Norwegian Air’s interactive route map is my new favorite toy!

Norwegian Air's Interactive Route Map (my new favorite toy) | northtosouth.us
Norwegian Air's Interactive Route Map (my new favorite toy) | northtosouth.us

With the new year upon us, it’s the perfect time to start making travel plans. That’s how we’re kicking off 2020, so today I began consulting with our favorite low-cost international airline to see what deals I could find for flying to Europe.

While perusing Norwegian.com, I discovered a new tool that makes searching flights easier. A new interactive route map lets you select your departure airport, set your budget, and choose your destination type — you can even set a temperature range for your destination.

Continue reading “Norwegian Air’s interactive route map is my new favorite toy!”

How to Fly from the U.S. to Europe for Under $200 [Budget Travel Secrets]

How to Fly from the U.S. to Europe for Under $200 dollars
How to Fly from the U.S. to Europe for Under $200 dollars

Updated: January 2020

I used to expect to pay over $1000 for round-trip tickets to Europe. Now I’d never pay over $500. And one-way tickets for $200 or less are more common than you’d think. When we started traveling full time, our frugal beginner’s travel budget forced us to find the cheapest method to fly to Europe. And now I’m sharing it with you.

Traveling on the cheap from the U.S. to Europe is quite simple, really. It involves just three things:

  • a flexible travel schedule
  • packing light
  • my new favorite airline
Continue reading “How to Fly from the U.S. to Europe for Under $200 [Budget Travel Secrets]”

✧ A Lonely Lakeside Campsite in Little Salmon River and Our Luxury #VanLifeGoals ✧

Milky Way in Little Salmon River, Idaho | North to South's VanLife Chronicles by Diana Southern
Milky Way in Little Salmon River, Idaho | North to South's VanLife Chronicles by Diana Southern

A hundred degrees. That was about the average daytime temperature we were dealing with when we drove through Idaho on the way up to Montana.

We were only three days on the road when we pulled in to camp next to this view for our first free night of vanlife camping.

Continue reading “✧ A Lonely Lakeside Campsite in Little Salmon River and Our Luxury #VanLifeGoals ✧”

A Magical Morning at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge (Denver, Colorado)

A Magical Morning at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

A Magical Morning at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge

I’ve never been a morning person, but there are major advantages to rising before the sun when it comes to wildlife photography, usually in the form of fewer people and more animals. This summer, with our new 100-400mm lens, we arrived at Rocky Mountain Arsenal before dawn and were pleasantly surprised with what we found. Continue reading “A Magical Morning at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge (Denver, Colorado)”

The Best and Worst Rides and Attractions at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Orlando, Florida)

Disney's Hollywood Studios Best Rides and Attractions on northtosouth.us

Disney's Hollywood Studios Best Rides and Attractions on northtosouth.us

With one extra day on our trip to Florida for SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch in February, we added a Disney visit to our itinerary. It was Ian’s turn to pick the park, since I got to choose on our last trip, and my diehard Star Wars fan husband chose Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

If you’re deciding what to do and see on your visit to this cinema-centric Disney park, check out our top ten rides and attractions from our 1-day Disney’s Hollywood Studios adventure below! Continue reading “The Best and Worst Rides and Attractions at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Orlando, Florida)”

Burning Man 2018: Portraits of a Camp

Burning Man 2018: Portraits of a Camp

Burning Man 2018: Portraits of a Camp

Twenty-six. The only integer that is one greater than a square and one less than a cube, the number of spacetime dimensions in bosonic string theory, and the number of faces in a rhombicuboctahedron (thanks, Wikipedia). That’s how many people were in our Burning Man camp this year — double our numbers from burns past!

Despite our camp’s monstrous growth, however, we managed to keep our important camp traditions intact. Nightly camp dinners, the Da Vinci bar, and our biannual camp photoshoot all brought us together per usual, and some awesome new additions made 2018 even more special.

Could we have done without our recycling queen, that handy megaphone, or our unplanned (but ridiculously delicious) Sunday meat feast? Of course — but it sure wouldn’t have been as memorable without each and every campmate that made up this year’s Prosciutto Bay.

Continue reading “Burning Man 2018: Portraits of a Camp”

Mt Whitney in 3 Days: A Totally Reasonable Trek to the Summit

Hiking Mt Whitney in 3 Days: A Totally Reasonable Trek to the Summit -- on northtosouth.us

Hiking Mt Whitney in 3 Days: A Totally Reasonable Trek to the Summit -- on northtosouth.us

“You can summit Mt Whitney in a day,” they said. “It’s a class 1 hike,” they said.

Add to that the claim that it takes 10 hours to hike up at a “slow” pace, and you may start thinking the Mt Whitney hike is downright easy. But “easy” isn’t a word I would use to describe our hike to the tallest peak in the contiguous U.S. this July.

Want to know how long it really takes to hike Mt Whitney? — at least, if it’s your first time and you want to have some sort of enjoyable memory from your trek? — Read on for the scoop on our entire experience, from (finally) getting a Mt Whitney Trail permit to planning and executing our highest-elevation hike to date. Continue reading “Mt Whitney in 3 Days: A Totally Reasonable Trek to the Summit”