Jeremy

Jeremy founded Living the Dream in 2008 to chronicle his long-term trip around Asia. Since then he has been on two long-term trips, visited 69 countries, and is just getting started. He is now on a Lifestyle Design quest to build businesses to pursue a life of travel.

What Travel Insurance is Right For You? When to Buy or Not

If there is one element of traveling that we often put on the back burner and overlook mentioning, it would be travel insurance.

To us, travel insurance is something that is extremely important, particularly for more expensive and consequential international travel, as it can cover instances of lost baggage, trip delays, health concerns, and even canceled vacations outright!

When we were robbed in Peru, for example, our World Nomads policy kicked in and helped us recoup a lot of our lost cost- salvaging what could’ve been a trip-ending experience for us.

So in this one, we thought we’d take a different look at the travel insurance discussion and talk about when we consider different types of travel insurance be it just protections from our credit cards, individual trip plans, or annual plans as well!

Note: Insurance is one of those things where your mileage will vary. Deciding on coverage is often a balance of risk vs reward vs cost, and what we do in our personal circumstances may not make sense for you. These are not absolute must-dos and are rather just our general thought process in how we buy travel insurance for our own specific needs.

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5 of the Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards in Our Wallets

When we tell people we sometimes travel the world for free, they often look at is with a bit of incredulity.

Those who know us instantly assume it is because of this travel blog and that we bounce around from press trip to press trip. But we often shock them when we say that is not our scene and we go on few, if any, hosted trips. In fact, when we travel we don’t even pitch brands to work with.

It is something that we never enjoyed doing, so we don’t do it.

Our travels are instead often paid through points which we acquire in a mix of paying for travel with large companies and travel credit cards. So in this one, we thought we’d share about how our travel credit cards have helped us earn a ton of free (and deeply discounted) travel!

All cards featured herein are cards we personally have in our wallets right now (both of us in most cases-  double the rewards!), and we will do our best to update this guide as we open or close cards in the future.

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How Many Days Do You Need in Tokyo – More Isn’t Enough

As far as great cities of the world are concerned, Tokyo is one I’ll always go back to on every single trip to Japan.

It is massive not only in population, but in size, too, and with so many great experiences and restaurants that we could foreseeably never, ever get tired of exploring the city proper.

But this presents a challenge when planning a trip to Japan, as there is one extremely difficult question you need to answer: how many days in Tokyo should I plan for?

While there is no ideal answer here, since everyone’s trip will be different, be it for interests, length of time visiting, budget, and more, we have a few insights to share after several trips to Japan where Tokyo has always been a staple in our itinerary.

You’ll likely want more time than you have, so be sure to plan accordingly.

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Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute is a Must Try Sake Brewery Near Kanazawa

Whenever we told a sake brewery worker or bartender that we were heading to Kanazawa on our third trip to Japan, there was a near-unanimous reply- you have to try sake from the Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute. When we replied that we had already made a reservation to visit, we got a subtle nod of approval as the reputation of this one truly precedes it.

This brewery is famous not only for making acclaimed products, but also because its Toji, Noguchi Naohiko, is often considered the God of Sake Brewing.

Why is that? Well, he’s been making sake since 1949, was critical to the Yamahai style revival, and helped popularize Ginjo sake in Japan to name a few. And if you’re looking at that year and wondering, yes, he is also in his 90s and helps pass on his sake knowledge at his namesake Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute!

So, given that Angie is obsessed with sake (WSET Level 3 certified), and I love a good sake tour, we made our way out to the institute outside of Kanazawa to check it out and enjoy a tasting!

In this one, we wanted to share a bit more about what the experience was like and offer some booking tips, since reaching this one isn’t the easiest!

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