will get too many stares and people photographing/videoing you.

There’s a fine line between following the culture of the place you visit (as an outsider) and really seeing the modern new culture coming up. My thoughts on this are always: what are my Indian girlfriends doing? They’re wearing bikinis. So shall I!

You’ll find Indian bikini brands here like Studio Tia, too and yes, Indian women in bikinis on the beach. While being culturally sensitive, it would be ignorant to see India as just a place of modesty and religion. Indians love to dress sexy, party and are very modern. It’s insulting to young modern Indians living in Mumbai when you think that they are basically living in a stone age. They have H&M, Forever 21, and more here to buy bikinis and they can order online from sites like ASOS and ZARA as well.

Will you be hassled more if you wear a bikini in Goa?

No, you won’t be hassled more unless it’s in Baga or beaches around Panjim. Most people are wearing bikinis here. People of all shapes and sizes and it’s just normal, like anywhere else. Actually, the bikinis are so much skimpier here because most people are European, that that is what younger Indian girls are wearing, too. It’s even more skimpy than what I would see in Ohio.

While Goans are used to seeing girls in bikinis, that doesn’t mean all Indians are so yes there might be some times when an Indian male is staring a little too hard or trying to take your photo. It’s not a biggie, just tell them to buzz off!

In case you’re wondering what those same dudes are wearing on the beach? Their whitey tighties. Which become see-through when wet. And this is totally normal, apparently.

But, in the rest of India, Bikinis are not exactly accepted.

There are a few places it’s okay to wear bikinis in India, and that would be Goa, Varkala, Kovalam, and five-star hotels all over India. There are other places but those are the most popular for tourists. Other than that, I can’t really think of somewhere that it would be okay. You can wear one-piece swimsuits in other places which is more acceptable.

It’s a funny thing where you might think that putting gym shorts over your swimsuit is better – but there are often signs at pools saying “real swimming outfits only” because they don’t want people to swim in their clothing.

I live in a complex in Goa, and when Indian families from North India come who don’t wear swimming suits, they swim in their clothes and get in trouble.

PS: it’s also customary in India to always shower before getting in a shared pool!

What to wear in India & How to dress in India

So, that’s about it on bikinis in India. It’s pretty simple and I think nothing you need to stress about. If you want more tips on how to dress in India, click over to that link which has all the do’s and dont’s.

More Tips on Goa

If you’re headed this way, please take a minute to buy my book, The Insider’s Guide to Goa. It has 170 pages of my top tips and everything to eat, see and do in every location in Goa. You can click here to buy it.

The post Ask Me Anything: Can you only wear a bikini in Goa or other parts of India, too? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

Welcome back to my “Ask Me Anything” series. I try to answer FAQ every once in a while and something I get asked a lot is Why did I start travel blogging and what led me to make that decision.

I’ve kind of written about this before throughout the years on this blog but will answer it more detailed here.

Blogging was not on my forecast that is for sure!

I know a lot of people ask because they want to start a travel blog. If that is the case you might be interested in these posts:

• How I Make Money
• Tips on travel blogging after 3 years

Why I Chose to Start Travel Blogging

I met Ben in India and moved here, leaving my job as a nurse to live in Goa with Ben. I didn’t have travel blogging on my mind then,  and at this time, 4 years ago, I didn’t know what a travel blog was.

Even though I had traveled to around 20 countries at that time, I hadn’t used a travel blog as a resource and got all my information from Lonely Planet. I never traveled with a smart phone or computer.

After about 6 months, I was in Thailand with two of my best friends backpacking for a month. We were having a boozy night and I was telling them that I really needed to figure out how I was going to make money. At this time, I was doing Thai massage here in Goa and had fliers up around town. That made me about $60 per massage.

They both went to school for marketing/sales/PR type stuff and started telling me I should start a website or blog about traveling, particularly how to travel to India. They told me people made money from this. They even talked about SEO. I was like that’s cool, but I bet its way too hard. They said I should focus on solo female travel blogging.

After that trip, I came back to India and Googled: Top Solo Female Travel Bloggers. I discovered the blogs of some of the best bloggers there were at that time. I read their “about me” pages and saw where they traveled. A lot of it was similar to what I had been doing for years, but never writing about.

PS if you want to start a blog, don’t bother with Godaddy, they were terrible! Bluehost is cheaper and better for new blogs and this link will give you hosting at 2.95/month.

Luckily, Ben worked for Microsoft and went to school for IT before moving to India.

I didn’t know what WordPress was. I didn’t know who GoDaddy was. I didn’t know a URL was the same as a domain. I was clueless. Ben showed me how to buy a domain, buy hosting, and install WordPress. He set up my free theme and showed me how to get plugins and customize them.

If you are doing this alone you can learn this from YouTube videos but I highly recommend having someone help you.

After it was set up, I just started writing everything about my past travels to Europe, Thailand, Uganda, and everywhere else I’d been.

I posted them so that my blog wouldn’t be empty. I told my crazy backpacking stories. People started reading them. I didn’t know SEO or anything like that. I just wrote and posted pictures. I am so OCD that I loved doing this. It was actually fun. I wrote 5 posts a day sometimes.

Next, I started writing about India. I wrote about each place, tips on trains, buses, and how to dress. It turns out I was writing things that Google liked and by the end of the year, my blog became one of the top 50 travel blogs in the world (a site called the Expeditioner keeps track of this with Google Analytics screenshots).

The next year, I watched a lot of YouTube videos on blogging and learned more about SEO.

Now, it seems crazy that I actually give tips on blogging and social media and get paid to consult people on this! It is nuts what you can teach yourself online.

The main reason I started my blog was to earn an income, not just tell my stories, and I’ve always been honest about that. At first, I didn’t even want to share my real name. I wanted it to just be tips, like Lonely Planet. I quickly learned that more personal touches and stories did the best on my blog and that I had to put my personality into it to succeed or else I would be like any other travel website.

It was strange at first but now feels natural.

Although at first, my goal was to make money and share tips about India, that started to change once the blog became personal.

People started to e-mail me about their life goals and needing help to take steps to change their lives. It started to change how I wrote and who I was writing for. I wanted to help people do something different from what they were doing, and not liking.

It was funny because it was similar to being a nurse where people tell you everything about themselves knowing there is a confidentiality agreement and we have to keep their secrets! People were telling me their whole life stories via email and asking me for advice on where they could travel. It was so much fun to help them decide!

So, this is why I started blogging and why I continued to now! I started to enjoy learning more about photography. I learned more about design and actually enjoy blogging a lot now. Of course, traveling for a living is a fantastic job but I actually like the writing and editing photos part too. I don’t like the tech stuff so finally, I hired someone to help me with that. I’d rather spend my extra time making images like the one below (hoping they get shared a lot on Pinterest lol).

The post Ask Me Anything: How did you start travel blogging? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

In my ‘Ask Me Anything’ blog posts, I answer questions that I am frequently asked via e-mail. You can see more by clicking here. 

I’ve been seeing a trend in the e-mails that I receive. It seems like not only do many of you want to travel, but you want to find a way to sustain your travels to travel long-term like I am. I want to share that I do have a travel blogging backup plan and why it’s important for you to have one too if you choose travel blogging as a career.

Travel Blogging Backup Plan

Some of you have a career skill from University or have been working in a job for many years, while others are still in University or even High School wondering if they should go to college.

There are so many successful travel blogs and people “traveling the world for free” that I can see how it looks like the perfect viable option to start a travel blog and do the same.

But there’s something I want to talk about and that is “What if travel blogging hadn’t worked out?”. There was a real chance that it wouldn’t have for me.

• 2-3 Million blog posts are written and posted online every single day.
• There are 152 million blogs on the internet.
• A new blog is created every half second.

What would I have done if travel blogging hadn’t worked out… and what will you do?

There are a few things that I always tell people who ask how to travel long-term. Travel blogging is not the only answer (although it is a fantastic one).

There are a few things you should seriously keep in mind. That is:

1. You need so save money before you go abroad. Yes, there are ways to travel for free and that could last a couple of years. But, this is a long-term goal. You have to earn money abroad and be saving for a future, too.
2. You need to have a backup plan and that is often times in education.

When I moved, my nursing degree became useless to me in India but it wasn’t useless in life. I have always kept my nursing license active and do my CEU’s (continuing education) so that I don’t lose the four years of University that I worked so hard for.

Travel blogging is very competitive and there are probably hundreds of thousands of travel bloggers. When I moved to India, I was a masseuse and made candles for a year before my blog made money. I had savings to hold me over.

In my first year, I made just over $10,000 with my travel blog. It’s not a lot to live on but it was a good starting point. The following year, I did better and this third year I am finally seeing travel blogging as a viable career.

But, the internet is fickle. Things change. We watched Vine die this year. Facebook pages no longer share your posts to all your “fans”. You have to pay for that. Instagram followed suit and most people’s “likes” dropped by more than half. You can’t bank on the internet because things are always changing, like Google ranking algorithms.

Pinterest is a great tool and I’m all about using Pepo, a new app… but I’m not so into Snapchat/IG stories. Technically, though, as a blogger, you have to be “into” all of these social media channels! And they are always changing.

So, my backup plan was nursing. I have the degree, and active license, and if need be I can go back to the USA and take a job at a nursing home to work my way back up to a nicely paid hospital job.

No, it’s not my dream.

But I’m a very type-A practical person. I assume some of you are as well since you e-mail for advice on this matter.

If you are in High School: I do recommend going to University (if that’s something you can afford). I think having a part-time job in college is a great way to travel in the summers. If you haven’t been abroad you might find that your dream of traveling isn’t actually your dream once you actually DO travel.

If you are getting ready to choose a major in college: I think that it’s a good idea to go into something that you truly love. If you want to travel you can either use your degree to travel (like my friend Colleen who did fashion design and now travels all over Asia or IT workers who get to come here to India) or you can think of it as a backup – either way you need a job you will like. If you are serious about blogging, you can go into creative writing, marketing, PR, media, and for all I know there is a blogging major by now. If you are serious about travel and want a job that gets you involved, think about anthropology or oceanography… don’t only choose business or healthcare because it is a surefire job (although there’s nothing wrong with that if you don’t care about making a life of travel!).

If you are in college now: I will never recommend someone to drop out. The only reason I can travel like I do now and take the risk of moving abroad and creating a blog is because I have a backup plan.

If you have been in your career a while: Don’t just consider starting a blog as a means to an end. If you have a career then you have skills. Think outside the box. What can you do abroad with your skill set? Where can you apply for a similar job outside the country?

These are only my opinions, which is what people want when they shoot me an e-mail. I know my personal opinion may be different from yours and that’s okay. My boyfriend isn’t the type who thinks University is important. Many people think going to college is a waste of time and money. Maybe so! I have had success with the choices I made and even though I don’t use my nursing degree, just having it is a safety net that I need to feel secure.

I am not trying to scare you off from travel. In fact, I’m trying to do the opposite. I want to show you how you can travel but still be a practical person. We’ve all seen the quotes about quitting your job and never coming home.

It’s actually exactly what I did.

A friend recently visited me in India, met a guy from Scandinavia, and is considering doing the same thing moving to Sweden to be with him!

When you travel, options in life you never thought you had are opened up to you.

I 100% think that traveling helps you learn more about the world than school teaches you (not math, science, etc obviously). But, this travel blogging thing is a HUGE trend right now and so many people are trying to find success in this field. 17% of millenials consider themselves “digital nomads”, meaning they work from online anywhere in the world.

You should go for it too! But, please please have a backup plan.

So, you’ve read all this and feel sure that travel blogging is the route you want to take…

That’s fantastic and I wish you all the luck! Here are a few things that I would keep in mind before you start your blog.

Since there are millions of blogs out there try to find your voice. You should think of how your blog can stand out.

You need a unique name.

You need a beautiful looking website theme and logo. I use Avada.

You need a great host that will support your website. Get a good one from the start. For beginners, go with Bluehost for just 2.95/month (with this discount link). For those of you already blogging with decent pageviews, try Siteground for more support.

You need to watch YouTube videos and read articles about travel blogging and learn everything about it that you can. If you want to do this to prolong your travels and earn money than you must look at it as a business from day one.

If you want a short cut you can take classes. The top travel blogger is Nomadic Matt and he has a course. There are LOTS more courses out there as well.

You need to WRITE, and write, and never stop writing. If you hate writing, don’t start a blog. I have written over 800 posts in the last 3 years. That’s 1,095 days and I’ve written 800 posts… it’s a hell of a lot of writing.

You can’t write if you have nothing to say. So, you must also be traveling while you do all this writing, mastering social media, answering e-mails, pitching to brands, managing invoices, and reviewing services you use while you travel. You’ll probably work more than you do at a 9-5 job your first year to try to get on top.

Lastly, you have to persevere. When I started my blog I remember checking my Google Analytics and for two weeks I had 7 readers a day. I know I was one. Ben and my mom and dad were as well. It’s rough but you have to keep going. The numbers will increase!

Travel blogging is a great gig.

There’s a pretty good chance if you succeed at it, you will love it.

Of course, I know that the lifestyle I’m living is pretty amazing. I also know it wasn’t handed to me and maybe only I know how much work and effort I put into this website. When you start blogging you’ll see right away how much work it is!

Chances are your parents would be as keen as you are and they probably have a good reason for that. I did this for 3 years before I hit my income goal. I would be making more as a travel nurse and working a LOT less, and I know that. Our parents want us to succeed and be taken care of so don’t feel upset if they aren’t excited for you.

So, if you emailed me asking how to travel long-term and if I think travel blogging is a good way to do this, I hope that this advice can help you. I hope that you think about the practicalities of it all and make a travel blogging backup plan before you make the jump!

Here are some of my articles on blogging.

• How I Make Money From Travel Blogging
• How to Design your Blog + Tips After 3 Years of Blogging
• My Tips After My First Year of Blogging

The post Ask Me Anything: What Is My Travel Blogging Backup Plan? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

This is the question of the month:  ‘should I come to india with the demonetization’. I get asked this daily, so am addressing it here in the hopes to help you plan during these tourist issues with demonetization.

I wrote about the recent demonetization here in India on my This is India post when it happened, back on the 8th of November. Please read that to get an idea of what happened here. If you’re reading this, I assume you already know a bit about what happened.

Basically the Government announced with no warning they were taking away 500 and 1000 Rs. notes. That is like taking away $10 and $20 bills in the US (if 50’s and 100’s didn’t exist!).

They are the two biggest denominations. Bam, gone. 86% of the countries’ money taken out of circulation.

People freaked out. It didn’t seem real.

Why did they do it?

To fight “black money”. They thought people would have to put their money in accounts and then would HAVE to pay taxes on it.

They also thought that more than 50% of Indian currency is counterfeit, so they were taking it out of the system.

We were told we could go to exchange our money at the banks, but there were limits on how much each day. They said we could deposit it to bank accounts.

So many issues arose:

• Many people in India are illiterate, some have no birth certificates. They can’t open bank accounts. Most couldn’t even get to a bank.
• The bank lines were LONG. There are 1.3 BILLION people here and if all ATM’s were open, 200,000 ATM’s in the country. They guess only a quarter were open.
• New reports said people were dying in line. People were sleeping in line for DAYS according to the news.
• No one had change for the new 2,000 Rs note. With 500’s and 1000’s out of circulation, the next biggest note is 100 (just over a dollar) while 2,000 Rs. is about $50. Clearly an issue with change and people got scared and starting hoarding 100 Rs notes.
• The ATM’s needed recalibrated and were closed for days after the announcement. When they opened we could only take 2,000 Rs at a time. The lines were long and money ran out fast. Hours wait for just $30 dollars.
• People could only exchange a certain amount a day but were sending their staff to wait in lines to exchange more. Apparently they didn’t think of this, and so after a week announced they were going to start marking people with special ink to see if they’d already exchanged.
• Gangstas be Ganstas… they know ways around and everyone knew it. They were sending other people to exchange their money. It made the lines even longer. Let’s be honest their money is in real estate and gold anyways, unless it’s abroad.
• Tourists were stranded. People canceled trips. People went home. Tourists actually showed up at the Taj Mahal the day it happened with old notes and got turned away.
• In rural areas, people misunderstood and some even hung themselves according to the news.

So what HAS been happening here in India?

It’s all the news is talking about.

They said it would be sorted in a week and then the amount you could take out of the ATM would be upped to 4,000 Rs. per day. Guess what, it’s been over a month and that hasn’t happened.

It’s still 2,000 Rs and less than half the ATM’s in India are even recalibrated. Of the ones that are recalibrated, most aren’t open.

At the time it was announced, I thought wow this is crazy but if it works cool. But it’s a month later and no one seems to know what is going on.

Also, this is the land of bribes. So, all these people who had hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, hidden from the tax man, were screwed if they took it to the bank as during this time the % paid was increased to punish those that cheated.

Many have bribed bank officials to launder their money and take all their old notes for new. Every SINGLE DAY I see articles where police all over India are seizing huge amounts of money in new Indian 2,000 rs notes because they are bribing bank officials.

Gangsters are getting busted with the equivalent of 1 million USD in NEW notes. Their old money is worthless, so why not bribe? They’ve been raiding banks catching people.

So far they have seized 160 crore of NEW notes ($25,600,000 USD) in raids all together. These are just the people who have been caught.

People are protesting this.

In the cities, chaos ensued many times. Security guards fired shots in the air to calm people down. People were getting abused by guards. Videos of these are being shared all over Facebook.

Reports say it’s going to be months before things settle down. There isn’t enough cash at the RBI (reserve bank of India) according to some reports- but it’s hard to know what to believe and even the Government keeps changing the rules.

Apparently airport exchange centers had ran out of money, and many banks.

The new 2,000 Rs. note is too big which is why the ATM’s need recalibrated.

People are doing poojas to ATM machines.

Then came… a second announcement.

The Government said from the beginning you have until Dec 30th to exchange your old money. That made sense so people in the rural areas had time to get to a bank. Not to mention they may have had thousands in cash and you could only exchange so much each day, although you can deposit as much as you want. Some people can’t open accounts to deposit (and most banks are so busy they are telling people NO there is no time to open an account).

People rushed to the banks right away causing crazy long line. The PM announced asked people to please not rush to the banks and wait to help the lines shorten, saying you have until Dec. 30th… don’t rush!

Suddenly on 24th November the Government announced it was the LAST DAY to exchange money in a seriously confusing move since people were promised they had until the 30th Dec. Some were waiting patiently to exchange only to be left with old notes they were forced to deposit (but don’t have bank accounts). They did this hoping more people would open bank accounts and not just exchange.

Another scam started happening. Because they banks are SO overworked with people trying to open bank accounts they aren’t doing their research (or are being bribed not to). So, people with black money are opening an account under all fake credentials. There’s only a certain amount you can exchange each day but you can deposit as much as you like. They are then sending people each day to take out as much money as the limit allows in fresh new bills. They can get their money out before anyone notices the account was fake – therefore, not paying at tax on it. Axis Bank got busted with this when they found 44 fake accounts which were holding 100 crore together (15 million dollars) – but they can’t catch them all.

Announcement regarding tourists:

He also said that tourists can only exchange 5,000 Rs per week. That’s $73 dollars. You cannot travel India on $73 a week. They are taking passport details when you exchange, therefore you cannot lie around this.

picking up cashless hitchhikers is on another level these days! lol 

The situation now:

Bank officials are being over-worked. They are being threatened. People are acting crazy in some cities. No one knowns when it will settle. Indians with money and bank accounts are not really affected. In Goa we aren’t affected AS badly.

Those without bank accounts and the uneducated are seriously affected by this. There are reports of people saying they can’t feed their families or send money home to them (for those men who work in the cities but families stay back in the rural areas).

The ATM lines in cities are far worse than in rural areas like here in Goa where I live. Most of the chaos videos we see in the news are from big cities. The worst here was a 1 hour line I stood in at SBI in Mapusa about a week after the announcement. Guards made sure no one was cutting in line.

These days in Goa, you can stand in line just 15 minutes IF you can find a working ATM. Most are not working.

Tourist Issues with Demonetization

Western Union is not an option as no shops can full-fill your money order.

In Goa, they take card so it’s OKAY here for tourists BUT in most small towns, restaurants tourists go to, do NOT take cards.

You have to also keep in mind, if you keep paying with card you are getting a lot of bank charges.

The places that take card are usually more upscale so you’re going to spend more money than you thought.

ATM’s that have money are often in towns which means you’ll have to get a taxi to get to ATM’s sometimes. Plus the ATM charges up to 200 Rs ($3). You can only take out $35 so it’s a lot for that little of money.

I have seen many articles urging people to wait to come here to travel until next year. I have to agree that this is a HUGE blow to India’s tourism and it’s making it extremely difficult for foreigners, but you can still come this year!

Indians with bank accounts can draw out more money at the bank than the ATM allows. But foreigners need about 1,5000 Rs. a day. You’ll be in ATM lines every day while you’re traveling here. This is the reality. In one month nothing has changed or slowed down here. No ATM’s that were closed have opened back up.

Many people have emailed me saying that Thomas Cook doesn’t have money to exchange. Mumbai airport didn’t have a working ATM when my friend came through 2 weeks ago. Money exchanges are saying they can’t take foreign currency.

What you can do to help make this work if you travel here this year:

• Bring USD or UK pounds. Some shops will accept these and try to change them when all this settles.
• Don’t exchange with the money men ripping people off giving horrible rates. You need to download a currency converter app.
• Be aware what the new 500 note looks like and DO NOT take old money as change. People are still trying to give tourists old notes. They are worthless for tourists.
• US citizens can order Rs. from banks in America. You will have to get 100 Rs notes and smaller ONLY. They won’t have new 500’s or 1000’s and the old money is worthless.
• Sign up to Cleartrip.com to book all flights, train tickets, and hotels. Use redbus.in to book buses. You have to sync foreign cards. Do this ahead of your trip.
• When you fly into India try to exchange as much money as you can (5,000 is the limit per week, no way around it). Go to multiple counters if they only have 2,000 at one counter. According to reports the airports have RUN DRY but give it a try.
• Hit up every ATM on top of that, while at the airport. You’ll need money just for the taxi even to leave the airport.
• At any ATM you can use your card more than once. Yeah, you might piss people off. If there are guards, they’ll stop you.
• You can set up a Western Union account. From there you can send money to people’s bank accounts in India.  I have been paying as many people as I can this way.
• In big cities you can use Uber – but this isn’t everywhere.
• If a place says they take cards, double-check they take international cards. If they don’t you’re in a pickle if you’ve already used their service and your card doesn’t work.
• For more tips and resources check out Mariellen’s thorough post on this situation.
• Check out Anna’s post for even more tips on this situation. Hers is older, but there are some updates added at the bottom.

Overall, if it’s a question of should you come.. definitely!

You’re going to be annoyed by this situation.

You’re going to probably spend more money since places that take card are generally more expensive. You’ll also have to book hotels online so that means no negotiating price.

It’s going to add a headache on top of being in a country that is already difficult to travel and there is no easy fix I have to admit.

The best thing you can do is always be looking for ATM’s with small lines and taking out money every chance you get.

If you meet someone with an NRE (foreigners who live in India and have accounts) account, have them take out up to 20,000 Rs. NRE accounts don’t get taxes up to 20,000.  I know this isn’t going to work for most tourists. You have to trust the person!

So you have the run-down now. I’m sorry to say that all I can do is prepare you for what’s going on. India’s tourist season ends in March and I think these problems will end around that time too. If they didn’t do this during tourist season, it would have been in the hot months and people really would have suffered in the lines, so I think it had to be done this time of year.

India and many Indians feel this had to be done to curb the black money problem. We are only visitors here, so have to try our best to accept it and move on. I can’t imagine running a country with this many people in it so obviously I don’t know anything about how it “should have been done”. What I do know is they have made many changes from the original announcement and it is not going as smoothly as it was explained it would. So, we can expect that this will take months and just be the way it is until more new money is in circulation. We can hope that this does good for the country.

The post Ask Me Anything: Should I Come to India With the Recent Demonetization Money Issues? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I sometimes share e-mails under the tag “ask me anything“. I get a lot of very similar e-mails which means there are a lot of people out there thinking the same questions. Why not address them to everyone? You can search more like these by clicking that link above.

When people ask for help to buy a backpack for india, I usually just share the ones I’ve used as that’s kind of all I have experience on. But, I do travel with other girls a lot and look longingly at some of their cool backpacks which have had some convenient pockets and such.

Which backpack is best for india?

Backpacking India is stressful, that’s for sure so it’s important to pack right when you go. Packing for India is something I have down to a science and you can read about it here.

I’ll start with size. I’m totally happy with taking a 65L backpack. Anything bigger would have been too much to handle for me, but I’ve met loads of girls who take a 70L and they have no issues. I have traveled with a 48L for trips in Kerala (10 days) and around Thailand (30 days) but as you can imagine, the clothes I pack for Thailand are a lot smaller than India. When I sent to NE India (11 days) I took my 65L because I was packing warm clothing. It’s good to have both sizes actually if you’re going to be taking a lot of trips in the future.

I am fans of both Osprey and REI’s warranty plans. I buy my REI bags on their website or in the shop as they are not on Amazon and usually their site gives discount codes.

I’ve had a blue 65K REI backpack since 2008 and still use it when I’m going somewhere filthy lol, because it’s a bit of a mess although holding on for dear life still! They are a lot cheaper at REI, just as convenient to use, have as many perfectly placed pockets, and certainly durable. I also have a 48L REI that I use often for short trips.

• REI Crestrail 65L Backpack. I’ve had this since 2008 and it’s still kicking.
• REI Traverse 48L Backpack. I’ve had this since 2012 and it’s like new!

Funnily enough, when I went in to REI for the second backpack a few years ago, I told the salesman I had a 65L that I loved. He said, “Oh is it broken? Bring it in and exchange it for this 48L if you want”. That’s how their return policy used to work. You could return things used, like a million years later. It’s insane. Everything was lifetime guarantee and you could return if you took something on a trip abroad, like a sleeping bag, then wanted to return it because you didn’t like it and without a receipt. NOW, they only let you do that in the first year. Still a pretty good policy though.

You will want to shopping I’d imagine and a 48L just isn’t going to give you any wiggle room, and although you can buy a cute bag to carry secondary and fill up with goodies, which is what I did even after filling at 65, it’s so much nicer to fit it all in one bag.

I know Osprey isn’t cheap, so if you aren’t planning on investing on a backpack and just want one for this trip then REI is always a good idea and you can go into one to try them on and see how they fit.

A few things to look at when you buy a backpack for India:

• Make sure you see that they do make Men’s and Women’s which will fit differently. There are internal frames built-in the back and you want ones that fits well.
• Go for one that has multiple loading areas to the main backpack holding area. The top comes off but you want to be able to access from the bottom or side as well.
• It should have some ringlets off it to add hooks. I loop my sleeping bag on the bottom outside of my backpacks & even tie my boots on.
• The fabric should be somewhat waterproof. Even if it doesn’t say “waterproof” as long as it’s really sturdy and get help you through some drizzles you get caught in. I think mine advertised as being waterproof, but it is anyways.
• Side holders for water, wet shoes, etc.
• Padding is important. For me, I pull the straps pretty tight and high, and put the backpack’s weight on my hips completely. I have gaps by my shoulders because I push it so high. This is because my hip straps are really padded and I can hardly feel the weight like that- plus, I hate having sore muscles in my upper back and shoulders.
• I love when there is a pocket with holes that you can put something like a wet bikini in to dry during transport.

A few more backpacks I’ve lusted over:

Osprey 65 L Backpack

Osprey 48 L Backpack

Gregory 50 Backpack, Navy Blue, Small/Medium (less expensive because it’s a top loaded, but a smaller backpack so should be good)

Osprey Farpoint 55L backpack

Osprey Ariel 65L backpack

Did you enjoy this post? Let me know in the comments or by sharing it with the social media links! I’d love to keep giving you travel tricks & tips so feel free to subscribe by e-mail in the big box below. Don’t forget you can follow me on facebook, twitter, instagram & bloglovin‘.

The post Ask Me Anything: Help me Buy a Backpack for India appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I sometimes share e-mails under the tag “ask me anything“. I get a lot of very similar e-mails which means there are a lot of people out there thinking the same questions. Why not address them to everyone? You can search more like these by clicking that link above.

“My friends want to go on a year long round the world trip after we graduate but my parents flipped out when I even mentioned it. I’m really close with them and don’t want to make them mad, but I think I’m going to go anyways. I support myself, so they can’t stop me- but I’m nervous it will cause too much drama.”

I get where parents are coming from when they are upset at their children wanting to travel or move away from home.. even going to college as far away from home as they can. It’s like saying, “mom & dad, thanks for raising me… but I’m outta here.”

No matter how you tell your parents you are moving to another country, another state, or even traveling long-term, that’s how they’ll hear it.

Hopefully, fear of parent’s disapproval does prevent adventurous kiddos from traveling.

childhood vaca

All trips I went on involved a mini-fight prior to departure. My parents saw traveling as irresponsible I think… that maybe I’d outgrow it. I still feel bad that I live so far away from them, but I tell them the truth: it’s not permanent and we actually see each other almost as much as when I lived in Charlotte or somewhere else in the US since I come home a month every year.

So a little background…

My parents helped my brother and me a lot. We were spoiled with a lot, not that we were rich, but we got all the coolest toys and clothes, etc. They helped me in college with groceries, utilities and everything else that wasn’t covered by my scholarship, but I worked since I was 15.

I did pay for all my backpacking trips with my own money; I worked as a nurse aide, in a book store, and babysitting in college. Obviously if they hadn’t helped me  with my school books, I wouldn’t have had the money to go backpacking.

I was pretty travel obsessed so I would have used loan money or credit cards and done it anyways; so thanks to them I have no debt.

college graduation

South Carolina, OSU football game, vaca

They also bought me a very cute car even after I proved I couldn’t drive for shit by flipping my mom’s Tahoe a few times. Since moving to India, they’ve sold my car.

There was a point were they had had enough with my shenanigans. It was after one year in Charlotte when I decided to go to India alone. I’d already been to Africa on my own, and Europe twice, but this was different. I was going for a long time and for no particular reason. I was quitting my first job out of college after only 11 months. They were pissed.

Lesson #1 don’t spring a trip on them out of nowhere, always show your interest in traveling instead of hiding it so they’ll see it coming

Our parents generation is all about loyalty and working for the same company forEVER. While nowadays, people switch jobs every few years. So leaving my job was not seen as professional. They had moved all my things with a U-Haul to Charlotte a year prior. They told me they were not helping me move my things back up to Ohio, hoping that would prevent me from going.

Christmas photo we take every year, me bro & his wife, Bre

I sold most of my big things and took home what fit in my car (and the car of a friend that visited me). Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Lesson #2 have a plan and be able to 100% support yourself

If you’re parents are paying your bills, you really can’t run off. You have to be “on your own”. I was on my own for a year in Charlotte but after India, what would I do? I’d have money but no job or home. I had a plan for a travel nursing job and my parents of course let me come home for about a month until that job started in Seattle, Washington. If you can’t stay at your parents, do you have a sibling to stay with? If not, you need enough money saved to pay rent until you find your next job.

I told them then I was moving to India… but first a quick trip to Mexico to meet this random guy I’d met in India (Ben). I think it was too much moving in a year for parents to be cool with.

Lesson #3 start small, then do longer and longer trips, before moving abroad rather than meet a guy and move a few months later ;)

We definitely disagreed about me moving to Goa with Ben, my accidental boyfriend I met on my first trip to India.

So I thought I should help you all out if you’re going through something similar, by sharing my story so you know a lot of people’s parents don’t totally approve of a traveling lifestyle.

I could ask my parents how they wish I’d told them, and what they wish I’d done differently. In what terms would they have better accepted my move to India? Was it because of leaving my job? Wasting my degree? Or just because they’d miss me?

Then I realized, on no terms would they have accepted it better and there’s no right way to tell your parents you’re moving to another country or going on a long trip. It’s not a normal thing to do in America and you’re parents are probably going to freak out.

Lesson #4 expect a freak out and be ready to answer lots of questions in detail to show that you are responsible and prepared INCLUDING how you will earn money after the trip is over

Write out a full itinerary and give it to them, tell them you’ve applied to the STEP program with the State Department so you’re safe. Maybe go with a friend the first time. Don’t book your flights before talking with them or they’ll be more angry. Tell them what you plan to do after the trip (even if you make something up). Explain WHY you want to go and show you have a purpose.

If they still won’t budge, you just have to stick to what your heart wants and DO IT ANYWAYS (sorry mom and dad). They will eventually come around. Lots of people will think you’re a b*tch for leaving home and making your family sad, and maybe we are, but you have to put yourself in a place you’re happy. Since all this, my parents have come to India to visit. If they did, then there’s hope for you all!

The post Ask Me Anything: How to tell your parents you want to travel appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I like to share common questions I get not only because it helps you but it saves me time in responding to emails and messages throughout the day. I do this in my “ask me anything” series. Click over to see more questions I’ve answered. I get this question a LOT about how to travel the world for free:

“I don’t have much money, I just break even paying my bills but I want to travel! How did you save? How can I start traveling, just get up and go with NO money?”

Ermm… it’s not that easy! But with some planning there are a few steps you can take to get on the path to traveling and help you see how to travel with no money. First up, remember to check out the articles I’ve already written on budget:

•  9 ways to save money for travel
• 13 ways to spend less money while you travel
• 14 ways to EARN money abroad

How to Travel with No Money / Ways to Travel the World For Free

1. Couchsurfing

Make your Couchsurfing profile as soon as you start thinking about how to travel the world with no money. It’s a website that helps connect travelers and hosts. You stay for free and the host will show you around their town most likely. Start hosting people who come through your town.

Even if you are in a small town, people might come through. Make a full post & follow these 9 safety tips for couchsurfing. You can go to “Couchsurfing meetups” to make friends in the community to give you references. Once you build your profile, reach out to hosts and set up free accommodation in the places you want to go. You truly can stay for free every night of your trip abroad. Always remember to give back to the community as much as you take; this platform will only enrich your experiences with locals and see a place the best way possible!

• Sign up and create you profile so that you seem like a safe candidate to hosts. You can use this to sign up – it’s free.

one of my favorite Couchsurfing homes in North Dakota

2. Research what’s free in the places you are going

Usually cities offer free walking tours which are a great way to see the city. Literally google “what can I do free in insert city name” and see what pops up. Whether its museums, hikes, public pools, or cool parks, there are an abundance of activities to do for free.

3. Start trying to save at least a little / Earn money online

You have to get a plane ticket. No one is going to give you that for free! You need to save money. It’s not possible to be dead broke and start a round-the-world trip (even if blogs makes it seem that way). Here are some tips to start saving money that actually work and tips on how to stay on your budget.

You could get a free flight potentially with travel hacking, but you have to spend money to earn points so this may not be an option for you if you’re broke. But if you’re using your card to pay bills online, why not earn points on that toward a flight or upgrade?

Earn money online: You can find odd jobs on Fiverr even if you don’t have graphic design skills, for example holding a sign about a company up in a pretty place and taking a photo: $5 in your bank account. Crazy. I totally recommend signing up! As a blogger, I hire people on here all the time.

For more on my blogging tips:

• How I Make Money from Travel Blogging
• Best Blogging Tools for Productivity & Earning a Higher Income
• 10 Fail-Proof Ways to Up Your Travel Blogging Game

4. Travel somewhere less expensive

Your money will go further in Kuala Lumpur than in London. You have to pick a budget destination. Think Southeast Asia, India, Nepal, or Eastern Europe. This might be the most important step. A good idea is to use Kiwi’s anywhere or radius tool to “fly to the cheapest place” from your base and see what pops up. Next, you can see which of those places is affordable to travel. Now you’ve got a cheap ticket to a cheap place.

5. Travel to that less expensive place at the least expensive TIME

Traveling off-season has saved me bundles of cash. Everything in Goa is 1/2 off in monsoon! You’ll find great deals and have fewer tourists around. The best time to go is just before or after a destinations “peak season” or you might get caught in too rainy of weather. Here are 11 ways to save on offseason travel. You can find all the best hotels deals online ahead of time for the monsoon seasons of the world.

** Get $35 credit toward your first room!!* 

THE BEST DEALS are going to be people’s homes who are on vacation since locals leave in the off season. Check airbnb and get a gorgeous villa cheaper than a hotel. Sign up now on this link and get $35 off your first booking! It doesn’t expire.

6. Stay in rural areas

Sometimes staying away from the cities can save you huge amounts of money. In India for example, you’re going to spend more in Delhi and Mumbai than if you go even 45 min outside the city.

7. Consider hitchhiking or car sharing

I am not saying it’s safe, but I have done it in a number of countries. It saves bucket loads of money. If you feel like it’s too dangerous, that’s fine. It’s just one way that’s helped me. There’s a lot of websites offering car sharing now like Bla Bla Car or you can join Facebook groups, for example, in Goa, there is a Goa car sharing group and people go to the airport together.

8. Volunteer

Many volunteer programs charge a hefty fee, but there are some that will give you a free place to stay and food if you work for them. You’ll be helping the community, learning more about the locals, and not have to spend much money at all. Sites like Work Away can help you find gigs but it does cost money to sign up. I can best speak to volunteering in Goa, so check that post out for tips.

Another option, WWOOF stands for worldwide opportunities on organic farms. You can work on farms and in return get free lodging and food. Some people do this as a way to get a working visa into a country and then stay longer after working to explore. WWOOF isn’t the only way, and some jobs like this do pay. I met a girl who made minimum wage in Aus picking tomatoes and working on their farm from the break of dawn.

Just be careful you’re not veering into voluntourism, which can be detrimental to the community!

9. Cook in or eat local

If you’re really broke you won’t be able to dine out all the time, so this is imperative. Buying pasta and cooking it in the hostel will save you cash. Eating street food will also save you bundles. Even choosing take away rather than eating in (you can drink your own drinks and won’t have to pay luxury/sitting taxes many places have to eat in).

10. Camp or sleep in overnight transportation

You can camp if you take your own sleeping bag and tent. I haven’t done this because it’s a lot of work. I do tend to travel on overnight buses and trains instead of during the day because it saves on a nights’ accommodation.

11. Do your own laundry

Instead of paying someone to wash your clothes, wash them yourself! Here’s a guide on how to do laundry while traveling.

12. Housesitting instead of Couchsurfing

You can sign up for sites like Trusted Housesitters and just babysit people’s houses as you go. You might have to take care of their pets but in return, you could get a great villa in middle of nowhere countryside! Typically you don’t get paid for this. Here are some tips on how to start housesitting.

PS it does cost money to sign up but is worth the investment. I’ve seen some bloggers perfect this and share the incredible mansions they stay in!

**Most importantly, travel slow & safe**

The longer you stay in one place (especially a free one) the more you save on transportation. When you’re on the road, that’ll cost you the most so this might be the most helpful tip of all. When you travel slow, you can also pick up work. Start your travels in your own country, figure out how to earn money online or another way (remember that article I linked above with 14 ways to earn while traveling?) so you can stay on the road longer!

You’ve got to be safe while you travel as well. The most important thing you can do is get travel insurance before your trip so you don’t have crazy bills abroad if you end up sick from the water, fall of your scooter, get an IV for food poisoning, or anything else.If you can’t afford that, you probably should wait for your trip!

Now that you’re doing all this to save up, spend less, and travel for free, you need to take the tips linked above to earn some money. Once you combine them all, you can shift to taking nicer transport and staying in cozy hotels with room service, right? ;)

But really, it’s a slow process. If you are dead broke I can see how it seems unreachable and could be. I don’t know your life, ya know? But when I think back to leaving for Europe the first time, after booking a plane ticket I didn’t have much more than 1,000 bucks and an emergency credit card. It was 6 years ago and I lived on baguettes and lettuce from the supermarket. You have to be able to rough it if you’re broke but if travel is your goal you WILL find a way to make it happen!

The post Ask Me Anything: 12 Ways to Travel the World for Free appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I sometimes share e-mails under the tag “ask me anything“. I get a lot of very similar e-mails which means there are a lot of people out there thinking the same questions. Why not address them to everyone? You can search more like these by clicking that link above.

Meeting Travelers in India

“Did you find it easy to meet other travelers? I’ve heard mixed reviews as one friend told me since it’s mainly hotels and guest houses without common areas, it’s a bit harder to meet people. What’s your experience?”

I get this questions A LOT. I know exactly why too, because the guide books kind of make it sound like you won’t make friends. I was nervous of this myself before going to India the first time.

In India the first thing you need to know about accommodation is you won’t be staying in hostels that often. More and more are popping up in big cities, Mumbai, North Goa, Varanasi, etc but they are often more expensive that a guesthouse. This is new in the last two years.

Before I went on my trip two years ago, my friend Jon was explaining his budget to me, helping me figure out how much I should take. He’d say his guesthouse was 10 USD and I’d go yeah but I will just stay in a hostel. He’s like “Rachel, I keep telling you… there are NO hostels. You won’t find one.”  I didn’t really believe him because in my travel experience even in fancy Paris there are hostels so why wouldn’t there be one in India? Why would Lonely Planet send me somewhere with no hostels?

I met Ashley in Pushkar by chatting to her over breakfast from a table away. We ended up meeting up again in Varanasi. 

Making Friends in Guesthouses

Inevitably Jon was right and I found myself checked into a guesthouse in Rajasthan trying to make friends. Some are Havali’s meaning there is a house and a common room- maybe someone just down the hall from you. Others look like apartment complexes, and some are separate houses, but the common thing they have is YOUR OWN ROOM and BATHROOM.

Some will offer free breakfast. Make sure to meet people there if possible. Others offer activities. ASK them if someone else has signed up or wants to, so that you can go with another guest.

On your overnight transport (the most common way to travel in India) you absolutely want to make friends with anyone going to the same destination, especially someone solo. You can share a room! I’ve done this. It’s not that weird. Usually guesthouses will only allow 2 people or make you pay extra for a third person to sleep on a cot.

• Read More: how I made friends when I moved to India

Take a class

India is all about classes. They know us foreigners are here to learn so they offer a class in everything. I learned Thai massage one week, took art classes, and did yoga classes at an ashram. There are so many more than that. Instead of eating out, learn to cook Indian food and instead of getting henna down, learn to do it yourself. Learn Rieki or reflexology. If you don’t feel like learning you can just go get Reiki or all these new things you’re discovering down.

You’ll see in most of my posts an option for short term (daily) volunteer (donation) options. You can visit the Tibetan orphans in McLeod Ganj or help at Mother Teresa’s in Calcutta.

Was so happy to meet Chloe on Couchsurfing.org

Making friends shopping and at dinners

The other great thing about India is since it’s not quite ready for a huge influx of backpackers, the ones who do come kind of have to stay in the same places. While there are LOADS of guesthouse options in any city, there aren’t always that many great places to eat.

I actually agree with Lonely Planet on their food selections a lot, but do some research and go try to make friends. Usually at night, popular restaurants will either play a movie or have some kind of drum circle hippie fest. Join in and find someone cool to meet up with the next day.

One girl I traveled a week with, I met while shopping for jewelry.

You have to strike up conversation

India is not the place to be quiet. It’s loud so you should be loud and outgoing too. To be honest, if you don’t you may not meet many people at all. It’s important to talk to other backpackers.

Most often, they are sick of who they’re traveling with (not in a bad way, but we all get a little annoyed when we travel with someone for a long time) and are happy to have a new friend… unless they are solo; then of course they want a new friend.

Just know there are tons of solo backpackers in India and they are just like you.

then I met this guy… never saw him again. Jk! In case you’re new I met my boyfriend in Goa and now live in India because of it. 

Where are the other solo backpackers?

If you’re not staying in a guesthouse, many solo travelers are on couchsurfing.org as a way to meet locals and make friends. Since I’ve lived in India I don’t use it much anymore and I DON’T recommend couchsurfing in India unless it’s with a foreigner or a girl- I hate to generalize but better safe than sorry.

What couchsurfing IS great for in India is checking the forums or message boards to see if other solo travelers are looking for someone to travel with. That’s how I met Chloe, a French girl I traveled with for at least 3 weeks in the mountains. She was a lifesaver.

Enjoy Being Alone

The last bit of advice I have is that there is a chance that you might not make friends in India while backpacking. It’s a slight one, but much more possible here than in Europe. There are no bar crawls and hostel parties to bring you together with other people. If you aren’t that outgoing you might find yourself spending a lot of time alone.

In any case, if you make friends like I luckily did, they most likely won’t be going the same place as you. I try not to plan too much but of course it’s not cool to just follow someone else’s journey. Usually when I did make a friend, I then had to say bye, get on a bus alone, and make a new friend in the next place.

I wouldn’t worry too much because India keeps you VERY busy and activities are cheap, so if you’re bored or lonely you can go do something fun and hope to meet someone in an art class, yoga class, or just shopping.

If you know you won’t enjoy alone time and the risk of it stresses you out, or you’re scared to travel alone, then join a tour, like the one I took with goMowgli.

feature image credit from flickr and edited by me.

The post Ask Me Anything: Meeting Travelers in India appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I sometimes share e-mails under the tag “ask me anything“. I get a lot of very similar e-mails which means there are a lot of people out there thinking the same questions. Why not address them to everyone? You can search more like these by clicking that link above.

I had the most amazing comment pop up on my blog after discussing how some people love or hate India.

“When it comes to having a good or bad experience in India- How much of it do you think is just LUCK?”

Is it possible that two people can come to India with an open mind, happy and positive personalities, and take the same route… then at the outcome one of them had a horrible experience, hates India and will never come back, while the other might have loved it, thought the locals were amazing, and wants to live in India!?

Um, YES!

India is the land of luck. Your Indian experience can be made or broken by it.

Some will say the person who didn’t love India and had a rough time must not have prepared enough. He didn’t know enough about the scams, touts, bad water, spicy food, how to negotiate, or not to break up a stray dog fight…

Well, in my honest opinion- although I TRY to prepare people for India anyways- It’s all luck you guys!

You could be incredibly prepared: know a few key phrases, have a nice little medical kit, dress appropriately, have an itinerary set and understand how the trains work AND STILL HAVE A TERRIBLE TIME! Isn’t all travel about luck, really, deep down?

I was unprepared I’ll admit, and I had a little harassment, dengue fever, issues with touts, major scams pulled in Delhi… Ben’s bit bitten by a stray, we’ve been sick countless times. I’ve been yelled at by aggressive men, ripped off massively about a hundred times by now, and even head butted by a bull. But because I’ve been here a couple years, the good for me outweighs the bad tenfold.

If you came here for two months and were unlucky enough to have a couple handfuls of bad things happen to you, you might leave with annoyance and hatred in your heart.

India can be a mess, let’s just be honest. Every expat I know has breakdowns here- even ones who came in the 70’s.

A friend said to me a couple months ago (after I told her about my massive “I hate India” breakdown at the movie theatre) that “foreigners who live here are allowed about 10 of those…. A MONTH!” We all laughed because it’s true.

As an outsider, India does shock us and although some can handle it better than others and love the chaos more than others, LUCK plays a huge role in the outcome of a trip.

So, with that- I wish you ALL THE LUCK IN INDIA on your future trip here and am curious if YOU think luck plays a major role in travel & whether or not you end up enjoying a city.

The post Ask Me Anything: How much of your Indian Experience is just LUCK? appeared first on Hippie In Heels.

I have posted a few e-mails from readers before, under the tag “ask me anything“. I’m going to be doing it more often. I get a lot of very similar e-mails which means there are a lot of people out there thinking the same questions. Why not address them to everyone? That is what inspired my FAQ about India post. You can search more like these under the tag or in the search bar: “ask me anything”.

Scared to Travel

After answering this e-mail, I realized I’ve gotte a lot that are similar. People have fears of travel and I’ll tell you exactly what I told her.

“The second I booked my flight, I just got scared. I am 19 years old, and I really don’t know what I’m doing, even though that’s something I think is the great thing about traveling as well, it also is really scary.  I’ve read all your posts on female traveling, and you have some very good tips. I was just wondering if you could tell me something that helped you get less scared before you travelled? If there is even something to tell of course… I know it will be scary at first no matter what. “

Travel can be scary! Especially the day before and day of. If you are an anxious person at all, you’re bound to get a belly-ache. You’ll start double checking your lists and making sure your flight REALLY leaves when you think it does. That’s okay. I promise, everyone who has any type of anxiety does it. Anxiety always escalated when it comes to travel.

When you’re on the plane all alone.. you may start thinking “what the fuck was I thinking!? OMG.”

Well, I’m here to assure you that I’ve had that feeling and it goes away. It’s how I felt the first time I was on a plane to India. I was all, “I’m going to see tigers and hike to the top of a mountain!” and then once I got on the plane to Bombay along with all these confusing Indian people, I was like, “who cares about tigers, I should have just gone to the zoo, and really I hate hiking, I don’t even want to climb a mountain or even a hill for that matter.”

It gets better…

When I landed in Bombay, I couldn’t sleep thanks to the time change, so I laid awake until the sun finally rose and I could explore. That’s when all my fears went away. I realized it wasn’t such a scary crazy place and I wasn’t the only person doing it. I met friends right away near the train station.

India is a pretty daunting place to a new traveler and if you can make it there you can make it anywhere. If you are showing up in Paris or Bangkok, you’re going to adjust so much faster than you think.

You’re going to be nervous, maybe even a little scared. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s excitement just getting confused and being misplaced, in my opinion.

Just keep your head up and once you get to your destination you’ll see the worry was for nothing.

Some Tips on Anxiety & being scared to travel alone:

• Join couchsurfing, not just to stay with a host but for meet ups. You can even find a travel buddy like I did in India. It’s great to have a “friend” in your new place. Try to do this at your arrival point so you can adjust better, like I did staying with Elise in Bombay.
• Feeling bored and lonely in a big city? Go to the train station and scout for another tourist arriving. Don’t be creepy though! In India, the forien tourist quota line is bound to have some toursits hanging around that you can sightsee with.
• Take something comforting from home: maybe it’s your favorite songs on a playlist, photos on your iPhone to scroll though, or a hoodie you love.
• Embrace traveling alone. Write, learn to take great photos, try taking a language book and practicing talking to locals.
• If you have severe anxiety, don’t let that stop you from traveling. As a nurse, I have seen first hand how people with anxiety taking their medications appropriately just makes it melt away. Talk to your MD before your trip and get some “just in case”.

feature image photo source flickr

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The post Ask Me Anything: Scared to Travel Alone appeared first on Hippie In Heels.