Welcome Back to Breakfast with Lisa & Josh!

Soundtrack for this newsletter: AOK - Tai Verdes

Spotify

Apple Music

First off - thank you to everyone that read, and especially responded to our last 2 newsletters about ADHD and traveling as a child of immigrant parents.

We heard from so many of you, and you all had such incredible stories of dealing with similar challenges, and overcoming them. We have such a cool community here. You all are the best.

It seems like they connected with something much larger than just travel, and we hope to do that much more frequently going forward.

That being said, the last 2 newsletters were a bit heavier than usual, so I wanted to change things up a bit.

Let’s get spicy. 🌶️

4 Common Travel Tips That Are Total BS

Ok, listen up.

There’s so much bad, inaccurate, and just plain wrong information out there when it comes to travel.

So many bloggers out there giving tips about a place they have literally never been to. Countless vloggers spouting 20-year old travel tips. I just watched a video made THIS YEAR that recommends getting TRAVELERS CHECKS before going overseas. IN 2023! People still give blanket advice to skip entire frickin’ countries because they had a single, bad experience in one very specific city a really long time ago.

(Ok, I might be slightly guilty of this last one - I had a real real hard time in Cairo in 2012, and I’m still not exactly excited to go back. But, that being said, I wouldn’t ever tell anyone to avoid the entirety of Egypt because of that.)

Someone has to set the record straight.

4. Exchanging Money

A common, but often misguided advice before going to visit a new country is to exchange money before (or sometimes after) you land in a country.

My hot take: exchanging money should be used ONLY as a last resort. The fees are so preposterously high, and the exchange rate so laughable, it’s a scam literally anywhere you do it.

Airport currency exchange kiosks may seem convenient, but here's the dirty little secret: they usually offer the worst exchange rates and charge exorbitant fees. Keep your hard-earned cash in your pocket by using ATMs or local banks for a much better deal. And if you're really feeling adventurous, try out one of those nifty new travel cards (like Wise, but honestly all of those are more trouble than they’re worth for me) that offer favorable exchange rates and no fees. Now that's smart money management!

A quick example of why exchanging money is a scam - today, $100 USD is worth ~91 euros. That’s how much you would get if you just took that money out with a debit card in whichever country you’re heading to. I went to a local bank’s website to compare, and that 91 euros turned into 74 euros through fees, bad exchange rates, and, somehow, “convenience fees.” Sounds like one-sided convenience to me.

God, look at those faces. (From our second video of our

How to Quit Your Job and Travel the World series.)

I know, this might sound like blasphemy, but hear me out.

I can hear some of you out there - “just exchange it at the airport, the fees aren’t so bad!” or “I found this one place in a back alley that doesn’t charge any fees but you have to go in the middle of the night” or “but I want to make sure I have some cash before I leave home!!”

How many of you would willingly pay 20% more for something you could get at it’s going rate? Now substitute that “something” for "cash”—something that you earned, you worked hard for. How about now?

So what’s the right way?

Just bring your debit card with you and take money out of an ATM. In the over 70 countries I’ve had the chance to visit, and in every single one of them, I’ve just landed, taken out my debit card, and got money out of an ATM without paying exorbitant exchange fees. Most airports have even ATMs right as soon as you deplane. Sure, you might have to pay a one-time ATM fee, but some banks and cards, like the Schwab debit card we have, reimburse the ATM fees. Sweet.

The only time I’ll exchange money anywhere is if I have a bunch of extra cash for a country that I’m not going back to. Usually though, that money ends up at the duty free shop :)

Or you could just use all that extra cash on vending machines or

this Norwegian Salmon ATM in Singapore!

3. YOU GOTTA POWER THROUGH THE JET LAG

Jet lag is undefeated.

There’s no hack, supplement, masonic ritual, animal sacrifice, or magical concoction that can fix it for you. And to expect to somehow beat it in a single day by just staying up a few extra hours is hopeful at best. Your body is tired from the long flight, dehydrated from the super dry airplane air, and on the totally wrong schedule.

Don’t punish it any more by ignoring all of those problems.

Powering through the jet lag is why so many people get sick the first day or two of their trip, and ruin their whole vacation in the process. Your body needs rest. If you’re feeling dead tired, sleep for an hour. Drink a ton of water when you arrive. Maybe try one of those rituals if it makes you feel better.

The key to surviving jet lag, especially the really bad time shifts (I’m looking at you USA -> Japan!), is preparation.

Change the time on your phone to the destinations time 2 days before you depart. Start getting used to the time shift you’re heading to. Go to bed early or late if that’s closer to night time there. Start eating meals at normal time in that destination.

It’ll feel super weird, but what you’re doing is defeating the jet lag monster before you even step foot on the plane, so that when you arrive to start your vacation, you’ll be ready to rock and roll.

Then, once you’re actually on the plane, try to sleep when it makes sense for the time zone that you’re heading to, and make sure to drink a fully ridiculous amount of water when you’re awake. #aisleseatgang

Whatever you do, don’t force your body to suffer after a long flight in the name of beating jet lag. All that will do is make it worse.

When we arrive in a new country completely out of sync and tired, we try our best to stay up for just a little bit, get a little of the local food, take an hour or two nap (hopefully it doesn’t go for too much longer), and get back out in the world again.

That time we got mega sick after 4 flights to get back home from Longyearbyen, Norway.

2. Packing things “just in case”

Did you know that you can exchange money for goods and services? Even in other countries? It’s an incredible system.

I used to pack 20 extra pounds of random stuff on every trip “just in case” - shoes I’d never wear, an umbrella, a small tent, 4 extra charging cables (Lisa here🙋🏻‍♀️ to say—this still happens), an under-clothes money belt (these are absolutely useless, and definitely turned me into even more of a target), a portable clothes washing bag (what was I even thinking), even a WATER FILTER that I’ve literally never used.

For some reason, I just assumed that I just couldn’t do anything or buy anything that I could at home while I was away from home. I felt like I had to be prepared for EVERY possible thing that could happen before I went on my trip.

I was so wrong.

On my first 1 year trip I packed everything in a 55L backpack (the absolutely massive ones). The 2nd one was 40L. Still too big. The 3rd trip? A 30L. That’s what I’m talking about.

But still, it was possible to go with much less gear.

We recently went all the way across and up to Northern Europe for a month to the northern most city in the world, Longyearbyen, wearing an 18L backpack.

It’s not a competition, or about bringing the least - it’s about maximizing comfort on the trip itself. It’s such a pain to lug around all that extra gear—whether in a backpack or suitcase—especially if you never end up using any of it. And then don’t get me even started on the budget airlines’ weight restrictions—oof, we paid way too much flying some of those airlines for all of our “just in cases.”

If you forget anything? You can pick it up wherever you’re headed. Or just live without it. If you’re packing for your trip, and you say “I’ll bring this just in case” - just leave that thing at home.

You won’t miss it.

Plus, then you’ll have more room for fun souvenirs along the way. Like this coconut pour over that Lisa *had to have* from Thailand. She’s pleased to share it somehow managed in her backpack, surviving countless flights, countries, and moves.

1. “The Waiters in Paris are Rude”

You hear terrible advice roughly equal to this all the time, and it’s the single most dangerous and harmful travel tip you can get.

That’s because it’s always wrong. Always.

The vast majority of the time this type of “tip” is given by someone who hasn’t spent much time in the place they’re talking about or if they have, all they’re doing is generalizing an ENTIRE city, country, and population based on a single negative experience they had there, probably a long time ago.

Cities and countries are always changing. That person’s experience will not be yours. All advice like this does is set you up for failure before you even get there, or even worse, cause you to skip an amazing place entirely.

This is one that we have to actively try to be wary of. On the one hand, we don’t always want to show the highlight reel, we want to be honest and realistic about our experiences of a place we’re visiting. But, we also never want to deter someone from forming their own opinions there as well. Some of our favorite conversations and emails to receive are when people disagree with our takes of a place—it really shows how dynamic the world and travelers are.

So whenever you hear advice like this (including from some of your favorite travel YouTubers), just add two words at the end of whatever they’re saying - “to me”. The waiters in Paris were rude TO ME. The food was bland TO ME.

This way you’re receiving it as what it is - an opinion. It’s not a fact. And by adding “to me,” you’re adding another layer - personal responsibility.

More than likely, that person was also being rude at the restaurant, didn’t realize it, which caused the waiter to respond poorly. Like when we showed up in Spain ordering food at precisely all the wrong times or when we walked and ate our food around Japan, not knowing it was considered disrespectful.

I mean, how many times even at home do we misunderstand nuanced situations and conversations even with close friends? Lisa and I constantly talk about the many times we assume a neutral face and short, terse words in another country equate to an angry person. But then have to remind ourselves people just show emotions in different ways.

I’m curious what people think when we’re making these ridiculous Youtube faces.

Every time we’ve traveled somewhere, even for the 10th time, it’s been an entirely different experience.

I can’t think of a more tragic travel mistake to make than missing out on Paris, or the entirety of France (and any other place), just because someone felt like they got yelled at by a waiter a long time ago.

Don’t let someone else make your world smaller just because they had a bad time.

Today

Back in Hawai’i, editing videos as fast as we can.

The (Near) Future

Editing those videos, prepping for some big projects coming up, and planning out our next adventure :)

Our Latest Videos

We took a boat to Spain and yes, it still counts on the Camino. :)

This is what a perfect day on the Camino looks like

The great Central vs Coastal Route debate

When we told people we were doing the Camino,

we kept getting the same response—”again!?” Here’s why.

See you next Sunday…ish :)

- josh (and lisa)

Oh, and if you want to learn how we afford to take all these trips after quitting our jobs 3 years ago, you’ll likely be interested in our Skillshare course on Travel Hacking and Frequent Flier Miles.

It’s been really taking off lately, but we still have a few uses of this link left for those of you who want to see the class for free. It comes with a free month of Skillshare, which is more than enough to watch our class and any of the other great courses on there!

Check it out here: https://skl.sh/lisaandjosh02221

Unsubscribe