As micro-travel trends and tightening budgets see more and more of us taking short breaks, here are ten top tips to help you make the most of your precious time away.

1. Prioritise location

When time is short, you don’t want to be walking even 20 minutes more than necessary to reach local restaurants, beaches, countryside – or whatever tickles your fancy. So go ahead and choose that hotel or apartment a bit closer to your interests. Unless the plan is to lounge indoors the whole trip, how luxurious does the room really need to be?

2. Pack lightly

It sounds obvious if you’re only going away for a few days, but many of us are guilty of overpacking. Do you really need that extra choice of outfit? Check the weather ahead and prioritise lightweight, practical clothes that suit as many activities as possible. Wear heavy shoes, like walking boots, to travel in.

The smaller and more manageable your bag, the faster you’ll be able to get around. From time gained not having to check luggage and wait for it at your destination, to easily packing again midway through or at the end of your break, to being able to run for a train if you need, the advantages are many.

3. Shop ahead

If you’re self-catering you may be able to buy essentials online through a local supermarket chain and arrange for the delivery to arrive just after you do. Alternatively, and at least, look up the nearest supermarket to your destination or en-route there, to ensure you don’t waste time trawling around looking for food shops when you have other sights to see. For foodies, this approach frees time to explore street markets and delicatessens, rather than spending ages finding a source for mundane items. And don’t forget: check with your accommodation whether any food will be there on your arrival. If there’s wine, crackers, fruit and cheese, you might not need to get supplies at all!

4. Buy tickets in advance

Avoid losing time and your temper in queues and use online services ahead of time where possible, to buy tickets or services you’ll benefit from within your holiday. Check to see if any attractions, museums, or local transport companies have apps you can use and download them on wifi in advance, so you’re all set when you arrive.

5. Visualise your destination

Use online mapping (or why not a virtual travel experience) to check out the place before you get there, so you have a sense of local landmarks and road layout.

6. Go high

If you can, get to a high vantage point at your destination as early as you can in your trip. Go up a church tower or take a lift to a hotel roof bar or climb a hill! Having the overview of your surroundings will help you navigate and may even reveal a monument or local curiosity you might not otherwise have known about.

7. Allow time for serendipity

Don’t over cram your schedule. Even during a short break, you’ll want time to be whimsical or follow your nose.

8. Get local advice

Talk to the locals to get the best suggestions or find travel guides (published or in person) you trust, so you’re not led into experiences you’d rather not have had by random reviews. A longer holiday can withstand a disappointing day, but when every hour counts, you’ll want the comfort of the best advice. Not to mention, you’ll find out things about your destination, its history and vibe you might not otherwise have learnt.

9. Let family come to you

If the trip is for family or social reasons, manage expectations beforehand to ensure your schedule is humane. Consider staying somewhere where loved ones who live locally can come to you, rather than exhausting yourself by multiple journeys during a so-called break.

10. Be budget aware

Decide in advance your budget for impromptu expenses, and set aside a contingency, in cash if possible, so money doesn’t become a pressure or hassle when you’re on the spot with no cash machine in sight.

One of the best aspects of being a professional photographer is the freedom the career provides. Most photographers determine when and where they work, with some choosing rigid nine-to-five schedules in physical studio spaces and others opting to work from home or local coffee shops. Then there are those who choose a more nomadic lifestyle, traveling indefinitely and finding work (and housing) along the way to sustain the journey.

For those photographers who long to see the world and take their unique skillset on the road, here are seven tips to help you work anywhere as a photographer.

1. Downsize Your Camera Gear

Traveling abroad, regardless of budget or location, requires a minimalist approach when choosing which of your belongings to bring along, including your camera gear and electronics. Here are a few ideas on how to downsize your photography gear:

• Reduce your gear to the must-haves.  This might mean leaving that tilt-shift or fisheye at home, or choosing between similar focal length primes like the 24mm or the 35mm.
• Switch to smaller setups.  For example, consider switching from DSLRs to Mirrorless Cameras to reduce the size and weight of your gear.  Downsize your drone from a Phantom to a Mavic, and use your iPhone camera instead of an Osmo for some of your daytime footage.  Essentially, determine if you can get similar results from smaller and fewer pieces of gear.

2. Check your Insurance

Equipment insurance is crucial for any photographer, but even more important for photographers traveling abroad.  If you don’t have it yet, you can set it up almost instantaneously.  If you already have it, double check to make sure you’re covered globally.

3. Use Cloud services for everything

Lost cameras and laptops used to mean lost memories, edits, and documents. In this day and age, however, you can back up all of your photos, videos and other files in the cloud.

Use a service like Dropbox that not only backs up your files but also has file recovery and version history to help keep your files safe in the event that you accidentally delete or save over your files.

4. Develop Your Network of Global Photographers

If you’re thinking about living the nomad life, start building up your global network now.  Join Facebook groups that connect photographers from around the globe or within the regions that you’re planning on visiting.  In each of these groups, start building a presence, and when your plans become more solidified, share your travel plans and dates.

You can ask questions that may help you in your travels, find the best photo locations, and possibly even meet up for collaborations, second-shooting or assisting opportunities, and more.

5. Get the right credit card

Points hacking can go a long way toward making your travel more affordable and comfortable. Find a card with 0% foreign transaction fees as well as perks like additional insurance for your trip, additional points for the travel category, and more. Some cards even offer lounge access at various airports where you can plug in and get some work done.

Of course, weigh the cost of the annual fee with your savings. Unless you travel often and take full advantage of the card’s point system, the fee might not be worth it.

6. Create Multiple Streams of Revenue

If you’re planning on spending extensive time abroad, you may need to make some money during your travels, and there are several ways to earn extra income as a nomadic photographer.  Here are a few ideas:

• Second Shooting and Lighting Assisting – Contact local photographers in advance and show them your work.   Besides making a few bucks, you can see an entirely different work experience.
• Portrait Sessions – Offer portrait sessions in the cities that you’re visiting.  Depending on your social media reach, you might land a few gigs.
• Writing –  Write articles for websites like SLR Lounge, Fstoppers, and others.  You might be able to make $50 to $250 bucks reviewing gear or writing photography tutorials.
• Video Creation –  If your skillset and passion are in video creation, consider making YouTube videos to build your brand and generate (a little bit of) ad revenue.
• Workshops – If you’ve established a distinct brand, you might consider teaching workshops abroad, either in-person or online. For example, if you’re on a wilderness trip and you find yourself in an ideal situation to capture the Milky Way or Northern Lights, you can build a workshop around your process for prepping, shooting, and editing your images.

Conclusion

Whether or not you decide to go all in on the nomadic lifestyle, there are lessons to be learned by expanding your network and simplifying your workflow that can be applied to all paths, even those that are more location-dependent.

Here’s a recap of the tips covered in this article for becoming a nomad:

• Downsize your camera gear
• Check your insurance
• Use Cloud for all digital files
• Develop your network of global photographers
• Prepare finances for the trip
• Get the right credit card
• Consider creating multiple streams of revenue

Even Europe’s abandoned buildings can be beautiful and haunting in their own right.

Home to 44 countries, each with their own storied histories, Europe is a continent that calls to travelers in search of adventure and never disappoints. Housing some of the world’s most remarkable architecture, perhaps one of the more unusual tourism niches is the wide-spread fascination with abandoned and forgotten buildings.

No matter if they were left to be reclaimed by nature due to upkeep costs, a changing social landscape or because of a long and bitter history, there are plenty of tourists that can’t resist transportation into the past through their silent and lonely corridors. Europe has an endless supply of these tragic structures, but here at 10 of the best for those in search of an eerie experience like no other.

10. Craco, Italy

A veritable treasure-trove of wonder for the traveler with a thirst for a disintegrating past, Craco is a ghost town in Southern Italy with a torrid history.

Abandoned in 1963 as a result of recurring natural disasters including monumental landslides, it has since become an unlikely tourism destination and popular filming location. Tombs uncovered here have seen the area dated all the way back to the 8th Century BC and as such, it has been included on the watch list for the World Monuments Fund.

9. Buzludzha Communist Headquarters, Bulgaria

Constructed by the Bulgarian communist regime to celebrate the 1891 secret founding of an organized socialist party that would eventually become the Communist Party, this striking and foreboding monument was opened in 1981.

The country’s transition to democracy saw the structure fall into disrepair and become a beacon for travelers seeking a taste of desolate tales of a time long gone. A new project is aiming to restore the monument so those wanting to see it in all it’s decayed glory will need to hurry.

8. Buyukada Orphelinat, Turkey

Believed to be the largest wooden building in Europe and second largest worldwide, this amazing structure has actually been abandoned twice in its troubled history. Coming into existence in 1898 as a hotel, it was never opened and remained discarded until it was converted into a school and orphanage for children in the early 20th Century.

It was again forsaken in the 1960s and now rests behind barriers that protect the structures miraculously still standing proudly. A debate has raged for decades about what to do with the historically significant area but as yet nothing has been done to restore it to former glory.

7. Canfranc Station, Spain

Once a thriving travel hub, Canfranc Station was abruptly and unceremoniously abandoned after a train derailment that demolished a bridge in the surrounding region critical for rail travel. When it was decided the bridge would not be rebuilt, Canfranc was simply closed and forgotten.

What remains is a remarkable station that is largely overgrown but still intact and inviting to tourists with a slightly quirky sense of adventure. It is closed to the public but open for organized tours that allow visitors to walk through the discarded hallways and experience the mysterious disused tracks and tunnels. Plans have been proposed to turn the structure into a hotel so get along before this tragically beautiful station is cast-aside for good.

6. Lennox Castle Hospital, Scotland

First opening its doors in 1936 to home people with mental disabilities and learning difficulties, Lennox Castle soon began to birth stories of the mistreatment of patients. Despite a maximum capacity of 1,200, over 1,700 doomed patients were crammed inside at times and they experienced starvation, drug experimentation and varied forms of abuse.

Officially closing in 2002, the building has been totally abandoned ever since. Curious explorers can still access the run-down architecture and wander through the dark rooms in search of whispers from a heartbreaking past.

5. Krampnitz Military Base, Germany

Europe has many beautiful spots that once served as military bases and now lay abandoned and Krampnitz is one of the more astounding. Every step taken through what was used in 1937 as a riding and driving school by the Nazis uncovers grim tales from a troubled history.

The Soviet Army took over at the conclusion of World War Two and remained until 1992 when they simply cast it aside, leaving the checkered history alone within its walls. Since then, movies such as Enemy at the Gates and Inglorious Basterds have committed the eerie halls and sprawling grounds to film, perfectly capturing the historically relevant base and its dark atmosphere.

4. Pripyat, Ukraine

Built to house the families of workers at the doomed Chernobyl nuclear facility, Pripyat is now a ghost town that was, for a short time, a thriving and exciting place to live. Today it is as though the area never submitted to the passage of time. Soviet slogans still cover the walls, children’s toys lay where they fell and a sense of despair still lingers throughout the buildings.

Tours will take tourists into the town and wander through the schools, playgrounds, hospital and particularly creepy theme park that were all abandoned in a devastating hurry when the Chernobyl reactor changed the lives of everyone that called Pripyat home in moments.

3. High Royds Asylum, England

Closed and discarded since 2003, this former hospital for those of fragile minds was first opened in 1888 as the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum and on first inspection it looks more like a royal manor than an asylum of any kind.

Filled with fine Italian marble, immaculate tiles and showcasing a stunning clock tower, the original intention was to make the clinic a fully-functioning community of its own with everything a resident could need. As is so often the case, history shows that those homed here were mistreated and their only representation now is the anonymous gravestones still on the property. Even the most hard-hearted abandoned tourism fan will feel a chill when gazing upon this imposing structure enveloped by a shroud of darkness.

2. Beelitz Heilstätten, Germany

This long abandoned hospital was built in 1898 and looks exactly like what you might imagine a deserted 19th Century hotel with a questionable history would. Serving as a field hospital in World War One for victims of the horrific mustard gas attacks, it even treated a young Adolf Hitler when he was wounded during the Battle of the Somme.

World War Two saw its use in treating wounded Nazi soldiers before it was occupied by the Russian at the end of the conflict. A vast majority of the huge complex has now been handed back to the surrounding forest which has created a truly eerie experience for the visitors that come to peer into its sordid history.

1. Cairndhu House, Ireland

This grand house rests atop the beautiful hills of Northern Island’s coastline and is a notorious venue for ghost hunters to visit amid claims of contact with the other side. Built in 1875, it originally served as a stately home for the wealthy but was gifted to the county who eventually allowed it to fall to ruin through lack of attention.

These days caretakers report strange noises coming from the many rooms and the locals tend to avoid the grounds, especially once the sun has given way to the stars. It is now boarded up with the exception of a single top floor window that is an invite unable to be refused by certain curious souls.

Steamy, multi-cultural, and hugely underrated, Malaysia is Southeast Asia’s unsung tropical hero. Marrying tradition, nature, and modernity, it’s a country of space-age cityscapes, Islamic minarets, and gilded Chinese shrines. A world where South Indian temples back onto million-year-old rainforests. This mish-mash can confuse first-timers.

From what to pack to navigating the nation’s confounding ethnic and religious tapestry, these are the top things to know before you embark on a trip to Malaysia – an experience that can often feel like being in several countries at once.

Planning your trip to Malaysia

Malaysia is a dazzlingly diverse country

Be prepared for many types of culture shock. In multi-ethnic yet predominantly Islamic Peninsular Malaysia, a 69.8% majority of Malay Muslims share the land with ethnic Chinese, Tamil Indians, and a dozen aboriginal groups categorized as orang asli (original peoples). This means that red lantern-studded Chinese temples sit next to Hindu gopurams (temple gates) and the onion-shaped domes of intricate, modern mosques. Prayers go up to the sky in three main languages – Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, and Tamil – and to three main religions: Islam, Chinese Taoism and Hinduism.

A short flight away across the South China Sea, the East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah in Borneo feel like another world. The former has some 26 different ethnic groups, most of whom are Christian or Protestant, while Sabah is home to another 33 who communicate in over 50 languages and 80 dialects.

Pack for an eternal summer – but carry a light jacket

Tropical Malaysia enjoys steamy temperatures hovering around 86°F (30°C) year long. All you really need to pack are light, loose fitting cotton clothes to best cope with heat and humidity, and a pair of sneakers and flip-flops. If you forget anything you can pick it up here. Also pack a hoodie or light jacket to prepare for the Malaysian habit of keeping air conditioning to frosty levels, especially inside shopping malls, buses and trains.

Technology is widely available…

Kuala Lumpur must be one of the world’s most futuristic cities, with ever-expanding highways, towers and skyscrapers eternally contending for space. Beyond the capital, there’s excellent 4G mobile network coverage and fast wifi at most hotels and guest houses across the nation. Celcom is the best operator when traveling the Peninsula’s jungly interior and Borneo.

…but carry cash in the interior

ATMS (cashpoints) are widely available, but thin out in the countryside, and are often hard to find outside of Borneo’s main cities. Stock up on the local currency, the Malaysian ringgit (equal to US$0.24 at the time of writing) if planning to go off the grid.

The food is something to write home about

The delightfully spicy intricacies of Malaysian food (a concoction of curries, southern Chinese cuisines, and pan-Indian dishes that never stop intermarrying) are best consumed fresh off the street, served without embellishments by cranky local “uncles” – slang for older person – on plastic plates.

The alternative is to sit and rub elbows with locals at a food court, or “hawker center” – large open areas, usually covered by a rooftop, packed with simple food stalls squeezed one against the other.

Partying is a bit more expensive

Compared to its backpacker-centric Southeast Asian neighbors Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, Malaysia is a more expensive party destination because of heavy taxes on alcohol, which is forbidden to Muslims. The rest of the population is free to drink, but forced to pay a higher price.

Alcohol is widely available in major tourist cities like Kuala Lumpur, George Town, Ipoh, Melaka and Johor Bahru while in smaller towns, beer is most often available at Chinese-run businesses. The best antidote to steep drinks and cigarette prices is a visit to the tax-free islands of Langkawi and Tioman.

Etiquette in Malaysia

Dress casual but modest

Due to the constant punishing heat, Malaysia’s dress code is very casual. Wearing short pants, sandals, flip-flops and t-shirts is the accepted norm everywhere, but is considered rude when visiting public offices, where long slacks, close-toed shoes and collared shirts are expected. In Malaysia’s many kampung (villages), avoid revealing outfits to comply with local religious sensibilities.

Modesty is also essential when choosing your beach wear. Bikinis and speedos are fine at big hotels, resorts and the tourist islands off the East Coast, such as Pulau Perhentian and Pualu Redang. But it’s best to wear one piece bathing suits and knee-length swimming trunks on any other beach, where the locals dip fully clothed.

It’s OK to speak in English, if you don’t know Malay

Picking up some survival Bahasa Malaysia (Malay language), the national lingo, is pretty straightforward – with its Roman alphabet and absence of tones, it’s one of the easiest Asian languages to learn. But it’s fine to speak English, especially with Malaysian Chinese and Indians, whose mother tongues are not Malay. Blame it on the British colonization, but practically everyone can communicate in English, and most prefer to do so when talking to foreigners.

You might be unknowingly rude

When pointing at someone or something, use the thumb and not the index finger, which is considered rude in Malaysia. Always keep your voice down, for raising the tone is an absolute no-no – like asking direct questions, which many Malaysians may take as “losing face” or an invasion of their personal space.

When shaking hands, always remember to use your right hand, for the left is considered “toilet hand” in any Islamic culture. The only dining etiquette that matters in Malaysia is to never use the left hand when trying to eat with fingers like many locals do.

Respect nature, and its spirits

When a bunch of foreign tourists bared their bottoms on top of Mount Kinabalu in 2015, enraged Kadazan-Dusun locals blamed their act for the consequent magnitude 5.9 earthquake that killed at least 16 and snapped one of the sacred mountain top’s two iconic “Donkey Ear” outcrops.

Malaysians are very superstitious: The animist beliefs that predate the arrival of Islam to the Malay Peninsula have helped foster an uncanny supernatural world in which nature plays a crucial role. For example, it’s common to “ask for permission” before urinating in the jungle, from where locals never bring anything back for fear of piggybacking a curse into their own homes.

Whenever a group enters a forest, it’s best to give out nicknames or not call out each other at all – spirits are always listening. The orang bunian (invisible forest-dwelling creatures comparable to elves) can trick hikers and campers into following them deep into the jungle to never be seen again.

Health and safety in Malaysia

Call 999 for any emergency

A single three-digit number, 999, connects to the police, the fire department, the ministry of health, the maritime enforcement agency and the Department of Civil Defence. Dial 999 112 if calling from a mobile phone.

Boil the tap water

Because of increasing pollution of water sources and aging buildings fitted with rusted pipes, it’s always best to boil tap water before drinking, or buy mineral water. Most hotels allow guests to refill their water containers. Carrying a water filtration system or purifying tablets can come handy when striking out on multi-day hikes.

Vaccines are recommended

It is advisable to travel to Malaysia after being inoculated against Hepatitis A, Tetanus and Typhoid. Malaria is generally not an issue in cities and most forested areas, so a prophylaxis is not strictly necessary. Dengue fever occurs sporadically in cities, but as there are no vaccines for it, the best strategy is to not get bitten by mosquitoes – use heavy duty insect repellent.