Travel photography and Backpacker lyfestyle

The Youth Hostels Card is a card from the Hostelling International network which serves to identify you as “usual” in such shelters.

Its works just as any other card, show it when arriving to a hostel and you will receive a small discount on the price.

If you are under 30, it will cost you 5 euros, 12 euros if you are 30 or over. For groups and even families there are special and very convenient prices.

The discount isn’t amazing, but if you make a long travel, such as the Interrail, you will sace some euros, and it’s big money in the long term.

How can you get the Youth Hostel’s card?

It’s easy! You can get it in any hostel from Hostelling International network. You pay the extra euros, and they give it to you. It lasts a year. You must identificate yourself with some kind of ID card, or your passport.

You fill a sheet with your details and you get it at the time. Nor is advisable to take a couple of photos, although usually you do them with a webcam.

Got it. What now?

EThis is the best part, travel anywhere and look for Hostelling International hostels, present your card, and save money traveling. Combine it with other cards, discounts and deals and make your travel cheaper and when you return, tell in the comments where you’ve been!

Do you have the Youth Hostels Card? Where did you get it and how much did you use it?

Don’t make me wrong! Hygiene is important while traveling and you should take care of it on daily basis.

By mounting our backpack, we need to dedicate a space for our toiletries bag, and to carry a towel. However, there are some tips that can help us make this space minimal:

• Use shampoo, shower gel and deodorant with small boats, a small boat as a hotel samples can last a week if no waste.
• Manage the space in the toilet bag, to carry more does not mean that it takes more space, and most important, take advantage of every corner of your bag to make it fit better in your backpack.
• Use a hand towel instead of a normal towel to dry off. Takes less space than mountain towels, and much less than a normal towel, and you can wipe your entire body. If you continue your journey, you can hang outside of your backpack to dry with a safety pin. This trick is also useful with small clothes.

With this tips we will make a better use of the space on our backpack so we will be able to travel more confortable.

Do you have any tips for hygiene while traveling? Why not share them in the comments?

Most of us look for our accommodation, check availability and make reservations online.

If you decide your destination overnight, or you like to travel with no destination, many times you’ve found the word “full” at the time of checking availability.

I’ve seen it many times, and when I really wanted to have room in a hostel very specific for these dates, the best thing I could do is to call and make sure they really are full. Many times we are lucky, and they left some rooms for this people, and others I have been “left on the waiting list” and a room appeared in the last moment.

The latter happened to me on my trip to Barcelona, and finally I slept in a room with my friends in an extra bed. At that time I was very grateful because I was in the room with my friends, but I realized that probably the price was lower than a regular bed in a room that they could give another customer.

How do you make your reservations via the Internet? ¿Sueles llamar cuando quieres una habitación en un lugar muy concreto? Do you usually call when you want a room in a very specific place? Cuéntanoslo en los comentarios. Tell us in comments.

In my last visit to the Northern Spain, I wanted to visit some place in Asturias. I planned a big trip to the north long ago and now I wanted to visit something of that great trip: The Lakes of Covadonga.

This time I went by car, and was a pretty long trip from Santander, which included a long stretch on the motorway and another one of meandering between different roads, trough several tiny villages and many beautiful valleys. Surprisingly, I found a good number of hostels along the way, and many backpackers who may have been in the lakes yesterday.

The visit to the lakes is limited before 8 o’clock, time in which the flow of traffic is open and you can enter by car, bike, or whatever you want.

To enter with no car, you should use a public transport buses which are the only transport able to get to the lakes before that time. You must hurry because there are no buses between half past six and eight o’clock.

Meanwhile, to make time you can visit the Cathedral of Covadonga and the Cave of St. Mary, or if you don’t really care, have a beer at the bar whichi is conveniently located for the clueless who do not know at what time they finish up the buses.

The road up is scary, it’s very narrow and cars occasionally come down, making the journey even more dangerous not only because of the danger of precipitating the slope into the valley that accompanies the journey, but for the possibility of crash with someone who goes in the opposite direction. However, enjoying the green landscape, rocks, and the myriad of sight. It’s a rather long journey that seems to be taking you to a hidden place, like another world. I felt like a child when I thought that.

Once you get there, the view is spectacular. Los valles donde están los lagos son súper amplios, muy verdes, hay animales pastando y los lagos son preciosos. The valleys where they are situated are super large, very green, there are grazing animals and the lakes are amazingly beautiful.

The Lakes of Covadonga is a place of tranquility and peace only abused by tourists. Still, it’s so big that people have to yell a lot and very close to disturb you.

Although once you’ve seen the lakes there is little else to do besides hang out there, you still can enjoy the clean air, and the smell of grass, the feeling of being in a secluded place in the world.

Have you ever been in the Lakes? What did you like best?

Sometimes when I want to go further than usual, I take Google Earth and I look for a place with something interesting to see. With the panoramio layer is easy to find somwhere to go.

Once decided, is easy to establish a path to arrive there, with the car, the bike, or even the train. The only thing is sure is I’ll take the camera to take pictures of everything.

But not everything is this beautiful. In the digital roadmaps, Google gives you too much data which is easy you don’t need, and when it should be “Straight Forward” we can see “turn left, left again. Now right, now left again”. Not exactly what we want.

How to don’t get lost in the road?

When we improvise a destination it’s possible to realize that you don’t know exactly if you left the deflection back, or if we are in the right direction. With this tips you’ll get to your place with no problems:

• Don’t trust too much in google. Take a quick look and see the main deflections.
• Watch to the villages around the road. It’s important to know which villages are in the way you’ll use, so you may know what road to take or when you are not in the right place.
• If it’s possible, use Google Street view, so you’ll recognise the road when you get there and you’ll know when to stop.
• Trust the signals, but not if you are going to get lost to an open terrain. If you do, then look at the villages around so you’ll be able to ask if you need it, or to know when you are close to your places.
• Always have a paper map with you. Or a road guide, you can really need it, or where you can’t ask anyone.
• And of course, remember: Not all the roads are the same, and you may not see the same roads in every country. Google maps will help you with this, but you have to take care, you won’t see everything in street view and what google sees as a road, may be something that your car -or bike- won’t want to see.

With this tips I’ve been great in all of my trips in car. And when not, and I got lost, I just made a thing: Enjoy the landscape.

What do you do when you get lost? Do you follow any tip to find places to see? Share them in the comments.