The remote fishing village of Plakias, Crete features some of the most secluded, pristine beaches in all of Europe. I was mesmerized by everything the quiet little village has to offer. Mountains, fresh water rivers, private white-sand beaches, and carefree people combine to make Plakias a fantastic vacation hot spot.

I took my first trip to a nude beach during my short stay in this Greek paradise. I will forever remember my experience. In this post, I will show you how to have an enjoyable time at a nude beach.

How I ended up at a nude beach.

Plakias Youth Hostel is one of the best hostels around. The small resort consistently receives strong reviews from Hostel World and Hostel Bookers. I rated Youth Hostel Plakias in my top 5 of best hostels in Europe.

This hostel represents the main reason why I visited a nude beach. The people at the hostel welcome travelers as part of their family. However, I would never go to a nude beach with any of my own family members!

The people at the resort range from young college kids to adults in their mid to late 50′s. Many of the vacationers stay for weeks or months at a time at Plakias Hostel. A typical summer day in Plakias includes, waking up late, trekking through the infamous river walk or soaking in rays at one of the beautiful Crete beaches, and enjoying drinks and music at Joe’s bar until well past 2 am.

On my 2nd day in Plakias, one of the guests offered me a ride in his rental car to One Rock Beach. I happily agreed as I was headed to the beach anyway. The car ride was a god send.

We arrive and slowly climb down the cliff to reach the beach. The rocks were sharp and hot. I found descending down the cliff very difficult in sandals.

My jaw dropped when I reached sea level. Travelers who earlier looked completely normal sporting their summer gear, now fashioned their birthday suits (nakedness), proudly. I felt a bit awkward when the guy who gave me a ride started undressing himself like he was getting ready for a shower.

Be Free!

I spent the first 30 minutes with a towel over my face blocking the scorching hot sun rays and nudity sights out of my memory. The towel raised from my face only to sneak quick peaks at the beautiful young college-aged girl laying next to me. I, however, remained in my swim trunks, fearful from what others might see.

After a while, I slowly peeled that towel from my face. As I propped up and opened my eyes, everything seemed normal. I mean ya people were walking around naked, but they didn’t care, and neither did I. I decided to become free…of all clothes!

5 Tips to Enjoy your First Experience at a Nude Beach.

1. Bring the highest SPF suntan lotion you can find!

You will need to protect yourself from the places where “the sun don’t shine”. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment of your first experience. Remember to protect the privates with lotion containing a high SPF. I would not recommend asking a buddy to put the lotion on for you.

2. Leave the camera at home

As tempting as it is to document your experience, I highly recommend leaving the camera at home. People enjoy the seclusion and freedoms of nude beaches. Filming or taking photos of nude people violates trust!

3. Relax your mind and Body

A first time at a nude beach can overwhelm the senses. Prepare your mind for what your about to see. Realize that not everyone at the beach belongs in a Victoria’s Secret catalog. In fact most people who frequent nude beaches tend to be older and out of shape.

4. Bring snacks and refreshments

Many nude beaches do not allow the purchase of food and beverages on sight. The hot sun can sap the energy and fluids out of your naked body. Bring plenty of food and beverages to ensure you stay hydrated and well fed.

5. Embrace yourself!

Most importantly, enjoy yourself! You may never step foot on a nude beach again, but while you are there have fun frolicking in the open air. Be comfortable in your own skin.

The winter is here in the Northern Hemisphere and travel deals couldn’t be better. This includes North America, Europe, Russia, and most of Asia. On the other end of the spectrum, it’s quite expensive for people to travel in the Southern Hemisphere. South America, most of Africa, Australia, and parts of Asia are in the middle of peak travel season.

Depending on where you live, I highly recommend taking advantage of off season travel. The main reasons include less crowds and cheaper prices.

Less Crowds

Imagine waiting an entire lifetime to view the insides of The Vatican, only to find that touring is booked for the next 3 days! Your plane leaves back to the States in two days. Travel during off season ensures that the crowds will be scarce. Off season travel is ideal for viewing museums, monuments, and art galleries.

In addition, transportation will be less of a hassle. Buses and trains frequently overcrowd during the high season. This means that scheduled stops become less on time. Off season travel usually allows for quicker and more efficient travel. (Note: Off season or peak season, if a transportation system is inefficient, it remains inefficient. Trains and buses don’t get better /w changing of seasons, they get less crowded).

Lastly, overall movement within very popular tourist destinations will be easier. You won’t have to keep fighting constant crowds to watch a football match (soccer) in a local England pub, long lines will be non-existent to reach the top of the Eiffel Tower, and walking in Rome on a frosty winter day will be a much more pleasurable experience than a mid-August tourist infested afternoon.

Prices

The #1 reason to travel during the off season is prices. EVERYTHING is cheaper!

The whole purpose of this blog is to save you as much money as I can. Once the month of September rolls around prices begin their steady free fall, jumping occasionally for special events.

Flights can be as much as 2-3x cheaper, depending on the location. The way to counter the high airfare prices is to plan months in advance. However, travel plans can change from day to day and last minute travel arrangements frequently occur. Airline companies cannot have flights leaving with empty seats. Thus, they are willing to sell seats at a severe discount than leave empty seats.

The same is true for lodging. Hotels, hostels, villas, resorts and other rental properties discount fees during the low season. I remember a hostel in Belgrade I stayed at where I was the only guest. One day, the owner decided to take me around the city on a personal tour. I highly doubt that i would have this kind of experience during peak season. I saved money and got a better understanding of the city from a local, a great deal!

Food, transportation, attractions, events, and anything you can think of is discounted during the low season. You escape the pressures of paying for overpriced goods and spend the time hunting for bargains. During the off season there are bargains-a-plenty!

The most important step you take before any big adventure is preparation.

What to bring with you?
Where are you going to go?
How much to budget?
Where are you going to sleep?
Activities, Sites?

These are all questions that should be answered BEFORE you leave on that grand adventure.

The last 4 months of my trip were unplanned adventures…, but were they really?

I spent 9 months planning a 3 month vacation.

During those 9 months I researched every city I planned on visiting thoroughly. I received a good understanding of European culture and how to get around. In addition, every item I brought with me was also researched intensely.

Thus I was completely prepared to board that plane to Lisbon, Portugal on Jan. 3rd and stay overseas for about 90 days.

I learned more about travel in those 3 months than all other forms of education combined!

Because of diligent planning, I was able to travel an additional 4 months without the need of reading up on every city I was visiting. I already knew how to get around and what to expect. I already knew how much my adventures were costing on a monthly basis, and lastly I knew I wanted to keep traveling as long as possible.

However, no matter how much planning you do, there will be many hiccups along the way, some good some bad.

I missed many flights, trains, and buses which hampered my travel schedule. I dealt with the extreme stresses of getting lost, and the frustrations of language barriers. These are things you cannot plan, it’s called LIFE.

On the flip side, I met some fascinating people that enhanced my travel experience. I traveled with groups to fantastic locations like Santorini, Greece and Feithye, Turkey. All unplanned, all great experiences.

I call these planned, unplanned traveling. The preparation is done along the way. The ability to be flexible as you travel, enhances the experience.

The challenge for you is to plan out how you want the the trip to go BEFORE you leave. Be prepared for lodging, money, flights, etc, yet be flexible enough to change your plans on a whim.

Happy Travels!

Here are a few online resources I recommend to help you plan your next vacation. Also you can check out my resource page for additional sites I recommend.

Fodors – One of the biggest resources for travelers on the planet.

TripIt – Good application you can also use on mobile phone.

Travelerspoint – My favorite message board for travelers. Ask away.

Eurotrip – Best European trip planner I’ve found.

Yahoo Trip Planner – Good trip planner by Yahoo.

Last week I hosted my first traveler on CouchSurfing.

Couchsurfing is about the cheapest way in the world to travel. The way it works is through the Couchsurfing.org community you find someone in a location you will be traveling, contact them to verify the days, and sleep on their couch for the duration of the time you are in the city.

This couch surfer, I’ll call him CS A to protect the innocent, arrived via bicycle to my house last weekend. His goal is to eventually bike to Australia. There is a large body of water in the way called the Pacific Ocean, so he will have to be creative in his journey to reach his goal.

Many of travel stories were exchanged and ideas spread like wildfire. I was shocked at how far this guy was able to travel on such a low budget.

CS A travels around almost exclusively through sleeping on others couches. I traveled around almost entirely through hostels.

I realized I could of saved a fortune just by contacting people in Europe for the opportunity to sleep on their couch!

The one time I did couch surf in Europe was through friends I met in Greece. They let me sleep on their couch for 3 days in Budapest, Hungary.

The experience and treatment I received was first class. I got to hang out with their friends and received various cooked meals throughout the 3 days. I wouldn’t enjoy the same local flavor staying in a hostel or hotel.

Imagine how much more fulfilling your travel experience can be through couch surfing! Warm blankets, travel ideas, free food, local tour guides, insane nights out, and making new travel friends for life all for the price of $0!

We’ve all heard of the stereotypical unorganized traveler who ends up with a ”lost passport” mid- trip. While the image of a disgruntled traveler tangled up in backpack and camera straps comes to mind, losing a passport can happen to the savvy traveler. Consider these following simple tips to make sure you can come back home:

Keep your passport inside of a suitcase you leave in the hotel room.

Unless you are planning to visit multiple countries in one day, there is no reason to carry your passport with you to the museum, restaurants, monuments, theaters, etc. The more places you take your passport, the more likely you are to leave your passport in an unknown location.

Invest in a well- made passport carrier.

If you do plan on visiting multiple countries in the same day, make sure you take your passport in a sturdy carrying case featured at REI. Higher quality carrying cases will insure that your passport is protected from slipping out through gaping holes and will be protected from variable weather.

Do a daily mental check.

It may sound elementary, but simply stopping to make sure you have your passport with you every few hours or so will help to eliminate the chances of you leaving your passport in a random bathroom stall a 5 hour train ride away. If you do in fact lose your passport, having checked for it every few hours will help to eliminate a large window of time so that you know exactly where to begin your search.

We all know that all of the planning and prevention is not accident proof. So in the event that you lose your passport, simply contact the US Department of State. An agent should be able to connect you with the appropriate office to regain your identification overseas, so that you may enjoy the rest of your trip and come home safely.

The chance of experiencing a layover skyrockets with overseas travel. Make it a tolerable layover. The average layover time is dismal, a whopping 10 hours! We all have stories of long layovers at the airport, myself included.

Sure, there are plenty of things to preoccupy yourself with while backpacking through a European village, but 10 hours inside a sterile airport is another story.

Now is the time to learn some easy ways of keeping yourself entertained and sane during your next layover.

From the moment the voice on the loud speaker announces that your flight will not be leaving for another 10 hours, start your quest for a tolerable layover by taking a deep breath. Studies show that controlling the breathing is the first step to conquering an otherwise stressful situation.

Next, take inventory of what you have in your carry- on. A savvy traveler always brings some form of entertainment with them, such as a good thriller novel, the latest tabloid, or crossword puzzles.

If you are unequipped with these weapons against mass boredom, make your way to one of the airport’s newsstands. Airport newsstands always offer more periodical choices than your neighborhood grocery store, so you are bound to find a publication to spark your interest.

While you are at the newsstand, be sure to stock up on snacks if you don’t have any sustenance in your carry- on. Ten hours is a long time to go without food, and not all airports or airline carriers are thoughtful enough to feed their inconvenienced patrons. When selecting your useful layover snacks, be sure to pick snacks high in fiber and protein, which will allow you to stay fuller longer.

Now that you are armed with an arsenal of literary entertainment and snacks, you need to find a section of the airport where you will be comfortable but still within earshot of any announcements, in case fate lands you on an earlier flight.

Many people make the mistake of abandoning the section of the airport where flight information is announced, often times losing out on earlier flights and becoming more inconvenienced.

If you are the active type, ask an airport employee if there are any workout facilities. It usually costs about $15 for a day pass to an airport work out facility. Most of the facilities have lockers and showers, so you can be sure that your belongings are secure and you won’t be black- listed as the smelly guy no one wants to sit next to.

The bottom line is layovers on trips or vacations are not welcomed with open arms. Since you have no choice but to endure a layover, you might as well make it a tolerable layover by remaining calm, entertained, and satiated.

On a side note, I added the website, Sleeping in Airports to my Resource page. A great site to find the best nooks and cranys in the airport you will be sleeping in.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Getting reception and signals is hard enough in the States. What do you do when you are traveling abroad? Many traditional travelers will argue that the point of traveling is to get away from your own culture and completely immerse yourself in another, subsequently leaving your blackberry at home.

But as the capabilities of cell phones continue to improve, an increasing number of travelers are beginning to see the advantage of having a mobile communication device while traveling abroad. And as the tourism industry takes note of this trend, they are making it easier to communicate using mobile devices, especially in European countries like France or Spain.

There are two recommended ways of using your cell phone when traveling abroad. Consider your needs and choose what best fits you:

SIM Card Abroad- some travelers find that simply leaving their usual SIM card at home and purchasing a new SIM card at their foreign destination is much easier. This works best with an old cell phone that has been turned on, that is, not the phone you use every day. If you use your primary phone, you are at risk for accruing astronomical roaming rates since most phone carriers will charge you just to have the power turned on. By unlocking an old phone and inserting a SIM card from the country you are visiting, the temptation to whip out your cell phone to call your best friend, aunt, or neighbor to tell them about your latest European adventure while paying an exorbitant amount in roaming charges becomes a non- issue. Using a new SIM card purchased in the country you are visiting will help you to avoid roaming charges. Since there is typically a fixed rate, you will know how to budget your expected mobile expense for the trip.

Phone Cards- Kiosks in most European cities sell phone cards. They are relatively inexpensive at just a penny a minute. The catch is that these phone cards have limited locations where they actually work. Most phone cards will work in hotel rooms or phone booths, so it does limit your communication capabilities. However, the process for using one is quite simple. Just call the local access code printed on the card, enter in the PIN # also found on the card, and make your call.

Both of these options will allow you to communicate during your travels, but a SIM card can give you more choices. Using an international SIM card on a phone with internet access can do everything from supply you with maps if you get lost or make dinner reservations on the go. The most important part is to be able to communicate your experiences on your trip as you go along.

The Mediterranean is one of the most beautiful parts of all of Europe. In addition to its Asian and African countries, the Mediterranean also spans through Spain, France, Monaco, Malta, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, and Turkey.

With so many countries harboring on the Mediterranean, there are a lot of cultural possibilities. The tourist opportunities are endless in the Mediterranean. Navigating from country to country used to be a bit taxing, but the advancement of technology and resources has allowed more fluid travel.

Many tourists remember the dolmus bus. The dolmus bus is a coastline taxi and bus hybrid, primarily used for transporting tourists along the coast of coastal cities like Istanbul. If you pass by a dolmus bus on the street, it looks like a mini bus packed with people.

Little boys yell out where they were going, and if they happened to be going where you are going, or in that direction, you can hop on for just pennies! Dolmus buses are still available today, but they are no longer the most popular choice of travel. As technology continues to burgeon, ferries and cruise ships are becoming the norm, transporting almost 2000 tourists at a time.

Cruise ships have become particularly popular in the past few decades. If you want to take a tour of the Mediterranean, there are several cruise ship agencies with routes stopping at all of the fabulous Mediterranean cities. High end cruise liners offer amenities such as spas packages and several dining bars to choose from. The more modest cruise liners focus on the experience of traveling throughout the Mediterranean.

The tour guides affiliated with these increasingly popular cruise ships offer strategic tours. These tour guides are especially knowledgeable about how to get the most out of your trip. Many tour guides keep track of where the various cruise ships travel and develop trip packages that will help you experience the most you can without getting off schedule with the cruise ship.
Sailing through the Mediterranean is an interesting way to experience the Mediterranean culture.

Obviously, experiencing all that every Mediterranean country has to offer in one trip is not a realistic expectation. But instead of getting bogged down by intricate details, worrying about transportation, or spending too much time at one destination and not enough time at another, you can simply hop aboard one of the cruise liners and let them do the trip navigation for you.

Running events don’t get nearly the publicity in the U.S like say some of the more popular cycling events, I.E. The Tour de France. However, the scenic views and old country backdrops provide an unforgetable experience.

To simplify your quest for the perfect road races throughout Europe, I have found a few that will certainly be fun and memorable.

1.   The Stockholm Marathon and Half- Marathon (Sweden)- this popular road race usually occurs in late September. In addition to mingling with some of the locals, you will also get to sight- see throughout the race since many of Stockholm’s landmarks are showcased on the race trail.
2.   La Grande Classique (Paris, France)- with a race course from the Eiffel Tower to the Palace of Versailles, a tourist could not ask for better scenery. This distance of this race is 16 km (9.94 mi).
3.    Amesterdam Marathon (The Netherlands)- over 20,000 European runners are expected to participate in the October 18th race. This course will also feature many of Amesterdam’s scenic canals and historic structures.
4.    Köln Marathon (Germany)- if you like fun runs, you will love this race! Starting and ending at Colgne, this marathon features great German beer at the end of the race. Thousands of runners will be running and celebrating at this popular fun race.
5.    Garda Trentino Half- Marathon (Italy)- this race is known for its beautiful course. Beginning at Riva del Garda, you will go through Torbole, Arco, and along the Sarca river. This race takes place on November 15.

Running is universal, a love shared from America to the smallest of towns in Europe. Running a race in Europe allows you to truly understand European culture. Sometimes, a good road race is the only tour guide you need.

Long before the global warming crisis prompted Americans to revisit the concept of biking as an earth- friendly alternative to suitcase loaded suburban, Europeans had already adopted biking as a regular mode of transportation. With the rise of alternative vacation styles among Americans, the popularity of bike tours, or touring countries from the seat of a bicycle, is rising as well.

Historians are unable to pin point the geographic origin of “cyclotouring” (the name used to refer to bike tours in the late 1890’s), but earliest accounts of activity were in London and Paris. Over the 19^th century, bike tours continued to grow in popularity and continue to draw thousands of tourists every year.

There are countless companies that specialize in bicycle tours throughout Europe. Austria, France, and Germany boast a large number of bike tour agencies, but a bike tour agency can be found in just about any European country.

When deciding which bike tour is best for you, consider the goal of your trip. If sight- seeing while improving your physical fitness is your primary goal, consider a bike tour with a vigorous course. Conversely, if you wish to leisurely cruise throughout the European country side, seek bike tours on more level and smooth courses. If you are more adventurous, you might consider a self- guided tour where you are given literature that will direct you to key points of interest. Most reputable bike tour agencies will recommend food and lodge locations.

An active vacation can quickly go from fun to formidable if you do not have a clear idea of where and when you will rest. Other important information to know beforehand is the duration of the bike tour as well as the rest sites and duration of rests.

If you are looking for an alternative to the hackneyed 3 star hotel and confusing tour guides, consider taking a bike tour. No other form of European travel will allow you to ride along scenic coastlines while inhaling the cool, clean air as your endorphins elevate your experience to new heights.