It's hard to be organized constantly. It's hard when you're at home. It's more difficult when you're on the road, trying to remember where exactly you put that super-important sticky note with the really-super-important booking confirmation number for your hotel. Thankfully there's an app for your troubles. I rounded up the top five travel apps...

I'm on a deserted street in the middle of the night. I'm somewhere outside of Rome, a couple blocks south (or north?) of a train station where I caught the last train in from the airport in an echoing station. My hotel should be up here. Or maybe it was a couple blocks the other...

While frequent flyer miles can help alleviate the costs of flights to a destination in a game-changing way, the travel that happens once in a destination can really add up too. This is particularly true in an affluent place like Europe. But, as a continent that has a fabulous infrastructure for public transit, it should...

Google Cardboard I just spend the last 3 and a half days trying to get from Rapid City to Bangkok. Due to the Polar Vortex (or whatever they're calling it this year), massive storms blew through RC and Denver, dropping off a foot of snow and plummeting the temperatures. Flights were canceled, delayed and connections...

(Working on this article in Austin - Vintage Heart Cafe) My last couple of articles have been a bit higher-level ( How lessons I learned while traveling have helped me through family tragedy and Becoming a better person via the kindness of strangers ). Today, though, I've decided to post something much more tactical -...

I have to admit that I am not a techno-junkie. I resist the pull of technology assiduously, but even I am forced to admit that there are some really fantastic new "toys" out there that make travel easier and provide possibilities for the independent traveler that didn't exist in the era of paper maps. mtrip...

There's something to be said for getting lost. I rather like it, actually. Taking off with no destination, exploring a city by braille, and the serendipity that inevitably arises as a result are intoxicating. There are days in which the last thing I want is a map, or directions, or to "get there" in the...

It has occurred to me that the internet is, perhaps, the single greatest boon to the traveling world and, simultaneously, the biggest detriment. On the one hand, the ability to keep in touch with the people who matter and are left behind, the ability to quickly search destination focused information, the ease of book tickets:...

Are you looking for a place to plug in to the Internet and get work done while traveling? Singapore is the No. 1 city for budget travelers looking for Wi-Fi in accommodation, so says a study by Hostelbookers . The next cities following were Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Siem Reap and Seoul. If you...

Engineers at UCLA are working on converting an iPhone into a small laboratory. Weighting less than 2 ounces, the iTube attaches to your phone and analyzes a food sample in about 20 minutes using a colorimetric assay test. The user grinds up a small sample of food with hot water and places it in the...

Business travelers, also known as "road warriors," are some of the most experienced trip hackers around. Although here at Vagabonding we espouse slower wandering, these hard-core types have streamlined the process to a science. Their advice appeared in this New York Times article: How the tough get going: Silicon Valley travel tips . Prominently featured...

We often think of the Internet as existing in the ether, not a physical, tangible place. Wired magazine writer Andrew Blum flipped that notion on its head by visiting the Internet we don't get to see: the data centers, the underwater cables, the "series of tubes" as the late U.S. senator Ted Stevens described it....

Savvy travelers probably know these things, but I know some who are still behind the curve and going abroad soon. So here’s an update: Though many report having no problems at all using their US mag-stripe cards and ordinary ATM cards abroad, make sure your credit or debit card has a smart chip. The global...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjY_hJL3nxY Planning a trip can be a logistical tangle. At any one time, I'll have more than half-a-dozen tabs open in my web browser, each a different website. For example: Wikitravel - Get general info. Air Asia - Find cheap flights in Asia. Hostelworld - Book hostels. Urbanrail - Look at subway maps. Travelfish -...

Are you a digital nomad? Chances are, you wrestle with dodgy Wi-Fi, electrical adapters, and figuring out what apps could help you travel more efficiently. You don't care which startup just had a big IPO or the latest viral meme. What you'd like is a convenient guide to what gadgets you need. Enter Too Many...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCWvnp7-ikI&feature=player_embedded Intro video for inbed.me Over the years, there have been several attempts to combine travel and social networking. The latest on the scene is inbed.me (that name is just asking for double entendres). The idea is to solve the problem of that first-night loneliness in a new hostel. You've just arrived, and all the...

The media lit up with commemorations of Steve Jobs, the legendary CEO of Apple who passed away on Oct. 5, 2011. While talking about his full impact on technology is beyond the scope of this blog, we can talk about how his products changed our trips: How Steve Jobs helped make Apple a major disruptor...

Many of my best travel experiences have come about through recommendations from friends. The Taiwanese guy who took me to a stylish lounge bar in Taipei with the hidden entrance; the Australian expat who showed me his favorite ramen restaurant in Tokyo; and the list goes on. Thanks to the Internet , old-fashioned word-of-mouth is...

Since I've written quite a bit about how electronic technology is transforming travel , I enjoyed reading " GPS and the End of the Road ," Ari N. Schulman's essay in the Spring 2011 issue of The New Atlantis . In the essay, Schulman posits that GPS devices, along with "location awareness" apps like HearPlanet...

Social networks have made a dramatic impact on travel. During my first backpacking trip in 2004, I relied on e-mail addresses to stay in touch with the new friends I was making. I once met a girl in Paris. Later into my trip, I was shocked to run into her at my hostel in Edinburgh....