Directory of Travel Resources

Valuable travel resources.

Published on 27 May 2025 • 5 min read

I have not done much traveling. I am a 22-year-old computer science student living in Arizona as of writing this. My intellectual context is primarily SF and rationalist, take that for what you will. Your demographic is likely important to take into account when traveling: please note the limited perspective that these links likely present.

These links have been haphazardly collected while browsing the internet. That said, this advice is more believable than an average LLM, and these links are better than what you’d get from a search engine or LLM.

If you have any other high-quality resource recommendations, please point me to them!

Further, nearly all of the descriptions for the links are LLM-written. I’ve spot-checked them for accuracy, have fixed some of the few errors — the information should be >90% correct.

Travel Advice

General Tips & Philosophies

50 Years of Travel Tips — Kevin Kelly distills half a century of travel into practical advice. A mix of logistics, gear recommendations, and mindset.
The Definitive List of Travel Subreddits to Help You Tour the World (r/travel) — Subreddit wikis and top-posts are usually good.
Travel - Dynomight — Philosophical and strategic perspectives on optimizing travel for serendipity and growth.
Westlag — Isaak's notes from traveling westward through time zones; insight into perception, sleep, and time.
Ben Kuhn's Travel Notes — Tactical travel heuristics: where to stay, what to pack, and how to adapt.
Piero Scaruffi's Travel Page — Personal but comprehensive index of countries and travel impressions.
Travel Philosophies - Marginal Revolution — Summary of diverse and contrarian views on how to approach travel.
Wikivoyage — Wikipedia for travelling.
tavel.state.gov — the US State Department’s official guidance on travel. Particularly helpful for international travel.
CIA World Factbook — Information about various countries aggregated by the CIA.
Saul Munn’s travel tips — Tips Saul’s collected from two years of living an itinerant life, selected for usefulness & not-discussed-elsewhere.

Packing Strategies

Tips on Packing (Saul Munn) — Systematic breakdown of gear, optimization, and process.
Vitalik Buterin on Packing — One-bag philosophy and minimalism applied to long-term global travel.
Pockets-Only — Radical ultra-minimalism: traveling without bags.
Onebag Travel — Practical guidance and kit reviews for onebag travel.
r/OneBag — More one-bag minimalist packing instructions.
r/Solotravel’s guide to packing — extremely comprehensive guide to packing, oriented toward people solo-travelling, but broadly applicable to any travels.

Modalities & Styles of Travel

Road & Air

Anson Yu - Roadtrip Manifesto — Idealistic and practical lessons learned from cross-country travel.
Take More Flights — Argument for frequency of travel over depth.

Walk and Talk

Derek Sivers - Walk and Talk — Reflections on the value of slow, reflective movement.
Kevin Kelly - How to Walk and Talk (PDF) — Illustrated guide to turning walking into meaningful dialogue.
Craig Mod - Walking Japan — Meditative travel logs from solo walking tours.

Offsites

Manifold's Offsite Notes — Examples of team offsites.

Bicycle Touring

Kevin Kelly - Reasons to Tour by Bicycle — Argument for bike touring as a mode that balances speed and immersion.
Bicycle Haiku — Poetic fragments from years of bike travel.

Relocation / Moving Cities

Falling in Love with NYC (Tyler Alterman) — Emotional and logistical tactics for immersing in a new city.
Reddit: Advice on Restarting in a New City — Wisdom from hundreds of lived experiences.

Meditation Retreats

Places to Meditate (Peter Stuckings) — Firsthand reports and reviews of meditation centers worldwide.
Meditation Retreat Manual (Amazon) — Practical manual for choosing and navigating retreats.
Retreat Guide (Google Doc) — Community-maintained reference on meditation retreat centers.

Place‑Specific Travel Guides

(Many entries surfaced via Patrick Collison’s travel page— h/t Patrick Collison. Others via Piero Scaruffi’s national guide and Matt Lakeman's blog.)

Some of these are hit or miss. E.g., per Saul Munn on Piero Scaruffi’s LA Guide: “i lived in LA for ~6 years — i don't think this is a very good guide, many of the things on his list are not that cool, not coherent things to visit, or simply factually wrong (e.g. Palos Verdes is not in San Pedro).” Other resources like Tyler Alterman — Falling in Love with NYC are amazing. Caveat emptor, YMMV!