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Preparing for Travel

by Matt Leave a Comment

Flying First Class

As someone who has visited six continents, I get asked all the time about travel preparation. People are interested in how to go about getting visas for different countries, how to check the safety of a destination, what vaccinations to get, and what sort of travel insurance they should get.

There’s certainly no “one-way” of doing things and many travelers might have differing opinions, but if you’re going to be leaving your country, you should at least have some general knowledge of various travel preparations and decide what you want to do and how you will prepare. [Read more…] about Preparing for Travel

Filed Under: How To, Limitless Travel, Travel Tagged With: how to travel, limitless travel, should i get travel insurance, tips for travel, travel overseas, travel preparation, travel visas, what vaccinations to get, world travel

I Finally Crashed My Drone…In Mexico

by Matt Leave a Comment

For those of you who followed the massive 150-day multimedia road trip across Canada, I put together in 2017, you’ll know that I had a drone. A drone was never something I intended to buy but after seeing one being advertised, and knowing I had this big road trip ahead of me, I went ahead and bought it. The only downfall of buying the drone was learning about all the restrictions that Transport Canada recently placed on them. Basically, I needed approval from each and every region we were visiting, local approvals, and really expensive drone insurance…$900 for the year to be exact. To put that into perspective, the drone itself was just over $1,000.

By the time the drone had arrived, I had just around two weeks left at home before departing for Newfoundland to begin the trip. I knew I wouldn’t be able to become a pro in such a short amount of time but I did manage to get outside for a few practice shots before using it to capture footage for the Road to 150. All in all, it was a GREAT investment as it really added production value to the videos and allowed us to score some BEAUTIFUL aerial shots of some of Canada’s most stunning landscapes. I also became a pretty good drone pilot along the way and even rescued the drone from a couple of close calls, one of which was in Newfoundland.

 

By the time the adventure was over, I had about 100 flights under my belt and felt pretty confident about operating the drone. Overall, I’m a very responsible person anyways and so I always followed all the rules and was pretty conservative with it. After all, I wasn’t about to buy a new one if I had crashed it and I really wanted to complete the trip with as many drone shots as we could get.

Guanajuato Mexico by Drone
Aerial Views of Guanajuato, Mexico
Acapulco Mexico by Drone
Aerial View of Acapulco, Mexico

With this newfound confidence, I decided to bring it to Mexico for Christmas. My wife is from Mexico City and so we had decided to spent about four weeks down there for the holidays. Although Mexico City in and of itself is a spectacular place to visit, we also decided to go to Acapulco, Guanajuato, and a beautiful jungle paradise called Huasteca. Well, the region is called La Huasteca. The primary reason I wanted the drone in Mexico was to capture the beauty of Huasteca. This place is sooooo beautiful. It’s a relatively unvisited slice of Mexico, in the jungles, surrounded by snaking turquoise rivers and hundreds of waterfalls. There’s also sinkholes (as featured in the series Planet Earth) and surrealistic castles. It reminds of the movie Avatar. I really wanted to make a video on the whole area.

However, since Huasteca was our last place on the schedule, I first brought the drone to Acapulco to get some gorgeous beach shots and to Guanajuato to fly it over one of the most beautiful colonial cities in the world. Then, my time finally came for Huasteca. One of my favorite things to do there is to jump off a series of waterfalls. So, we all walked out into the middle of a waterfall and I began flying the drone backward to show us standing in the water and to give the viewer some perspective. Not expecting to fly the drone close to the canyon walls, I kept an eye mostly on the phone to make sure I was capturing the footage I wanted. Maybe because I was already nervous about falling in the water, I forgot to ask my friends to keep an eye on the drone, which is something you should always do. After flying out quite far, I decided to pan across. This is where I made my mistake. With all of us looking at the phone, I wasn’t aware of how close I was getting to the canyon walls. Then, all of a sudden, my friend Ricky looked up to see the drone and yelled out “Bro, you’re gonna crash”. Then, that’s it. My screen went fuzzy and I lost connection. I was in shock. Just like that, my drone was gone. The only one who noticed it, last minute, before it’s fateful crash, was Ricky, and he pointed up to a spot on the cliff, maybe 200 feet above where we were. It was truly gone.

crashed my drone in mexico

Then, a moment of hope. Ricky could still see the drone. I couldn’t see it at all but he said he could see this little white spec clinging on to a tree. The drone was way out of reach and there was no way to climb up there. Still, we all kept the hope and left the waterfalls to go back to the main road and get a better look at where it was. Once we all had an eye on it, we noticed something unbelievable. Just thirty days before we arrived, a company built a zip-line in the area and I had crashed the drone just 2-3 feet away from one of the platforms! I mean, what are the chances! We drove to find the zip-line guys and Ricky went with them on the zip-line to get it. 30 minutes later, they came back with the drone in hand! It was broken, of course, and totally un-useable in its current state, but I had it back, along with all the footage!

Seriously, what are the chances of such a mishap? I crashed the drone on the side of a cliff, maybe 200 feet above a fast-moving river and a series of waterfalls. It was clinging to one little branch where a stroke of wind could have easily knocked it off. Thirty days before my arrival, a company built a zip-line course in that exact area and I just so happened to crash it above one of their platforms. They were working that day so we got them to go and get it. It was broken but totally fixable.

It’s just a crazy story to me, and when I got back to Mexico City, I found a DJI repair shop and had them fix it for $100 CAD. Now it’s as good as new.

The only downfall is that the only footage I got of Huasteca is what you see in the video before I crashed.

Guess I’ll have to go back.

What’s the lesson?

If you’re operating a drone, be very mindful of the surrounding area. You should always have a second person keeping an eye on the drone so that if you’re looking at the image on the phone, they can tell you if any dangers are present. And, if you do crash, don’t be immediately discouraged. You may have simply crashed it on a cliff next to a zip-line. You never know!

Did you like this story? Did you like the video” Say hi in the comments and let me know 🙂

 

Filed Under: Adventure, Photography, Travel Tagged With: DJI, drone, drone crash, drone in Canada, drone in Mexico, drone photography, drone video, how to crash a drone, how to fly a drone, huasteca, phantom 4, travel video

Finding The Best “Travel” Credit Card for You

by Matt

how to be a travel hacker
As many of you know, I love credit cards. I often have as many as 6-10 in my wallet at a time. There are a variety of reasons as to why I love credit cards and the top reason is due to the reward points you can earn with them. I’m known as a travel hacker, meaning I utilize credit cards to rack up frequent flyer miles and reward points and then use them on incredible trips around the world. However, I also love credit cards because they make it easy to keep track of expenses, come with travel insurance and other benefits, and keep my pockets free from loose change.
Not all credit cards are created equal though, and so I thought I’d share some tips for finding the best one for you.

How To Find The Perfect Travel Credit Card

Not all credit cards are created equal and not all cards will be a great match for your needs. I should also mention that you can hold more than one if need be. I often carry upwards of 10 different credit cards, mainly because I like to maximize my travel points. At the same time, I never spend more than I have. In fact, this is important. If you can’t pay off your balance in full each month, I would stay away from credit cards as the interest will quickly deflate the value of your points and cause a lot of stress in your life.

[Read more…] about Finding The Best “Travel” Credit Card for You

Filed Under: How To, Lifestyle Design, Limitless Travel, Travel Guides, Travel Hacking Tagged With: best credit cards, canadian travel hacking, credit cards, finding the best credit card, frequent flyer miles, travel, travel cheaper, travel hacking, travel smarter

Part Two: Driving to Canada’s Arctic

by Matt 1 Comment

Note: This is part two of a two-part story. If you’re new to the story, please read Part One: Driving to the Arctic Ocean first.

Igloo Church Inuvik

Exploring Inuvik, NWT

After a night in Eagle Plains, we drove more, and more, and more before taking a ferry across the Mackenzie Delta to Fort McPherson where we stopped for gas. By now, the scenery was getting to be slightly more flat, although we still found trees along the way. Eventually, maybe 4-5 hours later, we arrived in Inuvik, the biggest town in the Arctic. Here, we found amazing accommodation at the Mackenzie Hotel and were able to enjoy some really good food such as fish tacos at Alestine’s, an eclectic local restaurant where the kitchen is inside a yellow school bus. We love finding local restaurants like this but it’s certainly no secret. Aside from Alestine’s, we still used our camp stove to cook many other meals as there wasn’t a huge selection in the area and the grocery store prices were quite insane. A single Gatorade was $7! I really don’t know how people can survive with these prices but I suppose that’s why hunting and fishing are still so popular. [Read more…] about Part Two: Driving to Canada’s Arctic

Filed Under: Adventure, Dream Trips, Limitless Travel, The List, Travel Tagged With: best road trips, bucket list goals, crossing the arctic circle, dream trips, driving the dempster highway, inuvik, things to do in canada, tuktoyaktuk, visiting the arctic

Part One: Driving to Canada’s Arctic

by Matt 1 Comment

[video_player type=”youtube” style=”1″ dimensions=”853×480″ width=”853″ height=”480″ align=”center” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”20″ ipad_color=”black”]aHR0cHM6Ly95b3V0dS5iZS8xQnhTVlpnMGxabw==[/video_player]

Dream Trip Complete: Driving to Canada’s Arctic

I love a good road trip and Canada has plenty of them from an East coast Canada road trip or driving to the Northwest territories. There are so many beautiful places in Canada. There’s something about having a vehicle and being able to drive it where I want to go and about being able to comfortably pack my things and have them with me at all times. One of my bucket-list goals was to drive the infamous Dempster Highway all the way to Inuvik, Canada and then take the new highway to Tuktoyaktuk, Canada’s first road to the Arctic Ocean!

There was only one problem – The new highway wasn’t open yet. Luckily, however, I had a way to get around that. Back in 2017, I came up with the idea to travel across Canada for 150 days, creating a web series about Canada in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday. This project allowed me to get special permission for a variety of things, one of them being access to the new Mackenzie-Delta Highway, the highway connecting Inuvik with Tuktoyaktuk in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

Yup, that’s right. I was literally allowed to drive the highway before it was opened to the public. I even had a construction crew join me! But first, back to the story. [Read more…] about Part One: Driving to Canada’s Arctic

Filed Under: Dream Trips, Limitless Travel, The List, Travel Tagged With: best road trips, bucket list goals, dempster highway, dream trips, driving to inuvik, driving to the arctic ocean, driving to tuktoyaktuk, must do canada, road to 150, ultimate road trips

Exotic Arizona & Turning Any Trip Into a Lifelong Memory

by Matt Leave a Comment

things to do in arizona
Enjoying the views of Horseshoe Bend, Arizona

Updated: November 30th, 2020

A few weeks ago, we got invited to Phoenix to meet up with a public relations company that manages various brands. We were excited to learn more about the company we had been working with and discuss various ideas for marketing in the age of video and social media. We had also never been to Phoenix and we’re excited to see the city that so many people visit each and every year.

However, Phoenix itself wasn’t a dream trip for us. Sure, we were excited to meet the people we had previously only knew through email and yes, Phoenix is a pretty cool city, but it wasn’t a trip we would have made if not for the meeting we had been invited to.

But, whenever we do anything, I always try to maximize the experience and turn it into something amazing. In this case, we didn’t have a lot of time because we had to come back and shoot some winter videos for our Must Do Canada YouTube channel. We were also on our way home from both Cuba and Mexico and we’re kind of excited to return home for a change. Despite the lack of time, we still had four additional nights we could make use of, so I began looking at the map. Google Maps in this case.

Grand Canyon in the Winter
Witnessing the beauty of the Grand Canyon in January

The first iconic park that came to mind was the Grand Canyon. Karla and I had visited the Grand Canyon many years ago during the summer but we had never seen it in the winter. As a photographer, being able to see the Grand Canyon surrounded by snow seemed like a magical experience. Located just five hours north of Phoenix, the Grand Canyon became our main point of interest. I then continued looking at areas around it and remembered a place called Antelope Canyon, which just so happened to be two hours from the east side of the Grand Canyon. Antelope Canyon is another incredible work of mother nature that I’ve been wanting to visit ever since I saw a photo in a Las Vegas art gallery. Check, Antelope Canyon added to the list. Then, all this red rock scenery got me thinking about another place called Monument Valley. This is another area I’ve always wanted to visit and it’s only 2-hours from Antelope Canyon! Check again!

Dream Trip Grand Canyon
Standing next to the edge, Grand Canyon, Arizona

Our trip was planned. After three days in Phoenix, we would travel to the Grand Canyon for one night, Page for one night (Antelope Canyon), and Monument Valley for a night, before returning to Phoenix for one last night before flying back to Canada. I especially love road trips and this seemed like a cool place to take a road trip, so we rented a small car (just $25 per day, including all taxes) and put on the best road trip songs, booked our accommodation, and prepared for what we knew would be an incredible adventure. [Read more…] about Exotic Arizona & Turning Any Trip Into a Lifelong Memory

Filed Under: Adventure, Dream Trips, Lifestyle Design, Limitless Travel, Personal Development, Photography, Travel Tagged With: antelope canyon, becoming a better person, dream trip, grand canyon in the winter, how to travel, lifestyle design, monument valley, ordinary to extraordinary, travel arizona

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