Keep calm and collect miles: miles, points, and last minute plans

My husband and I are not very good planners but we like it that way. Many times we are minutes away from checking out of one hotel and have not yet made a plan for our next one. It happens quite frequently in fact.

Or, as is the case today, our Thai visa is days away from expiring and we don’t yet have a plan of where to go next.

 

How can we be … Read more »

Posted by | Comments Off on Keep calm and collect miles: miles, points, and last minute plans  | June 19, 2014
Category: General

Vagabonding Case Study: Ivana Greslikova & Gianni Bianchini

Nomadisbeautiful-LoyKrathong

Ivana Greslikova & Gianni Bianchini

nomadisbeautiful.com

Age: 34 (Ivana), 44 (Gianni)

Hometown: Presov (Slovakia), Martina Franca (Italy)

Quote: “Not all those who wander are lost” by J.R.R.Tolkien

How did you find out about Vagabonding, and how did you find it useful before and during the trip?

We read about the book on one of the travel … Read more »

Posted by | Comments Off on Vagabonding Case Study: Ivana Greslikova & Gianni Bianchini  | June 18, 2014
Category: Vagabonding Case Studies

Visiting Sulawesi Indonesia: guide recommendation for Dodo Mursalim

Dodo Mursalim

We spent a couple of weeks researching Sulawesi and found very little information for independent travel on the island. Then, I lucked into Dodo Mursalim’s contact details on a TripAdvisor forum.

Dodo turned out to be a gold mine of information and he bent over backwards to help us do Sulawesi our way.

He rented us … Read more »

Posted by | Comments Off on Visiting Sulawesi Indonesia: guide recommendation for Dodo Mursalim  | June 17, 2014
Category: Adventure Travel, Asia, Destinations, Hospitality

Sense of place is tied to the people who live there

“To me, a sense of place is nothing more than a sense of people. Whether a landscape is bleak or beautiful, it doesn’t mean anything to me until a person walks into it, and then what interests me is how the person behaves in that place.” –Mark Salzman, in They Went: The Art and Craft of Travel Writing (1991)

Posted by | Comments Off on Sense of place is tied to the people who live there  | June 16, 2014
Category: Travel Quote of the Day

The soda machine theory

Money in, soda out-this is the typical experience with a drink machine.  But we’ve all had that sticky situation of money in-no soda out. What do you do? Do you shake or kick the machine, or do you yell or even go as far as to demand that the machine return your drink or your money back? When you place your hard earned money in that skinny plastic slot, you expect that same result that … Read more »

Posted by | Comments Off on The soda machine theory  | June 14, 2014
Category: Notes from the collective travel mind

Working on the road: Austin, TX

My last couple of articles have been a bit higher-level (How lessons I learned while traveling have helped me through family tragedy and Becoming a better person via the kindness of strangers). Today, though, I’ve decided to post something much more tactical – the places I’ve enjoyed … Read more »

Posted by | Comments Off on Working on the road: Austin, TX  | June 13, 2014
Category: General, North America, On The Road, Travel Tech, Vagabonding Life

Why I don’t want my kids to “get it when they are older”

A few weeks ago, we arrived back in the city we inhabited before we took off on our indefinite journey around the world. For all of it’s grit and rough edges, it’s my favorite city on earth. As I got reacquainted with the culture, the (fabulous) food selection, the people, and the daily grind I paused more than once to marvel at how many people spend their days running from place to place, chatting away … Read more »

Posted by | Comments (1)  | June 12, 2014
Category: Ethics