Monthly Archives: October 2013

The Selfish Guides to Asia are Finally Complete!

09 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Asia, China, General, Japan, South Korea

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

It took me a while but I’ve finally completed the Selfish Guides to Seoul, China, and Japan, which completes the rest of Asia. Considering that Mr. Selfish and I spent 33 days in China and 43 days in Japan, I don’t think that it was that long. Okay, so we did leave Asia about four months ago. I promise that I’ll finish the Selfish Guides to Australia, New Zealand, and Bora Bora in a much shorter time.

Here are a few pics from the new Selfish Guides:

Chicken WingsOperaKaraoke

If you would like to see the Selfish Guides in their entirety, please click here.

Taking Some Selfish Time Off…

02 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in General

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

,

When we started traveling 14 months ago, we started this blog as a fun way for friends and family to follow our adventures around the world. 422 posts later, I don’t think either of us expected to still be writing, or to have anyone other than my mom follow the blog.

After a year on the road, we’re finally settling someplace, and even though it’s only for the next few months, it’s a pretty strange feeling. While it’s nice to be back home in the States, the road continues to beckon, and it’s hard not to drop everything and go.

As you may have guessed, we won’t be blogging daily any more, but we will continue blogging. If you want to continue following us, the easiest way is to subscribe to our RSS feed, which is located on the right side of the blog underneath our “Next Location” image.

As others have suggested, we plan on posting about San Francisco as well as our travels on the west coast. We’re already eyeing trips to Portland, Hawaii, Vancouver, Seattle, San Diego, Sedona, Mexico, and the Grand Canyon, to name a few. Plus, there’s our trip to the Maldives and Okinawa in November – I’m already counting down the days!

Thanks again to everyone who followed us on our year long journey around the world. While we’re becoming a little less selfish, our selfish travels are far from over. Hopefully we’ll bump into you out there on a selfish trip of your own!

~ Mr. and Mrs. Selfish

The Costs of 1 Year of Selfish Traveling

01 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Accommodations, Asia, Australia, Best Of, Europe, Oceania, Travel Hacking

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

This is the final part of our 15 part series on the Best of Our Selfish Years of Traveling. You can check out the other parts below:

  1. It’s Almost Over: The Selfish’s Top 20 Experiences
  2. Now THIS is Living: The Selfish’s Top 10 Stays
  3. Stop Drooling: The Selfish’s Top 20 Eats
  4. The Selfish’s Top 10 Biggest Letdowns
  5. The DO’s of Traveling
  6. The DON’Ts of Traveling
  7. 10 Tips for Haggling Abroad
  8. 15 Things to Pack for a Year Long Trip
  9. 33 Things We Learned While Traveling Abroad for a Year (Part 1)
  10. 33 Things We Learned While Traveling Abroad for a Year (Part 2)
  11. 33 Things We Learned While Traveling Abroad for a Year (Part 3)
  12. The Selfish Guide to Photography – Part 1
  13. The Selfish Guide to Photography – Part 2
  14. A Selfish Year in Pictures

The World

Our great Selfish Years adventure started when I discovered the world of miles & points, back in September 2011. Mrs. Selfish and I applied for 2 Citi AA cards, for a grand total of 150,000 AA miles a piece: enough for two business class tickets around the world!

We’ve done some pretty awesome things, flown some amazing flights, and stayed at some world class hotels. So how much did it all stack up?

Let’s look at the numbers, shall we?

trip map

Mrs. Selfish and I spent a grand total of 372 days of straight traveling, leaving the States in August 2012, and returning in August 2013. During the course of the trip we saw 102 cities and flew 61 flights across 25 countries. selfish-days-by-country

We spent the most days in France, followed by Japan, Australia, and England. Expensive countries, indeed – though surprisingly, Australia was the MOST expensive country – coming in at roughly 50% more in costs than any other country.

Some random factoids:

  • Miles traveled: 70,150
  • Number of pictures taken: 50,326
  • Average number of pictures taken daily: 136
  • Best award redemption (value for cost): Park Hyatt Sydney
  • Best business class flight: Qantas, Sydney to Los Angeles
  • Number of beds we slept in: 97
  • Average number of days in same bed: 3.81
  • Best bed: Heavenly Bed, any Westin Hotel
  • Amount of time spent packing & unpacking bags: 3.36 days
  • Number of massages: 46
  • Number of native languages we encountered: 16
  • Number of languages we learned “hello” and “thank you” in: 8
  • Most expensive economy ticket: Siem Reap to Bangkok at $1.31 per mile
  • Most free attractions: Paris
  • Days we spent no money: 1

Continue reading →