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05Jun 2019 by Monika Giacca Millar 1 Comment
Flirting With Disaster

Flirting With Disaster

INFORMATION, TRAVEL
My number one travel tip is a difficult one for me to suggest to my clients. The travel motto my husband’s and I have is, “The best trips are the trips where something goes wrong.” We’ve travelled a lot together, we’ve seen beautiful cities, beautiful beaches, met lovely people … but if I’m being honest, there’s something just so vanilla about those trips. Don’t get me wrong, I do not wish disaster upon myself or anyone, but it’s when things go wrong that the opportunity for truly great memories and excellent stories are born. I also think it’s an excellent travel philosophy for anyone who travels frequently, you need to roll with the punches. When you come back from a trip it’s much better to come back ‘glass half full’…
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22May 2019 by Dave Macleod No Comments
#40 Jeep or Buggy Sand Dunes

#40 Jeep or Buggy Sand Dunes

BUCKET LIST, TRAVEL
This bucket list item was completed on 5th January 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. In my previous post, #25 Go to the Grand Canyon, the story concluded with Kyle and me enjoying a meal at Hooters after our adventure to the Grand Canyon. Our schedule in Las Vegas was packed full of activities. For many people, Las Vegas can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We had no clue if, or when, we were going to make it back so we decided to make the most of it. The following day we had a tour scheduled with SunBuggy Fun Rentals. They were the original dune buggy operator in Las Vegas and offer the best gear and great experiences. They sounded like a good outfit so we figured we were in for…
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08May 2019 by Dave Macleod No Comments
Credit Card Travel Benefits: Credit Cards vs Travel Cards

Credit Card Travel Benefits: Credit Cards vs Travel Cards

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
This blog post is the fourth, and final, instalment of my Credit Card Travel Benefits Series and continues on from Credit Card Travel Benefits: Cash vs Credit Cards. In my last blog post, I compared the use of cash and credit cards during an overseas holiday. The results concluded that, with all things considered, using credit cards for overseas travel was the better option. In recent years, reloadable travel cards have become more popular and banks have encouraged their customers to use them while travelling overseas. Once you obtain a travel card you can load money onto it, from your bank account, in your local currency and have it converted to any of the currencies supported by the card. When you load the travel card directly from your bank account,…
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10Apr 2019 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#25 Lesson] Witness Things with Your Own Eyes

[#25 Lesson] Witness Things with Your Own Eyes

BUCKET LIST, LESSON
This life lesson relates to my previous blog post #25 Go to the Grand Canyon. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Well, then how many words is seeing something with you own eyes worth? Is it 10,000? Is it 1,000,000? There is no answer. There is no compromise. Nothing compares to seeing something firsthand. Don’t cheat yourself. I had seen hundreds of images of the Grand Canyon before visiting it that day, but when I stood at the edge, I was truly blown away. Photos make it look amazing but to stand there and stare out at the great expanse was something I will remember for the rest of my life. I had a similar experience when I visited the Coliseum in Rome. These are two of the…
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27Mar 2019 by Dave Macleod No Comments
#25 Go to the Grand Canyon

#25 Go to the Grand Canyon

BUCKET LIST, TRAVEL
This bucket list item was completed on 4th January 2013 in Arizona, USA. This blog post will pick up where #26 Gamble in Las Vegas left off. After a successful night of gambling we got some sleep for, our much anticipated, next day. When we realised that we would not be playing in the third day of the WSOBP, we went to the concierge at our hotel and booked a rental car. The concierges in Las Vegas are top notch. They are always happy to help out, no matter how crazy the request. A rental car booking was a walk in the park for them. After breakfast, we made our way to the rental car agency to pick up our navy blue, convertible Ford Mustang. It takes about 4.5 hours…
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13Mar 2019 by Dave Macleod No Comments
2011 & 2012 Roundup

2011 & 2012 Roundup

BUCKET LIST, GENERAL, LESSON
Over the past several weeks I have been posting the stories and lessons that I have learned from my bucket list adventures in 2011 & 2012. I managed to complete one item in 2011 and two items in 2012, which brought my total number of completed items up to nine. My bucket list progress from year-to-year can be tracked using the graph I have created. In case you have missed any of the stories or lessons from my bucket list adventures, here is a roundup. #95 Swim with Dolphins Completed on 22nd April 2011 in Varadero, Cuba. [#95 Lesson] Always Assess the Information Source   #38 Eat at a White Castle Restaurant Completed on 26th August in Green Brook Township, New Jersey, USA. [#38 Lesson] Cherish Adventures with Your Close…
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27Feb 2019 by Dave Macleod 1 Comment
Old Ghost Road Mountain Bike Trek

Old Ghost Road Mountain Bike Trek

GENERAL, TRAVEL
The Old Ghost Road is one of New Zealand’s top multi-day mountain bike rides and one of the adventures in New Zealand all together. At 85 km, it is the longest single track mountain bike ride in New Zealand. It goes up over mountains, meanders along rivers and traverses steep cliffs. I have done many adventure activities in New Zealand and a few other multi-day activities but this is one I will remember forever. If this has not been on your radar up until now… it should be. My friends and I began planning for our trek along the OGR nine months in advance to ensure we could get bunks in the cabins before they sold out. We were aiming to start 16th December, which is in the high season.…
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13Feb 2019 by Dave Macleod No Comments
Credit Card Travel Benefits: Cash vs Credit Cards

Credit Card Travel Benefits: Cash vs Credit Cards

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
This blog post is the third of my Credit Card Travel Benefits Series and continues on from Credit Card Travel Benefits: Frequent Flyer Points. I never leave home without at least one credit card in my wallet, especially when travelling. In this blog post I will describe how I use cash and credit cards when travelling overseas. I will also look at the pros and cons of each. After almost a decade of travelling the world with credit cards at my disposal, I have developed a system that works quite well for me. Canada is pretty good for the percentage of merchants that accept credit cards but, since living in New Zealand, I have realised that the percentage is even higher here. Credit cards are so widely accepted in New…
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30Jan 2019 by Monika Giacca Millar No Comments
Travelling With a Baby: Our Experience

Travelling With a Baby: Our Experience

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
I’m sure that a lot of readers of this blog aren’t even thinking about having kids at this time. But there are a lot of millennials following as well, and one by one you’re each getting plucked off the singles list, getting married, and inevitably having kids (or likely skipping getting married and putting that money toward a house or trip!). When you have kids, there’s no need to ditch your travelling habits or shelve your bucket list for when the kids grow up – it’s just time to restructure and reorganize it. Are there trips on your list that are more baby friendly than others? Perhaps, there are some great places you would like to go that would be great for when your little one is 4-6 years old,…
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16Jan 2019 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#26 Lesson] Gambling is Called Gambling for a Reason

[#26 Lesson] Gambling is Called Gambling for a Reason

BUCKET LIST, LESSON, TRAVEL
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #26 Gamble in Las Vegas. The word gambling is defined as the activity or practice of playing at a game of chance for money or other stakes. What is the most important word in this sentence? Chance. The word chance is defined as a possibility or probability of anything happening. Possibility cannot be quantified but probability can. The probability of an event happening in a casino (The House) is called the House Edge. In simple terms, the House Edge is the mathematical advantage that a game has over an individual, over a long term. The higher the House Edge, the higher the probability that the House will take your money over a long period of play. In short, gambling involves using your…
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