Do you have friends and family who write off travel as impractical? Sometimes good strategies can work in both travel and business, as this blog post by tech company 37 signals illustrates: Getting Real with Travel . The post cites the experiences of Marcel Uekermann, who's a fan of 37 Signals' unconventional approach to business....

Leon, Nicaragua I have several regrets in life, and here is one: I didn't ask if she was okay. It was late on a cold January night and I was standing alone at the Trocadero, looking at the Eiffel Tower. At some point, through the faint and assorted sounds of the city, I heard sobbing....

With only a couple of months to go until kick-off of the first games in the 2010 World Cup tournament, the footy fanatics in the BootsnAll office are almost literally salivating over the countdown. Two of my colleagues will be in South Africa for the duration of the games, and luckily they made their travel...

I like to criticize technology's effects on travel -- how it can shut us off from both sight and sound, turn soul-searching into wi-fi searching, and funnel hours of exploration into the confines of a monitor. But today, the man in dark glasses reminded me how blogging can push you further into the analog world....

Cairo, Egypt Stability and control: that's the role of an aircraft spoiler. As your jet prepares to land, the spoiler may rise to decrease lift, increasing the rate at which the aircraft descends or slowing the speed of the aircraft down. The Wright brothers would have been impressed. For the long-term traveler, however, the spoiler,...

I’ve had my eye on the Faroe Island chain for what seems like years now. You know, those weather beaten isles in the Norwegian Sea? This small chain of 18 islands with its rolling hills, fluffy placid sheep, and thatched roofs seems like the perfect place to linger for a few contemplative months. To perhaps...

There is no shortage of words written about travel, either on blogs or paper, that detail the fantastic things seen and done, the delicious things eaten. It's probably not a huge surprise that most travel tales don't include a basic "here's what my average day is like" entries, since they would likely seem a bit...

Delhi, India I've written previously about the pleasure of a local newspaper set next to a cup of coffee. In this post I want to zero in on one of the benefits of this arrangement. Here it is: In addition to a hopefully pleasant aroma rising from your cup, inside your paper are stories about...

No matter where you go, there's always danger in being oblivious. Quicksand, scams, and plain old disease wait for those who don't know any better. But travel also plunges us into a healthy oblivion -- the sort of state that reminds us just how little knowledge we carry with us. I could spend all day...

The news is full these days about a "green revolution." Is it really the wave of the future? Or is it actually a return to the past, when living in harmony with the environment was standard practice? The Tokyo expat magazine Metropolis published excerpts from a new work titled Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green...

Ko Phangan, Thailand Not many years ago (in the grand scheme of things), most of us were in diapers, not yet knowing what country we were from or even what a country. We didn't yet know we were Christian, Muslim, Skeptical, or whatever. We didn't know we were Republican or Democrat, male or female, or...

Initiation ceremony -- it conjures images of torchlight processions, Masonic robes, fratboys with paddle bruises, Navy SEALs hoisting logs. Initiation ceremonies mark a transition from one place to another, and it's often more of a psychological step than a physical one. While settling into what I'll call "India mode" over the past two weeks, I've...

Sometimes travelers feel like they can only be instrumental while on the road, or that their services as a volunteer only fall within the spontaneity of their on-the-road lifestyle. Don’t let yourself fall into this trap. If you have experience in service related volunteer work, you know just how instrumental one person can be. If...

BootsnAll, the company which hosts Vagablogging, has been in business for 12 years and been a regular contributor on this site for many of them. Which is why we're pleased to have this space in which to spread the word about our latest adventure - the BootsnAll Travel Writers Platform . This program will give...

Generally speaking, questions about how much money someone makes or what they spend on a trip might seem like they're a tad too personal - but when you let on that you're planning a RTW trip, for some reason decorum goes out the window. People are so fascinated by the notion of traveling long-term, especially...

The Chinese language is notoriously complex. There are the tones, the accents, and not to mention the writing! China and Singapore use simplified Chinese characters, while Hong Kong and Taiwan still use traditional Chinese characters. Then there are the different dialects. Mandarin is spoken in China, Taiwan, and Singapore. Hong Kong and China's southern Guangdong...

Gulf of Thailand There are no icebergs in the Gulf of Thailand, but at any given moment there is, in this and many other seas, someone thinking about the Titanic—or at least about Leonardo Dicaprio. I almost didn’t take this photograph. For most of three hours I had been lying on a bench on deck,...

Two days ago, I spent all 14 hours of the New York - Delhi nonstop flight worrying that my seatmate was quietly infecting me with something nasty. He stayed bundled in his ski parka and wool hat the enitre flight. He had a telltale IV drip bandage on the back of his hand, sat eyes...

One of the things we love best at BootsnAll is talking to other travelers about their travel experiences. That was the driving force behind the formation of the company back in 1998 - Sean and Chris wanted to replicate the engaging atmosphere they found in hostel pubs and common rooms in an online setting to...

In many ways, Jason Bourne is the ultimate vagabond: he has multiple passports, speaks multiple languages and has no permanent address. Some PTs, or permanent travelers, are almost like real-life Jason Bournes. Minus the kung-fu skills and the CIA assassins. One case study to read is the Sovereign Man blog , written by Simon Black...