Historic Weather Patterns/Living Cost Estimates/Onward Tickets
Historic Weather Patterns
What's the weather in [city] like in [month]? This is a key question to ask before you start booking plane tickets. The best source I've found is Weatherbase, which has historical information for nearly 42,000 cities. For a Thai island where I was planning a two-week beach stay in November, it turns out that's the rainiest month of the entire year. Doh!
Onward Ticket Please...
Many nations' immigration counters want to see your onward ticket, but buying one doesn't make much sense if you're staying for months or don't know when you're leaving that country. There are services like OnwardTicket.com that will basically rent you an online ticket that goes to your e-mail and can be printed, then you've got your onward ticket to show when questioned. Costs range from $10 to $20, with a ticket validity of 24 hours to 14 days before it expires. Consider it entry insurance.
Cost of Living Estimates
Last issue I mentioned NomadList for various data points, but for reliable numbers on the costs of goods and services abroad, the best resource is Numbeo. The crowdsourced info can lag inflation or currency changes, but I've found it to be in the ballpark for every city I've stayed in for more than a few weeks. One of the fun features is to compare any two cities. Doing that, you find that "Rent prices in Lisbon are 68.14% lower than in San Francisco" and "Consumer prices including rent in Medellin are 73.00% lower than in London."
Traveling Like Anthony Bourdain
Roadrunner, a documentary about the late Anthony Bourdain, is out on HBO Max now and it's worth watching if you were a fan of his shows. Mark F. pointed me to this nine-year-old article in Esquire about how to travel like Bourdain, with this flight bag packing quote: "The necessity for Imodium will probably present itself, and you don't want to be caught without it."
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