About five years ago, San Francisco Chronicle travel editor John Flinn published a column called " A few things I've learned in a quarter-century-plus of travel ." I enjoyed his insights so much I saved the article as a text file -- and I recently stumbled across it again on my laptop. Here are my...

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,...

Have you ever taken a look at your utility bills and just wondered if you should ditch your lease, pick up some travel expenses and call it a wash? Well, my husband and I are recording every single expense as we travel , just so that we can do an experiment of that nature. I've...

It is hard to get work done in a hostel, if only for the flurry of social activity vying for one’s attention. The number one reason that my husband and I really appreciate having status with a few of the major hotel chains is for one important detail: free wifi. We work online so honestly,...

Hotel and airline "deals" are a big part my long-term travel strategy. My husband and I are constantly chasing promotions if we think they'll help us gain another day, week, or month on the road. In fact, quite often we find ourselves making our travel plans based on the deals we find. We've learned a...

When I handed in my resignation letter, put what few belongings I hadn’t sold into storage and packed my life into a 55L rucksack, I became a vagabond. Without bricks and mortar, without a stable income and without fear of regret, I altered the direction in which my life was headed and set off to...

Whenever someone has no frequent flier miles, no ability to get travel-rewards cards, and really wants a cheap domestic flight, I always send them to Kayak. Kayak.com is a popular travel search aggregator that scans all the other travel search aggregators and shows you the cheapest rates it finds. It does all the comparison work...

It is odd to realize that a luxury hotel can be the means for budget travel, and therefore, sustainable travel for my husband and I. But strange as it sounds, we have found this to be the case. For instance when we arrived in Venice a few weeks ago and needed a place to stay,...

When it comes to travel on a shoestring - my favorite style - the amount of money you spend or save on accommodation becomes a serious matter. There was a time when travelling to China was very, very cheap, and accommodation options where everywhere. Unfortunately, with China experiencing the economic boom, things have changed quite...

Travis at the frequent-flyer blog Extra Pack of Peanuts had a post titled, Why Hostels Are Better Than Hotels . Among other reasons, he waxed poetic on the benefits of the local touch and community atmosphere. Many hostels are owned and operated by locals, so you get a more intimate feel than you would at...

Can you imagine being woken up at a hostel at 7:30am to chop fire wood or complete your chores before breakfast? Chore detail had fizzled-out before 2009 when I hostel hopped for several months; spending anywhere from three nights to two weeks at various places. Personally, I enjoyed seeking out the odd ones, like old...

Hostels vary wildly in quality. Some are total fleapits; others are so luxurious they rival hotels. How can you find the quality hostels instantly? The website Hostelworld.com announced the 2012 winners of the "Hoscars," their awards for the best hostels in the world. Users around the world voted for their favorite places to stay. The...

Nomadic Matt recently posted a list called My favorite hostels in the world . Goes to show that low prices don't always mean low quality. You can save money and have a great time. Matt's list spurred me to remember which hostels I've enjoyed over the years. Here are some of my picks: Circus (Berlin,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCWvnp7-ikI&feature=player_embedded Intro video for inbed.me Over the years, there have been several attempts to combine travel and social networking. The latest on the scene is inbed.me (that name is just asking for double entendres). The idea is to solve the problem of that first-night loneliness in a new hostel. You've just arrived, and all the...

Hostels are a mainstay of the budget travel circuit. Share a dorm room with strangers, shave off a big percentage of your accommodation costs. They do come with some drawbacks however, as this article from The Sydney Morning Herald describes: The problem with staying in hostels . Although for me, the "problem" the author writes...

A 1972 Monty Python sketch called " Travel Agent " contains a classic scene where the Eric Idle character goes on an over-the-top rant about package tourism, at the expense of Michael Palin's travel-agent character. Many of the references are dated now -- and the whole scene is drenched in hyperbole -- but many of...

Damascus, Syria "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," wrote Charles Dickens in the opening line of A Tale of Two Cities . He was referring to life in an area of Europe in the late 1700s, but one could also feasibly slap this line into a book about overnights...

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.

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...