At the end of last year, I had the honor of showing my mother, Europe for the first time. More importantly than her first time in Europe, it was her first time venturing out of the country. When my mother made plans to visit me in Italy, I envisioned my role as a tour guide....

The past few weeks have seen a lot of talk of the past, the future and travel. Flux capacitor, Delorian and time travel have been posted in You Tube videos, bantered around Facebook and the stars of Back to the Future even turned up on late night television in celebration of the past actually catching...

Traveling long-term for the last three years has changed me in many ways. When I take a minute and reflect on who I was before I started traveling, I can only see faint glimmers of that person. As I have wandered the world, experienced other cultures, and tested my limits I have become an independent,...

In March of 1989, the Exxon Valdez struck a reef off the coast of Alaska, resulting in the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Initially viewed as an ecological disaster, this catastrophe did wonders to raise environmental awareness among average Americans. As television images of oil-choked sea otters and dying shore birds were beamed across...

Perhaps you’ve found yourself, sitting in a cubicle pecking out reports for your boss, longing to be on a secluded beach in some far corner of the world. You go home from work and pull out your atlas and dream of Mai Thais and the sound of waves crashing on the shore. You turn the...

Today, there’s a Facebook group for just about everything. Full-time families, digital nomads, long-term travelers, family travelers, solo travelers and everyone in between have a footprint in the digital world. Just how drastically the Internet has changed a traveler’s adventure we will never know, but, whether you are a traveler of the WIFI generation or...

When I'm in the States, sitting on my parents' couch in the normalcy of the world in which I grew up and my mind begins to wander, it wanders to a moment when my shoes were caked in dust and the Kenyan heat beat on my shoulders. A young Masai boy hung by our side...

If there is one thing about long-term travel that is underestimated, it is the challenges that come with it. Living indefinitely on the road is not always wonderful. Sometimes it requires choices that are painful and challenging. Do not get me wrong. I love long-term travel, but in all honesty it is not a lifestyle...

In a way, simplifying your life for vagabonding is easier than it sounds. This is because travel by its very nature demands simplicity. If you don’t believe this, just go home and try stuffing everything you own into a backpack. This will never work, because no matter how meagerly you live at home, you can’t...

While I already have quite a few posts about what travel hacking is , I think ultra-beginners to the topic can benefit from hearing about it in a context of what it ISN'T as well. Because to be honest, the media has picked up on bits and pieces of the travel hacking hobby and...as is...

(morning rituals - photo credit: icultist on Flickr) The fluidity of travel is a double-edged blade. It's one of the things I love most about it - that each day is different and you don't know what to expect. It pulls you into the present, encouraging you to pay attention to everything going on around...

(photo credit: ocarchives on Flickr) I book my bigger trips a up to a year in advance. This way I know they're set and I won't succumb to "I'm too busy, I can't do this now" syndrome. Last year I put a deposit down on a trip to Peru. Not just any trip - this...

One of the most interesting aspects of traveling is meeting the fascinating array of people who manage to make their travel dreams a reality. We’ve met young people and retirees, couples, single parents and families of every sort you can imagine. One of the things that always strikes us is the resourcefulness of this community...

“Can you bring me home a koala? How about a kangaroo? How many pairs of Uggs do you think you can carry?” These were just some of my former student’s comments the first time they heard I was traveling to Australia.” Of course, it’s easy enough to talk about travel’s take home in material things...

One of the things we worry about a lot as we travel is our carbon footprint; our environmental impact. Living in the west where most people are mindful of the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) and most communities have “green initiatives” it’s easy to be lulled into complacency and think that we’re “doing it.” Then,...

Eating healthy is important to us. I’m a relentless “do it myself” sort of girl. I was raised freezing and canning a lot of our own food. I make most things from scratch. It’s really important to me to feed my family healthy things so that the children grow properly and so that healthy eating...

I am often asked why I travel. What is the benefit? Is all the work, preparation, and planning worth it? So, I set out to identify what it is I really feel I have gained through travel. While this list may not be the same for everyone (and I expect it wouldn't be), I bet...

As part of some tips for successful travel and freelance writing, I decided to interview Joe Henley . He is a Canadian freelance writer and death metal singer for Taiwanese band Revilement who has spent the past few years living in Taiwan, and will released his debut novel, “Sons of the Republic” , on American...

It’s an increasingly accepted as fact that, as a nation, we have allowed a work culture to develop where taking time off is seen a sign of disloyalty or lack of care, and where extended time off is more of a concept than a reality. It’s also a given that more and more data suggest...

This week I returned from a month and a half overseas working as a tour guide, helping to lead two different groups on an epic Best-of-Europe grand tour. The experience was a new one for me; after years of exploring the continent’s cobbled backstreets and ancient cities as a solo travel writer, I found myself...