{"id":42073,"date":"2024-04-18T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=42073"},"modified":"2024-04-11T13:37:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T20:37:47","slug":"luggage-built-to-last-e49-french-rail-pass-europe-on-a-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/luggage-built-to-last-e49-french-rail-pass-europe-on-a-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Luggage Built to Last\/\u20ac49 French Rail Pass\/Europe on a Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of\u00a0A Better Life for Half the Price<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The World\u2019s Cheapest Destinations<\/em>. See\u00a0past editions here,<\/a>\u00a0where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Happy birthday to us: we just hit issue #100! Thanks for your support and if you upgrade to being a paid supporter, we\u2019ll reward you with an e-book soon that has 104 of our best travel and living abroad tips from our first two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital Nomad Visas On One Page<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mark F. stumbled upon this VisaList site<\/a> that is an alternative to some of the digital nomad visa guides we\u2019ve highlighted before. This one has a clean layout and reflecting the governments\u2019 habits of \u201cannounce first, plan later,\u201d most are still listed as \u201cdeveloping.\u201d This is a very minimalist site with frequent grammar errors, but it does show fees and income requirements and it links out to the official government page for each of the 56 countries and territories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent Rugged Bag Companies<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You don’t see many review blogs talking about USA-based Tom Bihn or Red Oxx <\/a>luggage because you can’t buy them at retailers that pay commission like REI or Amazon. They only sell directly to consumers, allowing them to maintain high standards without having to sell their products for low margins at half the retail price. Also, unlike the big companies that need to keep retailers excited, they can sell the same classic bag for 20 years and not feel pressure to make changes. I just used my 14-year-old Tom Bihn Aeronaut<\/a> for two recent short trips and forgot how much faster you can move if you have a light carry-on bag with no wheels. (Read the 96 5-star comments to see what real brand devotion looks like.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u20ac49 French Rail Pass<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll need to be 27 or younger and be touring France at the busiest time of year, but if that\u2019s you or someone you know, you could ride the rails around France this summer for just \u20ac<\/strong>49 for 2 months. The most populated area around Paris is excluded, but that still leaves a big chunk of the country to explore and it would only take a few trips to come out ahead. See more details here<\/a>. (Note that Germany runs a similar scheme with fewer age restrictions.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe on a Budget<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last year I spent about five months in Europe, this year I\u2019ll be there somewhere between two and three months. The continent has a reputation for being expensive, but it doesn\u2019t have to be if you\u2019re savvy about the when, where, and how. Here\u2019s my advice based on a few decades of visits: Touring Europe on a Budget: 11 Money-saving Travel Tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nomadico issue #100<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2385],"tags":[2386],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42073"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42074,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42073\/revisions\/42074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}