An interesting travel blog (as we’ve discussed before ) combines intelligent writing, a clean, readable design, and plenty of media to keep you busy traveling vicariously through its author(s). Lee and Sachi’s The World is Not Flat is, quite simply put, one of those. Lee and Sachi are about three-quarters of the way through their...

A few months back I asked the masses over at Metafilter to list off their favorite travel-oriented songs – from any genre - that evoke the spirit of independent, vagabonding travel. User OmieWise suggested the wonderfully unique Mountain Goats – “one of the best songwriters in the world [who] has a series of songs about...

Scottish born author William Dalrymple has written a short introduction to travel writing for the BBC’s special writing feature The Craft . A lot has changed, he says, since “authors such as Theroux or Eric Newby were able to simply jump on a train and, on their return, after a quick reworking of their diaries,...

So you've visited all the countries on your to-do list: you've braved the chill of Antarctica, the burn of the Sahara; you've trekked the Everest base camp, sailed the Greek Isles, and bungee jumped in Zambia. What's left? Micronations! Prolific guidebook publisher Lonely Planet has released its newest guide on Micronations, or wannabe countries-within-countries generally...

As anyone who has flown across multiple time zones can attest, jet lag can be a traveler’s enemy. You step off the plane after flying eight or nine hours -- internal clock flashing noon -- tired, lost, and hungry; getting to the closest bed is your highest priority. The New York Times recently featured an...

The rise of in popularity of cell phones has resulted in declining numbers of pay phones worldwide, and Mark Thomas’ Payphone Project has been documenting this – along with an impressive visual database of diverse payphones from around the world – since the mid 1990s. Originally intended to “promote random contacts between strangers,” the Payphone...

English Russia is an “entertainment blog devoted to the events happening in Russian speaking countries." Its daily posts consist of frequently amusing photo essays of life in Eastern Europe and Russia. The site is a vivid reminder of the unusual characters and situations one runs across when traveling, and its posts are fascinating and often...

Traveler's Tales , "publishers of stories, wit and wisdom from travelers around the world," is sponsoring the Solas Awards -- "an annual competition to honor excellence in travel writing." "We’re looking for the best stories about travel and the world—funny, illuminating, adventurous, uplifting, scary, inspiring, poignant—stories that reflect the unique alchemy that occurs when you...

Quiet American , a personal website of visual and digital sound projects collected by Aaron Ximm, features a collaboration called one-minute vacations , which showcases field recordings from people around the world. "One-minute vacations are unedited recordings of somewhere, somewhen. Sixty seconds of something else. Sixty seconds to be someone else." Each week, Aaron uploads...

If you plan on documenting your next trip online to share with family, friends, and strangers alike, a recent article -- How to Make Me Read Your Blog. Or Not. -- by Pam Mandel of Nerds Eye View might be of interest. “Even though I have absolutely no editorial cred other than my reading habits,...

With the recent growth of affordable digital cameras and photo sharing websites like Flickr , the world of travel photography has expanded to an endless online collection – from both professional and amateurs alike – of incredible pictures spanning the globe (and beyond ). From the breathtaking to the bizarre, I’ve set out to find...

Over at MetaFilter , I reported on the special unedited publication of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road , due out next year: Kerouac's essential On The Road is celebrating its 50th year in publication next September. To commemorate, Viking Press plans to publish the raw, unedited " scroll version " that's been touring around the...

Italian notebook maker Modo & Modo – famous for their legendary black Moleskine (pronounced “mol-a-skeen-a”) used by “artists and thinkers from the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin” – are debuting a new addition to their lineup this fall. Dubbed "City Notebook" – “the first guidebook you...

Travelocity has a nifty application that allows you to set your departure city and maximum fare per traveler, and the tool magically spits out where you can fly for said amount. So if you're ready to travel, but not too concerned about the destination, fire up Dream Maps and see where the $700 you earned...

Hunger – aside from being a nagging pang in your stomach, reminding you to consume – can often be the catalyst for adventure itself. Sometimes, your appetite can send you on a curious search for turkey in Turkey (“sorry, only lamb!”), or to an elderly street vendor for a moonlit dose of Indian junk food...

Curious about how your budget flight from Paris to Berlin affects the atmosphere? Climate Care , an organization from the United Kingdom "was set up to tackle climate change by reducing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." A tool on their website allows you to enter in your current location and destination to calculate the total...

Determining what to pack is always an important consideration for travelers, regardless of destination or length of stay. In terms of a long-term vagabonding stint, Rolf stresses the importance of carrying a small, sturdy backpack containing “as little as possible," which might include "basic clothes, basic toiletries and medicines, a guidebook or two, good shoes...

Mark Rosenfelder, founder of language-cum-variety website Zompist.com , has been fascinated with phrasebooks his entire life. “Phrasebooks offer the seductive illusion of mastering a language at little cost-- flip the pages and handle any situation, from booking a room to going on a date to setting a broken leg.” More importantly, however, he has been...

Today I'm debuting a new, interactive blog category, called "Notes from the collective travel mind." The idea behind this category is to tap the collective wisdom of all my online readers (including you!) to assemble and promote relevant and entertaining articles, websites, advice, insights, and information pertaining to independent travel. Helping me edit this new...