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How To Get To The Top Of Tirana, Albania’s Mount Dajti By Cable Car

by Anil Polat | Feb 2, 2017 | Advice, Food, Green, Money | 8

Albania’s capital city Tirana doesn’t have the reputation of being the most beautiful, but I ask you to try agreeing with that from the view atop Mount Dajti overlooking the city. Something more objective however is Tirana’s ad-hoc system for pretty much everything, including public transportation.

You can get to the top of Mount Dajti, just outside of Tirana, by taking the Dajti Ekspress, the longest cable car in the Balkans. There are a lot of options for getting there but only a few that make sense. Here are the best ways to get to Mount Dajti.

From Town To Base Station

Before you do anything, it’s important to make sure you have, or withdraw, enough cash for the journey as well as cable car. The credit card machine at the base station hasn’t worked in forever – show up with only a Mastercard and you’ll have to go all the way back into town.

Cash To Bring – A round-trip cable car ticket is around 800 lek ($6.30 dollars) and the bus about 65 lek (.50 cents US). There’s a good cafe and restaurant up at the top that do accept credit cards but I wouldn’t rely on them, so bring extra cash to enjoy some food as well.

Head to the Et’hem Bey Mosque in the center of town. Looking at the Et’hem Mosque (with the clock town on the left) about 50 meters to the left is a bus station. You’ll see people waiting around, possibly a bus, or neither. Look for the Linze bus and confirm with the driver he or she is headed toward Dajti.

Dajti Cable Car Hours – From 10am to 7pm (winter); extended hours to 10pm during the summer months. The Dajti Ekspres cable car is open everyday except Tuesdays.

The trip from the bus station to nearby the cable car station is about 25 minutes. Go to the last stop – it also helps to sit near the front so the driver can let you know you’re at the right place.

Drop Off And Ready To Walk

From this point, you’ll have to walk about 10 minutes uphill following signs that aren’t very accurate. As you walk in the direction the bus was pointing when it arrived at the station, ask every few shops to make sure you’ve not gone off track. The shop owners are very helpful, often leaving their stores to give overly detailed instructions for the deceptively winding roads.

Unless you’re arriving with a bicycle, get a round-trip ticket up to the top by taking the 3.6 kilometer (2.2 mile) Dajti Ekspres cable car. A lovely 20 minute ride, unless you have serious fear of heights, take in all of the views of Tirana on the way. After arriving don’t miss the countryside on the far side of Mount Dajti.

Meal With A View – Although the pizza is pretty good, be sure to get a seat by the window, even if there is a wait at Ballkoni I Dajtit, the sight is spectacular.

Above it, there’s a cafe that rotates 360 degrees, like this:

Other Options To The Top

Taxi is an option but you’ll have to negotiate your way there, expect to pay about $15 USD for a one-way ride. There’s also a shuttle which connects with one of the bus stops but since there’s no set timing information available, consider it the very leisurely (possibly uncertain) way up. Up, by the way, is the direction it’s easiest to go – finding a taxi nearby, especially close to closing hour means bus is likely the only way you’ll be getting back into town.

Simple But Powerful, Currency Is An Essential App For International Travelers

by Anil Polat | Jan 31, 2017 | Money, Tech | 4

For nearly as long as I’ve been traveling with a (then) iPod touch, now several mobile phones, there’s been one app so consistently useful I’ve overlooked how integral its become to my travel routine. Currency is a free app for Android and iOS that lets you convert between multiple currencies, easily and offline.

Current Conversion

Currency is a pretty simple app to set up. Once you’ve downloaded it [iOS or Android] you add the currencies (e.g. dollars, euro, pesos) you want, then pick one to convert the others to an equivalent amount. So, let’s say the U.S. dollar is your home currency, you would choose dollars, then add the other currencies you might be using the near future. Set your home currency to one dollar, to see how many euro or yuan that happens to be. You can also quickly tap on the euro to change it to 1 (or 2, 3.5, whatever) to see how much it is in all the other currencies you’ve added.

The conversions in Currency are set to update automatically, so whenever you have an Internet connection the rates are as up to date as the time of your last Internet connection. When you don’t have an Internet connection, you can see do conversions with the last rates that were synced. Most currencies don’t change enough over a short period of time to where that should cause a major concern in most cases (save for some local financial collapse).

Constantly On Hand

Currency is extremely handy when you’ve arrived at an international airport so you don’t have to walk up to an ATM with no idea how much money you’re actually withdrawing. You can also help yourself when bargaining abroad because our minds tend to evaluate costs best in our home currency.

There are two versions of Currency: one that’s free with ads – to remove them you’ll need to pay $3.99. The ads aren’t intrusive but if you want to support the developer, it shouldn’t hurt your travel budget at all to purchase a well-designed app that provides a very handy function.

Are Wow Air Deals Worth It?

by Anil Polat | Jan 26, 2017 | Air, Money | 1

You may have seen recently a lot of seemingly spectacular deals from Wow Air, a low-cost airline based in Reykjavik, Iceland, that offers transatlantic flight deals for less than $99. Those deals seem worth it (answering the question above) of course, if they are what they seem upfront.

I spent some time booking flights using Wow Air and found while it might be an inexpensive way to cross the Atlantic, it may not always be the best way.

Wow Deals

A lot of low cost carriers advertise big deals on flights, pricing them so low it feels more like you could be booking a bus ticket. Often, those low fares are only for select seats offered on a first-come-first-serve basis or come with high fees, meaning most of the people booking that flight won’t be getting the lowest advertised price. The advertised deals get you to the booking process, and in the case of Wow Air, the fees for most people bring the airfare up to less attractive numbers.

First Thing Is One Way

Let’s get this out of the way upfront: Wow Air’s wonderful $99 prices (they’re sometimes as low as $69) from the United States to Europe are only for one-way journeys. Return flights are typically 2-3 times the one-way fare, around $219 back to America. And don’t forget about the taxes, around $100 usually. Although paying around $400 for a round-trip ticket to Amsterdam from San Francisco isn’t bad at all, there are some other fees you’ll need to accept or avoid to keep prices as low as possible.

The Other Fees

You quickly come across some of the more avoidable fees during the plane ticket booking process, starting with seat assignments. Paying for a reserved seat isn’t necessary, especially if you’re traveling alone or in a small group, plus have the patience to get queued up in line early. Otherwise it will cost you about $8 for each seat reservation. Food or drinks aren’t served, so unless a long haul flight is when you want to experiment with intermittent fasting, bring your own or pay about $12 for an airplane meal. Also, there’s no entertainment center, something you shouldn’t miss too much if you’ve got a travel good book or download a few movies ahead of time.

A few of the less avoidable fees are for checked bags. A checked bag carries a $70 fee per leg, meaning even on a one-way trip, if you’ve got a layover in Reykjavik (Wow Air’s hub), you’ll be paying the baggage fee twice. One carry-on bag under a reasonable size and a ‘personal item’ is free.

Wow Air doesn’t hide its fees but unless you’re traveling especially light or making use of a multi-city flight, your final price might be closer to an Icelandair ticket which offers stopovers, meals, and included baggage. Those of you accumulating frequent flyer miles too might decide Wow Air’s not worth what ends up being a small discount on airfare. Still, many travelers rate Wow Air as a decent airline that doesn’t feel cheap, but be sure to calculate all the fees because the reality is, it may not be that cheap after all.

Is It Safe To Travel To Turkey? [Updated: Jan. 2017]

by Anil Polat | Jan 24, 2017 | Security, Travel | 4

Around a year ago I originally wrote whether it was still safe to travel to Turkey, a question I get regularly in my inbox. A lot has changed over the past year – and not for the better – with more attacks, a coup attempt; many people have stopped bothering to ask altogether. It’s a dramatic shift in a country that was the 6th most visited in the world, back in 2015.

There are so many reasons to visit Turkey, from balloon rides over ancient volcanic rock formations, the impressive 1,480 year old Hagia Sophia, beautiful beaches, and of course all the food. Still, Turkey’s perception as a travel destination has changed, so has the reality.

Focused Fear

Most countries have rough parts, cities, and often those locations are far removed from the tourist experience. In other words, you have to look for trouble. In Turkey, a lot of the violence it faces from Kurdish terrorist groups, not to mention ISIS, was previously limited to the distant southeast. Recently, it has moved to Turkey’s travel capital, Istanbul.

A goal of terrorism toward tourists is to invoke a disproportionate amount of fear from attacks designed to make you feel like, “I could have been there,” so that you decide not to go to the country at all. It is easy to dismiss one, even two attacks, but terrorism in places tourists are likely to frequent is no longer an anomaly. There are other unsettling events as well, coup attempts, assassinations, and arrests. Although the chance of something happening to any given person in a terror-related event are low, in Turkey, those events are becoming more common. Disruptions directly related to such events, Internet blackouts, flight delays or cancellations, or curfews, could potentially occur during your trip.

Istanbul, for now, might be a better plan for those who have a little bit of travel experience.

Experiencing The Numbers

A lot of experienced travelers will proclaim, “of course it’s safe, go!” Much like the crime in your own city never seems so bad, because you live the statistics. As you travel you begin to become familiar with what is normal in various regions around the world. You see the nuance. Turkey is a very large country. Multiple terror events, government upheavals, you realize, are very unlikely to affect you specifically. But it takes time for your experience to support what your logical mind can decipher based on numbers alone.

The Real Question

Yes, Turkey is safe. But you have to be prepared when you travel to Turkey, that something bad might happen during your stay there. Not to you specifically, but in a country where there were 16 attacks in 2016 – and maybe to a place you could have been. Internet access might be cut for a time, making it difficult when you need it most, to inform your loved ones you’re safe.

Millions of tourists a month are still visiting Turkey, having wonderful trips, and seeing a truly remarkable travel destination. The question isn’t whether Turkey is safe, but whether or not traveling there makes you comfortable. Everyone has a different level of risk acceptance, and in Istanbul particularly, the risks, although rare, might for the time being exceed your personal limit.

How To Stick To Your 2017 Travel Resolutions

by Anil Polat | Jan 3, 2017 | Advice | 5

“Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you’re going to be right.”
-Muhammad Ali

There’s a really big problem with New Year’s resolutions – namely, that most of us don’t keep them. And when it comes to travel, making plans in the middle of a holiday season that often involves being intoxicated doesn’t help get you anywhere in June. Fortunately for us, technology is much less forgetful than we are and our brains can be hacked to get the results we want from them.

Where do you want to go in 2017? Let’s get started:

Refine Your To-Do List (aka. Resolutions) So It’s Believable

The most common list problem is the easiest to solve and neglect at the same time – where to keep your list. The free site Remember The Milk lets you set specific lists (e.g. ‘2017 Travel Resolutions’), prioritize them, and set schedules to make sure you stay on track. Remember The Milk also syncs with your iPad, iPhone, Android, and email accounts if you choose, as well as a few other online services you’re likely using.

Read Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity – I read this book several years ago and if you want to pounce procrastination plus learn to make powerful lists, this is the book for you.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

There are 4 types of travel lists that won’t help you very much and you can avoid creating one by keeping your travel resolutions short, have well defined steps toward your final goal, and set rough timetables for each item.

Use The Winner Effect To Knock Out Resolutions

Don’t make the first resolutions you want to tackle be the most difficult. Rather, use the winner effect to improve your chances of accomplishing more difficult goals down the line by setting up easier victories now. It works for boxers, 3-point shooters in basketball, and can for you by modifying your physiology for increased confidence.

The winner effect in many studies was nullified for subjects not in their territory (think home-team advantage) so for added chances of success early on, set up your early travel resolutions in familiar surroundings. Rather than making your first goal “travel to Thailand and live for a year” set yourself up for smaller victories like “go to the bank and open a savings account”. (Here’s how to choose the right bank for international travel.)

Digitize Peer Pressure

An effective way to get around saying one thing and doing another (a form of cognitive dissonance) is to hold yourself accountable to others. You can do that by informing close friends of your plans (and the key steps in your resolution lists – the winner effect can encourage them to believe in you more). That makes it all the harder to ditch your travel resolutions.

Another way to keep the pressure on yourself to get out the door and travel is to use apps where you can set goals, see progress towards them, and be nicely reminded when you might be falling off track. The Habit List app ($3.99 iOS) and free Habit Bull (Android/iOS) both let you set goals big and small, showing you streaks, and creating a flexible schedule so you can plan your way to success.

Motivate Yourself By Visualizing

The biggest path to our memories is through our eyes and we tend to believe what we see. That effect goes beyond what our eyes see to what our minds can visualize. Imagine yourself accomplishing each of your travel resolutions and you’re much more likely to believe it’s possible, less risky, and rewarding. (For more on this bias check out How Risky Is It?)

We often spend much of our travel-motivational efforts externally, trying to convince our family and loved ones who might not be as supportive initially as we’d like. The real conflict happens when their doubt becomes contagious or rather, they highlight flaws in our overall plans. Be an efficient and powerful dream-to-reality converter by motivating the most important person who needs it – you.

Steve Jobs

The Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson is a great read for geeks for the technical tale it weaves; but also highlights what an incredible motivator the stubborn innovator he was. His 2005 Stanford commencement speech is both touching and powerful. A 15 minute dose of confidence and conviction for your travel resolutions and other passions in life.

The Hardest Steps Are The Ones You Haven’t Taken Yet

Traveling means many things to many people and there is no one way to go. Whether you want to take one trip to a nearby city once a year or go on a one-year RTW, define your goals for you. Once you know where you want to be, it’s up to you to get there. You can get from your desk to all the places you want to travel. Your craziest dreams are only crazy until you believe in them. Your biggest obstacle is yourself. I believe in you. Believe in yourself. Now go make those crazy dreams come true.

Happy New Year,
-Anil

This is an updated version of a post originally written in 2012.

A Review Of The World’s Thinnest iPhone Charging Case: ChargeTech ThinCharge

by Anil Polat | Dec 20, 2016 | Tech | 0

The ChargeTech ThinCharge is a such a simple piece of technology, it’s hard to appreciate how useful it is, until everyone who sees it asks you about it. ChargeTech sent me a ThinCharge for the iPhone 6s, which I’ve been using for the past few months. You can see more in the video above on how it works, how thin it is, and what a benefit it is to expand your iPhone’s battery capacity by 1.5 times in an 85 gram, 11 millimeter-thick protective case.

ThinCharge: World’s Thinnest iPhone 6 / 6S Battery Case [Black]

The ThinCharge takes around 4.5 hours for a complete charge, which should comfortably get you through the day (or a long flight). An LED light on the side indicate how much charge the case itself has (the more it flashes the less power is left).

Nearly Perfect For Case Haters

The buttons of the case where the LED light is located is my only real gripe with the ThinCharge. Although you can charge the case and sync your phone with iTunes on your laptop without having to take it out of the case, you need to turn the case on by long pressing the top volume button. That means every time you turn on or off the ThinCharge, your ring volume will jump to maximum and you’ll need to remember to turn it down.

Otherwise, the ThinCharge is an ideal charging case for people who both hate cases for adding bulk to a phone and hate Apple for making anemic batteries. iPhone 7 and 7 Plus users, ChargeTech’s Indegogo campaign was successful, so those should be available for purchase soon. I’ll post links here when the iPhone 7 model is released; available now is the ThinCharge for iPhone 6 and 6s which you can find here.

About Anil Polat

Hi, I'm Anil. foXnoMad is where I combine travel and tech to help you travel smarter. I'm on a journey to every country in the world and you're invited to join the adventure! Read More