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.

Our Favorite Vacation Packing List Items to Have in Our Luggage

Planning Services for RTW Travel - Living the Dream

Since founding Living the Dream we’ve been on two long-term trips and have had three staff members go off on year-plus journeys of their own around the world. Over that time you can say we’ve learned a thing or two about what is essential in preparing a long-term travel packing list.

In the past, we’ve all published our own personal vacation packing lists for our different journeys, but we want to go further than that today.

You see, these lists are great snapshots as to what we’ve personally chosen to take on our own long-term trips, but they do not get into the details of why we chose an item, why they are important to have, and most importantly, what you need to consider before buying them, too.

To help fill the gap, this travel packing list guide was born!

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Onsen Experience – Bathing With 20 Japanese Men

The Japanese onsen is something reported by many travel sites as a cant miss experience.  Many of the more popular spas, powered by incredibly hot spring water, are located in the mountainous regions of the country.  Because of this they are highly regarded not just for their therapeutic values, but for the beauty which the onsen is built around.

To me, this sounded like a great experience and something I absolutely had to try.  So when I made the trip north to check out the Nikko temple shortly after my arrival to the country, I knew I had to check one out.

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Iceland Ring Road – Tips and Advice for Your Driving Itinerary

When it comes to an Iceland road trip, you would think that driving around the Ring Road would be a simple thing to plan. The country is an island, the Ring Road is the only road that goes around it in its entirety, and generally speaking everyone goes on the same tried-and-true path around the country.

All of these things are true, except for that last point.

While it is true that all Ring Road travelers do circle the country, the amount of time you spend on the Ring Road will vary. You could blast through it all in about five days without leaving the Ring Road at all. You could add on one detour (perhaps our favorite detour to Borgarfjordur Eystri to see the puffins) if you have limited time. Or you could spend up to a month exploring all the back roads and highlands- all while only barely touching the Ring Road at all!

As such, planning your dream itinerary will end up being a lot more difficult than you might have previously thought and we have three important tips to keep in mind when planning a visit based on our recent experience in Iceland.

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Hilton Reykjavik Nordica Review – Stellar Upgrade Perks

As many readers here know, we are Hilton loyalists in our travel hacking endeavors (but are also one of the brand’s fiercest critics). We travel with Hilton for work and use our Hilton travel rewards credit card for just about everything in order to rack up as many points and weekend night certificates as possible.

This doesn’t allow us to travel the world for free as some travel hackers would have you believe, but it does give us a few free hotel nights anytime we travel- more often than not at a significant upgrade from what we’d otherwise pay for.

So, naturally, when it came time for us to book our one-night stay at a hotel in central Reykjavik, Iceland, on our recent vacation, we knew exactly where we would be staying without hesitation.

At 40,000 points, the Hilton Reykjavik Nordica is an incredible deal in its own right, but the perks of being a Hilton Gold member made this stay one of the best we’ve ever had with the chain in recent memory.

So for those who are Hilton loyalists like us with the status to match, this one is definitely for you.

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