It's a question based on the "walk a mile in someone else's moccasins" premise: To fully understand and experience travel, do you have to spend time on the hospitality side as well? Some might argue that not all travelers are customers of the hospitality industry. True, not too many vagabonds will be booking Club Med...

A non-hypothetical question: What's your relationship with tour groups? Travel blogs often debate the worth of these two, but I'm curious about the actual facts of your experience. How do tour groups factor into your travels, if at all? An Indian friend of mine who lives in New York, no stranger to the vagabonding approach...

Western manners don't teach us how to respond to non-Western hospitality. I'm talking about generosity that's over-and-above what we're used to. The sort of generosity where saying please or thank you is shunned as unnecessary, or even taken as slightly offensive. India is famous for its hospitality, and lately I've been feeling confused about how...

A few months ago, we talked about the usefulness of vacation rentals as lodging alternatives , offering many of the same amenities as hotels at closer-to-hostel prices. While the two biggest names in homestays are VRBO and HomeAway (the former now owned by the latter), a small grass-roots community has sprung up across the pond....

Cairo, Egypt It may seem incongruent to have a bar song come to mind while walking through the medieval mosques and alleys of Islamic Cairo. But so it goes. The bar song I'm thinking of is the theme to the old television show "Cheers." Here are the lyrics (and the one-minute youtube video , in...

If you're a fan of alternative hostel sources, you might already be familiar with Couchsurfing , the wonderful website where I've found both one of my best friends and a place to live here in Perth. But if you're a touring cyclist, and you're looking for a place to lay your wheels while you're biking...

When spending months abroad, it's important to remain flexible in considering lodging options. While hostels are a fairly typical way to stay someplace cheaply, and get the advantage of meeting fellow travelers, sometimes it might be nice to have a place of your own. One alternative to hotels are sites like HomeAway which are vacation...