Travel Related Reviews

Apps, Sites, Gear, and Beer

Below you can browse through some reviews I’ve done – mostly on products that I found useful or that saved me money and I thought were worth sharing.

Best way to get to and from Kuala Lumpur’s Airport

When I first arrived in Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, I headed straight to the KLIA Ekspres train. The 28 minute non-stop train to KL Sentral. I bought my ticket — 35 MYR (about $10). It’s not a bad price considering it’s a non-stop ride on a nice train, but this is a budget travel site. Also, when I got off the train at KL Sentral, I realized that for the area I wanted to go to, around Pettaling Street, I’d have to take another train plus walk for 10 minutes, or to grab a taxi. There had to be a better way. Of course, there was.

The Best Travel Insurance for Backpackers

“No Mom. I’m invincible. I don’t need travel insurance.” *Mom smacks me in the head and makes me cry.

For the longest time, I was against travel insurance. I rarely get sick. I don’t have accidents (including the ones that happen in your pants). I’m generally a pretty safe guy. What I didn’t think about was the different lifestyle that I’d be adopting while traveling the world.

Review: HotelQuickly App – Last minute deals on Hotels in Asia and Australia

There’s a fine line between being spontaneous and unprepared when traveling. We like to have a layout of the city we are going to — know where the hotels, restaurants, and main attractions are. Unless we are traveling at a busy time, or there’s a place that we really want to stay, we don’t book a room ahead. Usually, we just have a list of 3 or 4 places that sound good, and then take the chance that at least one of them will have an opening. Most of the time, we end up at the first place on our list, but there have been a few times we were brought to the edge of craziness, running around like headless chickens, sweating profusely, yelling obscenities at each other, as we carried our heavy bags from hotel to hotel, eventually staying in a room that could be confused for a bus station bathroom. Now that we’re in our 30s, this isn’t allowed to happen anymore. I’ve been given strict orders from the higher up (ie. Sara). Luckily, the internet is always at my fingertips and there are really smart ambitious people out there.

Do you Need to Pack Medicine? Health Concerns While Traveling

I’m not a medical professional. I’m just a person who’s travelled a lot. Don’t blame me if my advice leads to you getting sick or crapping yourself.

Packing light is an art form that’s been studied by many a travel-guru. Even though it has the potential for amazing sounds, you probably don’t want raging diarrhea to ruin your trip. At the same time, loading up your bathroom travel kit with everything behind the mirror seems a little much. Instead, while you’re abroad you could head to a local pharmacy to get what you need, and a little adventure while you’re there.

GeniusFlight tells you where you can afford to fly

The most expensive part of traveling is often the flight. You can save money on accommodations by sleeping in a hostel. Food is made cheaper by subsisting on bread and squeeze cheese for a few days (trust me). Expensive tourist attractions can often be avoided and traded in for a much cheaper beer-and-people-watching session, but unfortunately there is no way around the cost of a flight. Sure you can fly with a budget airline, but you are still paying a pretty penny and finding deals isn’t an easy task. Until now! Da da dunnnn. GeniusFlight allows you to put in your starting airport, your budget, and your travel dates and they will tell you where you can afford to fly. Of course, living in Canada means my options are limited, but for someone in London, England this is laughing manically and rubbing your hands together worthy.

Books and Movies to get you Pumped for your Trip to Vietnam

There’s a ton of entertaining books and movies about Vietnam. Before you pack your bags, why not watch a few films and read a few books. You’ll not only learn something about the country, but you’ll also get yourself psyched for your travel adventures. Here’s some recommendations from me. Full disclosure: the links will take you to Amazon where you can buy the product. If you do happen to buy it through our link, we make a little bit of money at no cost to you.

Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War

Slovak-Czech Beer Review

This is a review of 23 different Slovak and Czech Beers. Each beer has a comment from both Sara and I, a rating out of 10 from each of us, an avg. rating, a price (per 1/2 litre bottle), the alcohol percentage, which country it comes from, and my special category the price per alcohol percentage (PP%) so you can figure out how cheap it is to get drunk off of said beer. The prices are listed in Euros but 1 Euro is about $1.66 Canadian. If you’ve sampled any of the beers on the list please feel free to make a comment on them. We really don’t know much about beer tasting and sometimes we were too drunk to accurately rate the beers but I think the list is pretty good. Looking for more information on Slovak beer? The Slovak Beer Guide will have you covered.

Vietnamese Beer Review

There are 329 beer producers in Vietnam. Sara and I would love to try all of them but we don’t have the time or the liver to spare.
Beer brand popularity widely varies from province to province. This is because there are so many breweries and the cheapest, and freshest, beer is often the one made by the closest brewery.

Huda (Hue, 4.7%, 450ml, 10,000 dong/$0.50)

Ryan: A pretty clean taste. Easy to drink. Who da man? Huda da man! 6

Sara: It’s good — not too strong. I wouldn’t buy it if it weren’t cheap and plentiful here. I think the volume of the bottle is ideal. You can really taste that Danish technology. 7