Searching for flights 101.

Every time I'm about to buy a plane ticket, I get anxious. Anxious I won't get the best price, anxious some sort of emergency will come up and I won't have the money, anxious I'll change my mind about going and anxious to see my bank account dwindle. Although I haven't been able to get rid of the anxiety of losing the money, I have found ways to find the best fares through a variety of options. Here are a few of the sites I use when looking for plane tickets. Most recently, I bought a plane ticket to North Carolina to visit friends on spring break and I visited every single one of these.

1. Skyscanner.com

The first time I used Skyscanner was when studying abroad in Spain last year. The site lets you search for flights and see different prices through different companies and compare prices. I wasn't sure if you could use this to fly within the U.S., but turns out it's almost as good as Kayak.

2. Kayak.com

Kayak is a lot like Skyscanner, except they show you a calendar with prices throughout the month before you even click search.

Out of the two sites, Kayak and Skyscanner, I recommend Kayak if you're in the U.S. and Skyscanner if you are in Europe and simply traveling throughout Europe. In the last couple of months, I've purchased both my tickets to NYC, Uruguay and North Carolina through Kayak because they offered me the best price and made searching easier.

3. statravel.com & studentuniverse.com

STA is a student traveling website that offers trip ideas, student discounts, internship opportunities, volunteering abroad, etc. When I purchased my tickets to Spain, I purchased them through STA and got a student card to use for discounts while traveling. STA used to be available only to students, but the company recently changed it to include teachers and those under 26 years of age. Although most students might believe they're getting a good deal with these student travel sites, most of the time the tickets are more expensive than buying them through a regular company and if you try to change your flight, your dates are limited because not all flights have student seats available. I mention this from witnessing a friend having to leave Spain a month early and letting her Greece tickets go to waste. Not a good time.

Student Universe is just like STA, but less known.

Most people believe buying your plane tickets far in advance gives you the best deal. In reality, most of the time it doesn't make any difference. From experience, buying plane tickets Wednesday nights or Thursday nights are the best times and I tend to buy them two months before leaving.

Another thing to remember is to erase cookies from travel search sites when you're looking for plane tickets. If a site remembers what you've been searching, you might get skewed results.

Happy travels!

*If you fly with LAN, make sure to know at least some Spanish.

Snow, cold, time to start the music.

Cold, snowy day in South Dakota, but thinking warmer...more tropical places.

A few shots of Uruguay 2011

This week, I don't have very much time to write a post since my final semester is underway and there are many things to get done; however, I couldn't help buy upload a few pictures from my recent trip to Uruguay this past Christmas break. Many more to come. Enjoy!


Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. Typical everyday sunset between Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Colonia.


My grandmother lives about a 5 minute walk from the best beach in the beach town of Playa Verde, Maldonado. Caipirinhas at a cheap price and delicious taste.


Mate for the road.


Caipirinha #2 in Punta del Diablo.


Fuerte de Santa Teresa in Rocha.


Boat ride to the Ombues forest. Ombues are very interesting trees/shrubs, google them.


The dunes of Valizas, Uruguay. Such a beautiful sight.


Cabo Polonia, Uruguay beach restaurant/bar/perfect siesta stop.


Cabo Polonio, Uruguay. Don't let the clouds fool you, the sun was relentless.


Mercado del Puerto, Montevideo. Every trip to Uruguay, I always stop at this amazing place.

I Need Spain

One year ago today, I was boarding a plane in Minneapolis to Murcia, Spain for six months. Those six months would turn into the best six months of my life filled with new experiences, thousands of photographs, amazing friends and a new idea of what the world has to offer. In light of this anniversary, a fellow Spaniard sent me links to the new tourism campaign for Spain. I hope someday you'll visit this wonderful country full of amazing architecture, food, countryside, plazas, entertainment and most importantly...amazing people.

New York City Christmas Storm

On December 24th, my parents and I braved the winter storms and flew to New York City to spend Christmas with my brother and his wife. Flying this time of year and with these weather conditions is a big risk to take and surprisingly, the only minor glitch we came across was the taxi driver telling us he didn't know how to get to Sunnyside, Queens, and asking me to call my brother to ask for directions.

Christmas was beautiful; however, the New York winter storm was not. Even coming from South Dakota, I had never seen a storm of such magnitude before. The streets of the city were so empty, my sister-in-law and I made snow angels right in the middle of Wallstreet. Christmas night, we stayed in watching movies, watching car after car get stuck in the middle of the street and witnessing my first snow thunderstorm. It was incredible! The next morning, it felt like the apocalypse. Cars were stuck in the middle of the street, parked cars were literally under snow, people were walking in the middle of the street and there was a strange silence as the metro system was closed.

Bellow, are a few photos from the winter storm.

A taste of the Midwest in Sunnyside, Queens.

This used to be a VW.

This was before the storm got out of control.

Student Exchange Video

A friend of mine recently made this for all of the exchange students for Christmas. What a great memory.

Murci, Spain (One of many posts on this beautiful place)

These are a few of my favorite images from Murcia, Spain, where I lived last January to July. Murcia, Spain, is a beautiful city in Southern Spain. It's about an hour away from the coast and has so much history and beauty. Instead of visiting the typical cities in Spain, which are also beautiful, I definitely recommend checking out smaller cities like Murcia, Alicante, etc.



This is the Murcia Cathedral. There is a huge plaza with restaurants and a few shops. The best time to see it is night time. It's so easy to get lost through the allies branching out from the plaza.



This is in Plaza Santo Domingo. The plaza is about a block from the university campus and is the most popular one for eating and simply hanging out with family and friends. There is also a church and an elementary school in the plaza, so there was always a bunch of kids playing. I had to walk through this plaza more than twice everyday. The plaza is beautiful and it's amazing how people take time out of their day to simply sit down and have a drink, talk with friends or have a coffee.



This is the view from the Cathedral into the plaza. The people in the photo are a group of friends.



This is the church in the Plaza Santo Domingo.



This church was about two blocks from my apartment, down one of the many allies. I hadn't seen it until I went for a walk when my mom was visiting for a week and it was an absolutely beautiful sight.