This Week in Offbeat Travel Links - April 28, 2007

Like what you see? Subscribe to the full RSS feed. Colin Beavan (aka No Impact Man) tells of a little girl who shows how you can truly change the world one good deed at a time. Think volunteering. In the market for a new or used camel? Guardian Unlimited has the perfect camel […]

Be A Better Blogger By Breaking Your Wiki-ddiction

We bloggers are a lazy lot. It seems the de facto target to direct our readers for further info is always that treasure trove of truthiness: Wikipedia. The problem is that Wikipedia reads like stereo instructions - it’s unengaging and lifeless. Which better explains travel: Wikipedia or Rolf Potts’ Vagablogging? An even better example: Tim […]

On Finding Closure in My Breakup With Starbucks

Way back in October, I published the groundbreaking Drink Water - a post that changed the travel blogging landscape forever. I suggested then that cutting back just $2-3 every day on soft drinks, coffee and other beverages could save you over $700 per year. $700 you could be investing in an ING account […]

5 Reasons Why I Travel

There’s no other time in my life where I feel more “at home” then when I’m away from it.

Can Miss: 1000 Places to See Before You Die

Caution: Acerbic TV show review ahead. I had really high hopes for The Travel Channel’s 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I’m not sure why. Before its debut, all I knew about it was the nifty commercials featuring a young guy or girl visiting one of the world’s most recognizable landmarks and pushing […]

Rediscovering My Hometown, Rhode Island

A while back I wrote how I think most folks are bad tourists in their own hometown. I plead guilty. There’s so much to see and do here in New England - in Providence and Rhode Island included. Yet I gloss over most of it with the dismissive thought that it’ll always […]

This Week in Offbeat Travel Links - April 21, 2007

Like snowboarding? Like volcanic ash too? Try ashboarding in Nicaragua. It’s the Olympic Winter Games meets Pompei. Without all the media coverage and face-melting lava. I’d kindly ask ourman (currently our embed in Nic) to try this and report back to us. Learn to live like an Ewok in […]

My 5 Hilarious Travel Photos

Ian of Brave New Traveler fame (yes, that Ian! Who’d you think I meant?) recently launched a contest to submit your five favorite hilarious travel photos. Here are mine: Bright Lights, Big Tower The CN Tower in Toronto is the world’s largest free-standing structure. So of course some sadistic chap decided to turn parts […]

Consumed by Consumerism: SNL Style

As a perfectly fitting adjunct to a post I made earlier railing against American hyper-consumerism, I found this SNL skit on the wire. A nice little “Friday Funny”. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

New Meme: 5 Reasons Why You Travel?

Lately, there’s been a number of memes passed around this great clique of travel bloggers of which I consider myself lucky to be a part. The last - 5 Reasons Why You Blog - made its rounds in record time. But I’m curious: what about 5 reasons why you travel? Our blogs […]

How To Make Sure No One Ever Reads Your Travel Blog

“If you’ve nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” That’s what mum always taught me. I think bloggers and travel writers could learn a bit from this. More appropriately: “If you don’t have anything good or worthwhile to say, don’t say anything at all.” What Not To Do Our Man in Granada […]

A Non-Traveler’s Travel Blog for Travelers / Montreal in Retrospect

Lately I’ve been thinking about the strange irony of writing a travel blog while not actually traveling. In my heart, I’d like to think I’ll always be a traveler, regardless of where I am and whether or not I’m on the move. But it feels a little odd - like penning a child […]

How to Put Your Blog on Auto-Pilot With Scheduled Posts

One of Wordpress’ best, little-known features is the ability to schedule posts to automatically publish to your travel blog on a future date.

This Week in Offbeat Travel Links - April 14, 2007

The Tribewanted project is part Myspace, part reality-TV show Survivor. With over 1,100 inhabitants so-far, this unique social experiment seems to be working. Shock your socks off and beat deep vein thrombosis with the Circulation Booster Mobile. Just weird. Rolf Potts talks about solo traveling and getting drugged in Istanbul seven hazy […]

Fly U.S. to Europe for $12?

Huh? I like to think I’m a reasonably smart guy. No really - even my grandmum agrees. But there’s clearly something I’m missing in the economics of Ryanair. Guardian Unlimited Travel is reporting that Ryanair is planning to offer one-way transatlantic flights between the United States and Europe for roughly $12US. British Airways said: […]

A Little Intestinal Distress, A Little Adventure

Bourdain throws all caution to the wind given the slightest chance of a travel or culinary adventure.

The Hangover Cure (or I Swear, I Will Never Drink That Much Ever Again … No, Really)

Hangovers are an inevitable consequence of many a young traveler’s foray into the seedier and more exciting places around the world. Everyone has their own opinion of which hangover cure works best for them. For me, the remedy is simple and, in all the hazy years I’ve spent punishing my liver, this recipe […]

Don’t Let the Things You Own Own You

In an unintentional yet timely follow-up to this past Sunday’s post, Vagablogging offers this advice via Fight Club: “You buy furniture. You tell yourself this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple of years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve […]

On Travel Writing

Are you a writer and a traveler? Have you read Thomas Spurling’s post On Travel Writing? If not, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Read no further if you’d rather I not spoil the ending for you: Travel is nothing like writing. Anyone can write, and anyone can travel. These days you can fly to Ireland […]

Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite!

(I easily spent seventeen or eighteen seconds crafting the title of this post. Seriously.) As if returning home from an around-the-world trip isn’t disheartening and culturally shocking enough, you’re then forced to deal with the lack of six-legged critters - bedbugs in particular - with which to share your bed. Have no fear, insect […]

Say Cheese 2.0

Stacy from Rambling Traveler points us to a gorgeous selection of hyper-colored travel photos using a technique called HDR or High Dynamic Range. The pictures speak for themselves, so I won’t pretend my words can do them any further justice. But for more info on this technique, head on over here or here for a […]

Don’t Hate Me Because I’m American

I’m not going to lie - traveling solo around the world scares the hell out of me. And when the U.S. State Department releases warnings every other day about how Armageddon is upon us in every corner of the globe, why shouldn’t it? So many questions, so many unknowns. Not the least […]

Consumed by Consumerism

As my RTW departure draws nigh I’ve put everything I do, buy, eat, and consume under a microscope. At first, it was a money-saving exercise. But it’s taught me one very valuable lesson: I don’t need to do, buy, eat, or consume even a quarter of the “stuff” that I used to. […]

Click This! Week in Travel Links - April 7, 2007

The top ten links from this week in budget travel: Perpetual Travel presents a no-nonsense guide to RTW travel NuNomad blog continues its series on cell phone use for long term and RTW travel Kevin Allgood suggests using linked accounts to protect your travel loot from pesky thieves and con artists while on the road […]

India in a New Light

Travel writing isn’t easy. I certainly won’t claim to be an expert. How many different ways can you describe a place that so many other travelers have visited and opined before you? How can you differentiate your view of a particular waterfall, local market, or mountain view from that of everyone else’s […]

Ain’t No Sunshine When I’m Gone

Note: if my travel insurance company - the one holding my theft policy - is reading this, please divert your interest here. There’s nothing to see below. Given that I’m planning to travel to some very remote parts of the globe, I’m struggling with how to ensure that I can power the pile of gadgets […]

Tim Cahill on Travel Dreams

Via WhyGo.com: A lot of us first aspired to far-ranging travel and exotic adventure early in our teens; these ambitions are, in fact, adolescent in nature, which I find an inspiring idea. … Thus, when we allow ourselves to imagine as we once did, we know, with a sudden jarring clarity, that if we don’t go […]

Why Travel Around the World?

For me, traveling around the world is the ultimate act of wanderlust.

Is SARS Still an Issue in SE Asia?

WhyGo.com posted this photo yesterday which begs the question: is SARS still a concern in Asia? I assume that’s the reason for this woman wearing the face mask? Or is it the pollution? I ask because I really don’t know the answer. The American media tired of the SARS outbreak about […]