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During my round the world trip, I always made sure I kept a few pieces of money from wherever I went. I think it was only fitting as the name of this blog is No Debt World Travel…

Now when we talk about money and travel, we are usually talking about how to save money when traveling, how to spend less, even how to earn money when you are traveling. But I think we can go deeper than that….

A country’s money can tell stories of its founding, its identity and how people inside and outside of its borders perceive it. I think it can be as interesting as a region’s art, movies and music.

Here is some money from around the world. What does this money say to you?

Egyptian Pound

You can’t think about Egypt without the Great Pyramids of Giza. A national icon and a world treasure, I think I would be surprised if it wasn’t on money. The Pyramids are so awe-inspiring and magnificent that some conspiracy theorists says that aliens actually created these mass structures. Yeah, like little green men aliens…

South African Rand

What animal is this? This would be the buffalo, one of the “Big Five of Africa” which include the lion, leopard, elephant and rhino. These are the animals that people come to see in South Africa when out on safari. I would guess that other South African rand denominations have the other four animals, I just don’t remember seeing it. Tourism is going to be a huge part of bringing South Africa’s economy out of the doldrums and this is always a reminder of why you come.

Canadian Dollar

Hockey, Canada’s national sport. Their identity is tied into hockey like Brazil’s is tied into soccer…oops I mean football.

US Dollar

Ah yes, the first American president George Washington on the currency known around the world. Some countries like Cambodia will accept US dollars as legal tender like they accept their own money. With the world financial turmoil, US currency is still the gold standard. But now people are talking about the Euro or even the Chinese yuan taking over. I’ll believe that when I see it.

Ghana Cedi

This is a depiction of the Big Six, who helped launch the British colony known as the Gold Coast toward its independence in 1957 in becoming what we know now as Ghana. I love this money, it is colorful and is a great history lesson. It always reminds the Ghanaian people and anyone else who handles it where they have come from.

The next time you look at money, look at it beyond the good or service it can buy. What does it tell you about a country and a people? Probably alot. Just look a little deeper…

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The Color of Money Around the World – What Does This Currency Say To You? is a post from: NoDebtWorldTravel

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Help Haiti through your travel connections: donate miles, points, money

Some more ways you can help Haiti. There will be more creative ways to help the people of Haiti, as this process of recovery and healing for the island nation will be happening for years to come.

Blame Canada: The Travel Detective on New Security Rules

Has anyone else encountered this? Canada limiting you to one small carry-on…and that’s it. In other words, no normal sized briefcases, no carry-on luggage that was fine a few weeks ago.

This forces you to check items you planned on taking on board with you, notably laptops, netbooks, cameras and other electronics. Bad for you, good for luggage handlers who would “misplace” your equipment. Briefcases though? Really?

Let’s see if this holds up with the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in a few weeks.

Blame it all on the Crotchbomber!

10 tips for avoiding the single supplement

If you travel solo you’ve run into the ‘single supplement’ when you’ve taken a group or package trip. It’s a fee tacked on because you’re not sharing a room in a hotel or cruise ship. Most accommodations were meant for double occupancy, and travel firms will get their money one way or another.

Obviously the best way to avoid this is to travel independently and book everything yourself. Sometimes you don’t have the time or the inclination to do that. Some other ideas on how to get around this extra cost.

This Week’s Travel Video
Namibia is one of those countries that didn’t come up on my radar until I had a friend start working there. Then I started seeing more about it. I always like to encourage people to visit countries on the African continent besides the usual suspects: Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Kenya – all great places but there is so much diversity you are missing. Check it out.

Meet Mikey, 8: U.S. Has Him on Watch List

Just shows the issue with watch lists. If your name matches someone who is on a watch list, you are automnatically selected for additional screening EVERYTIME you fly, even though you’ve been repeatedly proven to not be the person they are looking for.

An 8 year old Cub Scout is obviously a different person than the one deemed a potential threat. Is there any way to have a picture, a birthdate, a description of the person with airport counter agents and security so that the innocent are not needlessly pulled aside everytime? Make no sense.

Delta and Continental to Charge More for Checked Bags

Remember the airlines like to play copycat. If you hear your favorite airline is raising prices on checked luggage you know which airlines started it first, so you know who to blame.

How to travel in style from Italy to Brazil for under £270? On an 18-day cruise…

This story talks about “repositioning cruises”, which are one-way trips ships need to do at the start and end of cruise season. So a ship that cruises the Mediterranean during the summer heads to South America for the winter and won’t come back to Europe until the next spring. Rather than steam south empty, cruise lines cut prices to fill the ships and drop passengers on a one way ticket to Brazil.

FYI – £270 = ~$450

A Gangland Bus Tour, With Lunch and a Waiver

I am conflicted about this. Why would I consider touring the favelas of Brazil but I don’t think I would tour these same types of areas of Los Angeles. Is it because Brazil is different and more ‘exotic’? Or is it because I don’t want to be reminded of these conditions in my own country?

Top Ten Tricks for Getting the Flights You Want with the Miles You Have

Excellent way to cut the cost of your next flight is to utilize those frequent flier miles. Airlines make it harder to redeem and sometimes let them expire if you don’t use them within a certain amount of time or follow some other arcane rules.

Businessman sues BA ‘for treating men like perverts’

This is something new. British Airways patrols the aisles before flights and if there is a male passenger sitting next to an unaccompanied child, BA asks the male passenger to move to a different seat. Presumably to prevent child abuse?

Best Travel News and Deals – January 19, 2010 – Haiti, Beat the Single Supplement, See Namibia, Frequent Flyer Miles, More Charges for Checked Bags is a post from: NoDebtWorldTravel

Part II of guest blogger Liz’s trek into Montreal with her girlfriends. Check out her travel blog at http://www.travelogged.com

We checked into the Hilton Doubletree and then went off to explore the city on foot, even though we were freezing. It may been October 2nd, but it felt like January 2nd. I don’t know what the actual temperature was, all I know is that I never felt warm the whole time I was there.

First we walked down the famous Rue St. Denis, which reminded me of the East Village. It was colorful and charming, but I wouldn’t call it bustling. Apparently the locals thought it was pretty cold too.

Rue St. Denis, Montreal, Canada

We kept going straight down to Old Montreal. (We did a ton of walking on our trip because we all like to walk.) This historic section was very pretty, lots of stone buildings. It definitely felt very old and we had a late lunch at the funky and well-known Olive et Gourmando (http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/67/722050/restaurant/Montreal/Old-Montr-al/Olive-Et-Gourmando-Montreal). There were a few people in there, but the streets outside were completely deserted. The time to enjoy Old Montreal is definitely late spring/summer/early fall, when there’s an abundance of open-air cafes.

We finished off our long walking tour by heading up the hill to the famous McGill University, which I’d always wanted to see. The buildings were beautiful, but I was surprised by how small the campus was and how it was really right in the middle of the city. That said, the college kids must have a blast being surrounded by Montreal.

That evening, we went to the Botanical Garden to see The Magic of the Lanterns. When we got there it was fairly crowded – so that’s where everyone was! Every fall, the botanical garden hosts an exhibit of silk lanterns handmade in China. This year the theme was the circus, and it was incredible. Then we had a late dinner at a terrific Persian restaurant called Byblos – it was a limited menu but it’s excellent. Montreal has a lot of multicultural options, as you can see.

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast of crepes at Chez Jose, a funky little place in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood. It was my favorite meal of the whole trip. Much of Montreal has a bohemian feel, and this captured it perfectly. Then we took the metro to the famous Jean Talon open-air market. It was huge – if only NYC had something like that!

Jean Talon Market, Montreal, Canada

The market is on the edge of town (in the Little Italy section) so after walking around and sampling, we headed back into the center with hopes of touring the famous underground city. Well, we never found it! We kept trying to follow the map that would lead us to the network of tunnels that were developed so people could avoid the cold, but alas, it all seemed to lead to dead ends.

We walked around some more – above ground – and enjoyed the different kinds of architecture. Eventually, all of our walking led us to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/en/index.html). I especially enjoyed their collection of Canadian art. It gave me a better grasp of their history.

By the time night came, we were pretty tired after our action-packed day. After much deliberation, we settled on a very cool resto-bar called Helm Brasseur Gourmand (http://www.helm-mtl.ca/index.html) that served Quebecois food in Mile End. We hung out there for a while and then called it a night as we had a big day of driving ahead of us the next day. It was wonderful trip – Montreal is the perfect weekend getaway. But if at all possible, go during the summer.

Liz
http://www.travelogged.com

Girls Weekend Out: Montreal Road Trip! – Part II is a post from: NoDebtWorldTravel

Today’s guest blogger is Liz from Travelogged.com. In two parts she talks about her road trip to Montreal, Canada with three friends. Pick up some valuable tips and support Liz at Travelogged.com.

Enjoy!

I had always wanted to visit Montreal – but that’s not really saying much because I essentially want to visit everywhere. Well, everywhere worth visiting that is.

But Montreal was always fairly high on my list because (a) it’s not that far from NYC, (b) they speak French there and (c) it just seemed like a cool city. My husband was not particularly interested in going to Montreal because he felt (a) it’s a long drive and he does all the driving (b) he does not speak French and (c) he thinks Canada is too cold.

When I found out that my husband had to be in Indiana for something one weekend this past fall that did not involve me, I instantly thought: I’ll have a weekend with the girls. I love spending time with my friends, but I tend to do all of my traveling with my husband.

So when I realized that my husband was going to be away, it seemed like the ideal time to go somewhere affordable with some friends.

Convincing three of my friends from journalism school to take a weekend trip to Montreal was pretty easy. Three out of the four of us spoke French, three out of the four us had never been there and all four of us love to travel.

Liz (far right) and friends in Montreal

We decided that the cheapest way to get there would be by driving and we would leave on a Thursday night and drive to the half-way point, Saratoga Springs, NY. We would get up early the next morning and drive the three-plus hours to Montreal. On Sunday, we would drive the whole way back in one shot.

I took the hotel search upon myself because I love planning trips. We wanted to stay in the cheapest places possible, but we still wanted them to be nice enough. Saratoga Springs is a college town and, in the summer, a resort town thanks to its famous racetrack. So, the lodging choices were surprisingly expensive.

We settled on the Springs Motel for $75 per room. Although I was a bit worried, it turned out to be a nice motel that gave us adjoining rooms.

Montreal has plenty of bed-and-breakfasts and quaint inns that are affordable, but they are geared toward couples. It also has hostels, but we didn’t want that either. We needed two rooms with two beds, so it seemed that a boring old chain was the way to go. After reading Tripadvisor.com reviews endlessly and eliminating all the ones that complained about bedbugs (http://www.travelogged.com/travelogged/2009/01/did-someone-say-bed-bugs.html), we decided that the Hilton Doubletree was the way to go as it was centrally located and the price was right: $120 per room per night plus tax (and Montreal tax is high). The rooms were extremely nice for the price but the hotel didn’t have good service – even simple requests took multiple phone calls. But it’s still a place I’d recommend you’re on a budget.

We set out on our roadtrip full of excitement. We had visions of enjoying the bar scene in Saratoga, but we were exhausted when we arrived late that night. The next morning, we checked out the main drag and ate a delicious breakfast at local favorite Beverly’s (http://beverlysbest.net/data/).

Then we were on our way and had a breathtakingly beautiful drive through the Adirondacks. It was only the first weekend in October, but the leaves turn early up there and they were in their prime.

As we approached the US-Canadian border, the signs were already bilingual. Even in the towns just over the border, the province of Quebec is staunchly French. If they weren’t so proud of their heritage and so determined to keep that way, this French oasis surely would have been Anglicized. This makes Montreal a very special place – I had been worried it wouldn’t be different enough, but it was. French-speakers and English-speakers attend different schools, but most people seem to know both languages.

While we had looked forward to practicing our French, we weren’t given too much of an opportunity. So even if you don’t know a word of French, you’ll be fine.

Tomorrow I’ll take you on a tour of our highlights in Montreal!

Liz
http://www.travelogged.com

Girls Weekend Out: Montreal Road Trip! is a post from: NoDebtWorldTravel