North America

Las Vegas

United States

Orlando

Orlando-Sanford 🎡 at $78 RT from Las Vegas

Tampa

Atlanta

Atlanta 🍑 at $117 RT from Tampa

It seems like someone's living up to their catchphrase, “seriously nice”.

Key West

Pensacola

Charleston

Raleigh

Memphis

Key West, Pensacola, Charleston & more 🏖️ in $60s-$110s RT

Dallas

San Diego

San Diego 🛹 at $197 RT

Houston

Asheville

Asheville ⛰️ at $103 RT from Houston

There once were some flights to Nantucket...

Miami

Martha's Vineyard

Los Angeles

Nantucket

Chicago

Philadelphia

Washington DC

Off Cape Cod 🏖️ in $150s-$280s RT

Best thing about car camping is being able to park up and wake up to views like this on your (car) doorstep

Postcard from NomadicHopper57230

Cheeky little roadtrip around the Appalachians and stumbled on this big ol telescope array, part of the Greenbank Observatory

Postcard from Robin+Dev

got a puncture in the middle of Yellowstone on a track I wasn't supposed to be on. Heard the wolves. Totally fine.

Nearly half price to Alaska is nuts. Took my best mate and got properly off grid with the loggers. Met a bloke who looked a bit wild and wolfish.  Loved his cigars, pretty hairy and wouldn't want to cross him but he was great in a fight.

Great deal, thanks! Only wish the accommodation was as cheap! 


Postcard from Susie

Incredible. Thank you so much for finding this! Cannot wait to get there!

Postcard from Billy

Spain

France

United Kingdom

Portugal

Italy

Austria

Norway

Poland

Hi there, Travellers,
February has whizzed by, and somehow we've reached the end of the month already!&nbsp;
While January was full of meeting members old and new at travel shows, this month has been all about bringing together everything we learned from you. The feedback was so great to hear, so please continue to get in touch with ideas.
One thing we know makes a difference before booking a big trip is getting the inside scoop from someone who's been there, done that&mdash;and that applies to which airlines we fly with, too. Two of our most-viewed articles are our reviews of lesser-known airlines,&nbsp;<a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/jfc-honest-airline-reviews-saudia-airlines-and-more">Saudia Airlines</a> and <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/jfc-honest-airline-reviews-china-southern">China Southern</a>, and we'd like to keep sharing the intel.
So if you've had a memorable airline experience (for the right or wrong reasons), or you've flown on an airline you weren't familiar with beforehand, <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/home?contribute=airline">send us a little airline review</a> to help the Jack's Community go further.
Happy travels and safe landings,

Will EES Give You Border Control Nightmares This Summer?

The Detour Editor Katy is a budget travel aficionado who has already travelled to more than 50 countries. Whether she's at home or on a foreign adventure, she has a particular talent for stumbling upon tasty Georgian restaurants.

Answered by Katy

<blockquote>
&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to know your views on the new EES system which is due to roll out in April &lsquo;26. I&rsquo;m a UK passport holder travelling to Kos in August and concerned about the potential delays at passport control.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

Hey there, Traveller! Great topic, and very timely too.&nbsp;
Since October 2025, countries in the Schengen Zone have been rolling out the EU Entry/Exit System (EES). By collecting your biometric data upon arrival (photo &amp; fingerprints), countries within the zone are aiming to track visitors more consistently and ensure that nobody is overstaying their welcome.&nbsp;
This doesn&rsquo;t feel like anything new in terms of border control techniques (I&rsquo;ve been attempting not to make silly faces in photos at international borders for years), so you&rsquo;d think it wouldn&rsquo;t be a big deal. However, when you try to get <a href="https://travel-europe.europa.eu/ees/what-is-the-ees">29 countries</a> to roll out one system across 500+ airports, all major ferry ports, land border crossings, etc., things get a little complicated.
Anyone entering the Schengen area on a non-EU passport will now need to go through the process of biometric checks upon arrival. Well,&nbsp;probably.&nbsp;
Like you, reader, airports and border control agents are getting anxious about the surge in summer visitors possibly leading to utter chaos at immigration. For that reason, the EU has confirmed that, although April 9th is still the legal deadline for implementation, all countries have the <a href="https://etias.com/articles/eu-entry/exit-system-full-implementation-still-april-9,-with-flexibility">ability to pause the EES checks</a> for up to 90 days after that date. They&rsquo;ve also given the possibility of a further 60-day extension on that, with early September as the final final deadline.
All that to say, you may not even have to deal with the new EES system upon your arrival in Kos. But if you do, there&rsquo;s no knowing whether it&rsquo;ll be hellish or plain sailing. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/jacksflightclub/permalink/2734116543610856/">We asked our Facebook community</a> for their experiences so far, and it really was a mixed bag.

&ldquo;Really quick with lunchtime arrival in Vienna on February 16th. Through in under 10 minutes.&rdquo; - Susan
<hr>
&ldquo;Straight through in Lille, took seconds, and in Fuerteventura they had specific machines for people who hadn&rsquo;t previously done theirs and no queues at all.&rdquo; - Sally
<hr>
&ldquo;Barcelona last month - easy peasy and done in no time.&rdquo; - Liz
<hr>
&ldquo;Alicante in January, returned Feb&hellip;no issue.&rdquo; - Lesley

<h2 dir="ltr">The confused</h2>

&ldquo;Been through Faro (where we did our prints and photos done on the way in) and Rome Ciampino. In Rome when I scanned my passport an official told me to go with him, I was a bit worried but it was just to get my passport stamped and I went straight through. Unfortunately because he was dealing with me, he missed my husband who had to go through the whole process and was almost last through! Teething problems!&rdquo; - Fiona
<hr>
&ldquo;Two very different experiences. One was 2 hours (Tromso), and the other was all automated with self-service scanners! I was pleasantly surprised at Tenerife.&rdquo; - Sophia
<hr>
&ldquo;When I went to Spain, there were some new, very confusing lines, and none of the staff really knew which queues to put people in. When I got to the desk at the front, a grumpy man told me to look into the camera, then do my fingerprints, and that was it. It took around 30-40 minutes, I think, but that was mostly down to the lack of organization; they had people switching queues constantly.&rdquo; - Lauren
<hr>
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been through various, and I think depends upon destination. Montpellier in France is a regular trip, and time-wise for me at least, nothing is out of the ordinary. Did experience about an hour delay at Prague, where they seemed to be struggling, and it took about 40 mins at CDG Paris.&rdquo; - Simon
<hr>
&ldquo;We went through with Eurostar in Paris on Wednesday. It was fine and quick for me, but then our train was delayed because so many people, who had arrived at the time the email and tickets told them to arrive, were stuck in big queues at security.
I think, to be honest, it was the bag scanning that slowed it down there, as the staff manning that section could not have been less helpful.&rdquo; - Danielle

&ldquo;Scanner took a while to scan the passport, and the fingerprint scanner didn't work at all no matter how hard or soft you pressed! (Leeds/Bradford) so had to go the usual route anyway, and the queue was enormous!! So it wasn&rsquo;t just us that had a problem.&rdquo; - Jules
<hr>
&ldquo;2 hours to get into Krakow&hellip;&rdquo; - Beverley
<hr>
&ldquo;A nightmare in Lanzarote. Not clear what to do. Those that didn't scan their passports couldn't then get through passport control at the gate. All UK flights were delayed last night.&rdquo; - Anon
<hr>
&ldquo;Scanners "down" at Lanzarote on way in and took ages to get them back up, so there were big queues. There was no one easily found to ask questions of, and I could see that some of the questions might take some folk down rabbit holes&rdquo; - Karen

The main thing I&rsquo;m taking away from all these stories is that it really varies wildly from airport to airport. Anyone arriving in the Schengen Zone on a non-Schengen passport this summer should plan to queue for at least 30 minutes at border control. If the EES system is in use, many people will be going through for the first time and will need to register their details, causing delays. If it&rsquo;s not in use, you&rsquo;ll still have to wait for a manual check and/or stamping.&nbsp;
If you&rsquo;re on a tight schedule, book seats close to the front of the plane so you&rsquo;re first off. Don&rsquo;t stop to use the facilities on your way&mdash;plan ahead and use the toilet on the plane before landing. And it&rsquo;s always worth making sure you have your roaming or eSIM sorted in advance so you can keep on top of your transport plans during delays.
Waiting in a line for hours isn&rsquo;t fun for anyone; however, I would suggest doing your best to go into the situation expecting it but not dreading it. It is what it is, and it will be over eventually. That sentiment may be particularly beneficial for anyone heading to Lanzarote, it seems!
But if you&rsquo;re lucky, reader, Kos will have you through border control in under ten minutes, and you&rsquo;ll be sailing off into the Grecian sunset in no time.

It&rsquo;s worth noting that the EES system is linked to the new <a href="https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias/about-etias/what-is-etias">Electronic Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS)</a> in Europe, similar to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/eta">Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA)</a> that the UK brought in this week. While visitors to the UK need an ETA already, ETIAS will only be necessary from late 2026 and won&rsquo;t be a problem for your August trip. However, keep an eye out for updates if you&rsquo;re travelling again later in the year.
I hope this helps you feel a little more prepared for your upcoming trip, reader. It may not be plain sailing, but it shouldn&rsquo;t be the end of the world. Do let us know how it goes once you&rsquo;re back!&nbsp;
Have you been through the new EES system already? <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/will-the-new-ees-system-give-you-border-control-nightmares-this-summer#comments">Share your experiences in the comments</a>!

Reader's Corner

Calling All Vicarious Travelers...

We love seeing the bargain Flights you, our fantastic Community, have bagged, and hearing stories from your trips. It helps us all travel vicariously through each other when we can't be out on an adventure ourselves.
Here are some of our fave moments of escapism from the last month:

"Always wanted to do a safari and the cheap flight offer defo made it doable for me!! Best trip ever!" -&nbsp;Postcard from DynamicVoyager84378

Kenya

"Had a brilliant time, it was amazing!" -&nbsp;Postcard from Calts63

Slovakia

"Took a very romantic road trip from Athens to see the ancient ruins and monasteries, something I had wanted to do for so long! The food was also absolutely fantastic!"&nbsp;- Postcard from PassionateHolidaymaker60896

Greece

"I had two weeks of a lifetime solo in Barbados after working through the Christmas period. I&rsquo;d never have been able to afford it otherwise and I stayed with a local in the country. After a few days of getting the bus, I hired a car and really saw the island. I made friends who live there, and now I&rsquo;m absolutely dying to go back. It was an amazing trip, I saw so much!"&nbsp;- Postcard from Polly!

Barbados

<a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/postcards">Head to our Postcards wall</a> to see more!
We'd love to have your pics and tips joining them up there. <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/home?contribute=postcard">Send us a Postcard</a> to let us know about an awesome trip you found through Jack's, or share all your tips, tricks, and tales in <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/home?contribute=story">a travel story</a>.&nbsp;

Travel Tales

All the important (or silly, or strange) travel news from around the Jack's Community this month.
<ul>
<li>Help! Jack's Traveler Samina from our Facebook community needs your tips for her upcoming <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/jacksflightclub/permalink/2741791856176658/">family trip to the Seychelles</a>. Go give her a hand, would ya? </li>
<li>Cheap flights to Asia sometimes mean a long layover in China&mdash;but don't let that put you off! <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DU2m52MDD5r/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1">Our Navigators shared their top tips</a> for making the most of it. </li>
<li>Now we didn't mean to get you all riled up, but when we asked <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/jacksflightclub/permalink/2726200921069085/">where you'd&nbsp;never travel to</a>&mdash;not even if it was free&mdash;there were plenty of opinions flying around. </li>
<li>Jack's Traveler Nina shared some <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DVJi-7mkWYg/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1">stunning pics</a> from her recent trip to Northern Vietnam. The rest of us immediately went to book flights. </li>
<li>Layovers, who'd have 'em? Community members shared their thoughts, feelings, and experiences on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/jacksflightclub/permalink/2722718518083992/">transiting through the USA</a>. </li>
<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/jacksflightclub/permalink/2723282631360914/">AMA: Ask Masuma Anything</a>. Jack's member Masuma answered all our questions about her recent trip to Sri Lanka, and, boy, were we envious! </li>
<li>And finally, Navigator Akasha challenged an unsuspecting Jack's member on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DVORuEBjPKK/?hl=en">a fundamental part of plane etiquette: manspreading</a>. We think he passed the test.</li>
</ul>

Community Chatter

Community Dispatches & European Border Control Chaos

Netherlands

I&rsquo;ve always been obsessive about art museums. It&rsquo;s the first thing I usually do when I visit a new city. And while I love to admire galleries full of paintings and sculptures by iconic artists, my favorite works take on a different quality: immersion.
After experiencing about fifteen emotions simultaneously inside Tim Shaw&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.timshawsculptor.com/projects/mother-william.php">Mother, the Air is Blue, the Air is Dangerous</a> in college, I was hooked on the entire concept of immersive art. It takes one set of skills to make a beautiful painting; it takes another to transform a space and make viewers forget they&rsquo;re in a museum.&nbsp;
Yayoi Kusama is arguably the queen of such installations, with her&nbsp;<a href="https://high.org/exhibition/yayoi-kusama-infinity-mirrors/">polka-dotted rooms</a>:

You might also remember <a href="https://artlead.net/journal/modern-classics-olafur-eliasson-the-weather-project-2003/">Olafur Eliasson&rsquo;s The Weather Project</a>, in which he created an artificial sun in the Tate Modern.
But lately, the concept seems to be exploding in popularity outside the world of contemporary art. &ldquo;Immersive experiences&rdquo; are something of a tourism staple these days, from the million franchises of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.museumofillusions.com/our-locations/">Museum of Illusions</a>, to that traveling <a href="https://vangoghexpo.com/">Van Gogh projection</a>.

Personally, I find many of these places to be a little too touristy. If there&rsquo;s an identical copy of your &ldquo;mind-blowing experience&rdquo; the next city over, it feels less like a step out of reality and more like a gimmick.&nbsp;
However, there&rsquo;s one major exception to my sentiment towards major art exhibit chains, and that&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://meowwolf.com/">Meow Wolf</a>: five locations, each completely different, each with an interactive story from the same universe. Their fandom definitely seems to be growing &mdash; the Vegas location is now on most lists of &ldquo;Things to do in Vegas&rdquo; (including <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/skip-the-strip-the-non-gamblers-guide-to-las-vegas">mine</a>), and there are even some folks who plan entire trips just to experience a new Meow Wolf (including me).

It&rsquo;s hard to adequately describe the feeling of a Meow Wolf if you&rsquo;ve never been to one. Imagine parking your car and walking into a nondescript warehouse, and then spending the next 3&ndash;-5 hours completely forgetting your normal life as you&rsquo;re overcome with a need to solve a gripping interdimensional mystery by rifling through the items inside an artistic, interactive alien world.&nbsp;
They really don&rsquo;t mess around when it comes to details. I once opened a filing cabinet in one of their exhibits, expecting to find it either empty or locked, but it was full of readable typed pages with text that matched the worldbuilding.&nbsp;
I always walk out of Meow Wolf feeling like I&rsquo;ve just crash landed back on Earth after a vacation to another planet, which is&nbsp;exactly what I want from an immersive art exhibit.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;ve heard the&nbsp;<a href="https://doloris.nl/en/">Doloris Mazes</a> in Tilburg and Utrecht bring a similarly surreal experience to the Netherlands, but without having visited, they&rsquo;re a bit shrouded in mystery for me &mdash; phones and cameras are strictly banned, making it difficult to get a sense of the art inside without seeing it for yourself. The mystery grows even more tantalizing when you learn that all guests must enter alone, blindfolded.&nbsp;
The intensity of their entrance rules is probably how the question &ldquo;Is it scary?&rdquo; ended up in their FAQ. Their answer includes the following lines:
&ldquo;Because you do not know what lies ahead, entering the maze can feel exciting or tense. This feeling comes from stepping into the unknown rather than from any intention to frighten you.&rdquo;
How poetic!
I think that quote really gets to the core of what makes these exhibits so popular, and so exhilarating to me. I can&rsquo;t accurately explain Meow Wolf to you if you haven&rsquo;t visited, and I&rsquo;ll never understand the Doloris Meta Maze until I visit the Netherlands and see it for myself.

It makes sense that places like this become magnets for visiting travelers, because it really is like microdosing on travel &mdash; you never quite know what&rsquo;ll meet you when you arrive, but you emerge with the sense that your normal life is lightyears away. And while you can spend hours telling your loved ones about it, you can never truly share the feeling with them.
I could write paragraphs about my experience in that Tim Shaw installation. I could describe, in perfect detail, the caf&eacute; tables, the floating trays, the eerie blue glow and the muffled audio. But I can never fully share the experience of waiting in line in an art museum with no idea of what was in that room, and then suddenly being immersed in another world. You just have to walk through that door yourself.
So here&rsquo;s to stepping into the unknown, even if it&rsquo;s just the contents of a gallery! And if you&rsquo;ve had any similar experiences with an art installation or interactive experience, let me know in the comments &mdash; I&rsquo;m always hungry for more.&nbsp;

Tiny Steps into the Unknown: A Look at Immersive Art Attractions

Fiji

Hey there, Travellers,
Katy's taking a (well-deserved) break after a flurry of non-stop travel shows, so I find myself at the helm again this week!
Unlike Katy, I've been in a bit of a lockdown after <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/its-not-you-its-me-breaking-up-with-my-nomadic-lifestyle-after-years-on-the-road">burning myself out with full-time travel</a>. I'm now in the proverbial burn unit, i.e., settling into my new town, where I'm relearning how not to travel full-time. I love it here, but&nbsp;the jitters are definitely setting in.
I mostly miss my long drives through the desert (enough to write about it down below) but there are also plenty of perks to&nbsp;not living out of motels. I own a shelf now, so suffice it to say that I'm thriving!
But... if you have any tips for keeping the travel bug at bay, I'd still love to hear them in the comments :-)
Happy travels and safe landings,

Olivia - Sub-Editor of the Detour

Larissa is an Aussie expat from Sydney who only sometimes misses the beach. Currently based in London, she&rsquo;s now working on ticking as many European cities off her travel list as possible. When she's not busy checking for brunch spots in her next destination, she's writing about flight deals for Jack's Flight Club.

By Larissa

Ticking Fiji off my &lsquo;countries to travel to&rsquo; bingo card wasn&rsquo;t really in my 2025 plan. I had already bagged a trip to Japan in February, filling my &lsquo;long haul&rsquo; quota for the year. And unlike many other Australians, I&rsquo;d never had a family trip there during my childhood. I had no nostalgic memories of all-inclusives and endless beaches. It had just never been on my radar.&nbsp;
That was until my dad decided to celebrate his 60th birthday with a week-long trip at the Radisson Blu in Denarau Island. I was (in theory) excited to see my family, but it was a long way to go. I wasn&rsquo;t jazzed about the looming extreme travel and jet lag combo, knowing I&rsquo;d have to turn back around and get back to London after 6 days. And if I&rsquo;m being radically honest, Fiji has never been high on my list.
But after a hop via San Francisco to what is almost the exact antipode of London, I landed in NAN for what would become a really transformative family trip. And one I&rsquo;m so, so thankful to have made the journey for.&nbsp;
Being part of quite an adventurous family (paddleboarding, bike riding, camping, sailing&mdash;if it&rsquo;s &lsquo;outdoorsy,&rsquo; my family does it), I knew we wouldn&rsquo;t just be hanging out by the swim-up bar or posted up on a sun lounger on the beach. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong, I love a relaxing holiday, but Fiji is one of those countries that I knew I wanted to see beyond the resort. I knew next to nothing about life there, and I wanted to see it for myself.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Arriving in NAN airport - that&rsquo;s my plane! </h3>

After 21 hours of flying, we landed in Nadi on the western side of the island. The rest of my family got away with a 4-hour flight from Sydney&hellip;lucky! This is the main international airport for holidaymakers, with the popular resorts of Denarau Island a 30-minute taxi ride away.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Unsurprisingly, the airport is small. We deplaned on the tarmac, allowing the humidity and heat to hit me immediately. In case you&rsquo;ve never experienced this before (clearly you&rsquo;re not from Australia), it&rsquo;s similar to the whoosh of heat you get when you open the oven door. And even though it was a cheery 5am, the heaviness in the air buzzed with an excitement (or maybe that was just my sleep deprivation being overtaken by adrenaline).&nbsp;
After a little bit of difficulty getting Fijian dollars out of the airport ATMs, I took a taxi to the resort.&nbsp;
Sidenote: I have a bone to pick with whoever decided to only put Westpac ATMs in Nadi airport. Yes, it was 100% my fault that I only took 1 bank card to Fiji (lesson learned), but the sheer panic I felt as I tried several ATMs in the terminal and they&nbsp;all rejected my card... cruel! I had no cash (lesson learned x2), so I was at the mercy of a very nice taxi driver. I told him my dilemma, and he drove me to an ANZ ATM on the way to the hotel with the assurance that it should work. Thankfully, it did!
<h3>Running around Denarau Island</h3>

I took advantage of my severe jet lag on day 2 to go for a run around Denarau Island. To give you a bit of context, Denarau is where almost all the major resorts are, with hotels like the Hilton, Radisson Blu and Sheraton standing side-by-side along the beach. As you&rsquo;d expect, the restaurants, bars, cafes, and shops in this part of the island are absolutely geared towards tourists, and it felt extremely safe for me to run by myself at 7am.&nbsp;
I ran up to the Hilton and back, and this photo was taken facing back down the beach towards my hotel. It&rsquo;s easy to access the beach from most of the hotels (no one will check that you&rsquo;re a guest if you just walk through the lobby, trust me &mdash; I was unsure at first when I ran up the stairs of the Hilton, but I kept my gaze straight ahead, and the confidence clearly paid off as no one stopped me. Maybe it&rsquo;s athleisure privilege?) and it was interesting to see the differences between the spaces.&nbsp;
One thing that I remember vividly was the HEAT, even at that time in the morning. You needed a hat and sunscreen; otherwise, you&rsquo;d be getting sunburned even before you hit the pool.
<h3 dir="ltr">DIY trip to Koroyanitu National Park</h3>

While there are plenty of tours for loads of different activities across the island (and beyond, but we&rsquo;ll get there later), my family decided to organise a DIY tour out to <a href="https://www.koroyanituheritagepark.org/">Koroyanitu National Park</a>. The park is 35 square kms, and includes the third-highest mountain in Fiji: Mt. Batilamu. It&rsquo;s around an hour&rsquo;s drive (45 km) from Denarau Island to the national park entrance.&nbsp;
We organised a taxi there and back (the driver waited for us at Abaca Village, at the entrance of the park), which cost just over $100 AUD &mdash; around $150 FJD. This photo was taken on the way to the park, and you can see the coast and the ocean beyond the trees.&nbsp;
For those who don&rsquo;t want to worry about the logistics, tours from the hotels in Denarau are plenty and typically cost around $200 USD/$450 FJD (with lunch included).&nbsp;
Spoiler alert: this walk was one of my favourite points in the whole trip, mostly because I was doing it with my two younger siblings. I&rsquo;ve been living outside Australia for 6 years, and in that time they&rsquo;ve both grown up into actual adults (wow!). This walk was one of the first times on the trip we were able to get to know each other better on the same level. These conversations about their lives, learning the names of their best friends, and just idle chit-chat about how they spend their days have really helped us reconnect. We now make an effort to send regular voice notes back and forth (the preferred communication style of Gen Z), and it&rsquo;s hands down my favourite souvenir from the trip, even though it doesn&rsquo;t quite fit in my bag.&nbsp;
<h3>Entrance to the park</h3>

The entrance to the park is in Abaca Village (where you can also stay if you&rsquo;d like the experience of a traditional Fijian village). From here, it took about 15-20 minutes to walk into the park proper. It is a little hilly, but you don&rsquo;t need to be an experienced trekker to go there.&nbsp;
There is an entrance fee (<a href="https://www.koroyanituheritagepark.org/plan-your-trip">25 FJD for tourists</a>), and they&rsquo;ll give you a map and directions on how to get where you want to go. There are 3 trails, one of which is the 4-hour round trip to climb Mt. Batilamu. We modified one of the trails and only did a 40-minute hike round trip.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr" id="getting-to-the-waterfall">Getting to the waterfall</h3>

The staff at the entrance office gave us instructions on how to get to the closest waterfall. It wasn&rsquo;t too complicated, with the path being marked. Once we got to the turnoff on the main path, it was a quick descent to the waterfall. As you can see here, the waterfall isn&rsquo;t very steep at this point and is very safe/easy to cross.&nbsp;
You&rsquo;ll also notice another thing about my pictures from this hike &mdash; there wasn&rsquo;t another soul in sight, apart from my family. Our group had this whole part of the park to ourselves &mdash; not something you&rsquo;d be able to say if you paid for an organised tour! We think they must take them to another waterfall in the park.
<a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/fiji-beyond-the-resort">Keep reading...</a>

Finding Relief in California's Desert Hotspot

A San Diego native, Olivia left home three years ago to live on the road. Since then, she's had homebases everywhere from Quebec to England to New Orleans, but she always ends up back on the West Coast. When she's not hiking through the desert or the woods, she can usually be found exploring her current city and scoping out the best bars and coffee shops.

By Olivia

As a Southern Californian and a big fan of road trips, I know pretty much every inch of my state&rsquo;s desert. It&rsquo;s one of my favorite regions in the world and it&rsquo;s far more complex than it looks on a map. When people visit SoCal, they tend to focus on the coastline and treat most of the desert as a wasteland, even though there&rsquo;s so much worth doing out there.
However, I&rsquo;m currently up in the Pacific Northwest, experiencing a typically dreary winter that brought me homesickness along with it. So I don&rsquo;t know about you, but those sun-soaked dusty highways, warm nighttime breezes, and colorful margarita bars are all sounding especially good at the moment.&nbsp;
If it sounds good to you too, we could fly into Los Angeles, deal with the infamous chaos of LAX, and then make that (frankly god-awful) drive through traffic-filled suburbs and cities until you hit the desert.&nbsp;
But fortunately, there&rsquo;s another option. Instead, we could land at an iconic little town near and dear to my heart, surrounded by the best of the SoCal desert: Palm Springs.

Despite being a pretty small city (about 45,000 residents), Palm Springs has an international airport with surprisingly good connections and much cheaper fares than you&rsquo;d expect. Compared to LA, you might pay $10-$50 more round trip for a domestic flight into town or an extra $100-$250 RT for a transatlantic flight. To be honest, I&rsquo;d gladly pay that much to skip out on the hassle of LAX.
In fact, a widespread desire to &ldquo;skip out on the LA hassle&rdquo; is pretty much how this town became such a hub. Stylish, naturally beautiful, and juuuuuust far enough from the metropolis to feel worlds away, Palm Springs has had a reputation as an oasis since its beginning. Resorts began popping up in the early 20th century, and by the peak of the Old Hollywood era, it was well-known as a getaway spot for the stars. An afternoon stroll in those days might have involved waving &ldquo;hello&rdquo; to Frank Sinatra or Marilyn Monroe.
With all those fashionable folks in town, the city developed a very distinctive aesthetic. You might know that Palm Springs is a major hub for <a href="https://www.huset.com.au/blog/a-look-at-the-history-of-danish-furniture-travelling-back-in-time/">Mid-Century Modern design</a>, with its wide glass walls and sleek shapes, but the homes here really take on a specific Californian flair. Think succulent gardens, breezeblocks, and swimming pools lined with (what else?) rows of palm trees. If you watched the movie Don&rsquo;t Worry Darling, then you get the vibe. These homes were designed to feel like part of the natural landscape.

They also make Palm Springs a lovely place to wander aimlessly. You could easily kill an afternoon just by walking or driving around, admiring the architecture (and the town has a <a href="https://visitpalmsprings.com/mid-century-architecture-self-guided-tour/">self-guided tour</a> to help). Hop aboard the aerial tramway, and you can get a bird&rsquo;s-eye view of the whole city.
Along the main thoroughfare, you can shop, grab some Mexican food, or check out the swanky art museum. Most visitors grab a resort reservation and spend most of their time either by the pool or on the golf course, but we&rsquo;re not here to spend all day lounging. We&rsquo;re here to take in that magical desert...
&hellip;starting with <a href="https://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm">Joshua Tree National Park</a>, which is practically the city&rsquo;s backyard. This is where Southern Californians go to unwind and soak up some desert scenery. You might recognize it as a favorite backdrop for music videos &mdash; those huge granite boulders and titular trees are a dead giveaway. Unlike a lot of national parks, J-Tree is less about long hikes and arduous outdoor excursions and more about hanging out under the stars, clambering around on the boulders, and listening to the wind rustle through the yuccas.

For some truly serious hiking, you&rsquo;ll want to head for the <a href="https://www.alltrails.com/parks/us/california/mount-san-jacinto-state-park">San Jacinto Mountains</a>. This pine-covered range is on the other side of the city, opposite the open desert, and criss-crossed with alpine trails. The landmarks have frightening names like "Devil's Slide" and "Suicide Rock," so you know you're in for a fun challenge.&nbsp;
Climb high enough on a clear day, and you can see up to 100 miles into the distance &mdash; on one side, a hazy view of Los Angeles, propped up against the Pacific Ocean. On the other, a wide-open array of peaks and valleys that seem to go on forever, interrupted by the silver shimmer of the Salton Sea.

Speaking of which, while that shimmer is often treated like nothing more than a salty mud puddle, I&rsquo;m firmly in the camp that loves the Salton Sea. It's usually quiet, sometimes desolate, sometimes kitschy and fun, and always interesting. People like to use the word &ldquo;post-Apocalyptic&rdquo; to describe that area, but I don&rsquo;t take that as a negative! It feels like a place that exists outside of society, where like-minded off-grid types can find some peace and community.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s the kind of place where you can, I don&rsquo;t know, wander across the crunchy, salty sand until you find an entire living room set abandoned in the middle of nowhere:

And to think, I took this photo just about an hour&rsquo;s drive away from the star-studded resorts of Palm Springs. I&rsquo;m not sure which seems more relaxing.
To get the full picture, you can drive around the whole sea as a day trip. Necessary stops include <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/inside-slab-city-squatters-paradise-southern-california-180970218/">Slab City</a> (the PEAK desert hippie experience, which could easily be its own article) and Bombay Beach, an artsy, sculpture-covered settlement right on the shore. I can&rsquo;t promise you&rsquo;ll feel the same odd magic that I feel out there, but I can promise you&rsquo;ve never been anywhere like it.
Once you&rsquo;ve taken in all the scenery, drive home as another purple sunset dips over the hills, and greet the comfortable, laid-back nightlife of Palm Springs. After all, nothing caps off a day in the desert like the relief of digging into a margarita and plate of nachos. That&rsquo;s really the founding principle of a place like this: offering a little relief.
And if I close my eyes, I can almost taste it.

Travel Tips

All the important (or silly, or strange) travel news from across the web this week.
<ul>
<li>The 2026 Winter Olympics begin tonight in Northern Italy! This year, the most strenuous event might just be <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/2026-milano-cortina-winter-olympic-games-how-to-navigate-850km-venues-9.7074118">the long trek between all those venues</a>.</li>
<li>Speaking of winter, Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/02/weather/groundhog-day-shadow-winter-spring-climate">predicted six more weeks of it</a> &mdash; much to the chagrin of those folks battling major snowstorms right now.</li>
<li>Aer Lingus just introduced a possible cure for Ireland's dreary months: A new direct route between Dublin and <a href="https://simpleflying.com/tempting-aer-lingus-reveals-new-9-hour-transatlantic-airbus-a321xlr-route/">this sun-soaked Caribbean island</a>.</li>
<li>London's Natural History Museum is hosting their annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards, and the People's Choice nominees are <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/wpy/peoples-choice">awaiting your vote</a>.</li>
<li>And finally, here's how you could spend a month living on a Greek island, <a href="https://www.timeout.com/news/love-cats-this-greek-island-is-seeking-cat-sanctuary-volunteers-in-exchange-for-free-housing-020426">cuddling with cats</a>.</li>
</ul>

Travel News

Wiping out Winter Woes, from Fiji to SoCal

Finding Relief in California’s Desert Hotspot

Mexico

Guatemala

Finland

Scotland

Sri Lanka

Hey there Travellers,
Like much of the world this week, Katy's off on holiday, so I get the special honor of sending out the first Detour of 2026 🎉
New Year's Eve, for many folks, is a time of reflection! It's the perfect excuse to dig through some old memories and take stock of those meaningful moments.&nbsp;
So that's our theme for this week: memories.&nbsp;This Detour is chock full of them &mdash; from this year's highlights, to nostalgic travel tattoos from trips long past.&nbsp;
Let's make 2026 another great year, Travellers! And let us know in the comments which travel memories you're hoping to create in the next twelve months &mdash; maybe we can help :-)
Wishing you a safe and happy New Year,

Permanent Souvenirs: Our Travel Tattoo Tales&nbsp;

You know a trip is worthwhile when that bittersweet thought crosses your mind: I wish I could bottle up this moment and keep it forever.
It&rsquo;s the feeling that drives souvenir sales and fills up your photo albums, but for travelers who&nbsp;really want to keep those memories close, there&rsquo;s another option &mdash; having that memory permanently added to your body.
Despite the discomfort of traveling with a fresh tattoo, getting inked on the road is a time-honored tradition. Captain Cook&rsquo;s sailors are said to have returned home from Polynesia sporting some new body art. Even 700 years ago, religious pilgrims to the Middle Eastern Holy Land were <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1235759">getting small tattoos as evidence of their journey</a>. By the 19th century, the list of folks with travel tattoos even included <a href="https://www.rct.uk/collection/exhibitions/japan-courts-and-culture/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace/features/royal-tattoos">British royalty</a>.&nbsp;
Nowadays, there&rsquo;s an entire culture built up around travel tattoos. Some shops in touristy areas even&nbsp;depend on the demand. And just like in centuries past, there are still a myriad of motivations behind the decision.&nbsp;

During my (rather formative) few months in New Orleans, I realized I&rsquo;d regret it forever if I didn&rsquo;t leave that city with an inked reminder. Next thing I knew, I was face-down on a leather table, surrounded by NOLA-typical spiritual decor, while a stranger put me through excruciating pain for so long that I felt like my soul was leaving my body.
Unfortunately, in my case, that meant I was having a panic attack, desperately trying to keep still while hyperventilating and gasping through the pain. I tried to focus on a fixed point in the room to ground myself, but ended up locking eyes with a large, weeping statue of Santa Maria. It seemed less unnerving than the taxidermied animals, the bloody crucifixes, or the clutter of figurines stuck with nails or covered in bones and teeth.&nbsp;
When it was finally over, I paid the artist with shaking hands and basically ran out of the shop. I cannot even describe the headspace I was in. The relief was so strong that I felt like an entirely new person. All I wanted was a drink and a place to sit down.
Fortunately, that&rsquo;s not a tall order in New Orleans &mdash; I popped over to Bourbon Street and entered the first bar I saw.&nbsp;

Midway through a whisky, while listening to a bartender&rsquo;s story, I realized my new tattoo had started bleeding. There was a gruesome, oozy red smear running down my leg and trickling onto the floor of the bar.
&ldquo;Sorry, could I just get a napkin?&rdquo; I say, interrupting the bartender. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m bleeding onto your floor.&rdquo;
She casually handed me a napkin without even pausing her story. She had no reaction at all to hearing a patron say they were bleeding onto the floor of her bar at 2pm on a Monday.&nbsp;
I guess that&rsquo;s business as usual on Bourbon Street!
The tattoo has long since healed, but whenever I look at it, I remember what a wild time it was. I had no idea it would be that intense, but I&rsquo;m honored to have been given such a distinctly NOLA experience &mdash; one that really embodies the chaotic excitement of my time in the city. It&rsquo;s how I got hooked on travel tattoos!
So, as a person with so much access to well-seasoned travelers who understand the value of overseas memories, I just&nbsp;had to ask the Jack&rsquo;s Flight Club staff and Community for a few more tales.
And I heard some great ones! Like the new tradition started by our reader Zo&euml; and her wife, which started out as a space-saving measure:

&ldquo;My wife and I have a tradition of getting a tattoo on every *far* trip. Makes the long haul flight home worth it&hellip; Wanting to collect &lsquo;souvenirs&rsquo; whilst living in a small flat at the time was the original inspiration. We&rsquo;ve collected them from Thailand, Bali, and Singapore so far. Many more on the travel wishlist.&rdquo; - Zo&euml;

Or our Jack&rsquo;s Navigator Henry&rsquo;s story, about a priceless memorial that only cost &euro;15:

&ldquo;When I was 19/20, I lived in Spain and became friends with a good group of people. I moved back when someone at home died, but while I was at home, one of my friends in Spain died (very tragic, I know). So when I came back to visit my friends, one of them mentioned that another guy was starting off as a tattoo artist, and he needed guinea pigs to get the business&nbsp; going, so I said I would volunteer one night we were out. So the next day, we went to Seville and got this done. It is of course the song of Liverpool Football Club. But the tattoo is actually for everyone who is no longer with us. The words of the song make more sense than whatever I will say here 😂 It took 3 hours and cost 15 euro.&rdquo;&nbsp;- Henry

Our writer Akasha&rsquo;s tales of stick n&rsquo; pokes in Central American hostels could probably fill an entire novel:

"After almost an hour with my face wedged in the crook of an old Maltese man&rsquo;s pungent armpit as he bent over backwards attempting to tattoo my ribcage, eighteen-year-old me was hooked.&nbsp;
'For each country I visit, I&rsquo;m going to get a tattoo to commemorate it,' I excitedly told my boyfriend at the time. He rolled his eyes. He was the typical Irish lad, one that would 'go on holidays' once every 5 years to Benidorm or Magaluf. Something about the Irish pubs there.
He probably didn&rsquo;t expect that by my twenties, I&rsquo;d be lying on a sagging mattress in the jungles of Guatemala, a Czech apprentice straddling my torso, carving her gun of pain into my arm for four hours without a break.
Or that I&rsquo;d let a French guy hand-poke a reiki symbol onto my wrist in exchange for covering a bar shift.&nbsp;
Stick and poke became my preferred way. So naturally, my ears perked up when a German tattooist blew into the hostel I worked at in Chiapas. It&rsquo;d take me a few weeks to propose a trade he simply couldn&rsquo;t refuse: I&rsquo;d bleach his dreadlocks in return for some artwork."

"This was probably my most painful one. Not from the needle but from the cup of rubbing alcohol he poured over my raw skin, and the violent slap that followed. A sick and twisted joke because it was midnight and I couldn&rsquo;t scream without waking the hostel guests.
And while I haven&rsquo;t managed to stay true to my promise of getting inked everywhere I&rsquo;ve wandered, I&rsquo;ve done a pretty good job of collecting permanent stamps.
Mostly, the ink I&rsquo;ve gotten along the way is a map itself - of the girl who showed up clueless and curious, reckless and scared, but booked the ticket anyway."&nbsp;- Akasha

And lastly, our Detour queen Katy shared the story of her first tattoo, a remnant of a teenage adventure in the Netherlands:

"When I finished high school, I didn&rsquo;t go on the big group trip clubbing in Ayia Napa. That wasn&rsquo;t my thing at all. I wanted to see some of the world before starting university, not just the inside of a bar, surrounded by people I&rsquo;d mostly never see again.&nbsp;
Instead, myself and some of my closest friends decided to go Interrailing around Europe for 5 weeks. As is common when leaving high school in Scotland, most of us were only 17 at the time. We couldn&rsquo;t even (legally) drink in bars at home, so a month of European rules was exciting. And when we realised that we&rsquo;d even be old enough to get tattooed in The Netherlands&hellip;
Well, let&rsquo;s just say a few of us decided to give it a go &mdash; a fact my mum only found out three years later, when I was lazily lying in bed with my leg hanging out from under the sheets.
When getting your first tattoo, there&rsquo;s a lot of pressure to make it meaningful, so I opted for something I knew would always be important to me &mdash; music. I was right, playing music is still part of my life. But perhaps more important is the fact that I got it while on a memorable adventure with people who are still part of my life."&nbsp;- Katy

When I look at all of these stories together, there&rsquo;s a common thread: Most things in life are temporary. People enter and exit, chapters close, and that return flight is always rapidly approaching. I can go back to New Orleans, but I can&rsquo;t go back to that trip. Travel, by definition, has to be ephemeral.&nbsp;
We might be staking our money, time, and energy on a very short-lived experience, but we often return home permanently changed. I think travel tattoos owe their prolonged popularity to that change &mdash; they can help make the outside match the inside.
So if you feel the same, and have a travel tattoo (or several) of your own, feel free to send them our way. Maybe you&rsquo;ll see them in part two :-)

Jack's Gone Global: Where We Went in 2025

As you might expect, the Jack's staff is always jetsetting around the world! 2025 was no different &mdash; We traveled everywhere from the Caribbean to the Arctic Circle.&nbsp;
Here's a few highlights from another fantastic year of travel...

<h2 id="lapland">Lapland</h2>
Hannah Deals &amp; Content

&ldquo;We took a day-trip over to the <a href="https://arcticsnowhotel.fi/en/">Arctic SnowHotel </a>during our trip, as well as snowmobiled through the forests, and took reindeer and husky rides on a tour with the Snowmobile Park company &mdash; they were great and included proper snow gear in their prices, so would highly recommend.
And last but not least, the northern lights! While you can hunt for them on a guided tour, it gets pricey. Instead, we stayed just outside of the city (towards Ounasvaara) in an AirBnB and were lucky enough to spot them dancing above the house most nights we were there.&rdquo;

<h2 id="lapland">Fiji</h2>
Larissa Deal &amp; Content Manager EU

&ldquo;Fiji was such a surprise to me! I went for a family celebration and didn&rsquo;t have many expectations (given I knew a lot of the holiday would be resort-bound), but we managed to do a decent amount in Nadi and the surrounding <a href="https://www.koroyanituheritagepark.org/plan-your-trip">Koroyanitu National Heritage Park</a>. My highlights were DIY-ing a hike through the park to an incredible waterfall lookout, and visiting the <a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/Qs6PyZGqz5nm2PF9A">Sri Siva Subramaniya Swami Temple</a> - the intricate paintwork inside was incredible!&rdquo;

<h2 id="lapland">France &amp; Scotland</h2>
Andrea Member Experience Team Leader

&ldquo;My trip to France and Scotland healed parts of me I didn't know needed healing. The little girl in me who thought she might never make it to Europe and visit her dream city and the grown girl in me that found her soul city.
My favorite moment of my adventures was being able to see and touch the Eiffel Tower. I knew that I would cry the moment I laid eyes on her and I very much did! LOL The tears were joy and marvel and finally realizing that I did it, I made it, I was standing in Paris!! I was looking at a monument I had only seen in books and movies. I checked a place off of a very long bucket list. I had macarons and croissants from French boulangeries and strolled along streets with beautiful architecture. I spoke terribly broken French from the years of Duolingo that I had been doing and I was out of this world happy.
However. My favorite place was Scotland. I had never traveled and felt at home anywhere the way I did there. The buildings, history, slight gloom and chill in the air. The beautiful stone streets and castles, this was my place. A place I felt very happy and comfortable, where I could wander for hours and not feel tired. I am still day dreaming about my time there and thinking of the things I want to do and see when I go back. It was on my bucket list and still is. There's so much more I need to see and experience (highland coos, for example!)&rdquo;

<h2 id="lapland">Sri Lanka</h2>
Fran&nbsp;Deals &amp; Content/Social Media

&ldquo;We loved our train experiences in Sri Lanka, and we&rsquo;d suggest every curious traveller give it a try at some point. I even wrote <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/the-truth-about-traveling-by-train-in-sri-lanka">an honest guide</a> about it. It sparked our curiosity to venture beyond the tourist-packed routes and discover the more authentic, less crowded journeys in the future.&rdquo;

<h2 id="lapland">St. Croix</h2>
Olivia&nbsp;Deals &amp; Content/Detour Sub-Editor

&ldquo;The highlight was definitely the Cruzan Rum Distillery, which you can read more about <a href="https://members.jacksflightclub.com/articles/detour-179-st-croix-historic-distillery">in my article here</a>. Between the informative tour, the historic setting, our lovely guide, and drinks enjoyed at a breezy, palm-lined patio bar, we couldn&rsquo;t have been more pleased. There&rsquo;s a reason every guide to St. Croix name-drops this spot, and I can happily add myself to its list of fans&rdquo;

<h2 id="lapland">The Netherlands</h2>
Gabi Product Team

&ldquo;I had such a great time in the Netherlands. I started off in <a href="https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/discover-the-netherlands/visit-the-cities/the-hague">Den Haag</a>, where I decided to try haring (the famous raw herring, just a full fish) which not everyone loves but I&rsquo;m absolutely crazy for (I really love pickled stuff). I spent the rest of my time wandering around the city center, renting bikes with nerdy names, and cycling to some pretty spots like Haagse Bos. That same day I rode all the way to Scheveningen, which turned out to be a super lovely beach with a big pier. I sat there with a hot Chocomel in hand, feeling very Dutch. It also POURED rain the minute I hopped on the bike.&rdquo;

How about our readers? Where did you travel in 2025? Let us know in the comments :-)

All the important (or silly, or strange) travel news from across web this week.
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Unfortunately, we have to start the year off with some tragic news: Chaos in Machu Picchu as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gweww8rjro">two trains collided</a> last Tuesday, causing one death and injuring 40 others.&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">On a more hopeful note, National Geographic released their <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/travel-adventures-best-trips-to-book-2026">top 20 picks for adventures to take in 2026</a>. The key words? &ldquo;Immersive&rdquo; and &ldquo;Transformative.&rdquo;</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Sicily&rsquo;s Mount Etna has been in a bit of a turbulent mood lately, but that&rsquo;s not stopping the local skiers from <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cz7n4px7e41o">hitting her slopes</a>.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Central Asia <a href="https://www.euronews.com/culture/2025/12/22/kobyz-and-the-yurt-central-asias-living-knowledge-enters-unescos-intangible-heritage-lists">got some love from UNESCO</a> as a regional stringed instrument and a style of yurt both got added to the organization&rsquo;s list of intangible cultural heritage.</li>
<li>And finally, got any questions about life at an Antarctic research station? Now&rsquo;s the time to ask &mdash; <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/climate/thwaites-glacier-expedition-antarctica.html">the NYT is heading on down</a>, and they want to know what you want to know.</li>
</ul>

Ringing in 2026 with Our Travel Memories

This article was originally published in the Detour in April 2024

Back in 2011, I hatched a scheme to road trip around the spectacular bits of the USA to scratch an itch for open roads, big skies and Americana.
I&rsquo;d already resolved to dodge the tyranny of checked baggage and see if I could pull off the trip with only a cabin bag, but a combination of logistics, laziness and mischief set me off down another path. Could I minimise my expenses even further by not booking any accommodation either?
60 days and 8,000 miles later, I was a convert to car camping&mdash;the practice of sleeping in the car you&rsquo;re travelling in.

But wait, why not just hire an RV or camper van? Why not just take a tent?
Well, if you really want to enjoy the open road, your ride needs to be vaguely suitable for, shall we say, &lsquo;spirited&rsquo; driving. Big old rattly wheezy Winnebagos don&rsquo;t cut it. All that extra weight and stuff to cart around. They need hookups and maintenance and the facilities emptying. Channel your inner Reacher and reject the unnecessary!
Tents are just more bulk to transport. They don&rsquo;t have radios or air-con, take work to erect and strike, and when they get wet from rain&mdash;or more often covered in dew and condensation&mdash;they&rsquo;re a massive pain to keep dry. You also need to book ahead to lay claim to a pitch, which locks you down even more. You&rsquo;ve already got a perfectly functioning roof on your car, so why carry a second one around?
OK, but motels aren&rsquo;t that expensive, are they? Sure, you can find a bed for the night for well under $100. But the luxury of 4 walls and dubious decor often comes hand in hand with the less picturesque side of town and needing to wedge a chair under the door. They&rsquo;re rarely out in the wilds or off the beaten track, so you have to waste time away from the good bits just to pay for the privilege of a place to sleep.
Driving your own luxury motel around is starting to sound pretty good, right?
You get to choose where to watch the sun go down, you get to choose where to wake and greet the sunrise. You get to wake up where no-one else is snoring, breaking camp, or banging doors, and check-in/check-out is whenever the heck you feel like it.
So how does it work in practice? Here&rsquo;s what I learned.

Choose your vehicle wisely
You need a vehicle with one of two things; a passenger seat that reclines alllll the way back, or something with a load space where you can fold the rear seats down and get a nice flat zone to lay out. If you can, get something with decent ground clearance, as some of the best spots for parking up might need you to navigate gravel or tracks.
But the passenger seat is the one that really matters, because you don&rsquo;t want to be bashing your knees on the steering wheel all night!
Choose your kit
You&rsquo;re going to need some basics to make bedding-down comfy. Chances are you&rsquo;ll be picking up your vehicle from a car hire near the airport, so it shouldn&rsquo;t be too hard to find a superstore nearby. I wouldn&rsquo;t go all in on hi-spec specialist technical outdoor gear&mdash;it can get expensive really quickly, and you&rsquo;re really only looking for comfort, not performance. Your vehicle will do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to insulation.
Top of the list is a good-quality inflatable mattress and a sleeping mat. Depending on your preference, either a set of blankets or a sleeping bag comes next. Blankets can be a good bet for layering options. Grab a pillow, too, if you&rsquo;re feeling luxurious. I left all my stuff laid out in the car during the day to get plenty of air.
Other things I found useful were a quick dry towel (<a href="https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Towel">Ford Prefect was right</a>), eye mask (if you don&rsquo;t want to wake at dawn), a torch (something clockwork or easy to recharge), some sleeping gear that&rsquo;s loose and comfy, and finally, some slip-on shoes for nighttime excursions.

Choose your spot
Car camping works best where you&rsquo;ve got lots of wild, open, natural spaces&mdash;think Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho rather than New Jersey, New York or Florida (&lsquo;gators don&rsquo;t make great camp mates).
If you&rsquo;re travelling somewhere well-developed, most of the land will be built on, occupied, or fenced off for farming, so it&rsquo;s tough to find a spot. It&rsquo;s exponentially tougher to find spots in long-settled areas where there is lots of agriculture and fencing.
Scout in daylight as you're driving around. An hour or so before sundown, start taking mental notes of where might be appropriate. You&rsquo;re looking for tracks, turnouts/lay-bys, quieter rural roads. Go with your instincts the first time you see a spot that looks good.
Don't be tempted to roll the dice and keep going in search of something better. If you find a spot, it's probably sound, and you don&rsquo;t want to be turning around an hour later to head back to the first place you saw, but this time in the dark.
You need some daylight to properly scout your spot and check for obvious hazards. Potholes, animal tracks, sharp rocks and vegetation, sudden drops or water runs. Big, obvious &ldquo;Private Property&rdquo; signs, anywhere with buckshot or bullet holes. You also don't want to be right by the roadside unless it's really untravelled. If you can find spots by streams or lakes, then you have nature's own refreshing cold shower waiting for you in the morning, too.
Bedding down
It stands to reason that there ain&rsquo;t no facilities for ablutions in the backwoods, so plan ahead and see to your business earlier in the day, or be a good camper, leave no trace and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scouting.org/programs/scouts-bsa/troop-resources/leave-no-trace/teaching-leave-no-trace/033-dispose/">pack it out</a>.
When you&rsquo;re ready for lights-out, turn off the interior alarm on the car. There&rsquo;s nothing more aggravating to you (or the landowner whose house you didn&rsquo;t see over the way) than rolling over in the night and setting the car alarm off!

Wind the windows down a touch so you have some flowing air, then lock up and put the keys in the central glove box&mdash;somewhere easy to reach, and not down the bottom of your sleeping bag.
If you&rsquo;ve gone hardcore and hired a two-seater, top tip: try to find a steep incline or hill to park on with the car facing up the hill. You can use the slope angle to get surprisingly flat in the passenger seat - even in bucket seats!
The Upside
I was lucky enough to find some incredible overnight spots on my trip, and I loved the rhythm of early nights and rising with the sun at 4 or 5 in the morning. It meant I got way more daylight hours and had some of the most popular tourist spots in America to myself.
Not shelling out a minimum of $50 every night for a motel/hotel probably saved me at least $3,000 during my trip. I parked outside McDonald&rsquo;s and used their Wi-Fi. I bought and made sandwiches from local stores rather than paying for hotel catering. I avoided campground fees and maintenance and all the baggage of a camper van.
Car camping won&rsquo;t be for everyone (it&rsquo;s a long way from glamping), but if you enjoy the road, your own company and just doing it differently, I thoroughly recommend it!

United States

$78 RT

$117-$117 RT

Key West, Pensacola, Charleston & more in $60s-$110s RT

San Diego at $197 RT

$103-$110 RT

Off Cape Cod in $150s-$280s RT

Community Dispatches & European Border Control Chaos

Tiny Steps into the Unknown: A Look at Immersive Art Attractions

Wiping out Winter Woes, from Fiji to SoCal

Finding Relief in California’s Desert Hotspot

Ringing in 2026 with Our Travel Memories

Big Skies, Open Roads & Americana

Postcard from NomadicHopper57230

Postcard from Robin+Dev

Postcard from Robin+Dev

Postcard from Robin+Dev

Postcard from Susie

Postcard from Billy