Lake (Lago) Atitlan – quick travel guide

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A beautiful lake with many cute towns along the water, each with their different personalities.

Enjoy a relaxing waterfront with plenty of nature (hikes/tours), partying, bars, and restaurants to keep you occupied. This is a top-3 popular destination in Guatemala that’s easy enough to see within 3-4 days but keep you occupied if you want to be here for a month. Oh and it’s cheap!

Many people (usually Europeans) say it’s their most favorite place on earth, with all the wild nature and proximity to the water. I personally preferred the cuter city comforts of Antigua. To each their own.

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Guatemala – quick travel guide

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A country of raw wild jungle and mountains, feels like a less-developed Mexico (sharing language and food similarities, as well as overlapping Mayan cultural history).

Guatemala is an uncommon travel destination for casual tourists, but common destination for off-the-beaten-path hardcore travelers. Hardly no Americans here since they’re scared by its danger reputation, but super popular destination for British (especially in the 18-22 age range). It’s cheap and nice partying.

Guatemala is a small easy country to visit. You can see everything in a month, and some people even fall in love (with its chill wildness) and stay 2-3 months. You can go here because you love it or because you need to do a visa run to renew your Mexico visa. I also notice many people who like Guatemala also like Nicaragua (beautiful wild landscapes and super nice local people).

I’d say British find Guatemala’s wild undevelopedness more enchanting whereas Americans and others may prefer countries with more infrastructure and common 1st world luxuries like hot water, electricity, working internet.

Get the scoop on where to go and how to get around. Find out why going off the beaten path to Guatemala is worth it.

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Antigua – quick travel guide

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Cute colonial town in Guatemala, perfect for relaxing with food and nightlife, or more adventurous activities like volcano/nature hikes.

Antigua is definitely a common destination in Guatemala. Only 1-hour from the nearby Guatemala City (GUA) airport, handful of fun unique activities (like the Acatenango volcano hike), and other nearby-ish cities like Lago de Atitlan (3hrs) and Semuc Champey (9hrs).

While most people come here mainly for the volcano hike, I kept discovering more and more hidden gems in this place (with each passing day). Lots of great restaurants and shops, interesting architecture, and spots to sit around town and people watch. Also it’s super safe. Antigua is awesome and more than just a convenient volcano viewpoint. You can definitely live here!

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Brazil – quick travel guide

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Big exotic paradise of nature, friendly people, food and vibes.

Brazil…a huge and beautiful country in South America that is more relatively untouched by US influences than others. I love how exotic it is…the wide range of landscapes, food, culture, music, and people. Love that they mostly only speak Portuguese, no English or even lesser so Spanish. Very authentic local experience.

The minimum time to get a sense of Brazil about 10 days, and you can hit 3 places. Probably some combination of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and some small vibey beach town or colonial town in between Rio & Salvador. If you just wanted a taste and are already nearby…3 days in Rio de Janeiro might just do the trick. But you could easily spend a month in Brazil and feel you barely scratched the surface.

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Rio de Janeiro – quick travel guide

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Big beautiful beach city with rock landscapes, and also a bit dangerous…

For others, Rio de Janeiro is a magical place…full of beauty, wonder, and festivities. And it certainly seems that way when you look at the beautiful beaches with rocky islands and towering mountain silhouettes in the distance. There’s no other major beach city I’ve seen like this, with towering rock formations in the distance. As with everything Brasilian, it’s always sexy!

But for me, Rio was bittersweet. It is a beautiful place and fun…but it is not safe. I hated having to look over my shoulder constantly. Having to not bring my phone to certain areas because I didn’t want to risk getting robbed. Also it not being a good place to wander around solo (which I often like to do). It was easily the most dangerous feeling of the 20 countries I visited during that year. So let’s cover all the highlights in the safest way possible.

3 days is enough for main tourist highlights. 5 days if you want to enjoy more beach days and night life, also hikes.

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Local SIM cards – buying & recharging

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Everything you need to know about dealing with local SIM cards.

Purchasing a local SIM card is absolutely key as it’s way cheaper, more reliable, and also doesn’t spam your home number. But I’ll cover the usual methods of purchasing and recharging…as it’s not always as common sense as you think.

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Mexico City (CDMX) – quick travel guide

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My favorite city in Mexico. Big city charms mixed with warm pleasant Mexican vibes.

Big, beautiful, eclectic, amazing restaurants, partying, multiple neighborhoods to live and explore. What made me stay in CDMX over 3-4 months was this super comfortable vibe. You’re not on vacation…you’re home!

There’s tons of things to do, people to see, lovely spots to chill at when you’re not living the epic party life like you would in other cities in Mexico. Let’s go over all the gems I found.

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DuoLingo vs Babel – which language app is better

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Can’t choose which one is a better language-learning option for you?

The question is interesting to me because when I researched, it seemed everyone liked Babel more. But when I actually tried the apps, I loved DuoLingo soooooo much better. I’ve used DuoLingo consistently for over a year now whereas Babel was annoying and I quit within the first 5 minutes.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to one main distinction.

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Portland – quick travel guide

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Portland was and still is one America’s most (authentically) hipster, hip, trendy, coolest towns to live in.

It has the authentic Portland quirky weird vibe, beautiful pacific northwest landscapes and trees (which actually looks like real nature vs California’s desert landscape and beaches), beautiful craftsman homes in giant forest ambiance, and a vibe that feels very authentically white-American rather than the typical hispanic immigrant culture you’ll find in America’s other big cities.

For many years since 2010, it was one of the fastest growing cities and taking in the millennial exodus from burned-out overpriced cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. The original Portlanders were all “F**K YOU, CALIFORNIANS! GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM AND DON’T CALIFORNICATE OUR BELOVED PORTLAND!”

And rightly so…because all the outsiders were bringing in their money, buying up property, raising property values and rent beyond what local Portlanders could pay, clogging up streets with traffic, and just ruining the organic hippie ambiance.

Let’s find out why I (and everyone) think Portland is so cool.

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Oaxaca City – quick travel guide

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Colorful charmy vibrant cultural city in inland Mexico. (One of my top 3 favorite cities in Mexico.)

Amazing culture, food, visually beautiful, haven for artists (and street murals), and off-the-path hipsters…great for a fast tourist visit or to live for a long time. I absolutely loved this place. Can’t say enough. Come here and see a very authentic lively Mexico that isn’t burned out by tourists and cliche marketing.

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Los Angeles – quick travel guide

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Get real LA travel tips from a true (and proud) Los Angeles native.

I’m from here, I lived here for most of my life and in many different neighborhoods. Will happily give you the most biased (and unbiased) breakdown as best as I can. The kind of info you can only get from a true LA native.

This info is absolutely necessary because I consider Los Angeles to be the absolute most difficult tourist city in the world. You may think it’s fun, you might even come here and find fun things. But most of you won’t, as most people complain it’s not pretty, not fun, and too much driving, or impossible to get in there. It’s all true.

But indeed, many people do live here happily and for a reason…because they KNOW how to visit and get around LA. So let me teach you how to explore it properly (and not like a fucken tourist).

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Cancun – quick travel guide

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Why go here? There’s like 30 other better cities to visit in Mexico. If you’re here, I assume you’re first-time Mexico tourist who doesn’t know any better. But ok…let’s make the most of your cliche time in Cancun. *pinches nose*

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Madrid – quick travel guide

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Madrid is Spain’s main big inland city…full of fun neighborhoods, night life, and walkable streets.

What Madrid lacks in Barcelona’s beaches and unique architecture, it makes up for with its chiller less-touristy vibe and bigger party scene. Madrid is comfortable to live, party, work, or base-jump from. Great neighborhoods to choose from, big parks and squares everywhere…easy to walk and metro around. It’s unfortunate that many people won’t ever discover this as backpackers are usually told to skip Madrid and not venture past Barcelona.

There’s a saying that some people are Barcelona people, and others are Madrid people. I felt myself to be a Madrid person easily the first time I visited both. Madrid can be a 3-5 day stay to feel like you saw everything.

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Buenos Aires – quick travel guide

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Vibrant LATAM big city with a mix of Latin, European, and [some] Asian & African cultural influences.

Buenos Aires is incredible. Popular favorite city by those who like a high-energy fast-pace city…like New York or Paris, BA is LATAM’s equivalent. One of the biggest mega-cities in the world. Used to be much cheaper due to the crazy inflation, and still cheap-ish (for outsiders). But I agree with what many people say now, which is “MANNNNN, BUENOS AIRES IS EXPENSIVE!”, especially when compared to what it was just some years ago (before Milei was elected).

Every vibe is here…posh, hipster, etc. So many things to do, so many neighborhoods to hangout in. In Latin America, it always feels like I have a ton of friends in town when I pop in Mexico City or Buenos Aires.

You could probably experience most things within 5 days and move on to something else. It’s always worth making more time as it probably took you a long travel time to reach BA from wherever else you were. From BA, you can easily cross the water into Uruguay for a few days as well.

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Istanbul – quick travel guide

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Super fun and exotic city with a wide mix of many cultures (European, Asian, Arabic, probably other stuff too).

Istanbul and Turkish people/culture are such a trip. For me being an American with lots of experience in Western Europe and South America, Turkey was really exotic, energetic, fiery fiesty. The Istanbul vibe is something right in between a big cold metropolitan city like New York or Paris but with the feistiness of South Americans. Again, they are not outwardly warm and friendly but are feisty.

Maybe you expected a hyper-Muslim culture here and there is but it’s only part of Turkey like this where people are super religious and women all covered up in traditional headwear. Most Turkish (especially the new generation) curse, drink, party in clubs, and engage in all kinds of obnoxious “Western debauchery” like you would find anywhere else. Long story short, Istanbul is as much a party place as any other. Don’t be afraid that you’re stuck in some overly religious prison ground.

There’s enough craziness here to last you a solid month of fun but you could see the main points in 3 days. I definitely recommend 4-7 days so you can relax and not feel like you’re always stuck in an anxious taxi. The pace of life here seems fast and crazy so try to find time to slow down. If you have more time, there’s a handful other worthwhile cities in Turkey to visit as well.

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Isla Mujeres – quick travel guide

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Beautiful island off the east side of Mexico with beautiful beaches, views, and private piers. Way more fun and instagram-able than boring Cozumel, more developed infrastructure than Holbox. If you’re in the Quintana Roo area, Isla Mujeres is a can’t-miss destination. It has the perfect mix of hippy-Tulum zen vibes and party town Playa (Del Carmen) vibes. There’s something for everyone. And lucky for you, it’s easy to explore since it’s small and everything’s quickly accessible.

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Cartel extortion racket for businesses in Mexico

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Want to run a business in Mexico? Make sure you keep this in mind!

It doesn’t matter how safe the neighborhood is. Your business can be approached at any time by a cartel member and they demand payment or else they’ll threaten yours or your customer’s lives. They are absolutely serious and also quite clever.

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