Category: Travel
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Skip the Airport: How Buses and Trains Make Europe Better (and Cheaper)
By Jim Santos | Wherever We May Roam There’s a moment every traveler knows. You’ve just landed at a new airport, shuffled through passport control, waited at baggage claim, navigated a confusing terminal, and finally emerged into daylight — blinking and slightly dazed — in a city you haven’t actually seen yet. You flew over 600 miles…
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Doing the Schengen Shuffle
Long-term travel gets dramatically easier when you treat visas, entry rules, and passport validity as part of trip design, not last-minute admin. Jim and Rita lay out a simple truth: there is no single “right” travel style, but every style runs into the same border math. Many destinations allow US passport holders to arrive without…
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Beat the Summer Rush
Affordable Family Vacations When You Have No Choice But to Go in Peak Season My wife Rita and I have a secret weapon that most families with school-age kids simply don’t have: flexibility. As retired travelers, we’ve learned to love the shoulder seasons — that golden window in April, May, September, and October when prices drop,…
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How Much Does Long-Term Travel Really Cost?
Most people plan travel like a vacation, and that mindset quietly breaks the budget. In this podcast episode of “Wherever we May Roam”, we argue that extended travel, part-time roaming, and full-time travel all have different cost structures, so comparing your numbers to someone else’s is usually useless. A practical travel budget starts with your…
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Europe Travel Tips
Whether you’re a first-timer or a seasoned traveler, these insider tips will save you money, time, and stress on your next European adventure. Planning a trip to Europe is exciting — the architecture, the food, the history, the culture. But between the tourist traps, the overcrowded landmarks, and the hidden fees, even well-traveled adventurers can…
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Planning Long-Term Foreign Travel in a Volatile World
When the world won’t sit still, how do you plan a trip that will? There’s never been a more exciting — or more complicated — time to be a traveler. The world is more accessible than ever, yet the political, economic, and logistical landscape shifts almost daily. For those of us who dream in passport…
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Full Time Roaming – How To Travel Without A Home Base
Full-time travel sounds like pure freedom: no home base, no fixed schedule, and the ability to wake up in a new place whenever you want. Jim and Rita frame this as “full-time roaming,” which is less about being on a never-ending vacation and more about making travel your everyday lifestyle. That shift matters because it…
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America’s Great Pit Stops: A History of Roadside Stops Along the Interstate
From Burma-Shave Signs to Beaver Nuggets — How America Learned to Pull Over There’s a peculiar magic that happens somewhere around mile marker 150 on a long highway drive. The coffee has worn off, the kids are restless, and suddenly — a billboard. Then another. Then five more. “You Are Getting Sleepy… Only Pedro’s Can Wake…
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The Realities of the Digital Nomad Lifestyle
The “digital nomad lifestyle” has become one of the most searched ideas in modern travel, but the glossy image of a laptop on the beach hides a tougher truth: working while traveling is not the same as traveling. Jim and Rita unpack what it really means to earn income on the road, why COVID accelerated…
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The Quiet Shore: Why Virginia Beach Feels Eerily Empty This Memorial Day Season
A personal reflection on America’s changing relationship with travel, leisure, and the open road The waves are still rolling in, the boardwalk is still there, porpoises play in the surf, and the seagulls haven’t gotten the memo. But something is different at Virginia Beach this Memorial Day season — and if you’ve been coming here…