It was already simple to relate to Emmanuel Gentinetta when I met him—he has an easy way about him. But after learning about the 8.5-month, 15,234-mile biking expedition down the Pan-American Highway that he finished in 2000, I knew he also had the travel bug—and bad. The story of his journey from Alaska to Argentina—logged...

What's one of the first things that goes through your mind when you decide to pack everything up and go on the road permanently? If my experience is anything to go by, it's "But what about all my stuff? What should I do with it?". Rolf has written about and shared many useful posts about...

September 27 was World Tourism Day and as I walked through Plaza Mayor (one of Madrid's main plazas), I was given white margharitas in celebration of it. This year, the United Nations World Tourism Organization chose to highlight the importance of women in the industry, and promote their role and development in the travel-occupation, with...

Glimpse Foundation has announced its Fall 2007 Writing Contest: "Bon Appetit ,” based on the subject of food and eating while abroad. The first-place winner will receive $250 in STA airfare and a one-year subscription to Glimpse Quarterly. Submissions should be 800-1500 words. If emailed, they are due Monday, November 5; if mailed, they must...

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan began a few weeks ago, and will end on the 13th of October with the feast of Eid al-Fitr (literally Festival of Breaking Fast). The ninth month of the Islamic calendar, Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, almsgiving, and fasting from sunrise to sunset. I had the opportunity...

Pop economics books, like Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner's Freakonomics and Tim Harford's The Undercover Economist , seem to be everywhere these days, offering the surprising explanations behind everyday events. Tyler Cowen 's book Discover Your Inner Economist may be of special interest to those of us who like to travel, and more specifically, those...

There’s a lot more to most embassies and consulates than just replacing stolen passports or evacuating nationals in times of crisis. If you’re living, working, or simply traveling for a long stretch in a foreign country, your embassy can also be your connection to an entire expatriate community: providing both a social network, and a...

As fellow Vagabonders, my husband and I live, travel and work together permanently. We've been married for 3+ years and together for 13 and we're one of those lucky couples who, rather than kill each other when they spend too much time together, gets on even better the more time we spend together. But there...

If you're like me, you have a Top 5 (or even Top 30) list of countries to visit. That’s the easy part. But get much further into your planning and questions start rolling in: When is monsoon season in India? Do I want to travel to France for Bastille Day or in the shoulder season?...

For the hardcore traveler it would seem there is nothing more insulting than being marked out as a 'tourist'. I'm sure you know the feeling...trying your utmost hardest to blend into your environment, look like you know how things work and then being utterly crushed when the waitress offers you the tourist menu or asks...

It's practically impossible, not to mention thoroughly restricting, to have all your pillows reserved before you head out on a trip, even if it's only a 3-week stint. I know people do it all the time, but I think such pre-planned decisions often turn into unnecessary dilemmas. Maybe you'll want to hang somewhere a few...

It was this time last year that I ended up at the Budapest Marathon. If only I had trained for it. By chance, I was in the spa city for a few days and found that my guidebook-recommended itinerary crisscrossed the marathon route. The runners were following a tour of their own, from Pest's City...

This week marks the official debut of five new contributors here at Vagablogging . Over the next several months, they will be blogging great new travel content five days a week. In no particular order, this is who they are: Lea Woodward is currently traveling the world with her husband as a Location Independent Professional....

As we seem to be working harder and vacations seem to be getting shorter, our capabilities of not having action-packed holidays seem to have ebbed, making post vacation burnout inevitable. In this supersonic day and age, has "slow travel" become a pipe dream? Slow travel and vagabonding overlap to a large extent, although they may...

Arriving at a strange train station alone in the middle of the night is a very different experience for a woman than a man. Women travelers always have a few more concerns than male travelers. Ignoring catcalls, being extra careful when walking alone, and dressing modestly when necessary are all issues that women deal with...

Yesterday as I drove to work I saw the first of the school buses ferrying this year's crop of kids off to school. When they're young, they look so excited about the first day of school. In time, of course, they'll spend endless hours in classrooms just dreaming of getting out and seeing the world....

It's easy to idolize the life of a Lonely Planet writer. Or any travel writer for that matter. The life seems a little less glamorous after a peek behind the scenes. Leif Pettersen lets us take a peek inside his world as a Lonely Planet writer in his blog, Killing Batteries . In 2003, Leif...

Note : Today our latest vagablogger Abha Malpani introduces herself (we'll announce more new bloggers at the end of this month). Abha is a 27-year old aspiring travel-writer who teaches English in Madrid. She writes: I was born in India, grew-up in England and graduated in Australia. My parents live in Dubai where I was...

Dramatic life changes cause people to do dramatic things. Rosie Swale-Pope (no relation to author) took it to the extreme. When her husband died from prostate cancer, she decided to run around the world. Her plan was not some fleeting pipe-dream; she’s two-thirds of the way there. She left early in October of 2003 at...

The Andrus family is back! After spending a year visiting 31 countries on six continents, the family of two parents and four children (from pre-school to high-school age), are back home in Atlanta trying to readjust to American life and the steamy Atlanta climate. After an exciting life of traveling the world and appearing on...