Let down your guard once in awhile. On a recent trip to Lebanon, a Tripbase member found herself lost in Tripoli, an area that had recently been rocked by internal strife. Frightened, she searched for a hotel. She stopped in front of a storefront, and puzzled over a map in her guide book. The proprietor came out and offered his help. “Usually, I don’t talk to men who approach me,” this pro of third world travel told Tripbase, “but I’m glad I did. He knew exactly where the hotel I was looking for was.” What your mom told you about not talking to strangers is not always applicable. Yes, there are a lot of bad guys out there—but there are a lot of good people, too.

Landmarks! Use them! You might find that some taxi drivers don’t know street names. It could be that they don’t understand your pronunciation. Or maybe they know the street by some older moniker that is still familiar to locals, but that no longer appears on tourist maps. No matter, if you give a taxi driver a prominent landmark they should be able to get you there. (Learning the local name and correct pronunciation of the landmark will prove to be helpful, as well. In Damascus, for example, what is labeled as Martyr’s Square on tourist maps is known as Al-Merjeh to locals).

Plan on getting lost. Have your hotel or hostel write down the name and street of your lodgings—in the local language, of course—on a business card. One Tripbase traveler found this indispensable in Shanghai. On several occasions, when he couldn’t find his way back to his hotel, he hailed a taxi and handed the card to the driver who had no problem ferrying him safely to his destination.

Traveling to uncommon destinations can be a rewarding, and challenging, experience. But you’ve got to be prepared for some bumps in the road—both literally as well as figuratively. Here is a list we at Tripbase wish we’d had before we set off for exotic destinations such as The Philippines, Thailand, India, South America, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, and Jordan, amongst others.

Learn at least a few words of the local language. If you can say excuse me, where, street, there, left, right, straight, and other directional basics, you will be in better shape than you would be without them. Even if the person you ask speaks English (or your mother tongue), they will appreciate your attempt to speak with them in their language and will be more inclined to help.

Don’t ask just one person—ask two. (Or three, or four…). Remember that you are immersed in a different culture. In some places, maintaining face is very important. What does this mean for the lost traveler? If you ask someone for directions, even if they don’t know, they mustn’t admit that they don’t—they will still offer you directions. So ask a few people. If you’ve gotten three “straight and then right” s, chances are your destination is indeed straight and then right. But if you’ve gotten three different answers, maintain your composure and…

Have patience. Try and try again. Keep things in perspective. And remember to smile.

Looking for a road trip planner or ideas for your driving trip? By popular demand, Tripbase is pleased to announce the arrival of our brand new road trip planner that will help you find the best driving trips for your next vacation.
You can set your parameters either by driving mileage (how many miles you want to go) or by time in hours and then get driving trip ideas based on the things you like, where you want to go and your budget.

So why take a road trip?
We’ll give you 3 good reasons.

1. Road trips are better for the environment than flying

Road trip vacation planning, thanks to greater environmental awareness, is becoming more and more popular. People are choosing to go on greener vacations by staying closer to home and taking road trips instead of flying. According to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, even a road trip from coast to coast (around 3,000 miles) releases fewer greenhouse gases than flying. This is because the greenhouse gases released by airplanes do more damage than those released by vehicles lower to the ground and contain additional harmful gases, like methane and nitrous oxide.

Let’s take a look at one example. If a family of four drove from Atlanta to Los Angeles, the emissions would be about 300 grams per mile, around 900 kilograms for the round-trip road trip.
This translates into about 225 kg of carbon emissions per person. For a long-haul flight, the emissions released are calculated at about 180 grams per mile per passenger.

So if you took a round-trip flight across the country (about 2,700 miles), your emissions would be close to one ton per person! That’s almost four times as much as driving provided you are sharing the car. Shorter flights are even less efficient so you release even more carbon emissions on flights with lower mileage. Planning to visit family in Ohio? Don’t pollute the environment with flights to Cleveland, take a road trip!

2. Road trips are cheaper than flying

Beyond being better for the environment, road trips are often cheaper than flying — especially
if you’re in a group. Even with gas at all-time highs, road trips for more than one person are
still more economical than flying because higher fuel costs have also affected airline ticket prices.

For a round-trip road trip across the country, you will spend about $850 (gas is calculated at $4 a gallon).
Now, if it’s just one person, it’s cheaper to fly since you can buy round-trip airline tickets for
about $450. But if at least two people are on the road trip, it’s cheaper to drive. If you’re driving somewhere within a short flight from home, it’s almost always cheaper to drive.
For families and those traveling in groups, the savings are even greater.

3. Road Trips and driving trips are fun

This may be the best reason of all. If you’ve never been on a road trip or a driving trip, you’ve missed out. All those hours in the car along the open road give you a chance to stop in stunning national parks and cool cities across the country. Or, if you’re going somewhere close to home, it’s a chance to discover a new place in a completely different way than just flying in and out. Just imagine all the streets and highways waiting to be discovered!

A road trip is also a great way to spend quality time with the whole family or go on a romantic adventure with your partner. And with so many different driving trip possibilities, the options are practically endless. As an added bonus, you won’t have to wait in long lines at the airport, deal with extra charges for every ounce of luggage or get frustrated by hours going through security.

So for your next vacation, why not consider taking your time and driving to your destination?
Visit Tripbase’s road trip planner to find driving trip ideas that cater to you.

In our upcoming blogs, we’re going to be writing about specific driving trip ideas — including
the best California road trips and cross country road trips as well as great motorcycle and rv driving trips.

To read a detailed scientific study commissioned by the climate care organization that
provides a great explanation about how aviation greenhouse gas emissions are calculated visit:

http://www.climatecare.org/media/documents/pdf/Aviation_Emissions_&_Offsets.pdf

Food vacations, including vacations that seek great food and wine travel as well as best value restaurants, are becoming more and more popular. At Tripbase, we thought you gourmands might like to know where you can go for the best food vacations in the u.s., i.e., where to get the best value restaurants for your buck. We looked at thousands of food vacations destinations and considered tens of parameters, including the variety of best value restaurants (ethnic, American, and neighborhood places where the locals go), the actual number of best value restaurants (not including fast food venues) and the average costs of a meal (with service and one drink) as well as the number of top-rated chefs per capita, the number of chef-owned restaurants and the popularity ratings of the restaurants in a city in order to determine the best places in the u.s. for food vacations with best value restaurants.

Although twenty years ago it might have been difficult to find more than a handful of great u.s. cities known for their restaurants, that’s far from true today. Most American cities today offer a wealth of great restaurant options, but these are Tripbase’s top ten destinations for food vacations with best value restaurants. Here, you’ll find cities teeming with choice—from the dim sum in New York’s Chinatown to the deep-dish pizzas in Chicago—plus everything in between. Asian cities are well known for fresh, inexpensive seafood and digging into a plate of something scrumptious in Seattle’s downtown market or at one of Austin’s authentic Mexican restaurants won’t break the bank.

For more information including flights to San Francisco, flights to Chicago, flights to Boston, hotel and car rentals as well as personalized travel recommendations, visit the Tripbase links.

Food Vacations and Best Value Restaurants

1. New York restaurants (New York)
2. Washington, D.C. restaurants
3. New Orleans restaurants (Louisiana)
4. Atlanta restaurants (Georgia)
5. San Francisco restaurants (California)
6. Chicago restaurants (Illinois)
7. Houston restaurants (Texas)
8. Boston restaurants (Massachusetts)
9. Seattle restaurants (Washington)
10. Austin restaurants (Texas)

Tripbase is still in development, but we’re working on improving our algorithms every day, so if you have comments and criticisms for us, we’d love to hear from you.

Happy Travels,
The Tripbase Team

Green vacations and eco friendly travel are becoming more and more popular thanks to the increased awareness about the importance of taking care of our environment and doing all we can as individuals to prevent global warming. So what can you as a traveler do to make sure your green vacations are to an eco friendly travel destination and not a place that tries to look ‘green’ but really isn’t? Check out the following tips from Tripbase about how to reduce your carbon footprint and then explore our top recommendations about where to go for the best green vacations. You’ll be on your way to enjoying a great green vacation.

According to the International Ecotourism Society (TIES), eco friendly travel is “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.” TIES recommends following these eco friendly travel principles:

• Leave a minimal impact
• Use local guides or tour services
• Try to stay in local, eco-friendly accommodations
• Support local businesses that promote sustainability. This also supports the local economy.

Although some environmental activists maintain that staying close to home is the best way to do green trips (one overseas return flight produces about the same amount of carbon emissions as a car does over an entire year), there are downsides to that school of thought too. For example, developing countries rely heavily on tourism for development and carefully managed tourism can help fight poverty and promote growth. In addition, traveling far from home can provide long-lasting educational benefits and allow you to participate in local conservation and education efforts—especially if you’re willing to volunteer. Try to make sure that the parks and beaches you visit are truly interested in sustainable tourism, and verify that your accommodation is helping the environment by planting trees, using fewer towels, saving water etc. by giving them a call and asking them what they do to promote eco friendly travel and sustainable practices.

Camping and house swapping are also great ways to do your small part to make your green vacations better for the environment.

Another thing you can do is plan an eco friendly travel adventure to places where you can camp and use the car and fuel minimally. That type of green vacation has the added benefit of allowing you to explore spectacular nature in a sustainable platform.

On top of this, one of the best things you can do is support countries and parks in which green vacations and eco friendly travel are taken seriously. Visiting those regions will ensure that your tourism dollars are providing funding for sustainable tours, green trips and ecotourism growth in the future.

So where are the best places in the world for green trips, green vacations and eco friendly travel? Tripbase looked at a number of parameters in thousands of locations to come up with a list of the best places for a green vacations. We looked at how well these eco friendly destinations fared when it comes to education, conservation and research programs as well as the number of eco friendly trips they offer and eco friendly accommodations they have. We considered nature travel to well-known spectacular national parks reputed for their sustainable practices and volunteer programs as well as more off the beaten path, remote locales. For more information about each destination and personalized travel recommendations in each eco friendly travel destination, click on the links below.

1. Corcovado National Park Travel Recommendations (Costa Rica)

2. Morne Trois Pitons National Park Travel Recommendations (Dominica)

3. Yosemite National Park Travel Recommendations (United States)

4. Chiang Mai Travel Recommendations (Thailand)

5. Yellowstone National Park Travel Recommendations (Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana)

6. Galapagos Islands National Park Travel Recommendations (Ecuador)

7. Etosha National Park Travel Recommendations (Namibia)

8. Denali National Park Travel Recommendations (Alaska)

9. Fiordland National Park Travel Recommendations (New Zealand)

10. Nassau Travel Recommendations (Bahamas)

Happy Travels,
The Tripbase Team