Every traveler knows what it's like to get the worst seat on the plane. But how do you know ahead of time which seat will lead to twelve hours of misery and which one will let you recline in leisurely bliss? Seat Guru might just be the answer. The website has detailed diagrams of airline...

I often hear myself saying "I hate tourists", and then I have to remind myself that, wait a minute, I'm a tourist too. But I repel tourist spots, and when I visit new places, I'm really not fussed whether I have seen all the hotspots; I don't think being in a place for a weekend...

For ages, navigators and other travelers have struggled with how to build a map. Since the earth is spherical and traditional maps are flat, two-dimensional papers, the question is of how to map with as little distortion as possible. Navigators gravitate towards maps such as the Mercator projection , which has accurate shape and direction,...

Not long ago, Abha Malpani queried me for a Written Road post she was writing about whether or not beginner writers should write for free in the name of building up story clips. Should a person, she asked, be open to writing without pay in the beginning of their career? This is what I told...

Hostelling International-USA and Earthchild Productions, producers of vagabonding movie ' A Map For Saturday' have launched a competition to send someone on a round the world trip. All you have to do to enter is write 400 words on why you want to travel, why you haven't traveled like this yet, and why you want...

This Tuesday, October 9th, a number of writers will read essays about life-changing travels as part of an event called " Going Places: Revelations from the Road ." Presenters include National Geographic Adventure contributing editor Tom Clynes , war correspondent Janine di Giovanni, Blindsided by a Diaper author Beth Levine, and journalist Stanley Mieses. The...

Months ago, Vagablogging featured an interview with intrepid bicyclist Dominic Gill on his journey riding his tandem bicycle from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. He named his journey "Take a Seat" . The catch is, he would try and find passengers along the way to help him pedal his two-seater all the way to...

The Andrus family traveled the world with four children, and a Kiwi Family is preparing to embark on a round the world journey with eight kids in tow. For these families and other traveling families, the biggest concern is often how to keep the smallest family members safe on such a journey. Outpost Online recently...

The summer-travel high season has finally wound to a close, and must say that -- in ten years of constant international wandering -- I have never had so many hassles with air transit. Granted, air travel is not my professional specialty (and in fact I generally discourage over-thinking one's flights, which I consider the least...

Fresh Tracks Travel is looking for a few intrepid travelers to be their next Adventure Ambassadors . The lucky few who are selected will receive sponsorship for their travels in exchange for promoting Fresh Tracks. An adventuresome spirit is required and according to the Fresh Tracks website, "You just have to show us you are...

Not long ago, while reading a collection of Jack Kerouac's journals, entitled Windblown World , I came across a startling entry from April 17th, 1948, which sounds a lot like a page from Chuck Palahniuk's book (and, later, David Fincher's movie) Fight Club . From an informal gathering of friends in New York, Kerouac reports...

Are you interested in writing for Vagablogging? We’re looking for a few good folks to assist in keeping the blog updated with fresh content: everything from travel tools, gear, articles, blogs, memoirs, news, or anything else floating around the online travel world that fits the vagabonding style. Interested writers should be able to commit to...

Last week, I blogged about Moleskine's new City Notebooks , and took a look at the Prague notebook. Moleskine has also announced a Travel Journal Contest to celebrate the release of the City Notebooks in Asia: Moleskine is thrilled to announce its first collaboration with Air France to mobilize the creative input of the travellers'...

Dr. Clayton Allen Hubbs (1936-2007) Though I often cite the literary likes of Walt Whitman as early inspiration for my travels, another key inspiration in my vagabonding career was Transitions Abroad magazine, which I first discovered through my teacher roommates while living in Korea . Though I'd already traveled a fair amount by that point...

May 22, 2007 is the 20th anniversary of the completion of Rick Hansen’s Man in Motion World Tour . Not only did Rick Hansen go around the world, he went around the world in his wheelchair. It took him two years, two months, and two days, but Hansen traversed four continents, covering 40,072 kilometers (the...

Fictioneers who fancy their literature in a more fabulist vein now have the opportunity to visit and write in the city that inspired such greats as Kafka, Kundera and Capek. NC State University is hosting a two-week summer workshop in Prague that will focus on "Central Europe's contribution to fantasy, fable, magic realism and literary...

Above : Snake-catcher Chris Peberdy at work (that's a non-poisonous carpet python) in suburban Darwin . Recently, while traveling in Australia's Northern Territories (not long, in fact, after researching my latest Slate.com series ), I met a 23 year-old named Chris Peberdy, who contracts with the city of Darwin as a snake catcher. About twice...

What traveler wouldn’t want to say they’ve seen the Seven Wonders of the World? Well, unless you’re a traveler from centuries ago, it’s not likely a statement you can make. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one left, and the other six have been long gone. In fact, they are so long gone...

Travel writer Tony Perrottet will be teaching a course at New York University this spring that blurs his two opuses -- history-writing and travel-writing. Entitled " The Past on the Page: Bringing History to Life ," Perrottet's course works on the notion that history writing and travel writing are approached in the same way --...

The following is a report from my fellow Kansan Stan Cox, who spends winters in India with his wife Priti. All quotes were copied verbatim from the Jan. 7 edition of the Deccan Chronicle . Here in India, there has been some debate over whether -- through his hanging -- Saddam has achieved nirvana. Noting...