Be warned: I think I’m Christina Aguilera on the road.

I’ve driven across and around and up and down the length of North America. The road is seductive enough on its own, but part of the fun is in those quirky road tripping habits formed over countless journeys. Sure I can, and have, made a few trips with the sole necessities that I need to survive, but my trips just seem a little more luxurious … Read more »

“The sentimental tourist makes images in advance; they grow up in his mind by a logic of their own. He finds himself thinking of an unknown, unseen place, as having such and such a shape and figure rather than such another. It assumed in his mind a certain complexion, a certain color which frequently turns out to be singularly at variance with reality.” –Henry James, “Saratoga” (1870)

Joel Carillet, a Tennessee-based writer and photographer, has traveled to more than sixty countries. His work has appeared in publications such as the Christian Science Monitor, World Hum, and The Best Travel Writing 2008, and he is the author of 30 Reasons to Travel: Photographs and Reflections from Southeast Asia. You can find his stock images at www.istockphoto.com/jcarillet, and more about him … Read more »

I’m not a fan of once-a-year resolutions. I usually try to be mindful—throughout each week, month and year—to make changes and adjustments in my life as I need them. Just like those yearly resolutions, sometimes my intentions work and sometimes they don’t. That’s why, every Jan. 1, I try to set the tone for my year ahead.

What do I … Read more »

Happy New Year vagabonders! As we head into 2010, let’s think about going further than making New Year’s Resolutions.

Brave New Traveler advocates making your own personal manifesto. Start writing down goals, collecting articles and pictures, putting anything vagabonding-related into it. Instead of a new year resolution that’s filed and forgotten, a personal manifesto should be a living, breathing document that is constantly being added to.

The book “Major in Success” describes a similar … Read more »