Top 5 Places to Get the Best Out of Fall - http://clapway.com/2015/10/15/top-5-places-get-best-fall/

Fall is here and in full swing!

Autumn is arguably the most beautiful time of year. Sure, spring has its virtues, but fall brings what the fruit of the buds from the spring, so it’s as if spring was a part of autumn. This also goes for summer and winter.

It’s mid-October, and in the Northeast at least, people are still wearing short sleeves. I’m fairly sure that by November, their will be snow, absolutely everything will come pumpkin spiced in some way, and if you don’t enjoy that, you can always find apple anything instead.

I would just like to add that technically fall ends on December 21st, so you get to enjoy many of the holiday activities as well, that winter seems to hold claim to. That belongs to gall, guys.

All of this is wonderful, but what I noticed that people loved most about this season was the foliage that you find transforming from a vibrant green to a variety of miraculous colors. To experience the best possible views of this natural fall display, I compiled a list of the top 5 places to visit and activities you can do so you can experience Autumn at its peak!

1. Ill start with an obvious place, New York City. Meg Ryan’s character Kathleen Kelly exclaims in the movie You’ve Got Mail, ‘Don’t you just love New York in the Fall?’ Yes Kathleen, we do. Millions of tourists go to visit all of New York City’s fall festivities, including take a trip to Central Park, in order to see the contrast of the leaves changing colors amidst the towering skyscrapers. Also, as soon as Halloween is over, you see a bunch of holiday markets cropping up in various parks, which is always a fun Fall activity.

2. It’s hard to choose just one national park, so we’ll list several. The West Coast’s Redwood Forest. This is fall foliage at the maximum level, because the trees themselves are huge. While you can hike the Redwoods, I would go at more of a strolling pace, in order to appreciate its beauty. Oh, and make sure you schedule a neck massage for afterwards, because your neck will be sore from looking up in amazement.

3. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park spans two states, and employs millions of trees changing colors. Many people find enjoyment bringing their bikes and riding the various trails that the park has. This way they can be embraced by the crispness of the fall air, while admiring the changing landscape.

4. Camping in the summer is a popular activity because of the weather, but camping in the fall provides a new sort of scenery that the summer can’t beat. Plus, you won’t be sweaty while trying to roast marshmallows over a fire. Since you are staying over, you get not one, but two great views. The night sky is there, just waiting for you to view it. One of the best places to do this is in Pennsylvania. They have a variety of campsites still open for business, and tons of areas just waiting to be explored by you.

5. Vermont is exceptional during this time of year. You don’t even need to get out of your car to view the majesty of Fall in this state. All you have to do is pick a road, and go.

So, what are you doing still reading this? Go explore!

If you have another beautiful place that I haven’t mentioned, suggest it in the comments! Happy Autumn!

Consider Frolicking Around On the Penny Skateboard!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=32&v=0uvFIozLuAg

Top 5 Places to Get the Best Out of Fall

7 Health Issues You May Experience Abroad - http://clapway.com/2015/10/11/7-travel-health-issues123/

Health is a huge concern when it comes to traveling, especially since we are constantly exposed to foreign substances and unfamiliar environments. All too often, we put ourselves at risk of contracting various diseases that can be easily avoided with just a bit of caution and preparation. Here are 7 Common Health Issues You May Experience Abroad.

Your Travel Health Guide:

1. TRAVELER’S DIARRHEA

Up to 20%-50% of international travelers experience a stomach infection at some point or another, making it the most common travel-related sickness. Side effects include loose stool and abdominal cramps – not too pretty, my friends.

How you can avoid it:

When traveling, especially to developing nations where the risk of contracting traveler’s diarrhea is higher, avoid raw or undercooked meat, fish, and vegetables; fruit is generally safe once you peel it, but tap water (and ice!) that is used to wash the produce can also contaminate your food. When purchasing bottled water, make sure it is sealed and branded, as some vendors might bottle and sell local water. Also, ask your doctor for antibiotics before traveling, and keep hydrated with lots of water in the event you do contract an infection.

2. RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS

There’s nothing more annoying than the common cold or flu, but if you contract a respiratory infection while traveling, the experience in 10 times more painful. To make the matter worse, the URI is found nearly everywhere, and symptoms, including runny nose, slight fever, ear pressure and muscle aches, can really slow you down.

How you can avoid it:

If you begin to feel a cold coming on, make sure to stay hydrated and get some rest. There are also a bunch of over the counter medications that can help you immediately feel better, i.e. nasal decongestants (pseudoephedrine), painkillers (acetaminophen, paracetamol), and nasal steroid sprays for ear pressure or nasal stuffiness. However, if symptoms become worse, seek a doctor.

3. SKIN INFECTIONS

If you’re an adventurous traveler, you’ll likely end up with a few cuts and bruises that can serve as breeding grounds for infections. Usually, infections will cause redness and swelling around the site of injury. However, if you develop a fever, experience intense pain or see pus/discharge, this may be a sign of something serious.

How you can avoid it:

Besides the obvious way to avoid injury, make sure you have had your tetanus vaccine before traveling; this way, you have one less thing to worry about. If you already have a cut, keep it clean and protected, using soap and water. Once cleaned, apply an antibiotic cream and a clean, dry dressing, which should be changed at least twice a day. Seek medical attention if the infection spreads.

4. BUG BITES

All sorts of bugs, especially mosquitoes, can carry deadly diseases, such as malaria. Anybody who spends a lot of time in the outdoors should be especially wary of where they are venturing off to.

How you can avoid it:

Wear long-sleeve shirts, pants, and a hat, if possible. It also helps to tuck your shirt into your pants, although insect repellants are definitely the most effective way to reduce bug bites. In addition, you may use permethrin spray on your clothing or tents, and mosquito netting.

5. MOTION SICKNESS
Motion sickness occurs when your inner ears and other senses detect motion, but your eyes do not; these mixed signals can trigger a gnarly bout of nausea or dizziness – whether you’re traveling by plane, car or boat.

How you can avoid it:

If you’re on a boat, head up to the deck and focus on the horizon. Traveling by car? Sit in the front seat. Over the counter motion sickness patches or medicine, like Dramamine, can also help.

6. SUNBURN

If sipping apple martinis by the seaside sounds like your ideal getaway, don’t ruin your trip with a painful sunburn that your friends keep poking.

How you can avoid it:

Always bring sunscreen and a lip balm with SPF 30 or higher, even if it doesn’t look too sunny out. It should say broad spectrum or UVA+UVB on the label. Taking a cool bath or wearing wet cloths can also ease the pain if you already have a sunburn. In addition, make sure to avoid the sun to let your skin heal. While it does, stay hydrated and treat moisturizer like your new best friend.

7. JET LAG

Unfortunately, when you travel, you most likely will have to acclimatize to a new time zone. This can completely throw off your sleep cycle, keeping you wide-awake during the wee-hours of the morning, and leaving you feeling drowsy during the daytime.

How you can avoid it:

Although there’s no exact way to avoid jet lag, the process of acclimatization doesn’t have to be too painful.

Follow these travel health tips, and you’ll be back on your feet in no time. Don’t let your sickness ruin your next vacation.

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 Take SHOWME With You on Your Next Trip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5cxM-g_b9w

7 Health Issues You May Experience Abroad

Thinking about going to a #festival this year? #LiveItUp with our #BucketList favorites! - http://clapway.com/2015/07/22/5-exciting-festivals-you-need-on-your-bucket-list/

Festivals give us some of the greatest experiences of our lives. Not only are we able to see amazing sights, but we experience some incredible things with those we enjoy being around most! There are so many exciting festivals all over the world, but this Top 5 list is a select group of the brightest and the wildest to add to your bucket list:

1.) Oktoberfest (Germany) – because, Beer.

2.) Yi Peng Lantern Festival (Thailand)

3.) Holi Color Festival (India)

4.) Golden Retriever Festival (Scotland) – Because who doesn’t love cute and cuddly dogs?!

5.) Dia De Los Muertos Festival (Mexico)

There are so many exciting festivals out there that you need add to your itinerary — especially in Japan and India Not to mention the music festivals all over the United States. Go ahead and plan your adventure now!

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At least MUSIO will be your friend if you’re not into the socializing with humans at exciting festivals type:

5 Exciting Festivals You Need on Your Bucket List

They never get old. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/30/why-abisko-is-the-best-place-to-experience-northern-lights/

Experiencing the spectacular Northern Lights is probably everyone’s dream, although standing in freezing cold weather for hours in the darkness waiting and hoping for the lights to appear might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Abisko: 200km north of the Arctic Circle

In January, I visited Abisko in (very) northern Sweden, one of the best known places in Lapland. My trip included standing for up to four hours in -40°F in complete darkness, but the spectacular northern lights phenomenon was worth the wait and the pain.

Abisko is also where “Kungsleden” starts, the country’s biggest and most famous trail which measures over 400km and attracts thousands of hardcore nature-lovers every year.

In the winter, though, people travel there to see fluorescent green lights dancing in the sky and experience the arctic circle’s dark winter days. As a matter of fact, the sun almost never rises during the season. However, as many of you imagine it being completely dark, note that it is more close to “dawn” for a few hours per day, with the snow playing a big role in brighting up the atmosphere.

Lonely Planet’s best spot for Auroras

The UN has named 2015 the International “Year of Light” and Lonely Planet chose Abisko as the number one place (in a top 10 released last year) to experience the Northern Lights. What makes this location a great spot is the likelihood of clear skies due to its geographical position. Abisko is located in a valley surrounded by mountains, which often help in keeping clouds away and increasing the number of clear nights.

A cloudless sky is essential for you to experience the Northern Lights and so is complete darkness. So, being anywhere in Lapland is not enough. You ought to find the right spot far from any kind of light pollution and hope that no clouds get in the way.

As we are talking about nature and not fiction, Northern Lights might take time to appear. They start by being weak and fade with the sky, which is the main reason why, at first, they are often confused with clouds. However, experts told me there that the way to differentiate a could from an “aurora” at its early stage, is to check if stars are still visible behind it. Clouds would impede the view of anything they cover, while northern lights don’t.

Never go without a good camera

One great piece of advice is not to travel all the way to Lapland without a very good camera and a tripod. If you rely on your iPhone, you will end up with a number of pitch black shots which could be quite disappointing. So, make sure you have a high quality device with you which is able to shoot pictures with high exposure.

If you don’t have a good camera (like in my case), you can rent one there through organised expeditions. I took all the photos below in Abisko this winter:

 

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Sometimes you just want to capture the spectacle that is natural phenomena. Atmoph may help you do that!:

Why Abisko is the Best Place to Experience Northern Lights

We need this Scandinavian law in our countries. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/30/we-need-this-law-in-denmark/

I bet you read about Denmark being the world’s happiest country more than once, although in the last “happiness report” it ranked 3rd following Norway and Switzerland.

Denmark is also the country where citizens pay extremely high taxes, but are happy to do so as they receive a large number of benefits. These benefits include free education, student grants, childcare, health care, and so on.

After living in this small and flat Scandinavian country for six months, there is one important aspect of their culture I have noticed: the adherence to social norms. In fact, if you visit Denmark and end up anywhere but Copenhagen–the capital, so, not the best expression of the country’s culture, a few things will stand out:

An all-black closet

The biggest one among these, is that all Danes look and dress the same. They have a passion for black clothing, and it is one of the first things that catches your eye when travelling to Denmark. The phrase “once you go black, you never go back” might be the best one to describe the country’s dress code. Many joke about how all Danes look like they are dressed for a funeral, by sticking to the all-black trend, however they know how to style it well and elegantly. So, unless the Danes you meet are rebels who refuse to stick to the norm, it is extremely likely that they will be wearing a black jacket, black pants and Nike trainers (black ones, obviously).

Denmark: Where Showing Off is (Really) Uncool

Behind the all-black dress code, hides the biggest and most interesting aspect of Danish (and Nordic) culture. If you happen to travel up here, whether it is for leisure or work, you ought to know that Scandinavians never tend to stand out. Just to put things in perspective, Denmark’s neighbouring country Sweden bases its culture on one word: “lagom”, which has no direct translation to English. It essentially means “not too much and not too little” and it lies at the heart of the country’s manners, where nobody feels like they’re better than anyone else and there is little to no attempt to show off through fancy cars or expensive brands.

Janteloven: The “Law” Behind Great Dane Behaviour

This pattern of group behaviour within Denmark, Sweden and Norway has a name – Janteloven (Danish for “Law of Jante”), which negatively portrays the attitude towards individuality and success. While living in Denmark, I took advantage of the free, state-run Danish language classes. During one of these, my teacher explained that there are two sides of the same coin when it comes to Janteloven. While on one hand it is positive that nobody tries to feel better than others, on the other hand it draws people to never be fully happy about their achievements (maybe this was her personal opinion, but to be honest it makes perfect sense to me). So, taking it back to the Danish dress code, it is easy to understand group-belonging dynamics within the country.

A Hidden Gem

The Law of Jante is also what has led a Financial Times columnist to describe Denmark as “boring”, however classifying it as the world’s top nation for economic perspectives.

However, Denmark should be one of your next travel destinations. For many of its aspects, it is one of Europe’s hidden gems. It remains quite tourist-free (if compared to London, Paris and Rome) and Copenhagen, its capital, is an incredible dynamic, green and young city.

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Got unhealthy vices? Pavlok can help you with them:

We Need This “Law” in Denmark

4 Essential travel tips to survive in Vietnam - http://clapway.com/2015/06/05/4-essential-travel-tips-to-survive-in-vietnam/

When planning to travel to a foreign country, especially one with a culture very different to the one you’re used to, there are two things you’ve got to keep in mind. The first and foremost is how to survive, if you haven’t got this part down before you travel, needless to say it’s not going to be the greatest trip. The second, only to be considered once the first is assured, is how to make the most of your adventure. Next week I’ll be posting an article about this latter aspect, but for now, here are 4 things you need to know to survive in Vietnam.

 

Walking across the road is more difficult than you’d think

In the big cities of Vietnam, such as Hanoi, there is only one rule to the roads, that there are no rules. Hundreds of Mopeds, tuk-tuks and buses flood through the city’s roads, a vehicular torrent splashing across the hot concrete. If you try waiting on the sidewalk for the cars to stop, you may be there for several decades. However there is one method which’ll help you survive in Vietnam. Once you’ve taken a step off that sidewalk, just walk at a consistent pace and don’t stop! Whilst the drivers might not stop for you, they will adjust their speed based on how fast you’re walking. Despite the flashes of colour dashing either side of you, just keep moving and you’ll be fine.

 

Leave the kitchen sink at home

I learnt this the hard way last year. I packed a huge hiking bag, filled with a Gatsby-amount of shirts, a plethora of shorts and a luxuriously thick sleeping bag. This wasn’t the greatest idea, as sometimes you are dropped off far away from the location you’re staying at. Suddenly, what could have been a pleasant walk through the beautiful Vietnamese countryside, amongst the tweets of its indigenous birds, is transformed into something entirely different. Your vision of the trees becomes blurred by pouring sweat, and the birdcalls are obscured by the sound of loud panting. Now yes, this might seem a bit drastic, but it is a realistic possibility, which can be avoided if you’d like to survive in Vietnam. First of all, in almost all of the areas you can travel to washing will be available for your clothes, which will cost about 2 dollars for an entire load. In the rural areas where there is no washing, it’s probably okay if you smell just a little for a couple of days. A sleeping bag is definitely unnecessary, it’s so hot there that you don’t need anything so warm. I’d recommend a thin cover or blanket and say you do feel chilly one night whilst staying in a hostel, owners are normally more than happy to provide extra sheets.

 

You are a walking dollar sign

Even though poverty rates in Vietnam have been declining for the past few decades, as a Westerner travelling there, you’re often in a much more privileged position than the locals you meet. But what does this mean for you? It means that at times you might feel the people you meet are being a bit pushy when trying to sell you their goods, or a little repetitive when asking if you’d like a tuk-tuk ride. But just go into your Zen place and keep your cool, remember these people are simply trying to make a living. For the same reason, try not to haggle too much when perusing the many eclectic markets you’ll encounter during your adventure. The amount of money a snickers bar might cost you at home, could be enough to sustain a Vietnamese family for an entire day.

 

Always carry toilet roll… Seriously

Now anyone who has ever travelled into a different culinary culture is likely to put this at the top of their lists on how to survive in a foreign country. The quality and hygiene of the food across Vietnam can vary greatly, and unfortunately it is often the most unhygienic places where you get the greatest tasting food. For example, when I was in Hanoi for several weeks last year, I was desperately searching for a true taste of the city’s famous delicacy, a noodle soup called pho. I had tried several restaurants but didn’t feel like I’d hit the mark. The most popular places with the locals were these kitchens that opened up onto the street, surrounded by small green and red plastic stools. At night such venues were thriving, so I resolved to check one of them out. And wow, it was without doubt the best pho I’d ever had. The noodles were perfect and the spices were numerous. I slept that night feeling I had cracked the code. I mean sure the menu didn’t specify what kind of meat was in the pho, and sure it didn’t look like the cleanest place ever but hey, exploring the unknown is what travelling is all about… Oh, how naïve. The next day I took a 4 hour coach journey with some newly made friends to Haolong Bay (A place that’ll feature in next week’s article). There I was, dreaming of my wondrous meal the night before, and then suddenly I no longer had to imagine. Now there is no need for detail here, but let’s just say those new friendships were tested, and the situation was not made better by the lack of toilet roll in every service we stopped at. So if you’ve taken anything from this list, please take this advice and also some toilet roll with you when you next wish to survive in Vietnam.

So there we have it. 4 tips to ensure you survive in Vietnam, tune in next week to check out tips on how to make the most of your Vietnamese trip!

4 Essential travel tips to survive in Vietnam

"I learnt to enjoy going at my own pace, moving in silence and having the confidence to make choices alone." - http://clapway.com/2015/05/31/solo-trip-to-the-lake-district/

I’m not one that travels alone often but with a lot of spare time and an itching to go and do something new, I decided to take a day trip to the Lake District by myself. I have travelled alone before but usually I end up meeting a friend when I reach my destination so I’m not used to being completely independent. But in this trip, I learnt to enjoy going at my own pace, moving in silence and having the confidence to make choices alone.

The Lake District (also known as The Lakes or Lakeland) is a mountainous National Park in North East England. I travelled by foot in the towns of Windermere and Bowness. The lady at the information centre was very helpful and pointed out to me the different viewpoints in the Lake District and I spent my day going between these. Being alone meant having to navigate completely by myself. Thankfully iPhones were invented so this allowed me to figure out where I was going without getting too lost. The towns in the Lake District are very classical English countryside towns: no busy high streets and tall buildings but lots of nature, small shops and narrow winding roads.

There was a lot of hiking up hills, but it was definitely worth it when you were treated to some spectacular sights. I had to be very careful when I was hiking up because as I was alone, if I tripped and fell, there would be no one to help me. But I took my time, calculated my steps and took it at a leisurely pace. And as mentioned, there were some terrific views of the beauty that is the English countryside so the hiking was definitely worth it. Another positive of travelling alone meant taking as long as I needed to take photos of the scenery without having to wait for any impatient friends.

If I had more time, I could have taken a boat ride, or hired a bike and seen some other towns. But even if it were only for one day, I would definitely visit a day out in the Lake District if you end up in the North of England.

 

Solo Trip to The Lake District