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Using Offline Maps and Apps to Save Money and Sanity

Offline Maps Review – Save Money by Using Less Data Internationally

Albania Signpost
Tethi to Valbone Sign

A review of 4 iphone Offline Map apps

I need offline maps. I get lost pretty easily. I don’t like getting lost. It raises my blood pressure and I yell at signs and maps. Unfortunately I have been cursed with internal compass issues. Rarely do I magically feel where true north is and I have problems asking for directions in other languages (or ever). This is a problem if you travel for a year in foreign countries where street signs are not only in another language but also non-existent. My wife on the other hand seems to have a magic magnet somewhere in her head that tells her which direction to go. She also cheats and studies maps of places we are visiting [Read more…]

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Stay Fit While Traveling – 6 Easy Tips and Tools

Is It Possible to Stay Fit While traveling? Tips from The Road

keep fit on your gap-year
Keeping fit in Santorini

Before I started writing this, I thought that maybe no one really wants this information. It is possible that no one goes on their gap year or travels with the thought of “I can’t wait to exercise while eating every type of fried food in other countries and drinking every day on the beach.”

However, who says you can’t go on a gap year or any extended holiday without staying in shape? Why, you may ask, would you bother to stay fit while traveling? Wouldn’t the travel do that for you as you run from airport to bus to train, hike the (whichever mountain range), swim with the dolphins? Sure, carrying your 60 kilos of various sized bags up and down the stairs at the AirBnb flat you rented in Paris might help you out and certainly walking around because you are cheap and don’t want to get ripped off by a taxi because you do sound so much like a tourist may work off a couple of kilos. But then again, sitting on a plane for hours, eating fine or not so fine foods on the run and enjoying the occasional but not too occasional glass of wine might add them back on plus some extra.

No, I’m not directing this bit of blog to the 18 year olds carrying their backpacks, drinking their weight in beer and eating street food every day who will not seem to gain a kilo no matter what. I am talking about people whose metabolism has decided to kick back and enjoy life in the later years and needs to be encouraged somewhat to do its job. Like all the time.

Luckily Eeva and I both traveled quite a bit in our previous roles and we used what we learned then to help us stay fit while traveling this year. We have also learned a few things along the way of course.

Motivation

Are we always motivated to work out on our year long holiday? No. We don’t jump out of bed enthusiastically every day already dressed in our workout gear. We do always feel better after we have done it though. These are some of the tricks we use to motivate ourselves on the road: [Read more…]

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© Steven Owen, Eeva Routio and Coconut Compass, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Steven Owen, Eeva Routio and Coconut Compass with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.