I recently returned from a two month road-trip around the United States. It had been almost ten years since I had traveled extensively inside the United States and it was, as you might expect, very different than my last trip.

Aside from the negative aspects — more sprawl, less open space and so on — the one thing that really caught my eye … Read more »

As you may have noticed, Rolf is currently in the midst of traveling around the world with only what he can carry in his pockets.  He’s got a toothbrush, a change of underpants, and an iPod Touch to do his blog posting from, as well as some presumably bulging cargo pants pockets.  I did see one blog post on his round-the-world-as-a-lightweight diary, pointing out that replicating the experience for women would be majorly worth a … Read more »

A lot of travelers are romanced by the kind of retreat from civilization found in the pages of Henry David Thoreau and Carl G. Jung. Taking a break from our regular lives and living simply in nature is not only personally rewarding, it may be a little more essential to our well being than many may previously have thought.

However, embarking on a journey such as this requires the same amount of research … Read more »

“Perhaps no nation has been as uneasy in its view of travel as America. The one Western country that has always held expatriation to be something of a misdemeanor, if not an actual offense to patriotism or a form of social betrayal, it has never freed itself of the sense of guilt apparently rooted in a society which originated in deracination and grew into its modern dimensions through incessant migration and restlessness.” –Morton Dauwen Zabel, … Read more »

There are fun parts of planning a RTW trip, and then there are the not-so-fun parts of trip planning. Unfortunately, despite the fact that budgeting falls into the un-fun category, it’s one of those necessary evils of making sure your RTW trip is a successful one.

Budgeting well for a RTW trip means more than just making sure you get a cheap flight. It includes thinking about whether you’ll be spending the “high … Read more »

I expected that it would be excessively hot on the late August day that I’d be working on a home in New Orleans. I’d already imagined it in my mind: alternating time between standing on a ladder and collapsing under a tent to balance my body temperature. Instead, it rained steadily on the day before the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina coming ashore.

This particular Habitat … Read more »

The goal of many vagabonders is to blend in with the locals so well that they become invisible. Although the color of our skin sometimes makes that impossible, it’s still fun to try.

The Life magazine website had a great slideshow called How New Yorkers Can Spot a Tourist. Some of the points are particular to New York, like mastering the Metrocard swipe for the subway.

Other points could apply to a variety of … Read more »

Rolf’s latest travel project is the No Baggage Challenge — a journey that will take him around the world without using a single piece of luggage. Every few days, we’ll be updating Vagabonding with a recap of the latest to keep you up to date on the adventure.

After experiencing Madrid through tapas — in 9 dishes and 7 drinks — Rolf crossed the Straits of Gibraltar to Tangier, Morocco. A ‘lost in … Read more »

Shortly after last week’s column which highlighted how Burning Man is like vagabonding, we loaded up our hatchback and drove to the event, about two hours north of Reno, Nevada, down a small two lane road that runs past deep blue Pyramid Lake, majestic mountains, and salt flats. We arrived on Saturday afternoon, and our “Summer Camp” theme camp at 3:50 & Athens was set up by Sunday evening.

I noted that creative … Read more »