Welcome to the GloboTreks Resources Page. I created this page to highlight some of the best resources I use on my travels and travel blogging business.  I vouch for every single one of them since I get the most value for my money or they make my travels cheaper and better.  Hopefully, you’ll get the same results from them.

TABLE OF CONTENT

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TRAVEL PLANNING GUIDES

The Ultimate Guide to Become Location Independent: I wrote this guide as the resource I wanted to have back when I took the challenge to become location independent to travel the world long term.  In its 200+ pages, I share all the tips that have allowed me to live and work from anywhere in the world.

How to Travel the World on $50 a Day: Travel Cheaper, Longer, Smarter: Written by Nomadic Matt, one of the biggest names in travel blogging, this book is full of tips and resources that will help you travel the world on a budget.

Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is the world’s leading travel media company.  Think of any country and they will have a guide about it.

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TRAVEL INSURANCE

World Nomads: They have one of the best, friendliest, and most flexible travel insurance for any type of traveler. World Nomads travel insurance is available to people from over 150 countries and covers for overseas medical, evacuation, baggage, and adventurous activities.

SquareMouth: Excellent site for budget insurance policy comparison. I wrote an extensive post pointing all the details on how to select the best travel insurance for your trip.

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TRAVEL HACKING GUIDES

Frequent Flyer Master: Through this ebook I have boosted my frequent flyer miles without actually flying.  Great for travel hacking.  I have used most of the tips included in this eBook, and its 20-minutes audio, to book a couple free flights from the US to Europe, Central America, and the Caribbean.

This eBook will help you get free flights using airline miles and credit card miles. It teaches you how to earn miles and how to redeem them for high-value awards, how to fast track to airline elite status, what to do when the airline says ‘no’, and much more. This eBook is the real deal; it guarantees that you will earn at least 25,000 miles in the first 90 days or get your money back.

Nomadic Matt’s Ultimate Guide To Travel Hacking: This is a good alternative to the guide above.  While it is similar, it includes some additional tricks the other doesn’t have.  It is a pretty complete guide and I recommend it equally to the other.

Travel Hacking For Canadians: This travel hacking guide is focused to maximize the benefits for Canadians.

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FINDING CHEAP FLIGHTS

The trick of finding cheap airfares is to not buy after the first search. Once you see an airfare in one site, jump to another site and compare until you find the cheapest option. The following are all sites I use.

Skyscanner: Skyscanner has become my favorite go-to search engine since they often show the cheapest airfares, especially if your flight involves budget airlines that Kayak might miss.

Kayak: Great starting point for searching cheap airfares, especially if you are based in or departing from the US.

Momondo: This one is great for international flights. Like Skyscanner, it is also often the cheapest site.

Vayama: Great for international flights outside the US. Sometimes it is way cheaper than other sites, but sometimes it is also more expensive.

Airfarewatchdog: This site monitors airline ticket prices to alert you when deals occur; many of them unadvertised in other search engines. Signing up for their newsletter is recommended.

ITA Matrix Search: I love this site! While you can’t book your flights here, you can check the real price of flights according to what is presented by the airline, not the search engine. This is my measuring tool to know if I’m getting a good deal somewhere else or if prices are just ok.

STA Travel: A good company for those under 26 or are students. They offer discounted airfare as well as travel passes that save on attractions. I don’t use them that much anymore since I’m way over 26 but if you aren’t, make sure to check them out.

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FINDING ACCOMMODATION

Airbnb: I love Airbnb!!  It is great to rent apartments/homes or rooms from short and long term. They have a large inventory and is often the cheapest compared to similar sites.  If you book your first accommodation through this link, you’ll get $40 off!

Agoda: It has a good inventory and often with lower rates than other sites.

Booking.com: In my opinion, they have a better inventory than Agoda and sometimes they are even cheaper.

Hotwire: They have their “secret hot rate hotels” list, which gives you hotels for a much lower rate without telling you specifically which hotel is until you get it. It’s not scary since hotels tend to be good. They also have regular hotel rates.

Priceline: Different from Hotwire, Priceline allows you to bid the price for a hotel stay, allowing you to save money.

Hostelworld: This hostel site has the largest inventory and availability. I use it quite often.

HostelBookers: Quite similar to Hostelworld, but sometimes you find cheaper hostels here.

Couchsurfing: Couchsurfing helps you connect with people abroad to sleep on their couch or extra bed for free. But the site is not just for that, its also to meet people and explore with a local. I wrote a review on how to couchsurf.

Expedia: I don’t think it is the best search engine these days, but every now and then they can surprise you with a really good hotel or airfare deal, so worth checking.

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BEST TRAVEL DEBIT AND CREDIT CARDS

For US-based travelers, I recommend opening a Schwab Bank Checking Account linked to a Schwab One brokerage account which allow you to withdraw money from any bank without any outside network fee, and they refund you the fee charged by the foreign bank. This is the debit card I use everywhere.  For US and international based travelers, I recommend checking the Global ATM Alliance to see if your bank doesn’t charge to withdraw from any of the banks in the list (or to open an account with any of them if your bank is not on the list).

Travel credit cards offer huge sign-up bonuses that help you travel for free (for example, 50,000 miles sign-up bonus). They are worth getting if you want to become a travel hacker and save money on travel. Among my favorites are the Chase Sapphire Card and the Barclaycard Miles & More.  They give great “mile benefits” on travel purchases and sign-up bonuses among other perks. You can see here more rewards credit cards (including the Chase Sapphire) to see all their features and pick the best one for you.

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TRAVEL GEAR

I carry a Gregory Imlay 22 as a daypack and a Gregory Z40 as a backpack (pictured here). I recommend both of my backpacks. They are light, sturdy yet flexible, and comfortable to fit on a small back (like mine).  You can also see my entire packing list here.

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OVERLAND TRAVEL

Intrepid Travel: Intrepid offers really good small group tours all around the world that use local operators and leave a small environmental footprint. I’ve had a great experience with them.

G Adventures: This is one of the first companies I look when I’m interested in adventure tours. I have personally traveled with them several times and I never get tired of saying how great their tours are and how detailed their service is.  They are very similar to Intrepid Travel.

Rail Europe: If you are going to visit Europe and plan on taking a lot of trains, get a rail pass. You will save money a lot of money. I’ve used a rail pass three times and saved hundreds of dollars each time. The math just works. I use the company Rail Europe and suggest you do too. They even ship passes for free.

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TOOLS TO START AND RUN A BLOG OR WEBSITE

I wrote an extensive blog post showing step by step how to start a successful blog like a pro.  In it, you’ll learn the tips and tricks I’ve learned these past few years of travel blogging.  Click here to read it.

ESSENTIAL TOOLS

Bluehost: Excellent hosting company with easy to use 1-click automatic WordPress installation and excellent customer service.

WordPress: The #1 Blog Publishing Platform. It is free and easily customizable with an immense library of themes. All of my blogs use WordPress.

StudioPress Genesis: This blog runs with the Genesis Theme from StudioPress.  I’m really loving it due to the flexibility, ease, and speed of the theme.

Dynamik Website Builder: Genesis is the theme of this blog, but Dynamik Website Builder (a child theme) makes Genesis 100 times better with the broader flexibility on design.  If you’re a picky designer like me, this is highly recommended.

Flickr Creative Commons: Here you can get free images for your website, as long as you credit the author and follow some rules.

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SITE PROTECTION

Sucuri:  This website and other niche sites are my business and livelihood, so I need to take care of them.  Sucuri monitors for anyone trying to hack, crash, or tamper my sites.  It has happened and they have taken care of it right away and cleaned everything for me.  It’s a good peace of mind and worth it.

BackupBuddy: As the name says, this plugin backup your site so in case of any crash, hack, or other unforeseen issues with the blog, you have a backup to restore everything or to migrate the site.  This is another essential tool for me.

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DOCUMENT BACKUP

Crashplan: If you are traveling with your laptop or mobile device, consider backing up your photos and files online. It’s good to have an external hard drive backup, but if something happens on the road and your backpack gets stolen, at least your pictures and files will be safe online.

Dropbox: Opposite to backing up everything, like with Crashplan, I use Dropbox to have easy access to important documents like digital copies of passports, IDs, and driver’s license, among others; which I can access through the Dropbox app on my phone, through their site on any computer, and through my own desktop.

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TRAVEL WRITING AND BLOGGING COURSES

Superstar Blogging: Superstar Blogging (formerly known as Travel Blog Success) is a 10 weeks course that focuses on the technical aspects of creating a blog and how to develop it successfully.  It covers everything from picking up a domain name to advanced money making methods.  I took this course and it definitely helped me improve this blog.

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TRAVEL INSPIRATION AND ENTREPRENEURIAL BOOKS

Chris Guillebeau’s Unconventional Guides: Chris’ Unconventional Guides are a resource for “World Domination” and they deliver a powerful message through their high-quality content. Their goal is to help people do more of what they are most excited and passionate about.  Each guide includes downloadable eBooks, audios, and videos; making the content easy to understand and entertaining.

The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss, Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich: This is a very popular book about becoming an entrepreneur.  It is one of those books you read and immediately you want to take action on it.

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse: This is another action inducing book but more specific to blogging; written by Darren Rowse, one of the biggest names in the blogging industry.

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future: Another one of Chris Guillebeau’s awesome books.  It is like The 4-Hour Work Week, but more actionable and in my opinion, sweeter!

Start a Freedom Business: This book is short and sweet.  It’s enough to get you started on the basics of creating a business.  And hey, it’s only $0.99!

The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World:  Yup, another book from Chris.  This is his first book and probably my favorite so far.  I’ve read it twice since I find it quite inspiring.

Disclosure:  Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase.  Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies and products, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something.  Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.