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One of the traditional hallmarks of vagabonding is the idea that you'd arrive in a new destination having done the minimum required when it comes to advance planning. Maybe you've got a place to sleep for the first night, maybe you know a few things in that city or country that you definitely want to...
There are far more entertaining and sexy subjects when it comes to long-term travel than what it takes to stay healthy on the road, but there are also few things that can screw up a RTW trip more than getting sick when you're far away from home. This isn't to say that there isn't going...
When you're planning a RTW trip it's easy to look at all of those places you'll be going as exotic, exciting, and far away (in more ways than one) from your current life. But sometimes when you actually get there, you find that it's a bit more like life at home than you were hoping...
With only a couple of months to go until kick-off of the first games in the 2010 World Cup tournament, the footy fanatics in the BootsnAll office are almost literally salivating over the countdown. Two of my colleagues will be in South Africa for the duration of the games, and luckily they made their travel...
There is no shortage of words written about travel, either on blogs or paper, that detail the fantastic things seen and done, the delicious things eaten. It's probably not a huge surprise that most travel tales don't include a basic "here's what my average day is like" entries, since they would likely seem a bit...
Generally speaking, questions about how much money someone makes or what they spend on a trip might seem like they're a tad too personal - but when you let on that you're planning a RTW trip, for some reason decorum goes out the window. People are so fascinated by the notion of traveling long-term, especially...
Around the BootsnAll office we're always dreaming about our next adventure - usually even before we've unpacked our bags from the last one. Come February each year, we're already plotting trips to warmer climates in order to focus on something other than the typically gray Portland weather. For most of us, we're thinking in terms...
I'm the kind of traveler who hardly can contemplate a trip to the store without tossing a small camera in my bag - so the concept of setting out for a long-term trip without a camera is inconceivable to me. Yet that's just what BootsnAll member circusoflife is planning to do . Circusoflife is currently...
With all the self-reflection that seems to go on at this time of year, it seems only fitting that we at BootsnAll take a step back and reflect on what it is that makes us unique. You have lots of choices when it comes to booking trips, including RTW trips, so what makes the RTW...
It seems like the idea of traveling without somehow documenting your adventures online is a pretty uncommon one these days - so the question of how to document a trip has morphed somewhat from "should I keep a blog?" to "what kind of blog should I keep?" The question on the BootsnAll boards that we're...
As I write this, I'm sitting in a lodge in central Washington at a company meeting. It's gorgeously sunny outside, and the snow-covered mountain just outside the window is a glowing light blue. But I know that when I scamper out the door to get a closer look I'll be greeted with a biting chill....
An article that was published recently on BootsnAll got people talking. In his article, " Is flashpacking killing the art of backpacking? " Paul Dow draws a pretty sharp distinction between what I'll call "old school" backpacking and the kind of backpacking that more travelers are doing these days - the kind that involves things...
We've just turned the clocks back in the U.S., which is either the best thing in the world or the worst day on earth - it all depends on who you talk to. For me, it meant an extra hour of sleep at a time when I needed it. (I'd love to figure out a...
All long-term travelers have to start somewhere, and dreaming of a life of travel is certainly a reasonable beginning. But what if your dreams don't match what you'll find when you actually get out on the road? That's where experienced travelers come in. BootsnAll member Kadiri is 18 years old and lives in Australia. He...
Ask any long-time resident of Portland, where BootsnAll is based, and they'll probably tell you September is one of their favorite times to be in the city. But this year, when the last week or so has been downright cold, it felt like October - and autumn - came earlier than normal. At least around...
Taking a long-term trip takes commitment - the same kind of commitment, one could argue, that a long-term relationship with another human being takes. So, if you've got one, can you have the other at the same time? Or does one of them have to suffer? BootsnAll member benleb is in a tough situation ....
I've been in Milan for the last week, and although I'd heard the horror stories before about the torture that is Milan in August I hadn't yet experienced it firsthand before my arrival last Tuesday. Y'know that old saying about air being so thick you could cut it with a knife? While I've always heard...
In a recent post , Jessica Spiegel talked about the reactions that our loved ones may have about our long term travel plans. While I've never been ridiculed (to my face), I know that most reactions are less than positive. The good news is that through the years I've become better at telling friends and...
Ask just about any long-term traveler why they've turned to the camaraderie of like-minded internet friends, and they'll probably tell you it's because their "real-life" friends just don't understand why they're so intent on hitting the road for so long. To a certain extent, that kind of confusion is understandable. Long-term travel isn't for everyone....
August. For years, the word "August" conjured up images of the last gasps of summer - those proverbial "dog days" spent savoring the good weather and those final days before school started up again. Then in my post-school years, August was just another month like all the rest, only a little bit warmer. This year,...