Day: June 13, 2025

Book Freak 182: The Let Them Theory
Letting others live their lives will free you to live yours, by Mel Robbins
Letting others live their lives will free you to live yours, by Mel Robbins
A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
Tell us what you love.If you’re like me and don’t have a full head of hair on top, going into bright sunlight without a hat can be dangerous. A hat doesn't work well though when snorkeling, riding a bike with ventilation holes, or on a windy boat. In those cases I switch to a Buff-style cloth tube that's versatile and easy to pack. You can see plenty of options on Amazon from Buff here and they work well for covering your neck too. If you get another brand, make sure it has a UPF factor listed though as the thinly-woven ones you can see light through won't keep out the UV rays.
There are some conflict zones in the world that are off-limits to aircraft, no matter how high up they are, and the escalating battles in the Middle East have shut out more areas. The square mileage of conflict zones has increased by 65% since 2021, according to this risk consulting company report. While Air Emirates and Qatar Airways are two of the best airlines out there, in the near term you may want to avoid their connecting flights through Dubai or Doha until a cease-fire holds.
I have both Uber and Lyft on my phone and am surprised by how different the rates can be sometimes for the same distance. Different markets have different price levels too though and this study of Uber prices lays out the most expensive and the cheapest in the USA. They used a 30-minute ride for the comparison and found that Seattle was the worst, averaging more than $60, while Cheyenne (WY), Reno, and NYC were next. Pay far less though in Indianapolis, Fort Worth, Miami, or Houston, where you're more likely to pay around $30. (Meanwhile, an international study found that a 48-kilometer airport to center Uber ride in Seoul was $57 but a 34km ride in Hong Kong was $240.)
I've mentioned the attractions of small ship cruises before on Nomadico because I've done ones with Scenic, Viking, Uncruise, Sun Fun You, and others over the years when working on travel articles. Last December I was on my biggest one yet, but big is a relative term. With a capacity of 312 guests when packed out, the Windstar ship we were on still felt intimate and we were able to pull into small harbors in places like Livorno, Genoa, and Nice. When we passed one of the giant floating hotel ships as we arrived in Barcelona, we looked like a butterfly buzzing past an ox. See my story on this Mediterranean small ship tour in Perceptive Travel.
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