5 Budget-Friendly Destinations for the Solo Traveler

I'm a big fan of solo travel. Not only does it give you a new outlook on a destination, but it can give you a newfound sense of freedom and teach you about yourself in the process. If you've never traveled alone, you should do it at least once. On our last trip, I didn't go alone, but Eric went on ahead of me and I showed up 2 days later, giving me the opportunity to take myself to the airport, do all the stuff there, fly alone, and also pick up a rental car on my own. 

It's not a full solo travel experience, but sometimes those things are the actual most difficult if you've never done them alone before. If you want to ease into solo travel, this is a good way to do it, or just take yourself on a weekend getaway. Here are 5 places to go alone on a budget:

Denver, Colorado

I'll be traveling to Denver later this month to check out some things and eat all the food, so I'll have some suggestions for you. It's a great food city, but it's also excellent for those that like culture, history, and the outdoors. Save even more, while doing more, with the Denver CityPASS, where you can choose a 3-, 4-, or 5-attraction pass and save up to 45% over regular admission fees. 

Calgary, Canada

If you want to get out of the country, but not too far, our lovely neighbors to the north have a lot to offer and they speak the same language. They have a rich cowboy culture in Calgary, so if that's of interest to you, go during the Calgary Stampede. If it's not, there's plenty other stuff to do, especially if you want to be outdoors. It has the largest urban pathway and bikeway network, historical sites, and lots of outdoor art installations. 

Mexico City, Mexico

Want to stretch your language skills and how well Babbel taught you Spanish? We all know that Mexico is affordable outside of the touristy areas, and the capitol is no different. It's full of amazing architecture and food, plus tons of free activities help to keep you on budget. 

Panama City, Panama

If Mexico City sounded up your alley, but seemed a bit too big and scary, then Panama City is a better option. It offers similar things, but on a smaller scale. It's easy to get around and the oldest district, Casco Viejo, has everything you could want during the day - great history, food, culture, and photo ops - then it becomes a vibrant nightlife center when the sun goes down.

Reykjavik, Iceland

Reykjavik is one of the safest cities to visit anywhere, so if you're a woman, you have much less to worry about and can spend more time having a good time. Renting a car can help you get to everything you want to do, including great hikes and a visit to one of their volcanoes. Iceland is wonderful for adventurous eaters, but they have plenty for those that like food that they're more used to as well, and wonderful coffee. Reykjavik is the perfect wellness and self-care getaway, but can be awesome for the partier, too.

Have you ever solo traveled to any of these destinations? Or are you looking forward to a trip to one in the future?

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What Are The Top Reasons To Use A VPN?

Using a VPN has become common practice for many people. However, there are still a lot of individuals out there that never use a VPN. By not adopting this tech, you could be missing out on a huge range of benefits.

Photo by Stefan Coders: CCO Licensed

But before we go into these benefits, let’s work out what exactly is a VPN. Commonly installed as an app, a VPN is an internet security service that can conceal your IP address and encrypt your data. This prevents hackers, advertisers, websites and other apps from accessing various personal information.

There are many instances where hiding this personal information can be useful. Below are just a few examples.

Using public wi-fi securely

Public wi-fi is any free internet connection found in a public place (i.e. hotels, restaurants, airports). Using public wi-fi can be more risky than using private wi-fi, because you never know who else is using the network. Experienced hackers may be able to use methods like ARP spoofing to gain access to your data. In other cases, cybercriminals may set up fake public wi-fi connections to extort the private information of users. 

A VPN can encrypt your data and prevent hackers from gaining any information about you. It’s a simple way to secure your devices while on the go. 

When I travel and I am using an open WiFi network at a hotel (any network without a password), I do everything on my laptop with my VPN on. Originally, I got a VPN, so I could pay a bill from another country. Exciting, I know, but being able to also set it to my home country allowed me to do more things I wanted than a local French network would allow.

Streaming TV shows while travelling

When travelling to other countries, it may not be possible to stream your favourite shows. The likes of Netflix offers different content to users in different countries. Some streaming services may not even be available in some regions of the world. Unless you download titles, you usually won’t be able to watch them (and even then, Netflix may restrict you from watching them).

Most VPNs can not only hide your location, but allow you to change your IP address so that it appears you’re accessing the internet from a different country. This can allow you to continue streaming content from your home country while abroad, as well as accessing content from other regions from your home country. 

Visiting geo-restricted sites

Some websites are not available in certain countries. This can be due to censorship laws, licensing deals, lack of cooperation with local data laws or inability to serve/ship to customers in certain countries..

Just as a VPN can allow you to access geo-restricted streaming content, it can also allow you to access geo-restricted websites by changing your IP address to another location. This can allow you to still visit sites available in your home country while abroad, on top of visiting sites only available in other countries. 

Bypassing IP address blocks

Websites, applications and browsers can block your IP address if they see fit to do so. A common reason to do this is if they suspect you are a hacker or a bot. 

While IP address blocking can be annoying (especially if you have done nothing wrong), there is fortunately an easy way around it. You guessed it - use a VPN. By hiding your IP address, websites and applications won’t be able to tell that it’s you trying to access them and you’ll be able to freely use them.

Avoiding bandwidth throttling

If a lot of people are using the internet at the same time in a certain area, an internet service provider may throttle the bandwidth of people in that area to restrict traffic. This can result in a slow internet connection - which can be frustrating when gaming, watching videos or trying to voice call someone. 

Fortunately, a VPN can save the day in this case too.By hiding your IP address from your internet service provider, you can avoid having your connection slowed down, allowing you to use the internet as normal during busy periods.

Taking advantage of location-based prices

Some companies offer cheaper prices for products or services in certain areas. Unless you live in this area, you cannot access these prices.

That is, of course, unless you use a VPN. By changing your IP address to another location, it is possible to access cheaper prices on everything from flights to clothes. This could save you a lot of money.

Reduce tracking from advertisers

Some people don’t like to be harassed by adverts of things they’ve browsed for. Others simply don’t like the idea of advertisers getting hold of their personal data. 

Using a VPN is one way to counter these ads. It may not completely prevent targeted ads (as advertisers sometimes use other methods like browser fingerprinting), however it could reduce the majority of them. 

Happy Birthday Harry Potter

It's that time again. Summer has rolled around and this is the part of the year where my world becomes a lot more magical. Between June, July, and August we do a lot of Harry Potter events in celebration of the Chosen One's birthday. (We also tend to pack a lot into December.) 

We had an extra special even this year to kick off the "season" and if you are following me on IG, then you have already seen a bunch of posts.

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Early July brought us the last LeakyCon

LeakyCon is a convention put on by Mischief Management, a fandom event company, but was originally run by the website The Leaky Cauldron. It's a three-day celebration of all things Potter, which has been pulling in other magical fandoms (much like Fandom Forward) and is now transitioning to Enchanticon. We were lucky that this year was in Portland, so we didn't actually have to travel anywhere to get in on the fun. 

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PDXpelliarmus, the non-profit I'm on the board of, was specifically asked to have a presence there, so I spent a good portion of all three days at our booth, talking to people about what we do and how we do it and geeking out with other Potterheads over their amazing cosplays. While the show was much smaller than usual, it was wonderful to connect with so many awesome people, make quite a bit of money for charity, and also attend some great panels and spotlight talks. I met some magical creators that I've been following for years, got to see Starkid's last LeakyCon performance, and traded a lot of badge ribbons. I brought home a lot of memories and a few treasures. 

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My cosplays for the weekend: Friday I was a Honeydukes employee, Saturday I was The Fat Lady who guards Gryffindor tower, and Sunday I transformed into Stan Shunpike, the Knight Bus conductor, on summer vacation.

Mid-July brought us to our annual magical tea

We live a few miles from a really amazing tea house called Clockwork Rose Tea Emporium. They shut down for a week or so 4 times a year in order to transform their space into something truly amazing for a 6- to 8-week run of specialty tea seatings. In July, and part of August, this is the annual Harry Potter tea. 

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They serve special tea blends, themed foods, and they also have live entertainment. Usually that is a Muggle magician and the owner often comes out to run a Divination session so we can read our tea leaves. I make a point to show up in a new outfit every year and this year I went as Professor Sinistra (the astronomy teacher) on vacation and I made Eric a new shirt, like I did last year, which is a French version of "the wand chooses the wizard", that is perfect for an event that serves baked goods, and a hat with Hufflepuff house in French. That means I can re-wear this one for my next event or our September stint at Rose City Comic Con and Eric will wear his shirt all year long. 

The end of July brought us Wizarding Weekend

This is one of our biggest events for PDXpelliarmus. We team up with a landmark place in town to help the community. McMenamins Kennedy School is a real historical elementary school that they have turned into a hotel with several restaurants, bars, and a movie theater. We takeover much of the public space so we can bring in vendors and run games, so we have The Great Hall, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, and Knockturn Alley. We either collect books or school supplies for schools/teachers in need and also raise funds for a big donation.

McMenamins, in turn, runs all 8 movies over the course of the weekend, has magical drink and food specials, and donates to a local charity here that helps people with basic needs. It's a win win win, and even though it's a ton of work, it's also a lot of fun. We do games and trivia and costume contests, give out House Points (and other prizes) and then announce the winner at the end of the weekend. People get real competitive over plastic gems and we love it. Everyone wants their House to win. 

What's next? Well, August is usually when I throw my annual Harry Potter party at home (it used to be the last weekend in July, but now that I'm volunteering, we moved it to the next weekend), but this year has been so crazy that I just couldn't pull it together in time, so we'll be doing our 10th official party next year, bigger and better than ever. 

In September, I'll be working with PDXpelliarmus to bring magic to Rose City Comic Con. In December, I might throw another Potter-themed birthday party for myself, because that's always fun. We will, for sure, be working our annual Yule Ball, which is actually our largest fundraiser of the year. A proper ball with dancing, a feast, and a nerdy DJ. People look forward to it all year and I can't say I blame them. We were able to secure the space and catering from last year already, so we're already 75% of the way there!

If I find anything cool and magical in the meantime, I'll definitely be posting to Facebook and Instagram first, so don't forget to follow me there. 

Disclaimer: As I always say, the fans own the fandom and I don't condone anything that She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has said in opposition of the trans community. Any art, artists, and events I support do not support her in any meaningful way (and I only say that because she probably does get compensated somehow for the movies they show at Kennedy School, but 50% of the ticket proceeds still go to a charity that helps the LGBTQ+ community without prejudice, and we can't tell a business how to spend their money, though we are floating the idea of showing entirely different magical movies going forward.)