In my last couple of blog posts, I waxed poetic about the life of a digital nomad. As a counterpoint, here's a fine article that appeared in the Orange-County Register : Digital detox for a trip to Italy . Gary Warner, the newspaper's travel editor, decided to cut off the electronic umbilical cord for an...

Often while traveling, it seems that there’s no place immune from a wireless connection. Hotels, cafés—even buses allow you to connect with the world using your cell phone, laptop, or notebook. It’s been many years since I’ve heard someone make a call from an airplane using those seat-back phones: “Hey, you’ll never guess where I’m...

Looking to take your work on the road with your travels? The technology is available. There is a lack of role models, though. It would be great if we all knew digital nomads we could learn from. What would you ask a successful one if you had the chance? Enter Chris Jankulovski. The CEO of...

More and more of our data is digital. It's valuable, and we should be as careful with our information as we are with our wallet or purse. Since these possessions are virtual, however, it can be easy to neglect them. The New York Times had a great piece titled Threats to Traveling Data . While...

UPDATE: WorkShifting is holding a $10,000 contest for digital nomads. Details at Freedom Let Go contest . The Internet and web apps have freed a generation of people to work from anywhere they choose. This is a relatively new movement, so it's hard to find reliable information about telecommuting. Beyond technology, what about the other...

It's the dream of many vagabonders: to earn money online while working remotely. But as anyone who's done a Google search for "make money online" knows, there are a lot of scams out there. Finding credible, honest information can be difficult. That's why it was so refreshing to read about a vagabonder who gave the...

Claire Litton wrote earlier this week about traveling low-res as a genuine option to lugging all those i-products around. The timing was right on the heels of my recent digital breakdown. I probably should have known better than to plan to do a few social media updates and minor editing tasks while I was spending...

The rapid advances in communications technology are enabling people to work from anywhere. This can be a big relief for people who stress over choosing between traveling and their careers. Luckily, now you don't have to give up either. Six Revisions, a blog for web designers and developers, wrote a great article on How to...

I recently returned from a two month road-trip around the United States. It had been almost ten years since I had traveled extensively inside the United States and it was, as you might expect, very different than my last trip. Aside from the negative aspects -- more sprawl, less open space and so on --...

Last week, the online travel search engine Travelocity announced that a new partnership with EC3 Global has enabled them to display more green hotels in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond . As green/eco awareness increases, so too does the need for ethical travelers to be able to find those businesses that adhere to morals and...

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...

Blazing-fast Internet has become commonplace in Asia. Japan and South Korea frequently rank as the most wired countries in the world. Singapore is looking to boost its broadband infrastructure too, according to this NY Times article: Singapore gets wired for speed . John, an Australian expat friend of mine, just moved into a new apartment...

Everyone wants to get off the beaten path, to carve their own, unique experience out of traveling, but how do you do it? The internet is full of tips and guides to out of the way places, but in the end getting of the beaten path is less about where you go and more about...

I caught the first two episodes of Ewan McGregor's Long Way Around motorcycle journey the other night and was struck by the extraordinary amount of planning that went into the trip. Granted McGregor and Boorman had a number of concerns outside the scope of most of our trips -- motorcycle repairs, film equipment, medical supplies...

When you research upcoming travels online, do you often feel like you’re hunting through the results to find relevant information? A new search engine, Kaweinga , is trying to make it easier for you to get the specific travel info you need. Started by Daniel Guttentag in February, Kaweinga’s search results are powered by Google,...

Clean water is one of the major issues facing the developing world. As outsiders, vagabonds typically rely on bottled water in such areas, but plastic water bottles are a major contributor to disturbing things such as the Pacific's trash island , to say nothing of the strain they put on local landfills. The far better...

The most difficult long-term travel question is also perhaps the most common: how much does it cost? It's almost impossible to answer that question because it depends where you're going, when you're going and how exactly you plan to travel. Tiny variations in how you travel can have a huge impact on your trip costs....

Have you ever returned from a trip and wished there were an easier way to show your friends and family the exact route you took on your journey? Check out Wikiloc , one of three winners of the 2009 Geotourism Challenge , sponsored by Ashoka’s Changemakers and the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations ....

Travel affords us a chance to see things many will only encounter in books, a chance to learn about ourselves and the world around us, but there's another thing I've started to think is equally important -- travel gives us a chance to be alone. Not only are we yanked out of our familiar culture...