I often find myself staring at Travel Channel programming, even when the show isn’t very compelling to me. Sure, I’ll tune in for Tony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” any time, but sometimes I’ll hang in for the clip shows of best beaches, just to get a look at turquoise water. It doesn’t have to be the...

I've recently started reading this book called "Life is a Verb", by Patti Digh, and aside from having a lot of stories about small children in it (as an unrepentant non-child-haver, I sometimes get a little fed up with how precious everyone is supposed to think children are, all the time), it has some truly...

Getting out of your comfort zone on your travels not only opens you up to new experiences, but also teaches you a lot about yourself. It’s advocated by a wide variety of travelers—from Rick Steves to Nicholas Kristof . And when you’ve done it once, it can change the way you travel for the rest...

I've only recently been introduced to Unbrave Girl, a snarky personal commentary on long-term world meandering, and this post actually rang a few bells for me. People keep asking me, "Where do you live?" and I'm not really sure why, since if I've been in a place for a year or so, doesn't that mean...

When I was a kid, I used to carry an agate arrowhead with me when I traveled with my family. I found it in an Idaho river, and my dad’s uncle offered me $20 for it. That was a lot of money for me then. I turned him down, thinking that if he was willing...

There are some really interesting travel statistics about women. For example, MaryBeth Bond, the "Gutsy Traveler" and so-called #1 expert on women's travel in the USA, noted on her website that 80% of travel decisions are made by women, regardless of who's traveling, where they're going, and who's paying. "Hard" adventure travelers (of whom there...

One of the most common objections to traveling the world is the supposed danger involved. After all, the world is full of nasty stuff -- war, crime, murder, kidnappings, beheadings and so on -- why needlessly expose yourself to all that? While it's easy for those who've actually traveled to world to laugh at such...

A friend of mine has a very specific definition of adventure: It must involve danger to life and limb. Mountain climbing? Check. Diving with sharks? Check. Taking on a new assignment at work? Nothing doing. For me, adventure has always included all of the above. Even taking a walk through my neighborhood has an air...

You know, much has been made of the vast toxicity of Australian wildlife. There is a story of a shark leaping onto the beach to lock jaws around the leg of a 12 year old boy...it had to be hit in the head with blunt instruments to get it to let go. There are tales...

Today is my last post here at Vagablogging. It's the old story of too many projects and too little time. First, thanks to Rolf, Scott, and the VB crew for the chance to work together over the past 14 months. Second, a grander thanks to you, the reader, for consistently lending an ear and a...

After my first Christmas here in Australia (and my friend and fellow Vagablogger Colleen's first Christmas in Korea), I started reflecting on what makes someone a longterm traveler vs an expat: when have you stopped traveling somewhere and started living there? I know for me, what I enjoy the most about going to another place...

Does a roll of duct tape always find its way into your suitcase? Are you a jury-rig master? Unless you travel in a bubble where stores are always nearby, open and have absolutely everything you need, you’ve likely had to figure out how to repurpose something. A recent Lifehacker article highlights the website’s most popular...

Latourex, short for Laboratoire de Tourisme Experimental, is a couple of French charmers who developed their experimental travel techniques to make their trips more interesting. Instead of just doing the same old same old -- go to a place, look at its museums, drink coffee at coffeeshops, attempt to blend in while suavely writing in...

I had to turn in my passport yesterday in order to get it renewed, and I’m a little broken up about it. I’ve never been the person to publicly thumb through the pages of my passport to show off—but privately, I look them over to serve as a quick reminder of where I’ve been, what...

One of the side effects of all those fun romantic flings you have with fun romantic locals wherever it is that you settle for a while, is the exciting, abnormal, and exhausting condition called love. Love can spin your tailfeathers and put your travel plans at risk. We're told from a very early age that...

I admit, I took this directly from a book (called "The Six Rules of Maybe", and written by fantastically inspirational YA novelist Deb Caletti), and not a travel book either, but I found it so interesting and so worthwhile a way to decide things that I wanted to share it with y'all vagabonders. 1. Respect...

Fleur Britten's "On The Couch" is the first travel memoir about couchsurfing I've seen; this doesn't mean there aren't any others, naturally, but it does mean that I picked it off the library shelf with a surge of excitement. "Ooh!" I thought to myself. "This is gonna be good!" I was, unfortunately, wrong. Couchsurfing is...

You have a good start. Anyone who's even considered taking a long-term travel break, or even several shorter ones, has to have an adventurous spirit. But how do you stack up against other folks looking for adventure? A post on Gadling this week discussed a recent survey commissioned by Intrepid Travel , which found that...

We all have so many little gadgets that travel with us every day. We have mobile phones, which may or may not have internet enabled on them. Maybe we also have mp3 players to throw in our bags as well. Perhaps there's a personal organizer or diary of somekind too...if you haven't been able to...

A blogger I read frequently, Meish.org , brought my attention to a cute little collaborative art/travel sharing idea, the Snailr project . Like Twitter for the real world, the instigator of Snailr decided that, instead of posting Twitter or Facebook updates, instead of leaving answering machine messages or blog posts about her progress on her...