There are a lof of ways to get good deals when you travel, but this one I found it’s completely wild. How many days will take you to drive you over a continent? a what about if that continent is Australia?

Yes guys, if you have 6 weeks off and wanna travel through a part of that 7,686,850 km2 you should start thinking that maybe it’s your turn to apply for the Aussie Roadtrip Adventure.

The Van-Tastic Adventure offers the opportunity (if you got selected) that seven pairs of travellers, will:

• Fly (you and your team) from anywhere in the world to Australia
• Drive all the way to the selected area the organization tell you with a
• Have free acces to the main statet’s top attractions
• With money for gas
• A digital video camera and laptop

And you only have to tell the organizators the best places you visit with a mini-documentary.

An initiative from the Tourism’s department of different city councils that can be the perfect excuse to visit the country with a really low budget. I don’t know if this type of promotion works, but what I’m really sure is that this type of experience can be something that can change your life, like it did it in

Some of you will think like me, I don’t know if this type of promotion works, but what I’m really sure is that if you are selected: it’s destiny and good luck, this type of experience can be something that can change your life, like it did it to other participants before and other initiatives like this, for example the Bacardi Freedom Route, from Istambul, Turkey to Essaouira, Morocco with only one purpose: finding the best summer sunset.

Good luck if you apply!

After the succes I got with the ideas throught Work Abroad I, I had to write the second part.

Work Abroad I was for everyone and you didn’t need a university degree, now I’m  posting about other ways to get into the labor market abroad if you have a college degree.

If you are graduated, almost graduated, you should check:

• International organizations: They provide students in higher education with experience relevant to their studies in the field they want.
  • AIESEC, the largest international young organization for people who wanna develop their potential. One of last steps into the AIESECWay is the Work Abroad and everyone can apply for one of the 4 types of intership into the fields of: management, technical, educational and development interships. If you need to know more about it, just ask me I was part of this organization and can give you the contact info of the closest office.
  • IAESTE, the international young organization for the exchange of student of Technical Experience. It works like the one before, but just for enginerring and technical majors.

• Technical jobs
  • Architects without borders, Check your closer chapter and join it, you will be able to cooperate for fair and sustainable development initiatives with disadvantaged people and communities.
  • Go4contruction, a global recruitment website for the building, civil engineering, infrastructure, energy and oil and gas industries.
  • Domestika, a Spanish website for jobs related with design, graphics, tv, 3d, music and other technical positions.

• European Union: there so many portals where you can find options for applying for a job in the EU countries.
  • Eures, Eures is the European Job mobility portal, for work in the EU and different sites to look for jobs.
  • Euraxess, EU website you can find Information on jobs, services, rights and networks for researchers.
  • EPSO,  European Career, website for working for one of the European Institutions.

• Other organizacions
  • CIVI, French organizations that allows you to find opportunities abroad. For people from 18 to 28 years old.
  • AIPT, the Association for International Practical Training is another international organization that offers you the opportunity to have an intership. AIPT is authorized by the U.S. Department of State to issue form DS-2019, the document required to enter the United States on a J-1 visa.
  • CDS International, Fellowships, internships, study abroads and another innitiatives to have a cultural experiencie.
  • IIE, It’s the website of the Institute of International Education. For education professionals. Not only jobs, also fellowships, conferences and events.
  • Internabroad, Look for an internship abroad by country or by field.
  • Intership program, Not only for looking an intership, also for job seekers.

• Community Services for teens:
  • Global Routers,it’s a summer teen community service programs & gap-year or college internships in Africa, Asia and Latin America

Althought this is only a short list, you can find a lot of programs abroad around the web, every university also offers interships, fellowships from your major to other countries. You can also find opportunities looking with web2.0 tools, I’ll write about it too on another blogpost.

Good luck

Today is the World Tourism day. One day to to raise awareness on the role of tourism within the international community and to demonstrate how it affects social, cultural, political and economic values worldwide. On September 27th of 1970, the Statutes of the UNWTO were adopted.

I wanna share with you a couple of videos:

What a wonderful world: we live in an amazing planet to discover. Everywhere we go, we can learn a lot of things. Keep discovering this world and be conscious that we are not the only ones who want to discover it.

Air traffic video shows the airline traffic in the world in a day. It can make you think about how the action of  moving to another country due to any reason: travel, work, family, afect social/cultural/political and economic issues.

Have a great day,

Today, all the bloggers around celebrate the Blog Day. This consists giving  5 recommendations of new blogs that you have just discovered. This way, your blog readers wil

l find  other interesting stuff to learn about it and will have the opportunity to follow th

em.

My recommendation for today are different blogs I’m following throught my Reader. Some of them are in English or in Spanish. Use google translate if you are in trouble with the words or the whole text.

So, here is my recommendation for this day:

• Go Green, travel green.  Everyone should think in green. Always and more when we travel. Really interesting blog with travel tips for eco-conscious travelers.
• Blog de viajes. An argentinan blogger who shares almost everyday interesting things about travelling, tourism and . This blogger was awarded as the Best Spanish Language Blog by the Lonely Planet Travel Blogger Awards 2009.
• La volta dels 25. This blog has 2 special things for me and just found it looking for some links. These special things are: It’s in Catalan, the language of Catalunya and of course, my language. The secong one, he’s 25, like me. He decided to take 1 year off and travel the world. He’s interviewing 25 young people from 25 years old around the world and write a book about it. Also awarded as the Best non-english  travel Blog by the Lonely Planet Travel Awards 2009.
• The practical nomad. I guess that if you just wanna travel and love international travel, this blog is the first stop you have to do before start planning anything. He’s an expert on airfares and how to get the best deals on the Internet and updates a lot of information and resources.
• Comer y tapear bien barato en Barcelona. This one is not about travelling throught the world, is about another trip to one city and its food. If you are in love with Barcelona, and you like the feeling of a good meal. Don’t miss this update with the best places on where to eat and for how much, from the most visited places in the city to the most hidden ones.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!!

After realizing that flying from Santiago (de Compostela) can be the longest flight ever (more than Santiago de Chile, which I thought it was the longest) I was searching the possible compensations for my coworkers Genís and Marc.They already did something. Hence, try to avoid  flying with Spanair.

In the unlikely case  you are: denied boarding, or if your flight is cancelled, or if your flight is delayed for more tha two hours, airlines must give you a compensation and assistance, depending on the  situation. The reasons because an airline could change the time of your flight or cancel it altogether can be due to weather, mechanical problems and for not having all the crew in the boarding gate. Sometimes airlines might cancel a flight when there are not enought people that booked on.

All the information I’ve found is about flights departing from EU countries, landing to an EU country or with an EU airline.  You can check the information in Spanish here or just read the tips below. I think you can obtain similar compensations everywhere.

Denied boarding because of overbooking or cancelations:

When there’s an overbooked flight,  the airline will call for volunteers already with the confirmed reservation to exchange their flight for an agreed compensation. This compensation depends on how you get it:

If your exchange is for cash, the compensation goes like this:

• Flights of 1500 km or less: 250€
• Flights within the EU of more than 1500 km, and all other flights between 1500 and 3500 km : 400€
• Flights not falling under the other cases (another continent for ex.): 600€

You can also exchange it for Transportation Credit Voucher, depending on the airline you are flying with, it increases the agreed compensation. Usually it is about 100€ or 200€ more than the prices I wrote before.

If there’re not enough volunteers,  boarding can be denied to passengers against their will, if this happens, the compensation and assistance can be denied for the passenger. So don’t think it twice and get the money or the voucher!

Assistance when overbooking or cancellation

Every passenger have to receive, free of charge:

• Rerouting to the final destination under similar transport conditions and as soon as possible (maximum 7 days). The passenger can fly a later date at his/her convenience subject to the availability of seats.
• Meals/refreshments in a reasonable relation to the waiting time
• Hotel accommodation in cases of overnight stay with transport to the hotel included
• Communication: 2 telephone calls, fax messages or e-mails

Delays in flights

• There’s no compensation for 2 hours or less delay in the case of flights of 1500 km or less
• There’s no compensation for 3 hours or less  delay in the case of all intra-EU flights of more than 1500 km and of all other flights between 1500 and 3500 km
• There’s no compensation for 4 hours or less delay in the the other cases.

And think that:

Not with all the delays you can get an economic compensation, but you can check the Montreal Protocol and request it to the airline.

Not with all the the flights cancellations you can obtain a compensation:

• If the airline announces the flight cancellation 2 weeks before the flight.
• If the airline announces the flight cancellation 7 days before the flight and they offer an alternative transportation that will allow you to reeschedule your trip and take off 2 hours before your cancelled flight and with another requeriment: do not arrive 4 hours later than the first scheduled flight.
• If the airplane shows a cause by “force majeure“

And my last tips:

• Don’t loose your boarding pass. This is your proof you have a seat assigned and it can help in the future with the complaints.
• Be patient, in these situations, the airplane crew in the boarding gate or customer service of the airline have just a little bit more information than you and sometimes they can’t do anything. Just make your complaints by requesting the complaint book.

“I don’t find a job”, “this crisis is affecting so much to the economy in my city”, “I don’t know where to look for”. Most of you probably have thought  of taking the first option offered, others can think about they will find it later and it’s better of  just keep looking for…and most of you have the desire of travelling because you feel useless at home waiting for a  call.

If you have this last feeling, don’t think it twice. Despite the economic gloom and doom, there are millions of jobs abroad available these days. If you can afford at least 3 months of living by yourself, it’s time to make a decision (most of the times it won’t be the salary you’ll get in your country, but most of the times it’s not about the salary, it’s about the experience).

Some of the travel jobs on the list you are gonna read below pay better than others. Some demand specific qualifications, while others are available to just about anyone who can speak some specific languages.

• Teaching Languages.
  • Spanish: The Spanish goverment offers some grants to spanish teachers to go to the US, also, there’re a lot of countries who are lack of spanish teachers.
  • English: you can become part of  the cultural assistant program to teach English in Spain, althought there are a lof of countries where you can teach this universal language.

• BabySitting:
  • The International Au Pair Association works to put in contact families with people who want to take care of their childrens. Before taking care of a kid, kust make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into first, because it’s sometimes tough depending on the children.
  • There are also other different networking websites to help new babysitters to find families on their own. One of the best is Great Aupair, and mommymixer,  aupair.com and easy aupair . Never forget that a lot of babysitters work as family assistants and drive kids to after-school programs, planning birthday parties, etc..

• Voluntering:
  • The world needs you and a volunteering escape can help a lot to the organization you are working on and yourself. Volunteer opportunities are practically innumerable and in almost every country. Sites like Volunteer abroad or Idealist are references.
  • Other organizations like the European Youth Portal or the Global Volunteer Network can help to look for the best work. One organization I’d like to mention is Vicente Ferrer Fundation.   Read a little bit about what people says about these  or other organizations before going there.

• Cruising/Sailoring
  • The perfect way to enjoy the good weather throught high seasons in different parts of the world. There are thousands of cruises which weigh anchor everyday in different parts of the world. All cruise Jobs is the biggest job board dedicated to employment in cruises.
  • Another sites where you can be a part of the cruise crew around the world are cruiselinejob,  workoncruiseship and if you want to try something different that just entretaintment, this site allows you to work in platforms and huge non touristic ships.
  • if you don’t like crowds, don’t think it twice and check the opportunity of smaller private yachts. They also need people for the crew, some cool websites I found: crewseekers, findacrew and crewfile.

• Tourguide:
  • Being a tour guide can be really interesting if you like history and you have good social skills. There so many tour companies where you can apply
  • But tour guide does not only mean going to cities and explain the history and the buildings, you can also combine it with your hobby: mountain biking, birdwatching. Some hostels I’ve been offer the opportunity to be a guide and discover the beauty of the region you are in.

• Exchange work for Hostel Beds
  • Maybe this option sounds crazy, but some hostels, like the ones next to my favourite area offer it. Grand Canyon are offering some positions of cleaning rooms or computer work. Some hostels have the option already, if not, ask the hostel owner if it’s possible to exchange work  for a bed. Make sure to mention you are good for this position because there’re a minimum days you have to stay there. You can find more information about working in hostels in the Hostel Jobs webpage.

• Seasonal Agricultural Campaigns
  • Ifyou  don’t like cities and want to feel the countryside, the beginning of seasonal campaigns are your option. It will be tough, but being in contact with nature is always good. The seasonal agricultural campaigns are everywhere. It’s about team work and undertake the tasks of picking, storing and packing the fruit. Check this site for Spain and this post in Australia. Working in an organic farm somwhere around the globe can be also a wonderful experience. Helpexchange is a great site too.

• Commercial Airplane crew
  • This is not a short term job, it’s another career. Cabin crew work for airlines is a very popular option for a lot of travelers. Qatar Airways or British airways are two options, there are so many opportunities and a lot of companies are hiring. It sounds like a really cool job, but don’t forget that the cavin crew are the responsible for the safety of passengers and are specially trained to deal with security and emergency situations. Their work can be stressful but allows you to discover a lot of places in the world.

• Artist:
  • Being an artist can bring you everywhere. You can think about music and check the tours of a lot of artists. You can be one of them too. There are also a lot of people who are going abroad to show their culture or travel as a staff. Also, the circus can be a good way to tour the world showing your talent.

And don’t forget you can always travel without working. Just enjoy your time but first of all check out your budget!!

Before or after making a decision on where to travel, depending on so many factors of course, you have to decide the most important question: travel alone or travel with more people.

It’s always a hard decision to say: I’m gonna travel by myself, but what about the question of traveling in group? Sometimes it’s harder, I swear.

There are plenty of different things which can create more confidence between the travelers, but also you can have different objectives of the trips and also more conflicts.

This post is based about some of my past experiences, and i’d like to share with you that it’s so important who are you going with, make sure you know them and check if your personalities fit  together, because if you don’t do that, you’ll have to find other alternatives or decide to go just by yourself (what I did last year for 2 months, meeting people on the road and in different houses)

So, before traveling with a friend, make sure:

• What is the aim of the trip: sightseeing, relax, partying, museums and architecture, escaping from the big cities and see surroundings. Make sure you know what everyone hope to experience.
• What is your budget? how many days?  this seems obvious, but it’s super important. It’s crucial to make sure your travel partner has a similar budget and days than you: a taxi is faster than the metro sometimes, and a fast food is faster than a restaurant. Both examples with different prices and more days also increase the prices.
• What type of personality you guys have: if you are dependent of people, independent or a mix. Sometimes opposites attract, but make sure this is not gonna break any plan in the trip.  I’m not a pro-tests person, but maybe this can help.
• How social you are? Depending on what activities you wanna do in the trip, or if it’s a trip to a country that you know people, make sure everyone understand what you wanna do and meet. Also, there are so many people traveling alone, would you able to fit them in your plans?
• How flexible, patiente and tolerant you guys are. Sometimes the route is stablished and your travelling companion doesn’t want to stop and spend more days in one place and you do.
• How positive and open-minded you guys are.  What happen if your reservation in a hotel is not the one you had, or that you are gonna end sleeping in a bus station somewhere filthy.
• What facts/actions can end the trip before starting it: make sure that if one of your travel friends decide finally not to join the group, the other people won’t make the same and let you without your holidays. Then you’ll have to change your plans too and if you don’t do it fast, maybe you’ll end at home during holidays.

Tip: Having conversations about travel plans before the trip. This can be challenging but you can realize if it’s a good decision to start with the trip and how.

and remember: traveling is like a test for any relationship and a way to discover yourself. You can realize and learn new things and behaviours of people you’ve know your whole live or you are just discovering. Every travel teachs, even you travel with (your)people or alone, so learn a lot and safe trip!

My travel category on my google reader always shows me new places to discover, or different tips about every city/country….I follow different types of blogs in diferent languages and during the last few months they have been talking about the airports around the world. Yes, I’m a world traveler and when I get to any airport I’d like to have the better facilities to get to the gate or relax before your next flight connection.

I remember reading a post about the best airports in the world in 2008,  and checking the best airports in 2009, and i’ve been really surprised on how WIFI is not one of the main reason for grading the airports. There are few airports around the world where you can have wireless for free, and I don’t know why Oporto is not in the list, where I could find internet for free,  and it has a low cost fares flight partnership.

Last weekend I was really delighted by the Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport because of, not only the modern architecture, amenities that offer to the passengers. I believe that waiting times in the airport and no lost luggage are reasons to rank an airport, but also there are a lot of little things in the airport can make the waiting time shorter. Who was not stuck in an airport? Iwouldn’t care being stuck in an airport likeOporto, also considered one of the best regional airports in europe by the Airport Council International with the 3d position in 2007.

I knew that some bus stations around the world have showers for the travelers, but never heard about an airport with showers for free before and that clean, confortable couches to sleep on,  and the best if you travel with kids or teens: playgrounds and foosball!! and of course,  a really modern metro/tramway that stops into the city in 22 minutes….

Suggestion: If you are preparing an escape to Oporto, enjoy all the day in the beach of Gaia and take the metro to the airport to take shower and rest a little bit before your fight . More airports like this one??

Few of you will know, last weekend I flow with Stephen to California. The reason: Nick and Nikita were getting married. It was a suprise for some of the people who were in the wedding in the beautiful Santa Barbara and I knew i was flying there 3 days before of catching the plane to go to Los Angeles.

I want to share with every person who read “The everywhere dream” the fantastic shock, so different culturally, and just have good words to describe it. Seriously, with a hindi: Nikita Dang,  plus an american: Nick Kennedy we enjoyed the perfect ceremony!! the forecast was not with us the day before of the wedding so just the cerimony was inside the hotel and not next to the beach as it was planned, but still…amazing

I could learn a little bit about Indian traditions,  India as a country and of course hindu weddings!!!On friday: the rehearsal dinner: for me…new experience as in my country we don’t have rehearsal dinners. On Saturday,  it just took 6 hours of the cerimony (starting at 8:30 in the morning) before the cocktail and the dinner.

Some of the indian traditions i learnt from this wedding:

• Vara Agaman & Paukan (The welcoming of the groom), the bride’s mother welcomed the groom and placed Teeka on his forehead as a symbol of her wish for the couple’s lifelong family). That was incredible,
• The Jaymala (exchanging of Garlands between the bride and the groom to express respect for one another and to promise to share everything) was really genuin and authentic
• Ganesh Puja, when the priest recited a prayer to Lord Ganesh requesting removal of all obstacles
• Granthi Bandhan or typying the knot: the joyous union of the couple is symbolized by tyingf the ends of 2 garments together in a sacred knot
• Havan (lighting the fire and after Mangal Phera:walking around and circlying 4 times the fire) was to call Agni, the Lord of fire, to bless the couple with purity and happiness in their lives together as the sacred flame was lit.
• Kansarbhojan when the bride and groom feed each other sweets sygnifying their total commintment to each other
• The Mangal Sutra and Sindoor Dan (sacred necklace and red powder) to symbolize groom’s commintment to her throughhout their lives.

We had a great time over there, and althought it was just for a 4 days, I had the opportunity to meet again incredible people I met throught couchsurfing and in Texas A&M last year. The hardest moment when you travel are the goodbye time, and when you realize you can meet again…it’s amazing: thanks Sean and Tori, Adam, Jack, Phil, and my other people: new one’s a old friends!!

I’ve always wanted an indian wedding and I had an indian wedding in the US!!!thanks Dang family, thanks Kennedy family, thanks Stephen…now…it’s time for an Indian wedding in my next trip to Bhārat Gaṇarājya.

And for the new weds: enjoy your honeymoon!!

and for Stephen:please, upload the pictures!!

Picture: From the wedding invitation! A common motif seen on hindu wedding invitations, the symbol or stylised depiction of Ganesha, the elephant god. His name is invoked at the beginning of any venture, event or celebration.

Summer vacations are comming,  people are starting to think about where to go and when (a lot of people have their days off in august, 2 or 3 weeks…) For the ones with a restrictive budget, or people that don’t wanna spend a lot of money travelling and they wanna go to a different country, for travelers, families that wary about the cost of taking a vacation this summer, some economic relief may be in the offing, it’s just checking….thousands of good deals are around!

I wanna share with you what we were talking about with some friends last friday in Sant Cugat. As they are preparing their holidays (which I’m thinking on joining them depending on my family), and we all wanna save money.

We were checking the prices of the possible countries to travel (going to Japan is totally different that spending 20 days in India in terms of money) with the Big Mac Index, a new way that the Economist suggested to measure the purchase power in different parts of the world taking the cost of a BigMac hamburger and the exchange rate of every country.

It’s kind of funny to see the comparison but there are some limitations with this index, as in many countries, eating at international fast-food chains is quite expensive and if you wanna save money it’s better to stop by a local restaurant, and of course, the demand for Big Macs is not that large in countries like India as in the United States.

So, we’ll continue checking what will be the closest and cheapest escape for this summer with this type of tips, the Big Mac index was a good idea, but we need more tips!!

To finish, I truly believe that eating in McDonalds with a small budget and being full is past…it’s time for Dönner Kebabs , althought the ring-shaped pastry + cofee + 30 minutes wifi at McDolands is a really good deal.