I read with interest a recent study by the Trans-Global Association for Travel and Tourism Commerce, which rated the behavior of tourists from all the world's industrialized countries. Consistently ranking last in the study -- bottoming out in categories ranging from airline etiquette to podiatric hygiene -- were travelers from Great Britain. "This settles it,"...

I am amazed how Airbnb has exploded around the world since its inception in the spring of 2009. It has morphed and grown at such a rapid rate, from a handful of listings in a few cities to thousands of hosts around the globe, hundreds of bookings to millions within its first three years! Today,...

Photo Credit: walidhassanein via Compfight cc I'm riding a second-class train up the Nile valley when a boy in an official-looking blue jacket beckons me to the other side of the carriage. "Look," he whispers, pointing outside. "Beautiful!" I look out the window to see a red sun streaking the sky with bands of pink...

We spent a couple of weeks researching Sulawesi and found very little information for independent travel on the island. Then, I lucked into Dodo Mursalim’s contact details on a TripAdvisor forum. Dodo turned out to be a gold mine of information and he bent over backwards to help us do Sulawesi our way. He rented...

(The family we met in Siberia - one of the most memorable nights of the entire trip.) Last week, I heard that a friend of mine had been in a serious motorcycle accident in Bali. A serious accident - broken ribs, fractured pelvis, collapsed lung. He wrote about the experience - about his injuries, about...

Serendipity is a funny thing. The mind-blowing intersections of fate and intention that lead a person down paths heretofore unconsidered is, without question, my favourite aspect of travel. We sat, last evening, in the formal dining room of Sir James Wallace, a Knight of the Realm, so honored for his philanthropy. How did we come...

This year we’re celebrating Christmas in Borneo. Last year we were on Cape Cod, in the USA, the year before that, Guatemala, the year before that, Canada, the year before that found us in Tunisia, camped in the cold on the edge of the ocean of sand. One of the most interesting parts of our...

Here's the deal: free housing, living in a beautiful island and some fun work. Oh, and the boss is far away and can't micromanage you. Sound too good to be true? That's what Meg and Tony of the Landing Standing blog experienced in their post titled Housesitting in Thailand: live for free in paradise ....

A couple weeks ago, giant hospitality sharing website Couchsurfing has launched his new Android application you can download for free here . I must admit, it was about time. Travelling a lot and being an active Couchsurfer, I was really stoked at the user unfriendliness of the famous website over a small smartphone screen. I...

A few weeks ago, Marcus Sortijas published an interesting piece on Vagabonding describing the Couchsurfing experience in the United States. As I am a Couchsurfing aficionado and have travelled more than 10 Asian countries using it, I would like to spend some words describing how this beautiful service works in another side of the world....

Cost/Day- 60 euros After a few months on the road, it takes something fairly odd to catch a vagabonder off-guard, but seeing a man herding sheep from the back of a scooter certainly threw me for a loop. The sheep didn't seem flustered by the portly man zipping in and out of the herd, hurrying...

When you think of places you've visited, do you remember the sights--or the people? In this article, it was the latter that made the lasting impression: I couch-surfed across America . The vivid and quirky cast of Couchsurfing hosts the writer encounters provide enough fodder for its own TV sitcom. An excerpt: Bill, our host...

One of the payoffs of the vagabonding lifestyle is that the more time you spend in an area, the more genuine your experience can be. While nothing will ever replace the tried and true method -- stay longer and you’ll experience more -- a new website aims to help short-term travelers find authentic local experiences....

Three years ago, I changed my travel plans in order to visit friends living in Croatia. The country was definitely on my list, however it didn’t happen to be in the top five “must go now” destinations at the time. What changed my mind? My friends were nearing retirement age, and would soon leave Croatia...

Jordan Valley, Israel/Palestine It’s not everyday that you stand on the side of a highway, a car pulls over, you get in, and moments later the driver says you’re an answer to prayer. Up until this car stopped, the day had been full of disappointments. I had left Jerusalem that morning and gone to Jericho...

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...

Who draws the line between "corporate travel" and "leisure travel"? (My answer: The travel industry.) Is this a good thing or a bad thing for travelers? Why? Discuss.

Most travelers are familiar with Couchsurfing at this point. That great nonprofit initiative that connects travelers from all over the globe, providing them with a couch to crash on, some great company and events around the city, or simply a local’s advice. As someone with a decent number of couchsurfing experiences under her belt, I...

It’s inevitable: Whether your choice places to stay when you travel are hostels or hotels, you’ll eventually end up couch surfing in the home of a friend or acquaintance. How do you know you’ll be a good guest? Lifehacker ’s recent “ Be a Perfect Guest in the 21st Century ” points out that the...

One great part of travel is the thrill you get from the random and deliciously quirky places you find yourself. Just a few weeks ago I was thrilled to find myself sleeping on an 8x10 square foot floor with 2 other people on a tiny fishing island in the Yellow Sea. Why? Because it’s an...