You might have heard that 2010 is a Jubilee Year on the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage route that filters into Spain from all over Europe . The number of walking pilgrims is expected to double to 200,000, all because St. James ' Day falls on a Sunday. Demand won't only be running high for...

Bargaining in Chatuchak Weekend Market in Thailand. Photo: Eugene Tang / BangkokSights.com One of the biggest obstacles to traveling is the language barrier. Simple tasks like asking where the bathroom is, telling a taxi driver to take you to your hotel, and others can seem like impossible missions. Can technology bridge the gap? Some new...

Okay, actually I didn't. Candice Walsh did . And on her blog, Candice Does the World , she makes a pretty good case for why that is perfectly okay. Among many vagabonders and travelers, the term all-inclusive is practically a dirty word. Saying that you traveled to a foreign country and did little more than...

Got a great photo of New Year's the last time you were in Asia? Well, dust it off and submit to the Asia Welcomes 2010 Photo Contest . It's sponsored by the Asia Society , a nonprofit organization working to strengthen links between the United States and Asia. The contest will accept any photos taken...

The legendary lost civilization of El Dorado, said to be in the Amazon jungle, has led many explorers to come up empty-handed for nearly 500 years. According to a report in the journal Antiquity , three scientists have found more than 200 earthworks (dating from A.D. 200 to 1283) in Brazil’s upper Amazon basin near...

Over at Flyover America , the old traveler's conundrum was brought up. Do you go back to a place you know and love, or do you continue your exploration of the world? With limited time and money, it seems you have to make a choice. But when you find a place that affects you in...

As a child, you often rode a bus that crossed a bridge over a river. You would look out the window at the river meandering toward its source in the mountains, and you would wonder. You grew up, went to college, found work on another continent and forgot about the river -- for a while....

Have you ever considered travel to Antarctica? By bus? OK, maybe not the bus part, but you have to admit that it would certainly be an adventure. Andrew Evans, contributing editor for National Geographic Traveler , just boarded a bus on New Year’s Day in Washington, D.C.—headed for the frozen continent. His bus trips will...

America's top intelligence officer in Afghanistan has a plan for fixing intel operations in the country -- and he's turning to vagabonding techniques to do it. Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn points the way in a new report that isn't bureaucratic hardtack -- it's sensible, easy to digest, and actually looks healthy. First, the report's view...

In many first world countries, tonight will be celebrated with parties, drinking, and the inevitable shouting in unison of " ..5!..4!..3!..2!..1!..HAPPY NEW YEAR! " Some will find themselves in public plazas with hundreds or thousands of revelers like those in Times Square, some will be at all-night clubs, and some may celebrate with smaller groups...

The philanthropic community might consider changing its approach to fundraising by making people feel good, rather than guilty if they don’t help, according to author and New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof in his December article in Outside magazine: “ Nicholas Kristof’s Advice for Saving the World .” Frustrated by the lack of major public...

A few topics that people get heated about: politics, religion, and sport. I'd add food to that list. The New York Times discussed this in an article titled The Chocolate Wars . It's about Kraft's attempt to mount a takeover of Cadbury. The mayor of London had this colorful comment: “We face an appalling choice...

Matt Gross recently wrote an excellent article at World Hum, called " The Minor Glories of Constant Motion ." It details what for Matt may be a typical morning on the go. He wakes early to go to the airport in Taiwan and along the way, his cab gets a flat tire. As he watches...

Back when I wrote Vagabonding , I designed the end-of-chapter resources so that they could be continually updated online and stay as useful and relevant as possible. Recently, with the editorial help of Justin Glow and input from dozens of readers, I added to (and reorganized) my online resources at Vagabonding.net. I've copied the index...

I’ve been accused of always finishing a destination-related book with the comment, “I want to go to … (the name of the destination).” Fiction or nonfiction, it doesn’t really matter. If it’s a good book, the text allows me to conjure in my mind what the place is like. If it’s not so great, I...

Scooters are a favorite mode of transportation in many parts of the world. The variety of uses for a scooter are only limited by a rider's creativity (and bravery!) The New York Times Globespotters blog wrote an ode to this humble vehicle, Riding the roads as the Romans do . The article helpfully provides a...

A grass-roots alliance uniting everyone who loves to explore the world, Ethical Traveler believes that through conscientious travel, we can use our cultural interactions and economic power to strengthen human rights and protect the environment. Last week they revealed their list of top 10 ethical destinations for 2010 . They are; The World's Top 10...

There's a little meme making its way around the blogosphere right now, called " My 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets ." I came across it on Jen Laceda's gorgeous blog and was anxious to read the secrets that had already been spilled by other travelers. Then I thought about the concept - does telling the...

Yesterday I found a travel piece about my hometown (ok, about the fancy town next to my hometown) in the Guardian. I've been out of the area for five years, but it was still a challenge to accept the premise of the article: That, after crossing an entire ocean, a commuter town in suburban New...

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...