Once upon a time in Okinawa people were so healthy and happy that many of them lived more than one hundred years. The legend says it was because of their special diet, the very active lifestyle (Okinawa is the motherland of Karate) and the strong sense of community that keep everyone together. Still today Okinawa...

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...

In how many languages do you know how to say "hello"? If you can answer, "11 or more," you qualify as a hyperpolyglot, according to this article in The Economist : Foreign Languages: The Gift of Tongues . The article starts with a historical figure, Cardinal Mezzofanti of Bologna, Italy. He was famed as a...

Many moons ago I was flown to the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica to evaluate a business plan for horse tours on a 2,024 hectare family owned ranch. It has mangroves, jungle, two river estuaries and 3.5 km of undeveloped shoreline. The family was in the beginning stages of protecting a good chunk of that...

There has been a lot of talk on Vagablogging lately about the merits of slow travel and taking time to understand local culture when traveling. This was my goal when I came to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, to volunteer at an after-school program for a month, and I quickly discovered an even better, unexpected outlet for cultural...

A top goal if you're living abroad as an expat is to pick up a new foreign language. Benny Lewis from Fluentin3Months.com came on an interview with the Expert Enough podcast show. He explained his rapid-fire approach to learning new languages. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HlA6xv_yM6M Lewis makes the point that you should avoid being too "academic" when studying....

"You'll learn more in your first month of travel then in all your years in school." I've heard this sentiment expressed by many vagabonders far and wide. Nothing will get you as interested in history, geography, art, architecture, economics, politics, and religion as being somewhere else. Names on a map become touchstones for memories and...

In 1946, Aloha Week was created by a group of Jaycees as a cultural celebration of Hawaii’s history, music and dance. Since then, it’s morphed into a variety of festivals including more than 300 events across six Hawaiian islands that are attended by a million people annually. Even if you’re not already scheduled to be...

Perhaps you meant to spend a little more time studying Spanish before your trip, or if you did, your mind just happened to draw a blank the second you got yourself and your bags into the taxi. ¿A dónde quieres ir? Uh… where’s that phrasebook? Nothing’s better than speaking the language—even if you can’t do...

Lahore, Pakistan Anyone who travels will commit a cultural error from time to time. But generally speaking, if you want to err in such a way that a national uproar will ensue, it helps to be famous. Take the case of Princess Diana’s 1991 visit to Lahore, Pakistan. Lahore, the Pakistani cultural capital, is home...

The best way to get an in-depth look at a culture is to travel to where it is. No guidebook, TV show or movie can replace the experience of being immersed in the daily life of a place. But when it’s not possible to go everywhere you’d like, books, films and festivals certainly help. If...

The colonial city of Puebla in Mexico lures travelers eager to taste its own culinary creations (among which are mole poblano and chiles en nogada ), watch the traditional Cinco de Mayo parade, or shop for Talavera pottery. And while in many destinations, artistic creations are only available in museums and shops, a short walk...

Over-organizing travel plans—where you’re in a different place each day due to a long checklist of things to see—can actually result in seeing less. Sure, you may get to all the monuments or museums you want, but while the checklist blinders are on, you could be missing out on a lot of local culture. Recently,...

There's a lot of you-go-grrl-empowerment articles on the web and in travel magazines about women traveling on their own, toting their own backpacks and having exciting adventures. The general themes of these articles usually has to do with being brave and feeling safe walking the streets at night, making friends with locals, avoiding singles supplements...

If you’re yearning for a weeklong wine harvest festival, pack your bags for Mendoza, Argentina. Here, in the foothills of the Andes, the first week of March is the annual Vendimia Festival , which lures wine lovers from around the world. Held since 1936, the festival celebrates winemaking in the heart of Argentina’s wine country....

Looking for something to do on December 31? Head over to Rio de Janeiro and usher in the New Year with Iemanjá, goddess of the water, revered by the Umbanda and Candomblé religions of Brazil. The unofficial patron saint of Rio de Janeiro, Iemanjá grants good fortune and blessings for the New Year to people...

The biggest requirement for being an ESL teacher is, obviously, to be a native English speaker. However, having taught English in several parts of the world, I’ve found that sometimes certain schools or areas are looking for a specific type of English and you might just have to adjust to meet expectations. When I began...

You might be familiar with UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites , or the organization’s World Heritage in Danger list. Did you know that there’s also a Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity ? This week, UNESCO added 47 elements to the existing list of 166, making a new total of 213...

The beginning of autumn always reminds me that Day of the Dead is right around the corner. And if you’re contemplating a trip to Mexico, it’s one of the best times to go. Festivities start on October 31 and last through November 2. Some say the Day of the Dead has its origins in ancient...

Do words construct worlds? That's the idea behind this Wall Street Journal article: Lost in translation . Scientists and linguists have been doing some fascinating research into how languages affect cultures. Even the simple act of reading can be quite complex and revealing. English speakers read from right to left, but Hebrew speakers read from...