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Solo Travel Europe: 15 Disasters From My First Year of Solo Travel
I found this post buried on one of my old travel blogs, originally written in January 2016 after my first year of solo travel, and there was absolutely no way I was leaving it there. 2015 was the year I discovered how much I loved traveling, but it was also the year travel decided to repeatedly kick me in the ass. I was still figuring everything out as I went, and every missed bus, broken bank card, terrible hostel and transport disaster felt like a full-blown crisis. Looking back now, some of these situations are hilarious. At the time, absolutely not. So here are 15 of the worst moments from…
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Backpacking Costa Rica: The Country I Knew Almost Immediately Wasn’t for Me
Costa Rica was the second country of my three-week Central America trip and officially country 52 out of 197. We had just left Bocas del Toro in Panama and were making our way north with basically no fixed plan other than eventually reaching Mexico. Costa Rica was supposed to be another stop along the way, and Puerto Viejo sounded like the obvious place to start because everyone kept talking about how cool it was. Unfortunately, Costa Rica and I did not exactly fall in love. I barely spent any time there, so I know it might sound unfair to say it became one of my least favorite countries in Central…
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Panama City Travel Guide: Everything You Need to Plan Your Trip
Panama City was the first stop of my three-week trip through Central America, and if I am being very accurate, we did not exactly arrive with a master plan. We landed at night with no accommodation booked, took public transportation from the airport, eventually found our way to Casa Areka, spent one full day exploring the city, and that same evening got on a night bus toward Bocas del Toro. So my first Panama City experience was fast, cheap and slightly chaotic. I have separate posts covering things like where to stay, safety, how many days you need and exactly what I would do with one day. This Panama City…
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Panama City on a Budget: How I Did It on €20 a Day
Panama City was the first stop of my three-week Central America backpacking trip, and for most of that trip our budget was around €20 a day. Some days we spent a little more, some days less, but that was basically the number we were trying to stick to while moving through the region. Panama City can get expensive really fast if you start staying in nicer hotels, eating every meal in tourist areas and booking tours every day. We did the complete opposite. We stayed in a cheap hostel, had breakfast included, cooked simple dinners, ate one proper meal out, used public transport and walked way more than I would…
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Backpacking Panama: My Chaotic First Stop in Central America
If a friend suddenly texted you and asked, “Do you want to go to Central America and backpack all eight countries by land in three weeks?” would you say yes? Because I did, and that is basically how I ended up in Central America counting eight new countries in one trip. Panama was our first stop. We found a last-minute affordable direct flight from Madrid to Panama City, booked it, and suddenly this completely chaotic idea had become real. The goal was simple: visit all eight countries in Central America, travel mostly by land, keep everything as cheap as possible, and somehow make it to Mexico within three weeks because…
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Traveling Latvia: Turning 23 in Riga and the Birthday I Thought I’d Spend Alone
Technically, this was not my first birthday outside Portugal. I had already spent my 18th birthday in Andorra, but considering how badly that one went, I had apparently erased it from memory. By the time I was 22, I was backpacking around Europe and already knew I would spend my next birthday somewhere away from home. I just imagined it would be somewhere more familiar, maybe Italy or the UK. Latvia was definitely not on my birthday bingo card, and I never expected that traveling Latvia would end up giving me one of the most random and memorable birthdays I had ever had. Somehow, I ended up turning 23 in…
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My First Trip Abroad: Turning 18 in Andorra and Learning Who Not to Travel With
April 2010 — Pas de la Casa, Andorra 2010 was the year I finished secondary school, and like a lot of students in Portugal, our Easter break meant one thing: the long-awaited senior trip. At the time, rhythmic gymnastics was a huge part of my life. My team was basically my second family, and some of my closest friends were the girls I trained with every week. The problem was that the senior trip to Andorra fell exactly on my 18th birthday. At first, I did not want to go because turning 18 felt important, and I wanted to spend that day with the people I was actually closest to,…
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Is Panama City Safe? My Experience Traveling With a Man Instead of Solo
If you’re wondering is Panama City safe, my experience there was very different from most of my trips because, for once, I wasn’t traveling alone. I usually travel solo, so safety is always somewhere in the background of my brain. I’m used to checking where I’m going, noticing who is around me, thinking about whether I should walk somewhere, what time I need to get back and whether an area feels right. In Panama City, I suddenly realized I wasn’t doing nearly as much of that. I was traveling with a male friend, and honestly, it was the first time in a long time that I felt like I could…
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12 Things to Do in Panama City Beyond Just Walking Around Casco Viejo
Panama City was the first stop of my three-week Central America trip, and we gave it exactly one full day before taking the night bus toward Bocas del Toro. We arrived with almost nothing planned, no accommodation booked and apparently no interest in checking the weather either, because we somehow managed to arrive at the end of August during rainy season. It poured for a good part of the day, but we still went out, wandered around Casco Viejo, found a cheap local lunch completely by accident and explored whatever looked interesting. After actually visiting, I still don’t think Panama City needs several days of city sightseeing. If I went…
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Best Time to Visit Panama City: When I’d Go After Visiting in August
I visited Panama City at the end of August, and if you’re trying to figure out the best time to visit Panama City, I can already tell you that I would not choose that time of year again. Panama City was the first stop of our Central America trip, and because we only had one full day there before continuing to Bocas del Toro, the weather made a big difference to how much we could actually enjoy the city. It rained a lot while we were there, which gave me a very real introduction to Panama’s rainy season. Panama stays hot throughout the year, so the biggest difference between seasons…
