The rich have the Paris-Dakar Rally, an often-criticized race, where professionals compete to drive from Europe to Dakar, Senegal.

For the not-so-rich, there is the Plymouth-Banjul Challenge, unofficially dubbed the “Ultimate Banger Challenge”, a 3,000-mile-long course from Plymouth, United Kingdom, to Banjul, Gambia. Participants are not allowed to drive expensive and well-equipped vehicles. With a maximum vehicle price of 100 British pounds, participants must rely on much more than vehicular bells and whistles to … Read more »

WikiMapia is a project aiming to describe the entire planet, according to creators Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev. Inspired by Google Maps and Wikipedia, the two created the site, which relies on users to describe places. Users zoom in and click on a place to learn about its mapping coordinates, historical information, local attractions, and anything else a WikiMapia user might think to add.

WikiMapia already has three million places marked, with more being … Read more »

We’ve talked up staying with locals when you travel as a good way to help you get a better feel for your destination and save money. Here’s more on the saving money part.

With the dollar still tanking, for Americans, traveling overseas – especially in Europe – is more and more expensive. So begins the latest of Arthur Frommer’s budget travel columns; about taking the sting out of the dollar/pound conversion with homestays … Read more »