GuruWalk Tours for City Intros

The “free walking tour” model is well-established, though it’s a misnomer since you’re expected to tip the guide at the end: it’s the only way the person earns any income. GuruWalk seems to offer more of them than anyone. We’ve used them in Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, and Chiang Mai on this trip, then on two other continents before that. Guide quality has ranged from decent to fantastic. The company says the average guest tips 10 to 20 euros. Be more generous and you’re still well below what a regular tour would cost.

Parcel Shipping Comparison Services

If you need to get a package from A to B but don’t want to visit multiple websites to compare courier prices, there are services that will do that for you. Reader Nicole Tirabassi recommends Parcel2Go for UK residents and if you’re in the USA, try ParcelMonkey. For both, you can find domestic rates and international ones. (Nicole also sells an e-book on essential apps to save you money and trouble when you move abroad. See the info here.)

Relocation Atlas for Italy

One highly recommended Substack to check out for in-depth analysis of the less-covered aspects of the nomad life and moving abroad is Nomag. The editor is based in Italy and just launched an ambitious resource for anyone looking to move there. The Relocation Atlas aims to “make Italy’s fragmented landscape of incentives and opportunities easier to navigate.” Yes, the headlines about houses for one euro and schemes paying you to settle somewhere may be true, but finding them is tough and figuring out if they make sense for you is harder still. This is a great start.

The Saddest Train Station I’ve Been To

I’ve traveled a good bit on Amtrak and I’ve traversed India by train, but I can’t remember a worse train station to kill time in than the one in Padang Besar I was in recently, on the border of Malaysia and Thailand when we were overnighting to Bangkok. That border is the main problem: there’s nothing else around that you can walk to. But while Malaysia is usually teeming with places to eat and drink everywhere, this station has no cafe and no coffee shop—just a couple of vending machines that don’t take credit cards and say “No change given” in four languages. Oh, and the station is not air conditioned, in a place that’s steaming hot all year. I’m usually team train all the way, but with flights being so cheap in Asia, it wasn’t worth the novelty.

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A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

11/12/26