Hanoi, Vietnam If you have ever seen an artistic rendering of a prehistoric caveman sitting around the campfire with his buddies, you may have thought, boy, we've come a long way! Or then again, if you're like me, maybe you didn't think this at all. It's easy to forget the incredible changes the world has...

Even as vagabonders, we pick our travel destinations more often than not. We say that we want to go to Southeast Asia, or Peru, or Morocco, and to varying degrees we research those destinations and we go. Tonight, I found myself in a new part of San Francisco. As I got off at the Civic...

Some of the travel world's harshest criticism is reserved for those who impose the norms and expectations of one place onto another. It can be as simple as dressing a certain way, demanding speedy service, or expecting a certain language. It can be as heavy as trying to impose a style of government, farming or...

Social enterprises have become a more popular way of developing impoverished villages. There is a compelling argument that building thriving businesses is more sustainable than donations and handouts. It also empowers locals to take more responsibility over how to develop their towns. Tourism is a natural fit, and also creates jobs at many levels of...

Bangkok, Thailand Selecting reading material for the road can be a daunting task, even in a relatively small bookstore such as the one in Bangkok pictured above. Interestingly, one of my favorite reads came not from a bookstore directly but from my mom through the mail. I was traveling across Asia at the time, and...

The recent Machu Picchu rescues succeeded admirably, but in most emergencies there won't be a helicopter ready to whisk you to safety. Whether at home or abroad, you have to be prepared to rely on your feet. Be prepared to walk to the nearest gas station, through a pitch-black subway tunnel, or down the fire...

Do you yearn for the red desert of the isolated Australian outback? Want a weird experience that might lead you to a promising career choice? Consider delivering the mail (for a day) on a 550 km (that's 342 miles, for Americans) round trip leaving from Broken Hill, NSW , a town familiar to anyone who's...

Around the BootsnAll office we're always dreaming about our next adventure - usually even before we've unpacked our bags from the last one. Come February each year, we're already plotting trips to warmer climates in order to focus on something other than the typically gray Portland weather. For most of us, we're thinking in terms...

The BBC says: "No-one sees the world the way you do. BBC World Service wants to see things from your perspective - and create a unique picture of our lives today across the planet." Here's the rest of the info, including the link to enter the competition . We are asking you to use any...

The stereotypical Western expat in China is the investment banker in Hong Kong or the executive doing deals in Shanghai. On the other hand, the creative set has also been setting up shop in the Middle Kingdom, according to this New York Times article: For China's Western Expats, Creative Lives of Plenty . Five artists...

Some of the original vagabonders were captains at sea who dared to sail between the shipping lanes, tacking between storms and Men-o-War. Rebelling against dependency and striking out on your own was a pirate's reason for living. Perhaps their methods were suspect, but we can admire their decision to forsake the familiar shackles of society...

I'm the kind of traveler who hardly can contemplate a trip to the store without tossing a small camera in my bag - so the concept of setting out for a long-term trip without a camera is inconceivable to me. Yet that's just what BootsnAll member circusoflife is planning to do . Circusoflife is currently...

Bargaining in Chatuchak Weekend Market in Thailand. Photo: Eugene Tang / BangkokSights.com One of the biggest obstacles to traveling is the language barrier. Simple tasks like asking where the bathroom is, telling a taxi driver to take you to your hotel, and others can seem like impossible missions. Can technology bridge the gap? Some new...

The coolest things I see while traveling are the deserted, ruinous old buildings and the weird desert art projects or memorabilia of things that used to be there, like Tinkertown or Pioneertown or the Desert Christ Park . One of the coolest among the cool is the currently fully functioning but oddly deserted Mojave airport...

Since I am in the process of moving to Australia, I'm in a frenzy of figuring out what to bring, how to get it there, why i want it, and what the heck I'm doing. Although I'll be studying at a university in Perth for at least a year, shipping furniture cross-continentally is ultimately pointless;...

With all the self-reflection that seems to go on at this time of year, it seems only fitting that we at BootsnAll take a step back and reflect on what it is that makes us unique. You have lots of choices when it comes to booking trips, including RTW trips, so what makes the RTW...

Us vagabonders are quite privileged to know our way around different lands. Have you ever "donated" your travel expertise to newbies? Matt Gross, writer of the New York Times Frugal Traveler blog , did just that. He started doing time at JFK airport at a help desk staffed by volunteers. Here is his article: Frugal,...

When one vagabonds alone, there is a sense of ease, of freedom. There is no one to answer to but yourself. Want to stop for half an hour to take pictures? Want to climb that mountain? Want to hit that bar? Want to jump off that waterfall? No problem! One just has to know what...

Happy New Year vagabonders! As we head into 2010, let's think about going further than making New Year's Resolutions. Brave New Traveler advocates making your own personal manifesto . Start writing down goals, collecting articles and pictures, putting anything vagabonding-related into it. Instead of a new year resolution that's filed and forgotten, a personal manifesto...

Travel can be like walking on a frozen lake. Although logic tells you it's safe, it's hard to ignore the stomach-churn of vulnerability. Your first few steps might be cautious, but soon you're jumping, stomping, and sliding. Here are some other similarities between travel and ice fishing, courtesy of a family trip to New Hampshire's...