A Life of Travel: My favorite tricks to save money on travel...and more!

Current location: New York City, USA

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Hello,

It's Tuesday and it's time for a newsletter!

As promised last week, I've put together a blog post where I discuss my favorite ways to save money on travel. It includes tips and tricks I've learned for saving money on accommodation, flights and rental cars and using credit card points.

These are the tricks I used for my current 2 weeks of travel that has included North Carolina, Washington DC, New York City and a flight back to Florida, all for around $225 USD.

It's also the tricks I used to find cheap airfare to Istanbul for my trip there in a couple of weeks and a great hotel in that city for a very low rate.

Here's the blog post: My Favorite Ways to Save Money on Travel

Apart from that, I just arrived in New York City today. I'll spend the next week hanging out with my family that lives here and with some friends as well. Then it's back to Florida for a week before taking that flight to Turkey!

It's time to use your travel knowledge and research skills!

Previous photo

Congratulations to Jeanne, Lorena, Gabrijela, Aida, Steve, Rafael, Daniel, Talek and Ron for guessing the correct location! This photo is of the Temple of Bacchus and Temple of Jupiter in BAALBEK, LEBANON, an impressive site of Roman ruins.

I went to Lebanon back in 2010 and Baalbek was my first destination. I crossed into the country from Damascus, Syria and went straight to spend a couple of nights here in order to see these ruins.

The site was magnificent, especially because there were only 2 or 3 other tourists there at the same time and I could roam around on my own and really soak up the atmosphere.

I always say that this trip to the Middle East was one of the most memorable of all my years on the road.

And it was awesome to hear from so many of you who have been there as well!

This week's photo

Where in the world is it?

The Rules

1. Try to figure out where the above photo was taken.

2. Reply to this email with your guess.

3. The more specific the guess, the better!

4. The location will be revealed in next week's newsletter.

Good luck :)

Travel-related (usually) tidbits that appeared in my inboxes

Talking Travel
Over the past few weeks, I've was interviewed a few times for various websites and podcasts. Two of them were published this week - my interview on the My First Season podcast and an article on the Every Country in the World website.

New York Like You Can't Imagine
As I'm in NYC right now, a friend sent me this gallery of photos that show New York City in the late 1800s and early 1900s, before it was really developed. It looks no different than a small country village or town in most parts!

The Highest Village
Komic, India is the highest village in the world that is accessible by road, sitting at 5500 meters above sea level (18,000 feet). Located in a remote corner of the state of Himachal Pradesh (one of my favorite areas of the country!), it's a surreal experience to spend a couple of nights on top of the world.

Incredible Biodiversity in East Timor
Here's how the people of East Timor are using their ancient traditions and laws to protect the most biodiverse reef system in the world. Their hope is to use their resources to eventually attract community-based tourism, without turning the nation into 'another Bali' as one politician put it.

La Reunion
A tiny island in the Indian Ocean, La Reunion looks like an extraordinary destination, especially the isolated and lush Mafate region. We wanted to go when we were on nearby Mauritius but unfortunately couldn't make it happen.

Wild Iran
Take one look at these wild and beautiful locations in Iran and try not to say 'WOW' every few seconds!

Magical Stairways
Fodor's put together a collection of some cool stairways around the world. I had never heard of the one in Romania before but I'm going to try and visit when I'm there in August.

Argentina's Mysterious Pyramid
For a long time, it was believed to be manmade, but the Cono de Arita pyramid is actually, and amazingly, a natural formation rising straight out of the salt flats.

Saving the Tropical Forests
As part of the Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative, aimed at reducing deforestation in several countries, Indonesia will receive its first reward payment for its efforts to save its forests. The money will help expand strategies to protect these tropical forests that cover almost half the total land on Indonesia's 17,000 islands.

Thanks for reading!

Regards,
Derek

(my middle name is Earl)

WanderingEarl.com

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