One of my favorite web tools is StumbleUpon , which allows me to randomly discover sites that suit my interests. Traveling is one of my listed interests, of course, so it was no accident that I literally "stumbled upon" the free online book "How to See the World: European Backpacking on $25 a Day or...

I would like to introduce a very good online resource dedicated to Central Asia, one of those regions where traveling still comes with a fair amount of headaches. Caravanistan is a complete regional guide divided by country that I used a lot to check for actual information in the labyrinth which Central Asian bureaucracy can...

The Atlantic had an article titled Welcome to America, Please Be On Time: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S. It was a little disorienting to read about your own country from the perspective of a foreigner. When you live in a place where you grow up, it doesn't occur to you to...

Travel scientists have unearthed that a human subspecies called backpacker, or traveller, has been observed across many of the furthest flung corners of the globe reading guidebooks more than interacting with locals. “So do you want to come with me for breakfast?” “Sure! “ “Any preferences? I saw a street stall at the corner selling...

Many Vagablogging readers are familiar with Matt Kepnes, or Nomadic Matt . Kepnes’s website is packed full of information on travel deals, travel tips, travel guides, and loads of interesting travel tales suited to any genre. Now Kepnes has taken the next step and has published his own Ebook. Kepnes’s book is a smooth read....

This month marks the release of Ayun Halliday 's Zinester's Guide to NYC , a travelers' guidebook to the quirkier corners of New York City. As I note in my back-cover blurb of the book, it's the travel equivalent of an old-school mix-tape -- useful and full of surprises for vagabonders. The book also boasts...

A lot of travelers are romanced by the kind of retreat from civilization found in the pages of Henry David Thoreau and Carl G. Jung. Taking a break from our regular lives and living simply in nature is not only personally rewarding, it may be a little more essential to our well being than many...

Looks like the guidebooks are heading for the really small screen: mobile devices. With the soaring popularity of the iPhone and other smartphones, guidebook publishers are moving to take advantage of new platforms, as this AP article describes: Guidebooks adapt to mobile download era . However, they are running into a common problem in the...

At some point in our travel planning, many of us consult a guidebook. How much we each rely on it differs, of course—from those who give a cursory glance early in the process to those who carry it around like a totem from place to place. And some have thrown over guidebooks nearly entirely for...

It's hard to believe the Lonely Planet guide to Thailand is in its 13th edition; having first graced the shelves of alternative bookstores and organic co-ops in 1982, a full month before the guidebook that started it all, Southeast Asia on a Shoestring (or the 'Yellow Bible'), hit the stands. Lonely Planet was a little...

Headphones are often criticized as one of the fastest ways to close yourself off to a culture. The bell of the rickshaw about to run you over is no match for speakers in your ear blasting, well, anything. However, if you're going to trade local sounds for an MP3, why not expand your knowledge of...

Towers of Lalish. Photo by Lucina Kathmann The Middle East has always been one of those areas that intrigued me. I was surprised to read that there is even a nascent tourism industry in Iraq, of all places. Iraqi Kurdistan has been promoting itself as " The Other Iraq ," and with good reason. Kurdistan...

In his blog, The Art of Nonconformity , Chris Guillebeau often writes about his trips around the world and the travel hacks he's learned along the way. Most of his ideas, both about travel and life, are unconventional and worth looking into. Whether he's staying in his hometown or traveling around Southeast Asia, he always...