It’s funny how often you hear about railroad trips in songs, novels and older movies. Yet how many people today actually take train journeys? In Europe trains are still prevalent, but in America they are near extinction. While large cities still have commuter lines, the Metro North trains that run out of New York City, long distance rail travel is just not a modern thing in America.
The American railroad, Amtrak, is always on the verge of bankruptcy. It is not well ranked among the world’s railroads. I have taken trains back and forth across the U.S. some seven times, mostly in coach, a grueling but still rewarding three day journey through farmlands, badlands, mountains and some dessert. On the trips I’ve taken, my fellow passengers were disproportionately retirees –in the overworked U.S., most people simply don’t have time to take long train rides. Long bus rides, meanwhile, are mainly relegated to the poor. Middle America is all about planes and cars.
Trains offer unique qualities lacking in buses, automobiles or airplanes. They are by far the most social form of travel, save perhaps for a cruise ship. The latter, however, are almost strictly tourist affairs, while trains still do offer the service of basic transportation from Point A to Point B. The lounge, observation and dining cars of a train offer one the opportunity to casually rub shoulders with fellow passengers. Card games are fairly common on trains, when passengers aren’t watching movies.
There is something almost hypnotic about the rhythms of a train, that can get you into a trancelike state. This is heightened by the fact that trains tend to take you, at least between cities, through territory unspoiled by highways, malls and other signs of our overcrowded and largely aesthetically barren modern landscape. On a train, we can still catch glimpses of how life appeared a hundred years ago. Of course, this anachronistic spell is somewhat broken by the ubiquitous cell phones and laptops, but something of the old world glamor remains.
People have long tended to romanticize trains, and I suppose I’m doing that here as well. In fact, train rides can also be tedious and frustrating. Not infrequently, you have to contend with late trains, overpriced and decidedly mediocre meals and noisy (and sometimes intoxicated) fellow passengers. Still, overall, railroad trips offer a more distinctive travel experience than any of the alternatives.
By: Larry Christopher
Posts Tagged ‘Cruise Ship’
Railroad Trips – No Better Way to Travel
March 23rd, 2010Travel Jobs & How to Make Money While You Travel
February 26th, 2010
Ever had the desire to quit your lame 9 to 5 job, tell your boss to shove it, pack up and start traveling the world?
All of us have had that desire at one point! The thing that stopped you was probably the same thing that stops most people: money.
“How will I pay for my flights, food, lodging, transportation, yada, yada, yada,” you asked yourself.
Don’t let these concerns bother you too much, because there is an underground, growing group of travelers who are utilizing some simple but hidden techniques to make significant incomes while traveling.
Here’s an overview of how we make money traveling and by landing travel jobs:
Underground Travel Income Method #1 – Traditional Travel Job – Hold a job that either a) pays for us to travel or b) is located in the place we wish to travel to. This is the lowest paying and most complicated method of all, but is the most commonplace.
Common jobs that pay for travels are for professional speakers, salespeople, package couriers, flight attendants, travel nurses/doctors, conservationists, cruise ship workers, etc.
Travel jobs located in the places we wish to go to can be any of the above, but also are specific to the location we travel to. There are some FUN jobs overseas that are looking for foreign workers!
Underground Travel Income Method #2 – Travel Writing – Travel writing jobs for magazines are more common than you may imagine. However, there are LOADS of other ways to write as you travel and make money, including blogging, picking up projects from sites like Elance and Guru, and writing travel guides, both online and offline.
Underground Travel Income Method #3 – Selling Affiliate Products – Using a simple website, you can drive online traffic to a product that will be of interest to your online followers. Don’t be intimidated by this! It can be as easy as using your very own Facebook or Myspace profile. Affiliate products typically pay 50% to 75%, so you can make a very healthy income for selling just a few objects.
Underground Travel Income Method #4 – Filming Your Adventures – If you’ve got the camera out and you’re taking pictures, why not switch it to ‘film’ mode and make money from it? You simply make a video of your destinations using iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, then use your videos to create a customer base!
Underground Travel Income Method #5 – Podcasting – If filming scares you off or intimidates you, you can make an iTunes podcast. It is easier than ever to get listed in iTunes and there’s a HUGE audience of podcast listeners. Simply talk about the places you visit two or three times a week and watch how your following grows… and how your bank account grows!
Underground Travel Income Method # 6 – eBay – The common misconception about eBay is that you have to sell a physical product to make money. Here’s the trick: You can set up a fulfillment house to ship your product (or hire your little sister or the neighborhood kid). All you have to do is create your eBay post from an internet café and collect the money!
Take any one of these six ‘travel job’ methods, and there are hundreds of travelers all over the world making more money than they would at a regular ‘job…’ and they’re living it up at exotic, world-class destinations. Take your pick, and take action on the ideas here!
By: John Beede
