Photo By: khowaga

Malaga

Climb aboard the Refre railway to experience the laid-back atmosphere of this coastal Spanish town while enjoying beautiful scenery along the way. The journey takes two and a half hours and winds through the some spectacular landscapes. Once in Malaga, you can tour historic sites like the Alcazaba, a Moorish castle built in the 11th century, or learn more about Picasso by touring his birthplace at the Picasso Museum.

Photo By: Tab59

Sitges

Catch some rays on the beaches of Sitges, refered to as the Saint-Tropez of Spain, on a three hour ride aboard the FGC (Generalitat de Catalunya) railways. This artsy town has year-round attractions but really gets hopping during Carnival that begins on Fat Tuesday or the Sitges Film Festival in the summer. Known for its tolerant attitude, it is a popular destination for gay and lesbian travelers and has an abundance of fine dining establishments.

Cordoba

Depart from the Madrid Atocha station on Rail Europe for a one hour and 44 minute ride to this charming sun-drenched area that was one of the largest cities of the ancient world. Explore Old Town where you can still see the Roman walls standing and visit the Fernandina churches like Santa Marina which houses work by local artist Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra.

Photo By: Cruccone

Figueres

Travel through the Catalan countryside from Madrid to the birthplace of Salvador Dali aboard the sleek double-deck French TGV high-speed trail that passes through Madrid. Relax in their state-of-the-art cars that whisk you to sites like the Dali Theatre and Museum where you’ll find the largest collection of his work in the world.

Paris

Be in Paris in just two hours aboard the daily high-speed TGV Eurostar that whisks you to the City of Lights in record time. If you’d like an overnight adventure, the Elipsos train hotel departs Barcelona each evening for a 12 -hour trip with a la carte dinners and 4-bed sleeper cars. Embark refreshed and spend the day exploring the Louvre and dining on Paris delicacies before taking the high-speed train back to Madrid.

Photo By:  ComunicaTI

Zaragosa

In just an hour and a half, the high-speed AVE can deliver you to Zaragosa (also known as Saragossa) so you can spend the day exploring this charming city. Try out the tapas bars or their famous regional dish, Bacalao al Ajoarriero (cod-fish with garlic and eggs) in between visits to the romantic castles and monasteries scattered throughout this picturesque city.

You’ll find the rail services also offer package deals that include hotel accommodations, public transportation or rental car deals, dining coupons and comprehensive passes to museums and attractions.

Lifecruiser Love Spain Train Travel
 

Shopping for airfare in advance or securing it with a Capital One Venture Double Miles Challenge can make flying in much more affordable, and simply choosing to avoid big resorts will allow you to see and do far more than you had imagined.

However, before you take flight, be sure to pack each of the following in that backpack that will become your lifeline:

Variety

One of the biggest pitfalls that backpackers get themselves in to when traveling is not packing a variety of items. Be sure to pack at least one tee shirt, tank top, long sleeved shirt, pair of jeans, and pair of shorts. You will also want to pack one or two pairs of different shoes to fit the variety of terrain you will be covering. Ultimately, you want to make sure that you will be prepared for any climate situation.

A Solid List

Before flying out, create a list of all hostels in and around the areas in which you will be visiting. Along with names, you will want to make sure that you include addresses and phone numbers so that you can contact them in advance if you wish. Having this list will help you get about more easily, and will also make it easier to find other accommodations should your first choice be filled up for the evening.

First Aid Kit

You never know when a bump or scrape may occur. To keep yourself from having to find a local pharmacy for Band-Aids and antibiotic ointment, pack a small first aid kit equipped with bandaids, gauze, ibuprofen, and antibiotic ointment.

Travel Journal

While it may not seem like a necessity, having a travel journal during your travels will be something that you will thank yourself for bringing later. Be sure to take a small one along to document places you’ve stayed in and people whom you have met. It’ll be great for resparking memories and for future travel plans should you choose to return.

A Credit Card

While cash is great to have on hand, having a credit card can be a real life saver for travelers needing to cover an emergency or book a last minute room. Just remember to make sure that the card you take is one of the numerous credit cards without foreign transaction fees to maximize your spending.

Smart Phone

Taking a smart phone may seem frivolous and expensive when traveling abroad, but it can definitely be a life saver. In addition to translation apps, a good smart phone will be able to help you locate restaurants, hostels, sites, and just about anything else of interest. It is essentially a personal assistant for the wandering traveler.

Ziploc Bags

Clothes get dirty and wet when traveling around, and toiletries spill. To keep your other items clean and dry, always take a few extra quart and gallon sized Ziploc bags.

Locks

When you are out and about exploring cities, the last thing you want to do is lug around your backpack. However, leaving your bag unattended isn’t always easy either. To keep your belongings safe at hostels, bring locks for both your zippers and for your hostel locker. This way you will be able to stay both bag and worry free.

Backpacking is a great way to see all the nooks and crannies of Europe, but it is an adventure that you don’t want to be unprepared for. Make sure that you adequately pack your bag so that you are able to take on any adventure you come across.

Lifecruiser Love Europe Trips
 

Julita existed already in the Viking era and was an medieval monastery that later became a state domain and manor owned by Swedish nobility. You can see that by it’s interiors and surrounded parks, with the architectural different green house and kitchen garden.

It was also the first Swedish Museum of Agriculture that started with gene banks in the seventies, in close collaboration with the Nordic Gene Bank NGB – and still is – for a lot of different plants, fruits and flowers. Their agricultural exhibits may interest garden enthusiasts, as well as their different markets and festivals.

Tours of the Julita Manor house is hold in the weekends in May/September and every day in June, July and August. There are also other different exhibitions, family activities and farm animals which will please the young ones.

There are simply beautiful decorated B&B rooms in the manor wings from the 17th century for around 12-1400 SEK/night and double room. There is also a newer hostel alternative in another building for around 600 SEK/night for a two-beds room.

If you want something different: ask if the more unusual Octagon House – an old distillery from around the 1800s down by the lake – is available.

For the Gourmet’s like myself, there is the Julita Skans Cafe and a well recommended restaurant, also mentioned in the White Guide: Julita Wärdshus, julitawardshus.se down at the lake shore, run by the silver awarded (Bocuse d’Or 2011 in Lyon) chef Tommy Myllymäki and Magnus Saleborn.

If you’re planning an unusual wedding, there is even a Skansen church where you have the unique opportunity to get married with your beloved one. In fact: if we weren’t already married, we would have jumped on this opportunity for sure!

There is other things to do in the area too, many beautiful walking paths or why not go horse back riding? There are around 400 kilometers riding tracks, have a look at www.ridleden.se.

Julita Gård is even offering a guest stable if you’re on the riding tracks, see the wonderful old stable building in the photo below.

If you’re planning to be there in May: don’t miss when the cows are put out to pasture at Julita, the pure joy of the cows are entertainment not only for children, but also for adults. Date and time use to be available at nordiskamuseet.se/julita at the start of May, the date for 2012 is the 6th of May.

Despite the dull weather when we were there in the beginning of March, we succeeded to get a few decent travel photos showing the interesting architecture. We’ll definitely go there again in the summer season when the place have flourished up.

Our reason for being curious of this special Mansion is that my grandparents once upon a time had a farm worker employed, that had been working as some kind of maintenance manager at Julita Gård, before he came to work for them.

Have a look at Lifecruiser Julita Gård photo slideshow here.

In the Google map below you can see were it is located and exactly how rural the area is.

Official info at: Nordiska Museets webpage about Julita.

How to get there: by car on road 214 or take the train to Katrineholm and then the bus to Julita: plan your trip to Julita by Swedish trip robot Resrobot.se.

©Lifecruiser Love Open Air Museums
 

The most useful feature is that you have the choice to search for a budget stay (boende) with the help of the GPS navigator in your mobile phone, making it very easy to find a hostel nearby where you happen to be at the moment.

Very useful indeed if you ever come to Sweden!

Explanations of the fields in the display:

• Var vill du bo? means: Where do you want to stay?
• Område, Stad eller boendenamn means: Area, City or Hostel-name
• Sök boende där du är means: Search for accommodation where you are
• Leta boende geografiskt means: Search for accommodation geographically (by county)

If you want to look up their main site at the internet, go to http://www.svenskaturistforeningen.se/en/.

©Lifecruiser Love Mobile Travel Tools

Travel sites and agencies tips

Besides the three largest travel agencies in Sweden, Ving.se, Apollo.se and Fritidsresor.se, there are many other sites to search for cheap travel trips, like the combined charter.se or ticket.se, solresor.se, dtf-travel.se, sembo.se, airtours.se, resia.se, resfeber.se, travellink.se, seat24.se, travelpartner.se, travelstart.se, mrjet.se, supersavertravel.se and bigtravel.se.

They have last minute (listed under ‘sista minuten’) or other deals to offer at their booking sites. For youths under 26 there is travel.kilroys.se and for general cheap coupon travel deals there is groupon.se/deals/travel to keep an eye on.

Flight sites and tips

There are better price levels now at the Scandinavian Airlines SAS.se sometimes, even though not always as low as the lowbudget companies like Ryanair.com/se, but Norwegian.com/se might be a better choice since they departure from Stockholm Arlanda Airport (arlanda.se) and not from Skavsta Nyköping (1,5 hours from Stockholm) as Ryanair does.

Also have a look at the flight comparison sites flygresor.se or skyscanner.se and don’t forget that there is a second airport in Stockholm with mostly domestic flights, Bromma (brommaairport.se).

If you want to go to Croatia and Bosnia, Scandjet.se have flights there. Croatia travel have increased a lot since they started this route. No wonder, Croatia has a wonderful climate, fabulous beaches and offer cheap holidays. I wanna go there too…

Train sites and tips

Travel by train is possible within Sweden or to Norway or Denmark and beyond, but is generally not considering to be especially cheap and takes longer time than flying, but is a more environmental friendly way of travel. The main Swedish train ticket sites are sj.se (only last minute to retires or youngsters under 26, but also sells at Tradera.se auctions) or veolia.se.

Swedish bus sites and tips

By bus: swebus.se, gobybus.se, bus4you.se (with free internet) or ybuss.se (northern Sweden). There are also scandorama.se and eurolines.se – mostly to destinations within Europe and perhaps not always so very cheap, but of course they also have special deals occasionally. Sign up for their newsletters to get them.

Cheap cruise sites and tips

Going on a short cruise from Stockholm can be a real cheap bargain, since there are extremely cheap deals sometimes – especially during the low winter season. Check up tallinksilja.se which cruise to Finland or Estonia and birka.se (favorite: artificial sundeck!) which has 22h cruises to Åland, or vikingline.se. Another very cheap is eckerolinjen.se with their 2h cruises to Åland with departure from Grisslehamn – right now 80 SEK/pp(!) with bus from Stockholm City.

Budget cottage rentals, hostels and camping

If you are more than 2 persons it might become cheaper to rent a cottage somewhere rather than staying in a hotel. There are lots of sites advertising, like stugknuten.com – direct from the owners without middlehand fees, smaland-strandhaus.com, stuga.nu, novasol.com/holiday-rentals/sweden.html, stugnet.com, fritiden.se, sverigesemester.com, southern Sweden mostly: stugbo.se (german translation), stugsommar.se (Swedish only).

The Swedish hostels are called Vandrarhem in Swedish, which means literally wandererhomes and most of them are managed by the Swedish Tourist Organisation. They have a great website which also have some inspiration of what to do: svenskaturistforeningen.se/en/Inspiration/.

There are Swedish Farmstay’s and Bed & Breakfast too, not as much as in certain other countries, but I have no favorite site. I would first search right out on the internet with the words Bed & Breakfast and the place where you want to go and do my own selection from there. Or contact the local tourist office.

You can also check the ad-sites blocket.se or allaannonser.se – or you could go camping, but make sure it’s the right season (July-August) because we do have a rather cold and damp climate over here. Great Swedish camping sites are: camping.se or campingkartan.se – a more personal created one with real reviews from other camping guests.

The nature in Sweden is excellent for walkers and other outdoorsy people and there is countless of small lakes everywhere with small local beaches to explore. All for free and really recreational.

Conclusion how to find cheap holiday deals

Now you’ve got lots of useful travel sites tips to go through, some of the tips here you would not have found if you can’t understand Swedish, so it’s authentic Swedish insider tips.

Too many sites? Well, if you want to have the cheapest holidays deals, it’s unfortunately necessary to make an effort and search widely. There are different deals at different sites at different times, making it rather impossible to recommend just one or two sites.

Nothing comes for free. It takes time, so if your time is money – go ahead and pay much more for your holidays. Your choice. I look at the trip planning as a part of the pleasure, so for me it can take many hours of searching before I finally book something.

I might even just save the research trip info for later without booking any trip at all. It’s still worth it, as I learn things during the process which may come in handy at another trip planning occasion.

Do you have any other cheap holidays suggestions? Throw it in – even if it’s not about travel in Sweden, everything is useful.

©Lifecruiser Love Cheap Holidays
 

Earlier posts about how to find cheap holidays:

Planning a holiday – search and compare prices
How to find the cheapest flights – the ultimate flights guide
How to get cheap holiday deals
Where to find late holiday deals
Why getting organised for your holiday will save you money
How to travel a lot without being a millionaire
Bargain Cruise Ships Tips

Travelling to some of the world’s pricier locales? Have no fear! There are hostels in Barcelona for less than twenty dollars a night, compared to the hundreds you might spend on a ritzy hotel. But when searching for hostels in your destination city you’re likely to find that there are seemingly too many hostels to choose from.

Indeed, most major cities have hundreds of hostels, and with so many different features and amenities, finding the perfect one for you can really make your trip the best it can be. Here are a few things to consider when choosing a hostel for your next journey.

• Features & Amenities: If you’re travelling alone, hostels can be a great place to meet people – especially if your hostel has a bar. Some hostels even have in-house nightclubs and lounge areas, which is something to look for if you’re looking to make some new friends. Additionally, some hostels offer free city tours, which is something to consider if you’re new to the city.
• Standard Accommodations: From laundry machines to free airport pick-up and free breakfast, there are endless amounts of accommodations that hostels either do or don’t offer. Make sure to research what your hostel does and doesn’t include in the standard rate before booking, and you’re sure to be satisfied with your stay.
• Location: Hostels are usually scattered all around the city, so it’s important to think about where you want to stay. Staying in the city center can save you cab fare (and keep you close to all the action), but are usually a bit more expensive. Nonetheless, many cities have attractions all over, and keeping away from the busy downtown area can help your trip keep a less touristy feel.

No matter what your preference, make sure to research before booking. There are different hostels for different trips, and different hostels for different types of people. Get out there, travel, and enjoy!

Lifecruiser Love Hostel Style
 

Other hostel related posts by Lifecruiser:

Wombats City Hostel Vienna (honest review)
 

There are so many online travel tools for finding cheap holiday deals for charter trips, flights, cruises, hotels, resorts and excursions – as well as discount coupons or even credit card rewards programs.

To visit more non-touristy destinations or attractions are also ways of getting away much cheaper than the over-promoted and more expensive activities.

Choose low budget airlines and fly to secondary airports, taking the local bus into town. Also try alternative routs, using the budget flights as connecting airports – maybe even book flights in a foreign airline site in another currency.

Do not miss the most super effective way: ask the locals or tourists that have been there if they know of any deals or have any tips, there are lots of forums like Lonely Planets Thorn Tree or Virtual Tourist to ask people within. It does not even need to be a travel related forum!

Research about the location in advance does pay off, have no doubt about that. It is well invested time.

Backpacking now has become flashpacking (travels similar to a backpacker, but with more money and stuff like cameras and/or laptops), so it is not only youngsters that travel this way anymore. With a limited backpack you escape luggage fees and get around easier. Many hostels do have double rooms with baths nowadays.

You can try to make your own tailormade holiday instead of letting a travel agency make it for you and charge for their work, usually you can get away cheaper. If you do not have the time, that is another thing…

Call several travel agencies for deals they have not put out online yet OR is really, really late and thus also really, really cheap! You could also contact the hotel yourself to haggle a better price. Works pretty well sometimes.

The key really is to have a look around online before booking and to note down all the details and then compare notes before booking anything.

You could also call around to different travel agencies a bit, getting prices to compare and then come back to the one you liked the best asking them nicely if they could give you as good price as the other travel agency.

It is not fair to waste too much of their time though. You would not like people taking up your working time either and then simply ditch you for someone else, would you…?

You have to make clear to yourself what is realistic, but still a dream holiday and right from the beginning decide what your budget are, max time you want to spend searching for the best deal, plus what conditions you can accept about the trip.

There are a lot of choices to be aware of: how long you stay, hotel class and services, any extra hidden fees or taxes, local restaurant/shopping costs, wanted excursions and much more which will affect your costs tremendously.

Make sure to take on a good travel insurance – don’t just look at the cheapest money-wise, think about comprehensive terms too. Cheap can get expensive if something happens. I will have to check up myself before our next trips, one which is for frequent travelers with an annual policy and providing cover for multiple journeys.

I also say: if you haven’t been able to find a cheap hotel, book a hostel. Instead of eating out every day, cook your own meals. Do sparingly with excursions and go out walking the city on your own, you get to see/know more locals that way anyway.

After all travel is about exploring something new at the destinations, right?

Lifecruiser ♥ cheap holiday deals
 

Disclosure: I have a material connection because I received a cash payment, gift or item of nominal value from a company affiliated with a brand, topic and/or product that is mentioned herein.

 
Earlier posts about how to travel cheaper:

Where to find late holiday deals
Why getting organised for your holiday will save you money
How to travel a lot without being a millionaire
Bargain Cruise Ships Tips

First of all, there are travel agency sites and there are comparisons sites. We use comparisons sites (like momondo, travelsupermarket or similar) as our first search tools instead of going to each of every travel site separately and search.

When we find something that look interesting to us, we check the source travel site directly too. If they have a late deal or last minute choice on their site we start checking their last minute listings (as earliest 8 weeks before departure and forward).

Sometimes you get more correct answers directly on the source site which could save you some search time too.

Some of the comparisons sites also has a notification service where you can set which destinations you are interested in and get email with interesting offers. We have used kayak.com searching for flights before and lots of travel agencies notification services.

When it comes to finding late hotel deals, we have often just checked the hotel booking sites (like Easytobook & Marriot in our sidebar) for hotels and dates and compared the prices for their late offers. If you are very late: check directly with the hotel!

Lately we have been staying in hostels rather than hotels since their standard has become so great. You can find late deals in the same way as with the hotels: on the hostel booking sites like hihostels, local hostel chains or via the hostel itself.

There are other travel sites that has a lot of great package offers (holidayhypermarket.co.uk, travelsupermarket, thomson, lastminute or similar) that also is worth checking out for your wished destination.

If you are willing to spend some time in phone: make calls to different travel agencies and ask them for late holiday deals. They usually have something to offer that might not even be on their online site!

Register a special email address you can use for signing up for different email newsletters and notifications from travel sites to get special offers sent out to you. This way you can look at them only when you’re interested and not have your normal address bothered with those.

Another more modern method is to ask all your friends or followers in social networks like Twitter, Facebook or in forums if they know of any good deals. Work like a charm sometimes!

If you want to go on excursions at your travel destination: wait until you get there to book (if it’s not included in a great package deal), it’s easier to find all available options when there.

Ask the hotel staff if they know any good deals, but don’t just take their word for it: always ask around & compare!

Type in Where to find late holiday deals? at Google.com and you will get even more sites to check up than you expected!

We have found our best budget flights with Ryanair, our “most worth it stay” (both cheap & luxury) at Hotel Vanity Golf, Alcudia and best package with excursions at Iceland – so far!

Where and how have you found your best travel deals…?

Lifecruiser ♥ Holiday Deals

The answer is: we live so much cheaper than most of the people asking that question. When we travel, we do not spend as much money as many others do, we do it budget style. We rather do a lot of budget travel than only a few luxury trips.

We can afford our travel because we live cheap at home:

• No luxury meals or going out
• We cook our meals ourselves from the ground
• Grocery shop at cheap stores (thousands to save!)
• Compact living in 50 m² low rent apartment
• We have no loans what so ever
• No bills except electricity & mobile broadband
• We only have cell phones & use them very sparingly
• We sold lots of our things earlier – empty basement
• Driving as seldom as possible to save on petrol cost
• No smoking & only occasional drinking
• Thinking twice before buying ANYTHING

There are many ways of savings, both when you are at home and away. If you start to think about how to save, you probably will come up with a lot of things you could change. Why not try it just for fun…?

If you halve your use of some things, you also halve your costs for it – simple math right?

It could be anything. Make it a sport to be as sparingly as you can and live so frugal that is acceptable for you. Sacrifying is worth it, if you want to reach the goal.

When it comes to finding cheap prices, there are a lot of sites that offer great deals that we will come back to in another post. It varies which ones we use, we simply go with the ones that suits us best at the time being.

It can take us a very long time to plan a trip, many, many hours searching for the cheapest flights, hotels or hostels and so on. Very often we can not go to the place we would want to go to because it is too expensive, so we have to choose the ones we can find cheap rates at right now.

In Europe we often fly with Ryanair, since we are based in Stockholm and can fly with Ryanair from Skavsta. Several of our flights has cost us zero (!) for the tickets, just the tax cost. Search for a date to a destination and then change the date back or forward to get different prices on the flights.

We have stayed at hostels too, since they are cheap and often as good as many hotels. The past years the standard at the hostels has increased tremendously. Besides that: it is only for sleeping, so who needs luxury when sleeping? We are out all day exploring.

We are members in a Swedish hostel chain and it even got us 10% discount at some international hostels, like the hostel in Bratislava when we were there.

Bed & Breakfasts, guesthouses and motels are often cheap. There is homeswapping, petsitting and other free ways to accommodations like couchsurfing if you like to meet locals and get local tips of the destination. Be creative!

The first questions to ask yourself is what travel balance you are willing to be satisfied with? You must set your goals at a realistic level. Do not aim for luxury trips if not being rich, lower your demands to match your wallet.

I also think that it is a question of how interested you are to travel: we are burning passionately for it, so for us, the choices are simple. We have no problem to live simple lives to be able to travel and we make it happen just because of it.

I believe that if I want something, it is only I myself that can make it happen. I have to work on it to make it happen, no one is going to serve me a trip on a silver plate. If I am interested enough, I can make it, sooner or later.

Behind every trip, lays hours, days, weeks, months and sometimes years of planning efforts. Sometimes I have to have very much patience though – like that Australia trip I have always wanted and probably not will get until I am retired…

If everything else fails, there is always last minute trip offers, we have booked that a couple of times too. We seldom book trips when it is high season, more off season since it is much cheaper then.

Another thing you should consider is to get cheap phone cards in the different destinations you get to. To call by phone cards is generally a much better solution than using your own phone or cell phone, since the phone calls rates abroad can be very expensive.

When we were going on that 4620 km roadtrip to Spain, it was because my friend moved back there again and we could stay with her in her rented house for about a month, so we have been lucky sometimes. (She always used a phone card when calling from there).

We have also been to US one time, kinda paid work trip for hubby combined with visiting relatives, but that turned out being not what we expected. We learned our lesson: always plan ourselves! Such is life, you will never know what you are going to experience, but everything you learn from.

The only trips that has been expensive was our honeymoon to Crete 2004 and the trip to South America 2005, special trips made for money we got from selling our apartments when we split up from earlier relationships. We rent our current apartment.

You might have a much more difficult situation, but we do have a lot of ailments and sickness to drag around and that is also why we can not travel as much as we would like to. We have a lot of recovery to do all the time, every day is a struggle, but we are determent to do the best we can of it.

If you really, really, want to travel, it can be done in some way, even if not in so big way as you would wish. Maybe just a road trip? Make it step by step!

There is no easy one way of finding the deals you are searching for, you have to make an effort yourself. Searching and comparing is the key to success.

Start planning, it is half of the fun – to dream away when searching and planning. One day you might be able to go ahead with the plans…

We love to travel, despite some travel curses we have had earlier – and always remember: you are never too old to travel!

Lifecruiser ♥ Travel

(Translated travel related article from a 1941 magazine)

THE VACATION NOW BEGINS

I take travel sheets with me

In these days it’s both thoughtful as well as practical to take bedlinen with you when making temporary visits at friends, family or hostels and similar. As suitcases has a huge tendency to become heavy and overloaded, one is hesitating before packing ordinary bedlinen. But the “travel bed sheet” I want to recommend, is made of nature colored shantung, it’s very light-weight, take very small place, is very easy to wash and on top of that very heavy-duty.

The travel sheet, that looks like a bag, with a slide slitter on each side, is easy to sew. Buy 4,5 meter shantung, fold it double so that one part is 26 cm over the other part. Sew together at both long sides 140 cm from the double folded edge. Where the seam line ends, it’s suitable to attach a piece of ribbon to strengthen the edge. At the shortest of the loose parts, sew a 5 cm wide hemline which will be used as upper linen folded over the blanket. Sew a 2 cm hemline at the other part, double fold it 30 cm and sew together the edges. The “sewed in” part is the pillow pocket and also used as bed sheet. To make it even more neat, you can make a garnish motif and marking with a cross stitch embroidery.

For those who might not know, shantung is a kind of Chinese silk, which is produced of Tusser silk (wild silk).

Kinda old new invention wouldn’t you say? And who knows how old this idea of using silk as travel sheets could be, since silk has such an ancient history.

I’m pretty sure that today’s manufacturer of travel accessories have stumbled upon old articles (if they hadn’t already an old tradition of making them) just as this one and got the idea from there.

Silk is said to be one of the best bedlinen, hypoallergenic and with a natural temperature regulation. I haven’t tested it myself, but if I would choose a good quality: meaning one with many threads, tight woven. That would make it last longer.

Now I wonder if it’s the same with many other things around us, how many of them really are new inventions…? Is the wheel just re-invented over and over again?

Lifecruiser ♥ Vintage Travel