About Parandjah Travels

I’m Marsha Rowe. I write every guide on this site.

I’m based in Kingston, Jamaica, and I spend a few months of the year travelling. Before this I worked as a journalist, which is probably why I can’t write a travel guide that says a place is “affordable” without showing you the actual numbers. Most of what I write is city budget guides and solo travel, plus event planning for LA28 and the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

I’ve travelled alone to six countries — Trinidad, Paris, Singapore, Seoul, Bangkok, and Cape Town — staying in $25-50-a-night motels the whole way. That’s where the guides come from.

Why this site exists

Most travel content tells you a destination is “budget-friendly” and stops there. You can read ten articles about Budapest and still not know whether the famous thermal bath is worth the price of the less famous one.

So I started writing the guides I wanted to read — ones that answer the specific questions that actually change what a trip costs. Which district is cheaper but still walkable. Whether the express airport bus is worth the extra fare. Which month is genuinely cheapest to fly.

What’s different about these guides

Each one answers a real question. The Dublin guide exists because Dublin banned unlicensed short-term rentals in 2019, which means the Airbnb advice that works everywhere else doesn’t work there. The Budapest guide compares two thermal baths because that’s a genuine budget decision most guides skip.

They use real numbers. Nightly rates by neighbourhood, what a meal costs, what the airport transfer runs. Not “budget-friendly” — actual figures, updated for 2026.

They tell you when something isn’t worth it. If a city pass doesn’t pay for itself unless you visit three paid attractions, that’s what the guide says.

Travel dupes

A lot of what I write about is what I call travel dupes — places that give you what you actually wanted from a more famous destination, usually for less. Budapest instead of Paris. Zanzibar instead of the Maldives. Not “the cheap version,” but genuinely different places that happen to cost less and are often better for the crowds you avoid.

Major events

Planning around a big sporting event is a different problem from planning a normal trip — prices spike, transit gets rerouted, and accommodation in the obvious neighbourhoods disappears months out. I write guides for these too, currently covering LA28 and the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

The approach is the same as everything else here: real costs, honest advice about which areas are worth it, and the logistics that actually change what you’ll spend.

Solo travel

Six countries alone, and both sides of it. In Paris I ran out of money with nowhere to stay, and a mother and daughter I’d met at a café invited me into their home. In Singapore I was followed to my motel by men who turned out to be traffickers, and my gut got me out before anything happened.

I wrote about both in Best Countries for Women Traveling Alone, which is the most honest thing on this site.

Who this is for

Travellers who want to know what a trip will really cost before committing to it. People planning around a fixed budget rather than an open one. Anyone tired of guides that recommend everything and rank nothing.

I write everything here myself. If a guide gets something wrong or a price is out of date, email me at [email protected]  or [email protected]— I’d rather fix it than leave it.