Retro Recomendo: Destinations

Recomendo - issue #444

Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started eight years ago, that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we’re trying out something new — Retro Recomendo. Once every 6 weeks, we’ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 8 years.

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Intimate boat tours

A tour in the Galapagos was one of our best vacations ever. There are no hotels so you live on a boat, which travels during the night so you wake up in the cove of a different island each morning. Each island is a different biome (inspiring the idea of evolution for Darwin). You spend the day actively hiking around the islands encountering a myriad of perfectly tame animals and birds. While there are large cruise boats, the key is to sail on a small boat to minimize transit times ashore. Go to Happy Gringo to find diverse small boat tours. They are utterly reliable and 1/3 the cost of others. — KK

Explore cities by bike

I used the Red Bike service when I was in Cincinnati recently. A 24-hour pass costs a measly $8. You just grab a bike at any of the dozens of stations (an app shows you how many bikes are available on a map) and start pedaling. The bikes have baskets and locks. It’s a lot more fun than Uber! — MF

Find street food tours

Before I travel to new city X, I search for “street food tour for city X.” Almost every interesting city these days has someone offering this inside look. I find it a quick, fun, inexpensive, exhilarating way to get to know a place. — KK

World’s cheapest destinations

So much to see, so little money. Why not maximize your travel by getting the most per dollar? The World’s Cheapest Destinations will guide you to the best least expensive countries in the world, where a small budget will purchase you ten times the joy of a more expensive region. Part of my secret to travel is to visit these countries listed, which are usually the most interesting, too. Now in its 5th updated edition, this succinct guide is one of the best investments in life you can make. — KK

Room of Silence

One of the most profound experiences I've had while traveling was visiting the Raum der Stille, a non-denominational room of silence near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. I sat in a chair within a clean, nondescript room, facing 2 or 3 other people in similar chairs. The room wasn't soundproof, but we were all silent and in our own reflective states. I didn't want to leave. I felt connected to these strangers and to myself, which is something I never felt in any church. I was so overwhelmed and grateful for that short experience, and was excited to visit more quiet rooms. I encourage anybody visiting Berlin soon to seek it out. — CD

Coolest nature museum

The world’s coolest nature museum: The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England. It’s a day trip from London. Take the 1-hour train to Oxford, then walk 15 minutes from the station to the museum, co-housed with the Oxford University Nature Museum. Enter into a lost world of curiosity. You are surrounded by three floors of artifacts collected over centuries by eccentric British explorers. Displays include shrunken heads, voodoo dolls, tomb relics, weird insects, ancient folk tools, dinosaur skeletons, taxidermy galore, uncountable biological, and mineralogical specimens, all stacked in glassy cabinets with typed cards and labels. It’s supremely old-school and hugely satisfying. — KK

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