Forget South Beach! Try these three destinations for a week off that’ll leave your sunburned pals in deep cirrhotic envy.
How Do You Say Adrenaline in Spanish?
Mix three cups warm climate with proximity to the States, varied terrain, and a favorable exchange rate, and you’ve got Costa Rica. Sandwiched between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, Costa Rica makes a tasty one-week snack for any adventure traveler. With two coasts of waves for the surfers, rainforests for the hikers, and volcanoes for the mountain bikers, Costa Rica’s got you covered for gorgeous terrain. (And if you get too close to the volcanoes, it’ll really have you covered.) See i-to-i.com for cool Costa Rica trips.
WWOOF It
Volunteer vacations are cool and all, but they make you pay for the privilege of helping someone else out. Cut out the middleman, and sign up with WWOOF (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms; wwoof.org), which hooks you up directly with hundreds of organic farms in countries all around the world. The deal: six hours of manual labor a day for room and board, no travel expenses paid. Pressing olives in Italy? Check. Milking yaks in Nepal? If that’s your thing…
Get Your Culture On
Yeah, Western Europe’s got all those pretty castles and breads and cheeses and whatnot, but it’s also got a beefy euro that makes it damn expensive for travelers. For art and history that will blow your mind without doing the same to your budget, duck behind the Iron Curtain and check out Eastern Europe. Prague’s the easy choice, but Krakow, Budapest, and Sarajevo are all majestic capitals that see far fewer tourists each year, giving you authentic live culture to go with your tombs and crumbling walls. Check out hostels.com for cheap bunks in the region.
THE NEWBIE
Article by Ethan Todras-Whitehill
Photo by istockphoto.com
Q: What’s a Courier Flight?
A: Duh: a plane full of postal workers. Okay, no, that’s not true, but it’s actually not that far off. A courier flight is a plane with at least one package-carrier on it: you. Courier companies offer discounted seats in exchange for transporting their packages as your checked luggage. A representative meets you at the departing airport and gives you the luggage, and another takes it off your hands on the flipside. The catch: You can’t check any baggage of your own. But as all hip travelers already know, “carry on only” is the only way to fly.
The upside is that courier flights are pretty much the cheapest method of getting out of Dodge. (Check out courier.org, casualcourier.com and aircourier.org.) Discounts can get well over 50 percent, depending on your destination, the courier company, and how close to your departure time you book (hint: they get desperate close to flight date). And Drug Mules ’R Us this isn’t; courier travel is a known and accepted way of getting around, especially to the backpacking cognoscenti. (Just in case: You’re not liable for the contents of the luggage.)
Got a travel question you’re too ashamed to ask your world-weary pals? E-mail newbie@studenttraveler.com!
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