In order to make the best out of your traveling, you need good resources. Here, I list some websites and services we personally use for traveling and some useful goods that we find valuable in our traveling and sailing life.

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Accommodation Resources:

Private Accommodation:

Perfect if you stay somewhere for more than three days. It’s good to have a real home: for example, you can save on restaurants because you’d have a real kitchen! If you are new to AirBnb, CLICK HERE to join and receive $55 off your first stay!

Best Hotel Deals:

Find the best deals on hotels through Booking.com

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Compare the Rates of the Leading Car Rental Companies:

Find the Cheapest Flights

JetRadar browses all the leading search engines, compares rates and gives you the best deal on flights.

Travel Across Europe by Train

Book Tours and Activities

Turn Your Travel Memories Into Customized Clothes, Stationery, Gifts and Household Objects

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Some Cool Stuff:

We personally bought and tried every single one of these items and continue to use them today.

Luci Lights

Solar powered (no batteries!!), light, collapsible, non-breakable, floating. We use them everywhere, from our boat to camping trips and even on the back porch of our home!

Electronics:

A Portable Hard Drive: Western Digital My Passport portable external 4 TB Hard Drive. It’s so small you can take it with you everywhere! It can fit in your pocket. Additionally, it is possible to buy a 3 year Data Recovery Plan, which is like a warranty that you will never lose your files. (Yes, it is important because they often crash and everything is lost!). Mine is working great though, so I hope I will get to use this little thing for a long time and will never need the warranty! 😉

A Portable Charger: how many times did you need to go online, but noticed that your phone is dying and there is nowhere to charge it! I use Portable Charger Anker PowerCore 20100mAh and I never have this problem.

Internet with no roaming fees:

Google Fi: if you have this plan, you will have roaming-free data in the majority of the world countries. Pay exactly what you would pay at home, no matter where you are in the world. Who needs expensive WiFi gadgets and plans? There are some more great features: even though the plan is unlimited and flat-rate, if you use less than 6 GB of data a month (let’s say, you connect through WiFi most of the time), you don’t pay for the data you didn’t use! You can read all the details on the Google Fi page, but I’ve been using it for two years now and it’s pretty awesome!

Additionally, get a $20 credit if you sign up through this link below:

Sailing Resources:

The Boat Galley

Loads of valuable sailing info and advice, not just about the galley! We met Caroline Shearlock, the creator of this wonderful resource, in Marathon, Florida Keys. Not only is she a very knowledgeable person, who knows exactly what she’s writing about, but also the kindest and the most giving person. After the Hurricane Irma, when everyone was distraught and confused, she was the one who held the community together by organizing support events, lunches and clean-ups, using the money, which was raised through this very web-site. She is truly the angel of Boot Key Harbor and you can learn a lot through The Boat Galley.

Sailing Accessories:

Sailor Soap – you can wash your hair right in the ocean!

It is a shampoo/conditioner and body wash that you can use in salt water. It proves irreplaceable, especially if you have to save your fresh water in the tanks. I used it personally in the Bahamas and absolutely loved it! You can get those individually or as a set.

Davis Light: imagine if your anchor light is out! ouch! This Davis Light operates from 12 volt, it is a great utility or deck light! Also, if you have a problem with your anchor light, you can temporarily use Davis Light in place of the anchor light.

Emergency Navigation Lights: Waterproof and very bright LED navigation lights. What would you do if for some reason your boat navigation lights don’t work? We have this situation a couple of times on our boat, due some sudden and unexpected connection issue. We fixed those issues when we arrived, but what would you do in emergency, in the dark? Just attach these lights to the bow rail. No stress needed! 🙂

Portable Dock Cart: do not depend of the marina dock carts (they end up to be always taken!) Have your own. This cart can also be used as a beach cart. It is heavy duty and completely collapsible.

Clothing:

KEEN Shoes: The best shoes a man can have on the boat – Michael totally swears by these and he won’t trade them for anything! Literally, he has never worn anything else on the boat! Not just on the boat but on the beach and in the shower. He’s got some mild neuropathy in his feet due to diabetes and these are the only shoes he can wear without socks and continuously.

My favorite sailing books:

Yes, I have read all of these books and still consult them every now and then. They proudly take their permanent place on the bookshelf of our boat!

• John Rousmaniere — The Annapolis Book of Seamanship : the real encyclopedia for sailing. Every answer to ever question.
• Lisa Copeland — Cruising For Cowards : A Practical A-Z for Coastal and Offshore Sailors : a cool and easy to understand beginners guide for sailing. Really fun book that will greatly ease your sailing anxiety!
• Hal Roth — Handling Storms At Sea : an excellent book about storm and heavy weather handling techniques.
• Bruce Bingham — Cruising World’s Workbench: 200 Ideas from America’s Leading Cruising Magazine to Improve Your Life Afloat: aaaawesome ideas about organizing your life on board and tons of DIY ideas.

Explorer Charts – a MUST-have if you want to sail the Bahamas:

These are the chartbooks you absolutely must have when sailing to the Bahamas. I’ve seen a story or two on Facebook when someone ran aground at the Bahamas because they had outdated info. These charts are spot-on. All the shallow spots, all the coral reefs. There are already pre-selected waypoints, so if you follow them, you will never get in trouble. Also, there is a lot of updated info about local stuff. These books made out trip to the Bahamas really easy and stress-free. Divided into three books: Near Bahamas, Exumas & Ragged Islands, and Far Bahamas and Turks & Caicos.

Intracoastal Waterway Guide:

A great help if you sail the ICW – the latest depth soundings, marina and anchorage information, GPS waypoints, bridge info, aerial photos and marked routes. Divided into two books: Norfolk, VA to North Florida and North Florida to the Keys and Gulf of Mexico.

Blogging Resources

BlueHost

A great hosting service for a blog on WordPress platform – only $3.95 a month for the first three years! A huge collection of WordPress blogging tools and plug-ins make it easy to customize your website. Additionally, you get a free domain for a year. Yours truly is using BlueHost personally 🙂