Champagne Travel on a Beer Budget

If you’re a US resident or have plans to be travelling there in the near future, it is well worth checking out Things You Should Do

This site has tonnes of suggestions for fun things to do in different cities across America and beyond, in fact yours truly has recently done a guest post on free & cheap things to see & do when travelling in Melbourne, Australia.

This post was one of the original ones posted on Champagne Travel on a Beer Budget, and has by far been one of the most popular.

If you are new to the site, other popular past posts that you may want to check out are:

Indulge in a luxury spa experience without the luxury price tag

Having the time of your life travelling solo

How to make flying economy feel like first class

The Ultimate Guide to Getting an Upgrade when you Fly - Pt 1 (I promise Pt 2 is coming soon!)

Whether it is a road trip with friends, a lazy break on an idyllic beach or a sexy jaunt in a big city, the sound track to your trip can add some style to your holiday, setting the mood and giving you an easy way to re-live travel memories in the future.

I know that whenever I hear Manu Chao I am transported back to a fun couple of weeks spent in the Greek Isles where Manu Chao was on high rotation at the beach bars.

NPR Music’s Road Trip Series has inspired me to ponder what my must-have holiday tunes would be.

So, what tunes would be in your ultimate holiday soundtrack? Do you have particular songs that will always remind you of past travels?

My ultimate holiday soundtrack would have to include:

Manu Chao (for when it is time to get in party mode)

Cafe del Mar (for chilling out in a hammock, champagne in hand)

Xavier Rudd (for coastal road trip sing-alongs)

Billie Holiday (for wining & dining trips to the city)
Why not share your favourite travel tunes in the comments?

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Pour yourself a glass of bubbly and settle back for a little bit of online travel browsing:

Travel podcasts

If you’re like me and couldn’t imagine travelling without your ipod, you can now justify your dependence as being a clever strategy to lighten your load. Vagabondish provides a great guide to all the fantastic travel podcasts available here.

Why not lighten the weight of your backpack or suitcase by exchanging a few of those travel and guide books with some of these travelcasts?

Do you have a favourite travel podcast? Please share it in the comments.

The World’s Best Beaches

I love a beach holiday - there’s no need to pack a great deal, you’re guaranteed to leave relaxed and there’s nothing better to daydream about in the weeks leading up to the holiday than laying on a sandy beach, cocktail in hand.

My favourite beach holidays to date have been spent at Haad Tien Beach, Ko Phan Ngan, Thailand & Paradise Beach, Mykonos, Greece.

But as it is currently winter in my homeland of Australia and I don’t have any beach holidays in my plans at the moment, Concierge is providing me with my fix through the 2008 Guide to the World’s Sexiest Beaches.

Read, dream and then start planning your next beach holiday!

Wedding bells…

When checking out the different search engine terms that bring people to Champagne Travel on a Beer Budget, I have noticed a few people searching for budget honeymoons. If that is what brings you here, you may appreciate another great blog along the champagne life on a beer budget philosophy - Champagne Wedding on a Beer Budget.

Our blogs crossed paths due to the similar names and I’m glad to recommend it, especially if you’re in the process of planning a wedding that has plenty of style without costing you plenty of cash!

Perhaps a future post on honeymoons is in order? My honeymoon was an absolute blast and was spent in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo & Byron Bay, Australia. If you have any tips or hints for anyone planning a honeymoon, please send them in!

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What would happen if you were to question the status quo of working hard for 40+ years and then taking a long break at the end of it all?

What if you were to take mini-retirements throughout your life rather than placing all your eggs in the ‘one big holiday when I retire’ basket?

Would these mini-retirements add value to your life as well as give you increased inspiration and energy for your career, business or life in general?

There have been a few articles floating around on this topic, mainly inspired by or in response to the concepts found in Tim Ferriss’ book ‘The Four Hour Work Week’.

Check out Tim’s ideas and the related articles below:

Mini-retirement related posts from The Four Hour Work Week Blog

Freeing Yourself from the Daily Grind on Yahoo Travel

Using Mini-Retirements to Get More out of Life from Get Rich Slowly

A large part of the Champagne Travel on a Beer Budget philosophy is the concept that travelling with style whilst on a budget means thinking differently than the average tourist, getting away from packaged tours, living like the locals and not missing the opportunities that often lie right under your nose.

These concepts line up with much of what Tim talks about in ‘Four Hour Work Week’, with Tim even explaining how taking mini-retirements actually saves him money.

I had the pleasure of meeting Tim at the Sydney launch of ‘The Four Hour Work Week’ last month and the guy definitely lives what he talks about.

So, the question remains…. are mini-retirements for you? Why not leave your thoughts in the comments?

I was checking through the stats for Champagne Travel on a Beer Budget and noticed that there were a couple of blogs in particular that send quite a few readers this way, whether by mentioning CTOABB in a post or having a link to CTOABB on their site.

One of the fabulous things about blogging is the community & relationships that develop and so I wanted to say cheers and thanks for the love to the following blogs:

Another Passport Stamp - real-life tales of an American flight attendant living in London.
Blog Her - Travel - the community for women who blog.

Couchsurfing - a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. Check out my post on Couchsurfing here.

Earth to Danie - blogging about life in India, our travels & other stuff.

Farefetched - the best way to search, compare & track Aussie airfares.

Things You Should Do - travel adventures, activities, events, romance, hotels, restaurants, wineries, breweries, sports, outdoor recreation & more.

Travel Minx - travel tips & resources for fellow wanderlusters (I’m not sure if this site is still being updated - but it is still sending readers my way!)

I should also mention a couple of fabulous blogs that purely by being so popular have passively sent me quite a few new readers just from the comments I have left on their sites:

Budget Globetrotting - finding and sharing budget travel ideas for shoestring trips around the world.

Four Hour Work Week - experiments in lifestyle design.

Problogger - helping bloggers to add income streams to their blogs.

Thank you!

Tara @ Champagne Travel on a Beer Budget

One of my favourite weekly (if not daily!) reads is Icing by Gala Darling. She writes beautifully and has a unique voice that entices me back to her site again and again.

This week, Gala has put together a wonderfully comprehensive post on ‘How to Have the Best Holiday Ever’

It is a fabulous read for all champagne travellers and there are lots of points I couldn’t agree with more, such as:

• Allow yourself to be swept away
• Learn some local phrases

I would also add:

• Decide to have the time of your life.

This would tie in with the idea of allowing yourself to be swept away.

So many unexpected things can happen when you’re travelling but how we respond to these situations has little to do with the circumstances themselves and more to do with our perspective towards them.

Bus broken down on the way to your next destination? Stuck on the side of the road for 6 hours with a bunch of strangers? This could be a fantastic opportunity to make some amazing friends, hear tales from around the world and have a hilarious story to tell everyone back home. This same situation could also have you complaining and grumbling for the next 6 hours on how this would never happen where you come from or something as equally painful for everyone around you.

And the wonderful thing about perspective? We are each completely in control of it and we have the daily choice of what our perspective will be. Some of the most interesting and inspiring people that I have met whilst travelling (and in life in general) are people that have an amazingly positive perspective. They are a dream to travel & ‘do life’ with.

Decide in advance to have a fabulous holiday and chances are you will!

What tips would you add? Would love to hear from you in the comments…