Indie Travel Podcast (enhanced)

How to buy travel insurance? Look online! But how do you find the best travel insurance? What do you look for? What questions should you ask? Find out! http://indietravelpodcast.com/insurance We're now on Soundcloud! Find the Indie Travel Podcast at http://soundcloud.com/indietravel

Carnival (or Carnaval) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is one of the world’s biggest parties. Joel Ward talks about learning to samba and enjoying the party. For more details, visit http://indietravelpodcast.com/brazil/carnival-rio-de-janeiro/

When it comes to travel, cheap accommodation options can help you to save money, but great accommodation will help you to really enjoy your destination. You might be overwhelmed by suggestions of where to go and where to stay. I'm sure you'll have some idea of your dream destination -- but once you get there, where do you sleep? There are a multitude of accommodation options, and your choice will be influenced by both your budget and your inclination. For more see: http://indietravelpodcast.com/preparation/travel-accommodation-options/

Auckland, known as the "City of Sails" is New Zealand's largest city. It's surrounded by sea and is studded with volcanic mountains, and is a very pleasant place to live or visit -- it ranked third in the 2011 Worldwide Quality of Living Survey, up from previous years. This Auckland podcast covers: Layout Transport Accommodation Events Things to do For more information visit http://indietravelpodcast.com/oceania/new-zealand/

Is it safe to travel in Asia? It sure is! But there are risks to mitigate. We give you the low-down on the best health and safety advice for travel in Asia. http://indietravelpodcast.com/travel-safety/health-safety-asia-safe-travel-asia/ This first half of this podcast deals with health concerns, while the second looks at safety and security issues. See the new book at http://travelsafetybook.com/ for more in-depth coverage.

Looking at our highlights from 2011, we realise we have a lot to be thankful for. Most of all, thanks to you — the Indie Travel Podcast Community — for inspiring us, for funding us, for talking to us every day. If it wasn’t for you, Indie Travel Podcast would have died a long time ago. Instead, it’s growing. Listen to this podcast about our travel resolutions for 2012, and how 2011 went for Indie Travel Podcast.

Want to volunteer, but don't want to pay high "voluntourism" fees? This week we uncover a great opportunity to volunteer in Chile, with a government-backed project to put native- and proficient-English speakers into Chilean classrooms. You can travel Chile in 2012 without having to find more money than paying for the plane tickets. In this interview we speak with Dave Hanegraaff from PROGRAMA INGLÉS ABRE PUERTAS, or English Opens Doors -- he tells his story of volunteering in Chile, and also how you can get involved in 2012 and beyond. For more details, see http://indietravelpodcast.com/chile/volunteer-chile-english-opens-doors/

The Camino de Santiago is a famous pilgrimage walk. In this podcast, we discuss planning for the Camino Frances & Via de la Plata. In this podcast we first talk about the Passports with Purpose fundraiser which we're supporting, then planning for the Camino de Santiago -- and how you can do it too.

South America in four months? That's what we've just done! Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay -- we talk about it in this podcast. For more details head to http://indietravelpodcast.com/brazil/south-america-four-months/

We talk about some of our favourite visits to England; give some tips on how to save money as you travel around the country; and finish up with 10 things to do, from our England travel resources page. http://indietravelpodcast.com/europe/england/

With holiday travel season approaching, we talk about staying sane while travelling over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holiday time. Family can be stressful enough, but the huge numbers of people doing "vacation travel" over late November, December and early January definitely adds lots of stress to family events. And nobody needs more of that.

Looking for a volunteer experience with a difference? Take a look into Cloudhead.org if you're heading through Northern Argentina.

It's been some time since we've highlighted the best of the travel gear we are carrying. While there are thousands of new product releases each year, there's only so much stuff you can fit into a carry-on sized bag, so everything we carry is carefully considered in terms of both utility and weight. We cover: * Electronics * Clothing * Packs and bags * Equipment and other stuff * Things we don't carry We also have a new-look website at the same address: http://indietravelpodcast.com/ Please send in your feedback.

Paraguay travel advice from independent travellers who have just been. We cover visas, Ciudad del Este, Encarnacion, the Jesuit ruins and the capital of Paraguay, Asuncion. Our world fact book claims that Paraguay and Bolivia have a very similar GDP, but our experience of Paraguay was that it was much more affluent and faster-growing than its andean neighbour. There seems to be more indigent people living in Asuncion than the other cities we visited, and there are large areas of farmland that provide little more than sustenance living for its workers ... so maybe those stats are true. All in all, we felt very safe travelling in Paraguay, even when walking the streets in the late evening or on long bus trips. While we've heard reports of some scams, we encountered none at all. We never felt threatened, hassled or oversold because we were foreigners ... which was a nice contrast with our time in Bolivia. Paraguay's a great destination, with lots more to see. There are wonderful natural sites, an intriguing a

We recently travelled from Buenos Aires, Argentina through Uruguay to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with Intrepid Travel. It was a fast and fun 17 days with lots of great stops along the way. In this podcast we break down the itinerary with our own comments and give the feedback we feel most important when considering this trip as part of the tour or independently. We visit: Argentina * Buenos Aires Uruguay * Colonia * Montevideo * An estancia * Salto Brazil * Foz Do Iguacu * Paraty * Ihla grande * Rio de Janeiro

We talk about some of the oldest -- and newest -- tricks in the book for travel scams, cons, and how you can safeguard against them. For more, visit http://indietravelpodcast.com/travel-safety/travel-scams-cons/

Things to do in Kangaroo Island, South Australia ... Well know to many Aussies, this doesn't feature highly on international agendas ... perhaps because people don't know about it. For more (and photos!) visit http://indietravelpodcast.com/australia/things-to-do-kangaroo-island/

Uruguay is an excellent country to explore independently. The long-distance buses run frequently and are clean and comfortable, and there are lots of hotels and hostels to choose from throughout the country. That said, we recently travelled through on a tour and learnt a lot from that experience too. This travel podcast covers places to go in Uruguay was well as independent travel and intrepid tours through Uruguay.

What are the best ways to learn a language while you are travelling? What are the keys to success when learning a language? For more, visit http://indietravelpodcast.com/ If you're learning a language to travel, your main goal will be communication … speaking! No matter how much you read or how many grammar activities you do, or how much vocabulary you understand … if you want to speak to people, you have to speak. We've been teaching English as a Second Language since 2003, and over the last two years have been learning Spanish. We've seen what works and what doesn't, and can recognise the same successes and failures in our own language learning. Here's the gist of what we've learned.

Trip planning for couples can be tricky, but we share everything you need to know to travel without fighting ... from dreaming to planning the trip. For more, see: http://indietravelpodcast.com/preparation/planning-couples-travel/ We talk about dreaming, creating a plan, and the four points to help you frame your next trip: 1. Time 2. Non-negociables. 3. Destinations. 4. Money