Travel and Vacation Archives

We’re Saving Over $800 on Our Trip to Mexico… Here’s the Plan

12 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Saving, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / September 14, 2021 September 26, 2021

Moving back to the U.S. from Boquete, Panama next spring is going to be bittersweet. But we’re excited about our new adventures to come… starting with a trip to Mexico on the way back! It’s still hard for us to grasp that we’re not locked into doing the “normal” type of vacations anymore. Since we’re early-retired and Faith’s homeschooling, we have the ability to slow travel or just make up new paths in life on the fly. In this case, …

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Wow, Big Changes for Tourists Visiting Panama!

19 Comments / Panama, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / September 7, 2021 September 22, 2021

Well, things have just gotten interesting in Panama. A few really big changes have just dropped that will affect anyone wanting to visit the country. There’s no doubt that we’ve been on a roller coaster of fun with the pandemic over the past year and a half. It’s made international travel a little stressful, to say the least. Everything’s been a moving target and it takes some effort to stay on top of all the new rules and decrees that …

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Tigo Just Made International Travel Easier

4 Comments / Panama, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / August 17, 2021 August 14, 2021

Tigo made a new change recently and it’s something that can make life easier for those on some of their cell phone plans. If you do a lot of travel back and forth between different countries like we do, you might be familiar with the SIM card juggling you need to do (unless you have a dual-SIM phone). In the U.S., you can use a service such as Google FI or T-Mobile to give you free roaming in other countries. …

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A Travel Trick for Last-Minute Delayed or Canceled Flights

16 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / July 20, 2021 July 19, 2021

Delayed or canceled flights are in no way a fun part of travel. These events can be a real headache in your plans that might already be stressful to you before this curveball. And, although they can usually be dealt with without too much of a problem when there’s a fair amount of notice, that’s not always going to be the case. Sometimes a delayed flight can ruin your connecting flight completely. And last-minute canceled flights can throw your plans …

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Our Travel Perks Are Drying Up and That’s Big $$$!

11 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Spending, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / July 13, 2021 July 11, 2021

Between free flights and hotels, zipping through security and customs, or relaxing in airline lounges, travel perks can be such a wonderful asset. And without a doubt, I love every bit of ’em! Over the years, we built up a nice stash of these things just by being strategic in our credit card spending. They’ve not only helped to make our travel more comfortable but also a lot cheaper or completely free. Well, it’s been a few years, but our …

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Our Moving Plans Changed Again… and That’s OK

16 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / June 29, 2021 June 26, 2021

Moving plans are generally immensely stressful. Trying to coordinate everything to fall into place as smoothly as possible can be extremely complex. Depending on your scenario, it could involve a lot of juggling. Maybe you have to hire a real estate agent to sell your home and coordinate house showings around your work schedule and home life. Make sure to keep your house immaculate while strangers traipse through it without you even being there. Don’t forget about the pain of …

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Designing Our New Life – The Power of Early Retirement

42 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / May 18, 2021 September 27, 2021

Change. I thrive on it. It’s the only way to continue to learn, grow, and become better. On the flip side, I think that complacency is just the path to a slow death. That’s why, as much as I know I’m going to miss Boquete, I’m excited to map out our new life for next year. We’ll be moving back to the U.S. in May of 2022. Although a year seems like a long way off, it’s time to start …

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The Beach, a Sloth, and Monkey Lalas…

14 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / May 4, 2021 May 4, 2021

That title almost sounds like it could be the beginning of a joke but it’s far from it. If you enjoy the beach, vacationing, or exotic animals, this post is for you! Last week, I told you that my in-laws were in town. We spent the first four days in the area here Giving the In-Laws the Grand Tour of Boquete, Panama! and showing them around the local area. But last week was even more fun because we rented a …

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Traveling to Panama? The Ultimate Guide in Going from the U.S. to Boquete

17 Comments / Panama, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 23, 2021 July 21, 2021

I’m very excited to say that my in-laws have officially booked flights to visit us next month. But traveling to Panama isn’t for the faint of heart. If you’re not an avid traveler, you’re probably going to run into some stumbling blocks along the way. Heck, even if you are a regular traveler, you’ll probably run into your share of quirky issues. The difference is that it might be a little easier for the regular traveler to know what to …

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Boquete, Panama in Photos – Beautiful!

10 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Travel and Vacation / By Jim @ Route To Retire / March 9, 2021 March 5, 2021

As I was looking at some of the pictures we’ve taken during our time so far in Panama, I realized that I haven’t shared enough of them with you. So today, I’m happy to present Boquete, Panama in photos for your enjoyment! We’ve been lucky enough to be living in Boquete since 2019 and get to experience this beautiful place. But then, we also have the privilege of reliving it at night because all our photos show up as a …

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