Tips and Tricks: Finding accommodation before you hit the ground

Jets Like Taxis: Our patio and garden in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Our patio and garden in Buenos Aires, Argentina

I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not a master at this. Not in the way that I’m a master at selling all of our possessions, or annoying our dog, or drinking six people’s coffee intake on a daily basis, or being angry if the sun gets up before I do. But, I have traveled a lot and lived many places, and have been forced to find living spaces on all of these occasions, be they short- or long-term.

I’m always the guy who gets stuck with the booking. Always. It doesn’t matter if I’m traveling with friends, family, my better half, or imaginary friends. No one ever wants to do this. Never! And since I’m known around many parts as the research nerd, this glorious task is more often than not – read: always – bestowed upon me. I like to think it’s because I’m well-traveled, or that I speak multiple languages. But in reality, I’m just the nerd who can (or has the patience to) sift through Internet crap and find what we need. [Edit: Angela reminded me that she booked our hotel for a trip to Dallas a few years ago. Credit where credit is due!]

That said, I’d like to give you an amateur’s perspective on how we go about looking for furnished places during our stays in various cities, countries, and distant planets. (That last one is a lie – I’m afraid of space travel.)

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Next stop: Monte-who-where?

Montenegro: Creative Commons by Jacek Lisowski

Montenegro: Creative Commons by Jacek Lisowski

It’s been really fun coming up with ideas for places to live for three-month stints. Some in the EU, some out (see Ryan’s 90/180 post).

What hasn’t been fun is taking that always-growing list and trying to decide where to start. We thought about whittling down our choices to just a few, then writing those few largely on a piece of paper, putting treats next to each one, and letting the dog loose on the treats. The first treat he gobbled would be the place we’d go first. I even thought about videotaping the whole thing and posting it so you all could see how the choice was made at random, and it would be a kind of fun “unveiling.”

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Look Around: You’re Surrounded by Your Travel Fund

Chicago - Selling Everything

Our living room in Chicago (2010)

Clutter. Stuff. Things. Possessions. Goods. Whatever. How much of it do you actually have? Ang found these photos from before we left Chicago over a year ago, and we thought we should share. Look at all that stuff! Did we really need it? Well, I guess it depends on what you want to do with your life. We love travel, and we’ll soon be location independent, which means we can only have what we can carry (and less than that is even better).

That said, we sold or gave away about 99.9% of what you see in those photos before we left the U.S. The rest went with us in the form of equipment we didn’t need (more on that in another post), too many clothes, and our beloved collection of artwork. We even spent over $1000 (US) on shipping all of this in a 36” x 36” x 48” crate – the vast majority of which was never even touched during nearly 1.5 years in Germany.

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Traveling Europe: Schengen, the EU, and the 90-day Rule…

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

I should make it very clear from the start that, while everyone is free to read this, I am only writing this for Americans. Not because I don’t like anyone else – I love you all – but because we’re American travelers and expats, and every country’s situation is different.

EU citizens are blessed with a ridiculous freedom of movement, as are New Zealanders, because, who doesn’t love a Kiwi? Canadians have a case similar to Americans, but a little more complex due to immigration spats and the like with countries such as the Czech Republic. Australians have a different set of rules, as do South Africans and a host of other nations. We are American, we have zero experience traveling as [enter non-U.S. citizenship status here], and therefore haven’t really had any need to know how long we can stay in [whatever country] as [citizen of a country that is not America]. Cool? Cool.

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Resistance is Futile…

Our first apartment in Berlin

The view from our first flat in Berlin

It’s all very clear in my head – the reasons we want to be nomads – the changes in our perspective on life after leaving the States over a year ago, and recently realizing that what we do is actually location-independent. Although we’d been reading up on all these wonderfully informative blogs regarding the nomadic lifestyle (see our links on the right), and dreaming of that lifestyle for ourselves, it was never a solid plan that we were actively pursuing…until last week.

I spent a couple hours here at a cafe in Berlin, with a friend I haven’t seen in a while, catching up on everything that’s happened since we last saw each other. Never did I imagine that what we were planning on doing would be so hard to explain, or that I would be met with such resistance.

I started with the explanation of how we’ve been put in a position, completely out of our control, where we’re forced to make huge changes in our lives, and how we’re excited and energized by the adventures that lay ahead.

Her immediate reaction was to ask me, in quick succession: What are you thinking? How could you leave Berlin (“but it’s BERLIN!!!”)? Are you guys craaazy? Won’t it be so stressful to move so often? What about your friends? Then, nothing but open-jawed stunned silence.

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Welcome to Jets Like Taxis…

Hey there! What’s crackin’? I just posted the below on our About page, but I figured it’d make a good first post as well. Right then…

Jets Like Taxis in County Wicklow

County Wicklow, Ireland (2009)

We are Ang and Ryan. We’re a couple – with crazy little dog named Louis in tow – who love to travel the world, live different places, get to know people and new cultures, learn languages, and do lots of sitting in cafes. Not that we don’t work or anything. Fortunately for us, we’ve put ourselves in a position to be location independent, and it just so happens that it’s also the way we prefer to live.

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