travel guide

Before we dive into the chaos, picture this: you booked a great hotel deal through a third-party site, felt like a bargain-hunting genius, and then—disaster. Your dates are wrong, your room type isn’t available or maybe the system thinks you don’t exist at all. You call the website…they blame the hotel. You call the hotel…they blame the website. And somewhere along the way, you realize you’ve entered the hospitality version of a ping-pong match, except you’re the ball.

Some countries simply make backpacking easier, cheaper, and more rewarding. Using community insights from travelers, hostel-availability data, and affordability metrics, we’ve ranked 20 of the best backpacking countries in the world, ending with the country that backpackers overwhelmingly rank as the planet’s #1 destination.

You book an all-inclusive vacation to relax, indulge, and maybe make questionable choices at the swim-up bar—not to spend quality time examining the tile pattern on the resort bathroom floor. Yet foodborne illness strikes thousands of travelers every year, and when it happens on vacation, the stress doubles. Suddenly you’re wondering if that buffet shrimp was plotting against you and, more importantly, whether the resort can be held accountable. Here’s what you need to know before you point any fingers.

Nothing kills the joy of planning a European getaway faster than suddenly noticing your passport expires sooner than you remembered. One moment you’re dreaming of gelato, fjords, and tiny cobblestoned streets; the next, you’re spiraling down an internet rabbit hole about mysterious “passport validity rules” enforced by shadowy airline gate agents. Five months left might feel like plenty of time, but depending on where you’re headed, your trip could be smoother than French butter or end abruptly at the check-in counter.

Discover the 18 most peaceful countries in the world, ranked by data. From Iceland to Singapore, find out what makes these destinations the safest and calmest places to visit or live.

A worried mother struggles to sit next to her child on a crowded commercial flight after a seatmate refuses to switch seats. Explore why airlines often fail to keep families together, what passengers can do, and how to handle stressful in-flight seating conflicts with confidence and compassion.