How's this for an inspirational story? It can be hard enough to find the gumption and resources to travel the world. But how about giving it all up to personally fight poverty in Bangladesh? That's what 27-year-old Torontonian, Shawn, did when he started The Uncultured Project . He was originally inspired in 2006 at Notre...

When you are planning a long trip, cross continent, you can never have enough information. I remember a friend in Spain would make me see him for coffee for a year before he actually left for his RTW trip. He just wanted reassurance, support, chat, my guidebooks, website links, anything, because taking that final step...

It used to be that the Sunday edition of most newspapers was a gold mine of travel information. The internet largely killed the need for the Sunday Travel section, but there are still some notable newspaper travel desks that continued to publish insightful and helpful articles on destinations around the world. Once of my personal...

Everyone needs to pack, no matter where you're going. And if you're anything like me, you use lots of scraps of paper, or maybe one page of your journal, criss-crossed with scribblings, and then you forget something anyway. On my last trip out of the country, I forgot earplugs; "No big deal," I thought. "I...

Budget Travel magazine ran an article recently called The Ultimate Guide to Free Travel . While standby flights and couch surfing are well-known, this piece had some more interesting ideas. The key thing is to be responsible, though. You'll still pay for traveling, but just not with money. A lot of these free travel options...

Christmas only comes around once a year, but North Pole, Alaska celebrates it year-round. Located only 10 miles from Alaska's second-largest city of Fairbanks, North Pole is in the Christmas spirit 365 days a year. Which is a good thing, because the lowest recorded winter temperature in North Pole was -78 Farenheit! Temperatures like that...

Yes, I can say that I've seen better movies than "Yes Man." It may be a ho-hum movie, but what lasts for me is a moment of spontaneity: at one point Jim Carrey's character arrives at the airport, steps up to the ticket desk, and asks for the next flight out of town. Will it...

"Reproduction and mere survival have never been good enough for humankind. We torture one another, we torture ourselves, we torture the universe with our questioning, our endless strife, the tedious struggle against death. Even a simple hike up Whitney, even the mild walk and scramble to the apex of Sierra Blanco in Colorado, involves that...

Independent Traveler.com has an article about must-have items from real travelers . There's always those little things that can make your trip go so much more smoothly. If you're traveling to a destination to meet up with friends who live there, I highly recommend bringing a mobile phone and buying a local SIM card as...

Hey, want to write for Vagablogging? We're looking for two dedicated travel enthusiasts to post 1-2 times per week, on any vagabonding-related topics of their choice, from amazing destinations to travel blogging to the latest online booking tools. Ideally, applicants will also be familiar with Rolf's book, Vagabonding , and/or the philosophy behind it. Knowledge...

A new website, aptly named "How to Travel the World" , recently launched as an online hub for beginning long term travelers. This site is edited by Matthew Kepnes , a travel writer who has been on the road since 2005. The site aims to explore the practical steps you need to take before taking...

What drinks yak milk vodka, cites Werner Herzog as a cinematic influence and has an upcoming documentary travel series on PBS that doesn't suck? The answer is Christopher Rufo and Keith Ochwat, two travelers that chucked their jobs and college plans to strike off for Mongolia with only a video camera and the usual backpacker...

One of my favorite travel blogs (turned portal) World Hum has revamped their great website to make it even greater. It's a very clean new format; still got lots of awesome stories, yet easy on the eye. They have a new video/podcast section which aggregates videos from their events and has some new ones. It's...

"If our lives are dominated by a search for happiness, then perhaps few activities reveal as much about the dynamics of this quest -- in all its ardor and paradoxes -- than our travels. They express, however inarticulately, an understanding of what life might be about, outside of the constraints of work and of the...

As constant travelers, one might argue that it's no longer a "travel journal", but rather just a journal. And why, you might ask, should you keep a pen and paper journal at all anymore, when blogs serve the same purpose and mean you don't have to carry anything? In the first place, having a space...

A recent Wall Street Journal article said that the crisis is sending people overseas to look for greener pastures. I think this is a bit of an illusion, and that it's just taken longer for the crisis to reach other places. Even fast-growing markets like Dubai and China are starting to feel the effects now....

When people heard about the attacks in Mumbai over a week ago, most were horrified. Some were horrified to the point of canceling any travel plans to India. On the surface, it seems like this decision makes sense. In a recent article entitled "Keep on Travelin'--To India For A Start" , Elisabeth Eaves points out...

In August, Vagablogging interviewed Kelsey Timmerman about his burgeoning publishing career and his new book chronicling where clothes are made. Now his book, Where Am I Wearing? is out, just in time for the holiday season. Consider tucking this fascinating glimpse into the lives of garment workers into a stocking alongside Rolf's books . Also...

The LA Times article about the most overrated destinations makes me a bit sad. I'm not saying that I've never had my own 'overrated' moment. But that's just it—it's personal and subjective, based on my personal expectations and experiences. One of the places mentioned in the article is Paris. We've all been fed images of...

Travel scams sort of come with the territory -- if you're continually putting yourself in situations where you're confronting the unknown, at some point someone is probably going to con you. We've all given in to lesser scams like over-priced cab fares, greedy tuk-tuk drivers and the like. Sometimes you do it because you're tired,...