Most of us spend our precious could-be-traveling days saving up enough money to hit the road—which might take months or years. But then you read the How magazine article about Ingo Fast , who learned how to bypass that wait time and successfully take his illustration business around the world with him. Mind you, when...

As I drove to work this morning, I thought about all the kids heading back to school for yet another year - I thought about all the book learnin' they'd be getting, and then I hoped they'd all have a chance to put that to good use someday with their passports. Because let's face it,...

Exhibits to read vs people to meet? Piped-in music vs live music? Reproductions of food vs hot-off-the-grill food? Is it much of a choice between a museum or festival? A new book helps tip the scales in favor of festivals that much more. Put away every preconceived idea of what you thought a festival could...

I don't know about you, but I've certainly gotten my fair share of grief about the vagabonding lifestyle from my friends and acquaintances. Everyone wants to know where I live, nobody believes me when I say I'm happy not having a regular home, and even the people I'm closest to are sometimes baffled by my...

When deciding to take an extended stay in a country, a ‘working holiday', it can sometimes become a story of ‘different place, same boredom'. It means going from a weekday job in your home country to probably a more tedious method of employment in your adopted country (on lower pay). There are ways to cure...

When I started traveling, I figured I'd want to see most of the world before I started retracing my steps. After all, why go back to the same old city when there's so much more to see? Since then, I've changed my tune. I've just arrived back in New Orleans for the third time in...

Volunteering abroad: let me count the ways. Thankfully we're not at a loss for programs that connect globally-minded volunteers to communities that could use assistance. But while I was looking through several programs listed recently on TravelWritersNews.com , one stood out as an option I hadn't thought of before: volunteering as a photojournalist . It...

One of the hardest parts about being a constant traveler is the lack of privacy that tends to naturally entail. Especially if you enjoy homestays, hostels, couchsurfing, communal living (as in WWOOF ing) or anything similar -- all popular money-saving devices amongst long-term travelers -- your times alone may be few and far between. Dealing...

Linked to my previous entry, relating to safety while travelling, my current head cold and runny nose has me holed up in my bedroom, craving sleep, but pondering health abroad. As with most topics involving travelling, for the most part keeping healthy is down to common sense. Get your jabs, eat cooked-through food, keep clean...

How often do you get some of the most interesting travel writers together in one room? If you're in the San Francisco area: about once a year, which happened to be this past weekend at the Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference . If you get the chance to learn directly from your favorite...

Several months back I wrote a post about my love for travel networking sites like Couchsurfing or Matador Travel ; today, I'd like to take a moment to re-affirm that love. Sure, networking sites are great for sharing travel tips and practical information, reading about other people's travel exploits, and fueling daydreams about your own....

These days, staying in touch with family and friends back home or spread out across your numerous vagabonding locations is both easier and harder. It's harder because, thanks to the incredible shrinking of the world, there are more and more people you can potentially vow to exchange email addresses with. Also harder because sending individual...

So, you're an American who's finally quit your job and sold all your stuff, and you're about to embark on your RTW trip. You've been concentrating on planning your trip - researching what to see and do, buying your plane tickets , how to get from Point A to Point B, how many pairs of...

I took my first-ever package tour this past week - a whirlwind five days in Beijing - and it was both better and worse than I had hoped. On the one hand, I didn't get "baby-sat" nearly as much as I expected: there were a couple of fixed events, but otherwise we were allowed to...

If you're lacking an outlet for your travel videos, look no further than National Geographic. They’ve just launched a user-generated video site called Everyday Explorers . Share away. And while you’re at it, you might want to scan the other videos on the site to preview someplace on your "must visit" list. You can rate...

We all plan our trips—some might even say it’s almost as fun as the trip itself. But the more you travel, the more you know that planning for everything is a bit futile. And dare I say—you might even enjoy something in the change of plans. I was reminded of it by two things in...

Last fall, Travcoa and National Geographic Traveler sponsored the Next Great Travel Writer contest , sending the winner to Mongolia and China on a Travcoa trip with Traveler Editor-in-Chief Keith Bellows to write on assignment for the magazine's website. Yesterday, we interviewed Bellows. Today, we interview the talented woman who won the contest. Out of...

Last fall, Travcoa and National Geographic Traveler sponsored the Next Great Travel Writer contest , sending the winner, Suzanne Roberts , to Mongolia and China on a Travcoa trip with Traveler Editor-in-Chief Keith Bellows to write on assignment for the Traveler website. After returning from the trip in July, Keith Bellows took a few moments...

Are you an aspiring travel writer? Do you write lots and lots on your personal blog, but never seem to get those official query letters sent off to an editor? Blogger and vagabond Christine from Almost Fearless is in the same boat, and she figures all she needs to break out of that paralysis is...

Today is my last post on Vagablogging; after 10 months of writing here (wow, has it really been that long?!) it's time for me to move on. The actual reason I'm having to stop is due to a project I'm working on here in South Africa -- it's more than full time and leaves me...