Trip Planning·22 min
Where to Stay in the Maldives: Local Island or Resort
Local island or resort: what each kind of island is like to wake up on, what the beach and the transfer change, and who each one suits.
From here
to paradise.
Destination guides and trip planning for independent travelers. Find out what a place is like before you go.
Go before everyone else.
Every place has a stretch when the weather has turned and the crowd has not arrived yet. These are the ones closing in.
21daysuntil it opens
Tulum
The best months start November 1. Book while the fares still make sense.
JFMAMJJASOND
51daysuntil it opens
Aruba
It comes right on December 1. Far enough out to get your pick of dates.
JFMAMJJASOND
51daysuntil it opens
El Nido
The good stretch opens December 1. Time yet to watch the flights.
JFMAMJJASOND
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Where should you go?
Pick what kind of place, when you are going, and who is coming. Fill all three rows and the board sends you somewhere worth the flight.
Now departing: nowhere, yet18 places on the board
Worth your time.
Budget Travel·16 minAruba Taxi Fares
Aruba's taxis have no meters and the island has no ride-hailing app. What it has is a government fare table that changed on May 20, 2026. Here it is by hotel zone, with the surcharges, the bag rule and the arithmetic for a late arrival.
Budget Travel·20 minSpending Money Abroad
The plain version of spending money on the road. Why you should always pay in local currency, how ATMs charge you three times, and the cards that fix most of it.
Trip Planning·25 minThe Philippines in the Rainy Season
The wet half of the Philippine year is not six months of rain. It is a handful of bad days scattered through a season the weather bureau itself describes in terms of breaks. Here is what you give up, what you get, and how to build a trip that absorbs it.
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The ones we get most weeks. If we haven't covered yours, write to us. We answer.
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