If you have seen my previous book round-ups, I read a lot – 33 books in 2020, and 43 books in 2019. I am on my sixth book for 2021, so at this pace, I’ll finish somewhere in-between the last two years. I didn’t set out to focus on travel books specifically, but three of my early choices for 2021 relate to travel in different ways.
Change How You Plan, And Take More Vacations
Take More Vacations by Scott Keyes is a travel book through and through. Keyes is the founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights, a newsletter perfectly titled for what it does – listing bargain airfares all over the world. This book is Keyes’ manifesto for why focusing on the price of travel, rather than the timing or destination, will enable you to take more and better vacations.
We can’t control what the airlines charge, but we can control what we pay
– Scott Keyes, in Take More Vacations
Keyes provides a compelling case, backed by research, that shorter, more frequent vacations provide more satisfaction than a longer trip (e.g., three one-week vacations v. one three-week vacation). Other fun travel research findings:
- The last day of your vacation has an outsized impact on your memory of the experience, so target your spending there
- Planners take up to twice as many vacation as non-planners
- November is a great month for international travel – Thanksgiving is only celebrated in the US, after all.
In addition to interesting tidbits, Keyes breaks down in a clear and accessible way how to find cheap flights (and not just by subscribing to his newsletter). Unlike some other travel hacking books and blogs I have read, this book was not overwhelming with action items even a non-travel hacker could follow. It was not about being a master at the points system (though Keyes mentions some tips here). It was more about changing how you plan trips, how to research flights and when to book.
I highly recommend this book, not just for the practical application of taking more vacations and saving money while you do that, but also just to start dreaming about travel again.
Retire To Costa Rica – One US Couple’s Expat Journey From Virginia to Tamarindo
If you want to vicariously live through a move abroad, Plan A Never Happens by Gary Westphalen is the book for you. Westphalen delivers a funny, anxiety-inducing firsthand account of his and his wife Carmen’s journey from the Washington, DC area to Tamarindo, Costa Rica.
Reducing your entire life to five suitcases, a few plastic containers, and a couple of large picture boxes involves saying goodbye to a lifetime of accumulation. But you are still left with a lot more than any airline wants to put in the luggage space beneath your feet.
– Gary Westphalen, Plan A Never Happens
On the one hand, the book provides a handy checklist of things to think about:
- buying abroad
- selling your current place
- downsizing from a lifetime of contents
- getting the necessary paperwork in order (if you don’t yet know what an Apostille is, you will after reading this book!)
- moving with pets
There are even some esoteric topics like weighing the costs of a private jet! Believe it or not, Westphalen lays out a practical case when you look at the economics and efforts of multiple trips back and forth, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
On the other hand, this book is a uniquely personal account of Westphalen’s story. The book opens with the Westphalens visiting and falling for Costa Rica, and then lucking their way into the perfect retirement condo for them. You get introduced to their longtime pets, their jobs, their daughters. You cheer when a required document arrives on time, and lament when a new setback is introduced – Westphalen was sorting out his identity being stolen on top of navigating the move!
I was exhausted just reading along. With the benefit of their hindsight, it has confirmed my notion that, if we ever made Costa Rica our primary residence, we would definitely make our move slowly over time.
Live North Of The 42nd Parallel For Minimal Climate Disruption
If you have the option of settling in the Pacific Northwest or the Great Lakes region, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you’ll experience the least possible climate-related disruption.
– David Pogue, in How To Prepare For Climate Change
How To Prepare For Climate Change by David Pogue is definitely not a travel book for leisure purposes, but for purposes of evacuating, migrating and, in our case, real estate scouting. I heard of this book pre-publication in an article about where to move in the US if you’re worried about climate change. It gave us ideas for where to invest in real estate considering climate change as a factor.
Pogue is a longtime science and tech journalist and covers a wide range of issues in a digestible format. Topics include where to live, how to build or modify your homes for sustainability, how to properly insure for disaster, disaster planning and resources for the different climate emergencies (e.g., hurricane, tornado, wildfire, drought, mosquitoes) and even mental health issues. Because of the breadth of topics, it’s not an easy read, but this would be a great book for the reference shelf.
What are you reading to satisfy your wanderlust?
Take More Vacations by Scott Keyes had me dreaming of leisure travel again. Plan A Never Happens by Gary Westphalen made me wistful for another month-long stay in Tamarindo. How To Prepare For Climate Change by David Pogue got me thinking of bleisure travel at least – a business/ leisure scouting trip to find investment property up north.
We are Scott and Caroline, 50-somethings who spent the first 20+ years of our adult lives in New York City, working traditional careers and raising 2 kids. We left full-time work in our mid-40’s for location-independent, part-time consulting projects and real estate investing, in order to create a more flexible and travel-centric lifestyle. 
Financial independence and early retirement is not something we originally focused on, but over time realized it was possible. Our free report, 
