"Life moves pretty fast," a hero of mine once said. "If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." It seems that idea is catching on. CNN recently reported on a 72-year-old attorney named Edgar Cahn who, recognizing that time is our most precious commodity, started TimeBanks USA ,...

If the slew of Europe-specific advice that's been online in the past month is any indication, the summer travel season is about to start up there. Actually, between the World Expo starting this week in Zaragoza, Spain and the current Euro 2008 soccer championship , let’s consider it already started. What’s on everybody’s mind? The...

Whenever you travel to somewhere new, do you often catch yourself saying: "It's like so and so"? I know I certainly do and it's understandable to make comparisons to past experiences and destinations you've visited, if only to give yourself some sort of frame of reference by which to evaluate a new place. The trouble...

Honestly, when I first looked at the prices for this month's batch of RTW airline tickets I was kind of surprised and a little disappointed - it's been awhile since I've seen one up over $4000, and I was ready to just chalk it up to the ever-increasing fuel and other various and sundry surcharges...

Some travelers have giant world maps sprawled across their walls at home, with pins denoting all their travel "conquests." Though there's certainly nothing wrong with this, it's never been my approach to remembering a trip. To my mind, it feels a bit too much like turning the world into a checklist to be "completed." Others...

Rome, London, New York, Sydney, Beijing...each great city acts like a beacon to travellers worldwide drawn to the bright lights, buzz and vibe that the city offers. But for many vagabonds the best memories are made in the small places - the villages, the towns and the smaller cities in the countries we visit. It...

Why do you travel? Do you need a reason? Or is it you already have a million reasons? I recently discovered the website ReasonToWander.com —just as interested in the reason part as much as the wandering part. I have to say, I really liked it, even though (or maybe because) it wasn’t what I expected....

Being Indian, I often get asked for advice -- not only for visiting India, but for visiting Asia in general, especially by Europeans and Americans. If you are not from a developing country, no matter how much you prepare or read, I think you are still bound to face severe culture shock in the beginning....

Rolf's book has inspired countless people to drop everything and pursue their dreams of seeing the world. But no vagabond had ever dropped by Rolf's home in Kansas to thank him personally. Until now. A week ago, former Seoul resident Wan Lee (who originally read Vagabonding in its Korean translation) passed through Kansas on his...

I don't mean this to sound insensitive, because an economic recession is serious business. But from where I sit north of the border, in Canada, the doomsday talk about the impact of the struggling US dollar on travel to Europe is getting a little old. After all, Canadians and Australians (and pretty well every other...

As I wrote last week, long term and permanent travel can sometimes take its toll; you can become de-sensitised to the excitement and new-ness of exotic locations and begin to crave the familiar. Sometimes a healthy dose of extreme self-care is what's called for and at other times, you may even crave 'home'. Yet the...

The world’s eyes are on China these days. So it isn’t suprising to see the latest issue of Good Magazine dedictated to it. But what jumped out at me was the section “ Strangers in a Strange Land ,” which looks at expat life there. I don’t know about you, but I’m always intrigued by...

Confession: I have always wanted to do a year long round the world trip (RWT), but just thinking about the number of visas I'd have to apply for (as an Indian passport holder), has stopped me from even trying to plan it out. Some of the issues: 1) Indians need a visa to go EVERYWHERE...

Unlike many of you, my globe-trotting comrades, I don't have much talent for speaking foreign languages. Though I've spent a fair amount of time trying to learn Spanish (and French and Arabic and Russian and...), I simply can't envision myself ever becoming fluent. But that doesn't mean all that language-learning effort was entirely for naught....

We've all heard about the latest travel woes in the news: fuel prices rising, the US dollar struggling, airlines racking up cancellations, delays and inconveniences almost as quickly as they rack up new fees and charges for their passengers, and of course, environmental concerns about the impact of flying and driving on the planet. I...

Over the weekend, The Times (UK) rolled up its proverbial shirt sleeves and took to answering its readers’ 50 most asked travel questions . I figure if someone else bothered to ask the question, then I’ve probably wondered the same thing myself. So I took a look. Granted, some of the questions were UK- or...

Europe A La Carte is hosting another round of live-blogging this Tuesday, May 20 at 20:00 BST and the topic is:" How to get more from your Euro". Traveling in Europe is expensive...especially for everyone who doesn't live in Europe! Advice on how to stretch your Euro to the maximum is an interesting topic --...

Yes, it's time for another chat about packing for a RTW trip. The topic just never gets old - at least not for the people who obsess about what to put in their packs. This question is for the people who have taken their trips already, who have personal experience with making the decisions to...

I just received a copy of the Traveler's Tool Kit guide to Mexico and Central America , and so far, I'm really impressed with what I see. While there's less practical advice than you'd find in, say, Lonely Planet, I consider that a good thing. The fact that there aren't scores of hotels and restaurants...

I figure that it’s inevitable that I’ll commit some unintended faux pas when abroad—the kind that I never would’ve guessed in a million years. It just comes with the territory, as a foreigner. But I don't think that's any reason to be sloppy. Why not at least try to avoid the most simple differences in...