travel tips

If you could spend more than half of your year traveling, would you? Stephen Johnson would—and does. As an interior photographer, he’s away from his home in New York about 60 percent of the year taking photos of homes and buildings for interior designers, hotels, and magazines. This has given him amazing opportunities to see parts of the world and meet people that he otherwise wouldn’t.

Road trips are a time to relax, unplug from the tumult of life, and enjoy the company of friends or family. But being in a car for long periods of time can make you miss the comforts of home and the ease of having what you need in any situation. Whether you’re driving for five hours or five days, here are some affordable essentials that you can bring to make the trip more enjoyable.

A vacation is often a step outside a traveler’s frame of reference. However, the footsteps of tourists often remain in the countries they visit, even after they go home.

Sometimes the hardest part about traveling is planning it. Maybe the trip never gets beyond that “we should go there” stage, or you end up lounging in a hotel room at your destination trying to come up with things to do, watching your precious time go down the drain. Here are eight tips for being a travel agent for yourself or your group to get the most out of that trip of a lifetime.

Do you remember your first day of college or your first day on the job? Going from class to class or task to task? Do you remember those lucky sneakers that barely had any sole left or those great heels that looked fabulous with your new outfit? Chances are you also remember the painful blisters and aching feet that gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “killer shoes.”

Whether you want to dive in crystal blue waters, explore ancient ruins, feast on local flavors, or simply lounge on the beach and tan, Mexico’s Riviera Maya has much to offer. And when airfare to Cancun’s international airport is typically half the cost of a ticket to Hawaii, it’s easy to make this tropical vacation fit a tighter budget—if you know where to skimp and where to splurge.Located on the eastern coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, this lush strip of land along the Caribbean is the home of world-renowned scuba spots, ancient Mayan ruins, numerous hotels and resorts, and miles of white sand beaches and bright blue surf.

Just 45 square inches. Doesn’t sound like much, and truthfully it isn’t. But if “packing light” meant living out of a 45-square-inch suitcase for six weeks, then I guess it would have to be enough.