New York City, New York

New York is an amazing city to visit as a tourist. I’ve been a handful of times now, and always look forward to it. There’s so much to do! But it’s also expensive.

Today, my friend & travel author Matt Kepnes shares tips for things to do in New York City on a budget after living there for many years. Tips are his, photos are mine. Here’s Matt:

New York is one of my favorite cities. In fact, I love it so much I lived there for close to five years. I can never get enough of it!

To me, NYC is the center of the world, with people, foods, and cultures from everywhere. It has a wild nightlife scene, and there’s a never-ending list of things to see, do, and experience.

Matera, Italy

Matera is one of the coolest places we visited in Italy. An ancient town made of caves, carved into the side of a ravine! Here are some tips for cool things to do in Matera.

The town of Matera, Italy has a long and fascinating history. And I mean loooong.

It is one of the oldest continually inhabited settlements in the world, estimated to be settled in the 10th millennium BC (that’s about 10,000 years ago!). And sporadically settled for another 400,000 years before that…

Travel Tips

I frequently pay for airline flights using points & miles I’ve built up using travel credit cards. Here are my favorite travel rewards credit cards to help you save money traveling!

I’m sure you’ve already heard about travel rewards credit cards by now. It basically means collecting points and miles on special credit cards and exchanging them for free flights or hotel stays later, saving you tons of money on travel.

My friends, prepare yourself. Because this monthly summary? It’s going to be all over the place.

When I left you last, back in May, I was in a bit of a funk.

Melbourne had entered strict lockdown, I’d developed shingles from overwork, Dave had cancelled my surprise birthday getaway, it was cold and wintry, and I missed so much of my old life. Things felt so greyscale in comparison to the technicolour I’d experienced in New Zealand, and indeed my pre-pandemic existence.

Well, this update is being typed by the hands of somebody who’s currently in strict lockdown, has had to cancel her 10 years of travel celebration, is stuck in Australia for the foreseeable future, and is fretting over still not being able to access a vaccine.

Holy shit, Lauren, things sound really bad there.

Nah, it’s alright, really.

And I must stress, I haven’t been in a continual hard lockdown. Oh no. I’ve actually been in three separate lockdowns. Seriously, guys. It’s kind of unbelievable. But also, I enjoyed these lockdowns? As, I said, all over the place!

And so, expect this summary to be chaotic as hell.

(Also, just a quick note that I rolled together my June and July monthly summaries together because I didn’t have all that much to share by the end of June. Lockdown lends itself to monotony, so I wasn’t doing anything particularly shareable or exciting!)

Let’s get started.