My Travel Blog (A Blog Example)
- Casey Traverse
- Sep 1, 2018
- 6 min read
How I Used Airbnb to Spice Up My Stay
Hotels are outdated... and that’s really the only reason I can imagine buying a hotel room,- to feel old-fashioned and classic. To order room service and take bubble baths and wear the big fluffy robes. But if you had an alternative choice that allowed you to further immerse yourself in the culture of the location you’re staying at, wouldn’t you take it? Remember uber replaced taxi cabs? Airbnb allows you to rent out actual homes of real natives to use as your living quarters during your stay in any given location. It’s easy to do. Just like uber, the transaction is all processed via an app. The app looks like this:
It allows you to browse homes in the location you are travelling and rent out their place for your stay.. For this reason, your stay is already so much more authentic because you are living the way a native would live.
I used Airbnb and stayed in a little apartment on a quaint little street in Madrid called, and I’ll never forget the name,- “La Calle De Caravaca”. Instead of staying in a pristine unimaginative, bumpy-ceilinged room with monotonous white sheets and lifeless paintings, I was able to walk down cobblestone streets so thin they were almost suffocating. Clotheslines reached from one wrought-iron balcony to its neighboring terrace. The buildings were a mustard yellow, until they ran into a clay pink, and eventually back to yellow. It was even more amazing when we arrived inside.
The apartment was modest in size,- but what it lacked in space, it made up for in personality. The first thing I noticed when I walked in were the plants. There were plants hanging from the ceiling and plants that littered the shelves and plants that were propped up on the stairs. It smelled crisp and fresh like spring in the of blistering heat of July. Although there was a couch stationed in front of a large projector that could be used for movies, I spent most of my time on the hammock which hung on the far side of the room. Their were two lofts that led up to two bedrooms. Both had stairs cut from logs and an actual white bedroom door that acted as a trap door which laid flat to be opened from underneath, into the rooms upstairs. There were chalkboards on the walls with signatures from others who had stayed before us. It was an exceptional presentation, and I felt as if I was in Madrid even when I went back to the room, which is an experience that you can’t get when staying in a white and neutral room.
My advice to you? Ditch Tripadvisor, kayak, or expedia to book outrageously expensive hotels for a characterless stay. Airbnb was the best decision I could have made, because it made me feel immersed into the culture and way of life of Madrid. Using Airbnb, I felt less like a tourist, and more like a local.
“Little Town, in a Quiet Village”: Bayeur, France
My family and I arrived by train in Bayeur, France at around 4:00 pm. There were windmills and straw-roofed houses compacted incredibly close together and criss-cross wooden beams that supported the structures. It was so quaint and picturesque that it felt like they must have filmed Disney’s opening “Bonjour” scene for Beauty and the Beast in this very place. Except, it was quiet…. too quiet; I remember I was almost scared. I felt as if the entire town had a curfew, and everyone was winding down getting ready for bed. The sky was grey, and the air was wet and sticky., like a beach town.
Coming straight from London, it was immediately obvious that Bayeur did not have a rich nightlife culture. So, what was there to do on a Friday night? My family and I walked around the town, explored the windy streets and every nook and cranny that each alleyway led to. We saw creeks that ran under water mills and old churches that reeked of their own history. We went to a little street mart and bought bottles of wine, and loaves of bread and returned to the apartment we had rented, which had a widow’s peak. The view was unconventional, in that instead of overlooking the city, you just saw roofing,- tops of little houses that stretched on and on; so close together I could probably leap from roof to roof confidently. We drank wine and ate bread and watched the sun set. And everything was quiet. So quiet, that the silence was loud.
From the little time that I was in Bayeur, it was evident that it is a daytime-activity sort of place. When the streetlights go out, the town shuts down. Plan your tourist-ing for the sunlight, and be prepared to bring board games or watch movies or play cards after the sun sets.
How to Do Turks and Caicos in One Day
I visited Turks and Caicos during spring break of my Junior year of college. I was with seven of my girlfriends, and we were there for only a couple of days. We wanted to make sure that we got plenty of necessary relaxation time, but we also wanted to be able to do all the fun things that come along with island life. Scuba diving, boating, etc. Thankfully, one of the girls owns a condo on the island and has visited many times, so she knew where to go to get all of these activities done in one day, in order to be able to save the other days for soaking up the blistering sun sprawled out on towels on the beach, determined to come back four shades darker than when we arrived.
The smartest way to go about this is to wake up early in the morning,- 8:00 am, even. Make breakfast, and if you’re lucky enough to be on the beach, bring it outside. There’s nothing like experiencing the the white sand still cool before the sun scorches it, the sky a pale pink that creates a glow which bounces off the pale blue water.
Book a “half day” island boat tour; we booked a half day snorkeling boat tour with Grace Bay resort in Providenciales. It’s 100$ total, but work it: (Unlimited food and drinks for those above the age limit). The boat tours can be booked at any of the resorts, and even if you’re not a guest at the resort, you can still book a trip with them. There are two shifts: a 9:00-1:00 and a 2:00-6:00. We booked the 9-1, because we wanted to be able to go back and swim in the pool in the afternoon.
The first stop the boat makes is right where surf drops off, and the depths of the ocean floor randomly plummet deep. It’s marked by the iridescent turquoise blue water which stops abruptly and turns into a deep threatening blue, waves form at the border, to separate the two depths. We were at the edge of the bermuda triangle, according to the captain’s cordinance, and were were able to scuba dive at the coral reef in the shallow blue waters just before the drop off.
Then the boat drove to “Conch Island” where the sailors dived for conch shells and taught us how to make salads out of the live conch that they caught. We could keep the shells as souvenirs. The conch had the same look as lobster or crab but was chewy like chicken.
Finally the boat drove us to Iguana island. An island, you guessed it, teeming with iguanas.
Make sure to reapply sunscreen every hour. This may sound extreme, but I applied sunscreen what I thought was an appropriate amount and I blistered under the sun. There’s nowhere to escape the rays for five hours at a time so come prepared with a beach coverup, hat, and sunglasses.
Following the boat’s return to the mainland, my friends and I went back to our hotel where we booked 20 minute beachfront massages; that’s right,- we treated ourselves. And finally, tired from 90 degree heat and an early morning, we passed out on the beach under the shade of an umbrella, just as we anticipated.
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