Monthly Archives: July 2012

Summer of a Million Visitors

Posted on by under Community

This summer is my “Summer of a Million Visitors.” Ok, so I stopped counting when I reached 20+ in two months, but it’s still a lot. I’ve had a ton of fun with my out-of-towners, but I’ve also learned a thing or two about travel in the city I’ve made my home thanks to them.

1. There is more than one way to do any given activity in Paris. Day of week (closures or free days) or time of day (hello, late night openings) can totally make a difference. Anywhere you go, try to discover when these options to help make your visit a bit more special, and hopefully will avoid some crowds. That’s why locals are awesome – they can save you time, energy, and money.

2. Just because everyone says you have to go to X or see Y or eat Z it doesn’t mean you’re going to love it just because they did. Think about what you love, and the kind of things that make you happy, and make those your priority. For instance, I was hanging out with my friends’ three daughters one afternoon (while the parents were off). I knew they were big tennis fans, so I took them to Hotel de Ville where the Roland Garros [French Open] finals were on live – not something you see everyday. I mean, if you have a thing for taxidermy, I even have some great recs for that!

3. Don’t be afraid to do something just because it’s “touristy.” In all the time I’ve spent in Paris, I had never been to the top of the Arc de Triumph until I had friends in town. I was very pleasantly surprised, and it’s one of my favorite views of Paris now. Just goes to show that even a “local” has things they can learn from visitors, and some things are worth seeing.

4. When I had dear friends in town for three days there were so many things I wanted to show them in so little time. We did a lot – maybe too much, but remember it’s ok if you don’t accomplish everything you set out to. It’s always nice to have an excuse to travel again and go back!

5. As someone who seems to have a constant stream of visitors in Paris, the best possible words you can hear from your friends’ mouths are “All we want to do is walk, people watch and drink wine.” This is a true statement, and from a friend who had never been to Europe before. It’s funny, with the pressure off to show them everything, I gave one of my best “tours” ever. It’s also what inspired me with Vayable.

Part of the fun of giving tours on Vayable is meeting new people and having the excuse to experience new things. Seeing Paris the same way gets old for me, but every time I meet up with someone I learn something new or think about Paris in a new way. I have a couple more tours in the works, but I created Navigate Paris because each time I go to a new place I want to get a basic understanding of where I am to get my bearings. Sometimes the obvious – things like how to buy a metro ticket or where streets signs are located – are not always evident until someone points them out to you. My goal is to empower people with knowledge, so after the session is over they feel like an expert themselves. I always love adding a local perspective too as we may our way through the day. But most importantly, I listen to whoever I’m showing around. I want to be able to show them my city in a way that makes sense and appeals to them. It helps challenge me to dig deeper too, and of course keeps things interesting. I don’t pretend to know all the answers, but 9 times out of 10 I can tell the person where to go for more.

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Anne S. Ditmeyer is a graphic designer / editor based in Paris, France. Her blog, Prêt à Voyager looks at the intersection of travel and design, with an emphasis on her life in France. Follow her adventures on Twitter, Instagram & Everplaces.

Guide Story: How I Started a Non-profit to Benefit Local Communities in Panama

Posted on by under Community, Guest Posts, Guide Stories

We recently got to know Joe, who runs Operation Safe Drinking Water down in Bocas de Toro of Panama! When most people think about Bocas de Toro, they think of white sand beaches, lush rain forests, and beautiful reefs. There are also indigenous villages scattered around the swamplands, many of which don’t have access to safe drinking water. We started Vayable to make it easy for tourists to benefit local communities while having fun on vacation, and Joe’s tour provides the perfect opportunity for that, mixing culture, food, and some ever-so-necessary beach time. All proceeds go to his non-profit.

by Joe B, Vayable guide and founder of Operation Safe Drinking Water. Here’s his story about how he got started!

In May of 2008 I was happily retired, playing golf in Costa Rica after
 40 years of aid work in troubled areas of the world. An old friend retired on an island in Bocas del Toro and invited my wife and I to visit him. After a day of relaxing by the beach, we went into town and met an American medical worker running a clinic nearby for the indigenous people. Seeing the condition of some of the people there, we were curious about how we could help.

“See this 13 year old boy?” he said. The boy was in abject misery from a horrible skin rash covering most of his body. “I treated him a year ago, now I’m treating him again. I’ll have to treat him again next year if he’s still alive. It’s bad water. I told him, but he said it’s all he has. If you want to help these people, help them get clean water. Medical care is a revolving door. Education means little to someone whose health is wrecked.”

My wife (Maribel) and I stayed on a few days and drank clean, safe water from a rain catchment tank.
 A few days later, we decided that I would trade my golf shoes for muddy boots, and Maribel would leave her family and friends in Costa Rica. We settled on a remote island, between two large indigenous villages, living “off the grid” like the people we came to help. Solar panels provided power, sometimes.

People came by dugout canoe night and day in search of her first-aid services. Snake bite victims were bundled into our boat for a risky nighttime dash to a hospital on the mainland. Being self-financed, we went the pro bono route to set up our little operation and become a 501 c3. We were an all-volunteer operation, and no one received a salary or compensation.

While my team and I installed rain catchment tanks, Maribel provided basic first-aid services.
 Soon, our efforts started to pay off. School principals began to report far fewer students absent from sickness a few weeks after our tanks were installed. Sickness rates of up to 70% dropped to less than 10%.

“Operation Long Reach” was launched to help the most distant schools. Tanks were taken deep into the jungle on narrow canals to remote villages, and we carried others up steep jungle trails to mountain-top villages alongside the men in the village. A Peace Corps volunteer told us of schools in urgent need of safe water on distant Peninsula Valiente, jutting far out into the sea. We traveled there in our small boat against high waves that beat us back several times and were able to provide all seven schools with their own rain-catchment systems.

We were thrilled to learn about Vayable, which helps to provide much needed funds to our organization by connecting travelers to our remote village. As a life-long world traveler I see 
it as an innovative travel break-through, with first class execution. 
Operation Safe Drinking Water is happy to be part of Vayable, and we hope many of you will come visit us.

-Joe

Vayable for weddings

Posted on by under Community

Be creative this wedding season, without breaking the bank or your back. Whether you’re the bride, the groom, the wedding party or a guest, we know it’s tough to stay inspired when everything seems to have already been done before. We’re here to help you think outside the ribbon and box and help you be creative when you just don’t have the time to hand-make a gift or plan yet another itinerary. Below are some ways Vayable can help cure the wedding bell blues:

Gifts

Give a Vayable gift card. Forget the registry and go for something meaningful and memorable. The NYTimes recently reported that money spend on experiences makes people happier than money spent on things, especially when you buy it for someone else. So give yourself and the happy couple an extra dose of dopamine with a gift card or experience.

Bachelorette & Bachelor experiences

Book with Vayable. For $75 you can get a travel expert to plan your bachelorette or bachelor party or weekend. This includes 3 hours of planning and consult with a delivered plan customized exactly to your tastes!

Honeymoons

Leave the planning to us. Book a session with our travel expert to create a personalized plan for your honeymoon, or choose from hundreds of bookable unique experiences guaranteed to make your honeymoon memorable and magical.

How to Quit Your Job and Become a Digital Nomad

Posted on by under Explorer Perspectives

by Spencer Spellman, one of our favorite travel bloggers and soon-to-be travel guide!

I’m a digital nomad, self-employed, freelancer, workshifter, or whatever the latest buzz term is. That means I can work anywhere; well almost anywhere, at least somewhere that has a decent Internet connection 90% of the day. I do a little bit of everything, with most of my work taking place and existing online. I’m a writer, blogger, and consultant to the travel industry. Sounds like the dream job right? What you see are the far-flung destinations and the Instagramed food and drink photos, but there’s more than meets the eye.

I’ve been doing this for nearly two years, but before talking about what it’s given me and why I don’t want to do anything else, let’s discuss what I’ve given up. I’ve given up what most employees would refer to as the “perks” of a job. I don’t get any vacation time or sick days. There’s no travel stipend or bonus. There is no insurance, retirement, or benefits unless I pay out of pocket for it. There’s no water cooler talk or work happy hour. I don’t have an office and there’s not much of a community, unless I find a fellow nomad to work with or a co-working space. A person like myself isn’t doing this for the “perks”. You do it for the lifestyle.

Some days I work an hour, some days I work 12 hours. Some weeks I work on Saturdays and some weeks I take Thursday and Friday off. I wake up and start working when I want to. If I want to have a cocktail for lunch, then I have a cocktail. If I want to get out of the house and work, then I go to a café or to the park. The draw to being a digital nomad is the flexibility and lifestyle to work when and how you want. As the world becomes all the more connected, it makes it even easier for digital nomads to work, whether it’s from a café in San Francisco, a co-working space in London, or a beach bar in Bali.

Similar to major life decisions like going to college, entering the workforce, or moving across the country, becoming a digital nomad requires planning. One of the most important things is to know when to quit your current job. I didn’t quit until I had enough working enough hours digitally to equal the job I was preparing to quit. That meant the last month saw workdays of 70 to 80 hours.

Another important consideration is what you’ll be charging. This of course varies depending on your field, but it should be considerably more than what you would make from a day job. If you don’t factor in costs like benefits, phone/computer/internet charges, and other things that are typically covered by an employer, then you’ll undercut yourself and likely burn out or run out of money quickly.

Lastly is the question of whether to have a home base or not. I didn’t for nearly a year. I popped around North America, splitting my time primarily between Central America and the U.S. Missing some of the comforts of a home base, I’ve been living in San Francisco for the last year. However, I travel just as much, if not more, including a three-month trip this summer. To offset the costs, I just rent out my room on Airbnb.

Become a Vayable Maven (or recommend one)

Posted on by under Announcements, Community

At the heart of Vayable is a growing community of savvy local experts and travelers in the know. They’ve journeyed off the beaten path to discover gems to share with the rest of our savvy travel community.

Vayable is now offering the opportunity to get involved in more ways than just offering experiences. Anyone can now become a Vayable Maven. If you have recommendations and tips to share with eager travelers at any destination, simply join and you’ll gain access to all the perks our guides do, including:

  • VIP (Vayable Important Person) access to events
  • Earn cash by offering recommendations, itineraries and guided experiences to others
  • Special offers for travel on Vayable and our partners
  • First look access at the newest experiences

JOIN NOW>>