9 ms·

In Ecuador, the Frugal Traveler Tries Luxury

68 points by martgnz 11y ago

gyardley 11y ago
Aside from Ecuador being awesome (which it is), here's the takeaway, buried at the end of the article: But perhaps I simply never learned to travel luxuriously. It's absolutely possible to get the novelty he's after while living well, but it's not the sort of thing you can switch on or off. Getting comfortable with affluence is a process.
- ASpring 11y ago
  >It's absolutely possible to get the novelty he's after while living well Can you expand on this? I don't necessarily disagree but as a frugal traveler(bike tourer) I can't begin to imagine how I'd have similarly novel experiences traveling affluently.
  - shkkmo 11y ago
    My personal approach to this balance is to stay in hostels/home-stays and use standard local transportation, but still go to expensive restaurants/shows/tours on occasion.
- shkkmo 11y ago
  I don't think 'novelty' is what the author was missing in the luxurious portion of his trip. In fact, he seemed like he got plenty of novelty during it. I would suspect that what was missing was authenticity and risk with the opportunity for serendipity. I do believe it is quite possible to still incorporate luxury into risky/adventurous/serendipitous travel, but I think you will find that affluence will tend to isolate you and make it more difficult to find authenticity, regardless of how comfortable you are with your affluence.
Arubis 11y ago
From the bottom of the article: >Seth Kugel has written the Frugal Traveler column since June 2010. This is his last column. His successor, Lucas Peterson, will start later this month. Based on the author's experiences and appreciation for integrating into developing culture over being coddled, I can only hope for him that he's leaving to join the Peace Corps or similar.
- tgokh 11y ago
  Sounds like he'll be writing a book and has been producing a video series http://sethkugel.com/14-and-a-half-months/ http://sethkugel.com/14-and-a-half-months/
- peter303 11y ago
  I wonder why they changed writers. I wonder if Seth got expenses paid by employer.
  - matt_morgan 11y ago
    I don't know about this specific circumstance, but travel writers I've known got free trips from the tourist agencies, resorts, etc. in the countries they visit. Disclosure is not typical.
- skdd8 11y ago
  Based on your preference for being coddled, I can only hope one day you move out of your mama's basement.
grecy 11y ago
Ecuador is an amazing country - while driving south I thought I would only spend a month or so, I wound up spending 5. In my opinion it's like 3 countries/climates glued together - you can be on the Pacific getting sunburned at 100F+ for the morning, drive a few hours up into the high Andes and climb a 20,000 foot glacier capped volcano, then drive a few more hours and drop down into the amazon to watch monkeys swing through the trees. I climbed 20,000 foot Cotopaxi - http://theroadchoseme.com/cotopaxi-summit http://theroadchoseme.com/cotopaxi-summit Then lived in it's shadow for months - http://theroadchoseme.com/down-time http://theroadchoseme.com/down-time It's a supremely beautiful country, and the people are very friendly. Highly recommend.
- user_0001 11y ago
  There goes a wasted work hour reading your blog and remembering our overland road trip from UK to South America in an old VW Westfalia. Would love to get back out on the road, but 3 kids now (as opposed to just one for the trip) means it is unlikely.
- podviaznikov 11y ago
  100% agree with your description. I came there almost by an accident and stayed for 6 weeks in Quito and Amazon. I think for me personally it was the country with best ratio of expectations (they were low because I knew almost nothing before) and impressions (very high, easily my favorite country I visited so far).
- cageface 11y ago
  What's network access like there? Is wifi widely available?
  - jandrese 11y ago
    Ecuador is surprisingly well built up. It was definitely my biggest surprise when traveling South America. People who know it mostly from the economic collapse around the turn of the century will be surprised at how much progress they have made. As an added bonus for US travelers, they use the US dollar as their primary currency. No obnoxious money exchanges to deal with! The only thing to watch out for is change, because Ecuador mints some of their own "dollars" that obviously won't be worth anything in the US.
paulsutter 11y ago
And don't forget the Ecuadorean kidnapping industry. I know a guy who was kidnapped four times (his family owns a banana plantation in Ecuador) A friend of mine knows a guy in Columbia with no fingernails. He was kidnapped for 18 months, they wanted him to reveal the real owner of some land where his name was on the title. They removed his fingernails one by one. That puts a bit of a damper on my own enthusiasm for South America. An uber driver from Brazil once asked me how I liked Brazil and I said "it was fun to visit, but what about all the kidnappings?" And he said "Oh, so you know what's going on" Yeah I do. Really it's not a region to visit carelessly. (I travel a lot, I'm in India now)
- saint_fiasco 11y ago
  If you are just a tourist who does not own the title to a banana plantation or anything like that, are you still at risk?
  - ajosh 11y ago
    My experience is that you don't. Ecuador is a lot of fun. That said, you should always be careful. In Ecuador, particularly in Guayaquil, be careful what taxi you take. Make sure it has a meter, and if possible use a radio dispatched taxi (i.e. call). Beyond that, it's like most places you're likley to visit: Stay away from "bad" areas late at night, be aware of your surroundings, etc.
  - ingenieros 11y ago
    The only foreigners that I constantly see getting themselves into trouble are those who deliberately come down here to do the things that they can't easily get away with in their own countries.
- pluteoid 11y ago
  It dampens your enthusiasm for the whole of South America? The threat of kidnapping can't be so bad everywhere. How about French Guiana, which is a department of France and in the EU? And some of my colleagues describe exploring stunningly beautiful areas in national parks in Brazil and Argentina, where the few people they encountered were mostly other European scientists and photographers.

68 points by martgnz 11y ago

Aside from Ecuador being awesome (which it is), here's the takeaway, buried at the end of the article: But perhaps I simply never learned to travel luxuriously. It's absolutely possible to get the novelty he's after while living well, but it's not the sort of thing you can switch on or off. Getting comfortable with affluence is a process.

ASpring 11y ago
>It's absolutely possible to get the novelty he's after while living well Can you expand on this? I don't necessarily disagree but as a frugal traveler(bike tourer) I can't begin to imagine how I'd have similarly novel experiences traveling affluently.
- shkkmo 11y ago
  My personal approach to this balance is to stay in hostels/home-stays and use standard local transportation, but still go to expensive restaurants/shows/tours on occasion.
shkkmo 11y ago
I don't think 'novelty' is what the author was missing in the luxurious portion of his trip. In fact, he seemed like he got plenty of novelty during it. I would suspect that what was missing was authenticity and risk with the opportunity for serendipity. I do believe it is quite possible to still incorporate luxury into risky/adventurous/serendipitous travel, but I think you will find that affluence will tend to isolate you and make it more difficult to find authenticity, regardless of how comfortable you are with your affluence.

Arubis 11y ago

From the bottom of the article: >Seth Kugel has written the Frugal Traveler column since June 2010. This is his last column. His successor, Lucas Peterson, will start later this month. Based on the author's experiences and appreciation for integrating into developing culture over being coddled, I can only hope for him that he's leaving to join the Peace Corps or similar.

tgokh 11y ago
Sounds like he'll be writing a book and has been producing a video series http://sethkugel.com/14-and-a-half-months/ http://sethkugel.com/14-and-a-half-months/
peter303 11y ago
I wonder why they changed writers. I wonder if Seth got expenses paid by employer.
- matt_morgan 11y ago
  I don't know about this specific circumstance, but travel writers I've known got free trips from the tourist agencies, resorts, etc. in the countries they visit. Disclosure is not typical.
skdd8 11y ago
Based on your preference for being coddled, I can only hope one day you move out of your mama's basement.

grecy 11y ago

Ecuador is an amazing country - while driving south I thought I would only spend a month or so, I wound up spending 5. In my opinion it's like 3 countries/climates glued together - you can be on the Pacific getting sunburned at 100F+ for the morning, drive a few hours up into the high Andes and climb a 20,000 foot glacier capped volcano, then drive a few more hours and drop down into the amazon to watch monkeys swing through the trees. I climbed 20,000 foot Cotopaxi - http://theroadchoseme.com/cotopaxi-summit http://theroadchoseme.com/cotopaxi-summit Then lived in it's shadow for months - http://theroadchoseme.com/down-time http://theroadchoseme.com/down-time It's a supremely beautiful country, and the people are very friendly. Highly recommend.

user_0001 11y ago
There goes a wasted work hour reading your blog and remembering our overland road trip from UK to South America in an old VW Westfalia. Would love to get back out on the road, but 3 kids now (as opposed to just one for the trip) means it is unlikely.
podviaznikov 11y ago
100% agree with your description. I came there almost by an accident and stayed for 6 weeks in Quito and Amazon. I think for me personally it was the country with best ratio of expectations (they were low because I knew almost nothing before) and impressions (very high, easily my favorite country I visited so far).
cageface 11y ago
What's network access like there? Is wifi widely available?
- jandrese 11y ago
  Ecuador is surprisingly well built up. It was definitely my biggest surprise when traveling South America. People who know it mostly from the economic collapse around the turn of the century will be surprised at how much progress they have made. As an added bonus for US travelers, they use the US dollar as their primary currency. No obnoxious money exchanges to deal with! The only thing to watch out for is change, because Ecuador mints some of their own "dollars" that obviously won't be worth anything in the US.

paulsutter 11y ago

And don't forget the Ecuadorean kidnapping industry. I know a guy who was kidnapped four times (his family owns a banana plantation in Ecuador) A friend of mine knows a guy in Columbia with no fingernails. He was kidnapped for 18 months, they wanted him to reveal the real owner of some land where his name was on the title. They removed his fingernails one by one. That puts a bit of a damper on my own enthusiasm for South America. An uber driver from Brazil once asked me how I liked Brazil and I said "it was fun to visit, but what about all the kidnappings?" And he said "Oh, so you know what's going on" Yeah I do. Really it's not a region to visit carelessly. (I travel a lot, I'm in India now)

saint_fiasco 11y ago
If you are just a tourist who does not own the title to a banana plantation or anything like that, are you still at risk?
- ajosh 11y ago
  My experience is that you don't. Ecuador is a lot of fun. That said, you should always be careful. In Ecuador, particularly in Guayaquil, be careful what taxi you take. Make sure it has a meter, and if possible use a radio dispatched taxi (i.e. call). Beyond that, it's like most places you're likley to visit: Stay away from "bad" areas late at night, be aware of your surroundings, etc.
- ingenieros 11y ago
  The only foreigners that I constantly see getting themselves into trouble are those who deliberately come down here to do the things that they can't easily get away with in their own countries.
pluteoid 11y ago
It dampens your enthusiasm for the whole of South America? The threat of kidnapping can't be so bad everywhere. How about French Guiana, which is a department of France and in the EU? And some of my colleagues describe exploring stunningly beautiful areas in national parks in Brazil and Argentina, where the few people they encountered were mostly other European scientists and photographers.