This month's Round the World Ticket Watch newsletter from BootsnAll focused on the topic of how to narrow down a route for a RTW trip. The post about this month's RTW ticket deals earlier this month talked a little bit about picking an itinerary. And itinerary questions remain the most common ones on the BootsnAll...

Prolific travel blogger Nomadic Matt made the case for permanent travel in this article for The Huffington Post : Why we travel . He captures that exhilarating sense of freedom that vagabonders love. Freeing ourselves from routine to see the world. Interestingly enough, Mike Barish wrote a reaction piece for Gadling.com titled, On long-term travel,...

For many of us, travel isn't so much about the destination as it is about the journey. In that spirit, take a look at these 35 breathtaking examples of road photography . Nature is a recurring theme in the photos, with paths snaking away into splendid isolation. "It's great you're traveling by yourself," an American...

One of the most common questions any vagabonder has to answer is "what route will I take?" The number of requests for feedback on a person's RTW itinerary on the BootsnAll travel message boards is staggering, especially after so many years of relatively similar questions being answered already. But if a RTW trip is something...

An interesting post caught my eye yesterday by Nico Crisafulli, a contributor for AirTreks . In it, he highlights a number of useful tasks that might need to take place before leaving on an extended trip. As we are 2 months away from our own 3 month journey throughout Southeast Asia, we're deep into our...

The novelty of being a foreigner can lead to unexpected job opportunities, as this article in The Atlantic explains: Rent a white guy . The shady nature of the job and over-the-top pay could be a symptom of a bubble economy, reminiscent of 90's Japan. Or at least racial stereotyping. CNN did a similar story,...

Now...although most folks I talk to say that travel has made them more liberal, I don't know if there's a cause-and-effect relationship between travel and political views. However, while reading this interview with 30 year-old Jake Towne , the local third-party Libertarian/Tea Party congressional candidate here in Allentown, PA, I couldn't help but notice his...

Deir ez-Zur, Syria Children have been a source of many of my favorite travel experiences. They even inspired me to write about them as a reason to travel . But there have been other times, such as when a kid shot me, at point blank range, in the back of the head with a pellet...

We all know what it feels like to have the travel bug - to begin planning your next trip on the way home from the one you're on (if you can even wait that long). Most of the time, planning a new adventure brings feelings of happiness - but sometimes that travel bug, the need...

As more people travel, they want to bring home the experience by "globalizing" their houses. To help, they hire special contractors who scour the world for rare and exotic building materials. In this New York Times article, they come off as a blend of Indiana Jones and Philippe Starck: Trophy hunters with their eye on...

As China and America's relationship draws them ever closer together, it was inevitable that some influences would cross borders. UPI had a great photo essay dedicated to this topic: American brands in China . How do you feel when you encounter American brands abroad? My reactions have varied. In Europe, I shunned Starbucks like the...

I'd like to build on my post from last week about tour groups. This week, travel agents -- do you ever work with travel agents, and if so, how? Here's why I think domestic travel agents and vagabonding don't mix: 1) The travel agent doesn't understand the appeal of long-term, independent travel. Especially when the...

Mt. LeConte, Great Smoky Mountains National Park "There is little favorable to be said about poverty," wrote Nelson Mandela in his book Long Walk to Freedom , "but it was often an incubator of true friendship." I first read this line (and book) a decade ago, and I remember it sometimes in my moments of...

It's not like anyone who's on a long-term or RTW trip has to have a travel blog - after all, plenty of people blazed the vagabond trail long before computers were even a thing. But these days it's hard to find a RTW traveler who doesn't have some method set up for keeping track of...

When columnists try to explain why Americans (supposedly) don't care about the World Cup, they turn to the same old examples. They point out qualities of the game: Too low scoring, no commercial breaks to grab snacks, no hands allowed. I think the real reason that most Americans aren't into the Cup is because most...

Round the world trips have retained their catchy moniker over the years, even though many people on RTW trips don't actually go around the world in one continuous loop (especially if they cleverly booked a multi-stop ticket that doesn't require movement in only one direction). This can make planning an itinerary easier, as you can...

The technology explosion of the last ten years has made the dramatic growth of vagabonding possible. For as long as we have roamed the earth, there have always been those who view the open road a little more wistfully. Great adventurers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, and James Cook needed the coffers of kings...

For travelers expecting Asia to be all about pious monks and tranquil temples, they can be thrown off by the gigantic shopping centers. Some see them as monuments to the consumerism and materialism they were trying to leave behind. This AP article talks about the malls of Manila . Despite being one of the poorest...

Damascus, Syria Yes, it is the last in my five-part series on the senses, and this post will address the fact that we vagabonders smell. We do sometimes have an odor about us, especially after a long day in the tropical or desert heat, but what often stands out more are the other things we...

This morning I read about a hotel that's under construction. There's an art museum going up around the corner, and the hotel is designed to complement it by displaying contemporary art in the rooms and common areas. Construction is partly financed by a local nonprofit focused on downtown revitalization. The husband-and-wife operators are excited --...