Having recently been in Memphis over Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday weekend, I realized once again that few things make you feel connected to history like being near a historic landmark on a significant anniversary. In this case, it’s the thought-provoking National Civil Rights Museum on the birthday of the great icon of the movement....

It was 2010 and I had been working and traveling in Asia for three years filled to the brim with excitement, discoveries and cultural experiences into the ‘Other’. Time was going slow, and it was a good sign: I learnt that when you start feeling that you have more time than you can handle, it...

Argentina recently enacted new visa rules, according to this post on The Flight Deal . U.S. citizens must pay a "Reciprocity Fee" of $160. More importantly, this must be paid before entry . If you don't do this, you'll be denied entry on arrival. The reciprocity refers to how if Country A charges Country B's...

Vagabond - a person, usually without a permanent home, who wanders from place to place; nomad. While vagabonders may not have a permanent home, they do still need a way to get around. Most of us vagabonders who decide to take off, whether it's for a couple months, a year, or permanently, utilize some combination...

Vagabonding should be about slipping into the cracks, reaching low, widening our perspectives into the hosts’ societies to enlarge our own ideas of them. Great: it sounds pretty simple on a screen, but oh boy, how it is not. My own experiences of living long term in several host countries have taught me that, instead,...

Interacting with locals is one of the highlights of travel. On the flip side, the worst is running into local con artists who treat travelers like they're walking ATM machines. Here's a great post off The View from the Wing blog: Common tourist scams and how to avoid them . Also read the comments by...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc6yi_FtoNo Here's an enlightening TED Talk video: The walk from "no" to "yes." Speaker William Ury is a professional negotiator who has helped resolve conflicts in hot spots around the world, from Chechnya to the Middle East. If any of you are interested in international diplomacy, foreign affairs and the like, this video is a...

Travis at the frequent flyer blog Extra Pack of Peanuts assembled a Who's Who of bloggers in this epic round-up post: What's your excuse for not traveling? 71 travel experts tell you why it's bull**t . A pattern quickly emerges in the responses: the No. 1 issue is money. Over and over again, the bloggers...

We’ve all been there. Receiving a holiday present that we didn’t really want or need. Something that will inevitably take up space in the closet or on a shelf, destined to collect dust until we throw it out. I’ll bet most of us have also been on the other end of the transaction, buying an...

Whe n it is almost time to feel like a dork again in a cold-less, atmosphere-less Malaysian Christmas on the beach, I found some interesting ideas to help other travelers make this day a worthwhile one in terms of gifts. This list gives nine good and fun suggestions to fill up some stockings and make...

Planning a long-term trip can seem like an overwhelming process for the first-time round the world traveler. Everyone has their own level of comfort when it comes to how much or little to plan on a trip like this, which is part of the reason BootsnAll re-organized our round the world planning section into seven...

I love sitting in the common room of a youth hostel, or on the deck of a boat sliding down a jungle river swapping stories with other travelers. I love the light in the eyes of that girl who’s just had her first real adventure and lived to tell about it. I love the excited...

Here's the deal: free housing, living in a beautiful island and some fun work. Oh, and the boss is far away and can't micromanage you. Sound too good to be true? That's what Meg and Tony of the Landing Standing blog experienced in their post titled Housesitting in Thailand: live for free in paradise ....

“But you’re just going to leave!” Although I hated to admit it, who said that was right. At the time I’d been seasonally migrating as a guide for four years. And had no intention to confine my adventurous spirit in domestic American life, then—if ever. The catch though was he was not American; Swedish born...

You've got a favorite restaurant that few people know about. Or it's a cool location with a view that's only meant for the locals. It's fun to have secrets. CNN had this article: The rise of 'secret tourism.' The story talks about event organizers who build anticipation and unique experiences by keeping visitors in the...

Lonely Planet guidebooks have inevitably become the kind of extra weight I rarely want to put in my backpack anymore. Why? Because they lead a traveler to the same ol’ tired paths everybody else is going to: a kind of one way ticket for jaded travel entertainment made up of bars, guesthouses and a bunch...

It's a well-worn practice the world over: customers and vendors talking price. CNNGo tackled this issue in a post titled How to bargain: the ultimate guide to scoring a deal in the markets of Asia . Many of the tips will be familiar to experienced vagabonders: shop around, be polite, and be ready to walk...

I came across an interesting article on making the right first impression in Asia. The author goes through a number of countries, from Japan to South Korea, Thailand and India, giving a few suggestions on giving that important, successful first impression, party starter, or whatever you want to call it. Because indeed, traveling in countries...

Travis at the frequent-flyer blog Extra Pack of Peanuts had a post titled, Why Hostels Are Better Than Hotels . Among other reasons, he waxed poetic on the benefits of the local touch and community atmosphere. Many hostels are owned and operated by locals, so you get a more intimate feel than you would at...

We've written about the Round the World Ticket Report on Vagablogging before - once back in March when we published the first version, and then again in June when we published version 2. One thing we like to do at BootsnAll is to continue learning about the trends in long-term, round the world travel, so...