Category: Reviews

Slow Travel Review: San José, Costa Rica – The Land Of Pura Vida

by A Purple Life, posted in Budget Check-In, Finance, Food, Reviews, Spending, Travel, Travel Reviews

So I mentioned in my monthly recaps while in Costa Rica all the reasons that I chose to move there for over 2 months, but one of those was because I was shocked at how affordable it was to get there.

I’ve worked out that my flights are usually $200 one-way anywhere in the US. I’m able to get those prices even for longer flights because I book early and I am able to plan my travels around when flight prices are lower. However, despite Costa Rica being way farther than any location in the US, it only cost me about $200 to get there.

Specifically I paid $201.78 on American Airlines to fly from Albany, NY to San José, Costa Rica and $232.34 to fly from San José to Austin, Texas on COPA Airlines to see the Solar Eclipse. Continue reading “Slow Travel Review: San José, Costa Rica – The Land Of Pura Vida” →

Cronometer: The Best Free Food Tracking App

by A Purple Life, posted in Food, Keto, Reviews

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have tracked my food intake for years. I love tracking things in general and find it really helpful to know and analyze what I put into my body.

I used to use MyFitnessPal (MFP) to track my food and was shocked to check my profile and see that I’ve been using them since 2012 – a whole 12 years ago. So we go way back 🙂 .

In 2012 I was very discerning about which free food tracking app I wanted to use. I downloaded a bunch of them and used them all to see which I preferred. I ended up choosing MFP because it was the most user friendly for me, and it seemed to have the largest database of food already in there so I didn’t have to input everything myself. Continue reading “Cronometer: The Best Free Food Tracking App” →

Review: Greyhound/FlixBus – Albany, NY to Montréal, Canada

by A Purple Life, posted in Reviews, Travel, Travel Reviews

I’m here today with another travel saga for you. But first, I need to set the stage. In my retirement I’ve been chasing the sun. I prefer to go places that are 70 and sunny and move around the country and the world following that climate.

A few years ago I realized that even the Northeastern US was getting a bit too hot for me in the summer and I knew I never wanted to experience a hot as hell Georgia summer again if I could help it 🙂 . So I looked for another destination. Enter: Montréal, Canada 🙂 . Continue reading “Review: Greyhound/FlixBus – Albany, NY to Montréal, Canada” →

My Search For The Best Affordable Headphones Of 2024

by A Purple Life, posted in Hobbies, Reviews, Spending, Travel

Let me set the stage. Back when I was a woman in my 20s living in NYC who was basically throwing cash out the window, I owned a pair of Bose QuietComfort 15s.

After several years, they started to break down and the sound wasn’t fully working so I wanted to replace them, but this was after I was fully into financial independence and balked at the $300 USD price tag. I suspected that I could find similar features for much less money. Continue reading “My Search For The Best Affordable Headphones Of 2024” →

Review: Qantas Domestic Business Class

by A Purple Life, posted in Reviews, Travel, Travel Hacking, Travel Reviews

Here’s another travel saga for you 🙂 . So my Mom and I originally booked a non-stop flight from Cairns (CNS) to Sydney (SYD) as part of our trip Down Under. However, a few months before the flight, we got an email that the non-stop flight we had booked no longer existed and we were now stopping in Brisbane along the way.

Later research would uncover that we wouldn’t be able to make the other non-stop flights on that day. So it’s good that we had built wiggle room into our plan because we had just turned one flight into two. Continue reading “Review: Qantas Domestic Business Class” →

My Favorite Travel Tools Of 2024

by A Purple Life, posted in Reviews, Travel, Travel Reviews

Our world keeps changing and in a lot of ways that’s a good thing 🙂 . I continue to be amazed by new free tools I find online that help make my travel easier. Some of these have launched recently and some have been around for a while and I just had no idea.

I’ve talked in the past about travel tools that help me live my full-time nomad life in the posts below: Continue reading “My Favorite Travel Tools Of 2024” →

Review: Qantas International Business Class

by A Purple Life, posted in Reviews, Travel, Travel Hacking, Travel Reviews

This is a bit of a saga 🙂 . During my Mom and my trip Down Under, we decided to give a new-to-us airline a chance: LATAM. But as you can see from the title, this isn’t a review of that airline. So what happened? 🙂

We booked a flight from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand, 10 months in advance. And a few hours before our flight, we received a text message from LATAM that said our flight had been canceled and asked if we wanted a refund. No flight alternatives were given. WHAT. THE. FUCK?!?!?!?! Continue reading “Review: Qantas International Business Class” →

How I Use Notion To Organize My Life

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Hobbies, Reviews

About a year ago I mentioned in my annual accomplishment post that I had started using Notion to organize my life. I didn’t know that I was looking for an organizational solution to my ‘busy’ retired schedule 😉 , but a YouTuber I watch mentioned they use Notion and I loved the look of it so I decided to try it out.

Doing so was easy because it’s a free service and was simple to set up. I was then immediately blown away by learning that it’s completely customizable. Anything I want to create – I can. Continue reading “How I Use Notion To Organize My Life” →