Everyone talks about culture shock. Heaps of books have been written about how to plan for it and websites dedicated to slowly transitioning into a culture where you perhaps don’t speak the language or aren’t used to the food or traditions. You spend months planning your big travels unaware of how completely changed you’ll be...

“Of all the adventures and challenges that wait on the vagabonding road, the most difficult can be the act of coming home. On a certain level, coming home will be a drag because it signals the end of all the fun, freedom and serendipity that you enjoyed on the road. But on a less tangible...

I’ve been talking a lot lately to folks who are pushing hard towards their dreams. They’re working the equivalent of two full time jobs to break free from the one they’re sick of to change their whole lives. They’re courageous folks. But then, she goes out for drinks with a sister who ends up getting...

"We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything." --Jonah Lehrer, " Why We Travel ," Panorama Magazine (Deccember 2009)

Have you ever returned home, only to feel like home was more foreign than any of the exotic locales you've visited? You're not alone. Reverse culture shock has a way of ambushing people, despite how much you may have heard about it. When we travel, we have our awareness up. We know we must learn...

"When a person says, in a foreign place, "I feel right at home here," he is making a statement about the nature of travel, not in the texture of the place he's in. ...I don't belittle this sort of travel, which I regard as Traveling As A Version Of Being At Home; but it is...

"I believe that the remarks of a traveler in any country not his own, let his work be ever so trifling or badly written, will point out some peculiarity which will have escaped the notice of those who were born and reside in that country, unless they happen to be natives of that portion of...

Prolific travel blogger Nomadic Matt made the case for permanent travel in this article for The Huffington Post : Why we travel . He captures that exhilarating sense of freedom that vagabonders love. Freeing ourselves from routine to see the world. Interestingly enough, Mike Barish wrote a reaction piece for Gadling.com titled, On long-term travel,...

You can leave a place, but it doesn't leave you. Quickly, at least. Maybe you'll bring back a few jolly pounds from samosas and sweetshops. You'll have some of the country under your fingernails and clogged in your pores. Its exhaust will take a few days to clear from your lungs so your boogers might...

Varanasi -- The leg of the stool started to buckle underneath him, and I warned my friend of the imminent collapse. "No worries," he said, "I have a feel for the balance of Indian things." The balance of Indian things? He was right -- there's a lot of precariousness here. Yet I hadn't realized that...

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...

It happens almost every time. I return home from a trip and, once the jet lag wears off, I find myself feeling a little down. The expectations I had before the trip, and the freedom and wonder I experienced on the road have been replaced with a vague feeling of sadness, a sense of "blah"....

Panama City, Panama Travelers, perhaps even these photographed in Panama on Christmas Day 2008, can sometimes be found pondering the meaning of “home”. They may do so in a hostel lobby in Paris, from a park bench in Cartagena, on a rumbling train in Siberia, or atop a seawall in Panama City. Whatever the location,...

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...

Indigenous food directly connects you to a place--the place literally assimilates into your body--but it also works the other way around. When you're home, food can bring you places by bringing those places into you. The standard Western supermarket has a wall of imported chocolate offering escape. Goya (and competitors) often claim half an aisle,...

A house in Bali. Photo from MatadorLife.com. Matador Life had an article a while back called What Can $150K Buy in Real Estate Around the World ? The photos were a real eye-opener about the great values available around the world. It's mainly pictures and figures, but the comments were instructive. There was also a...