The world outside my house is currently blanketed in snow, a monochrome world of white interrupted only by the dark, wet trunks of trees, the red brick of chimneys, the occasional green of shrubs poking through. The world outside my windows is the same as it was yesterday, and yet, it’s totally different to my eyes.

Where I live snow is a novelty. One or … Read more »

It’s a traveler’s biggest letdown — scaffolding covering the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, giant construction cranes obscuring the skyline of the Pyramids or children in remote villages wearing Brittany Spears t-shirts.

We’ve all had moments like that, moments where we felt somehow cheated, like our experience was not “authentic” enough. But in fact, those are the most authentic moments you’ll find. Moments where you are forced to concede that the world is not the … Read more »

Is the day and age when anyone with the means can set out into the world and explore to their heart’s content coming to end? Perhaps the more better question is: does cheap long term travel have a future?

Wade Shepard, the author of Vagabond Journey, who has been perpetually traveling for over 11 years, recently tackled the world of rising … Read more »

As you may have noticed, Rolf is currently in the midst of traveling around the world with only what he can carry in his pockets.  He’s got a toothbrush, a change of underpants, and an iPod Touch to do his blog posting from, as well as some presumably bulging cargo pants pockets.  I did see one blog post on his round-the-world-as-a-lightweight diary, pointing out that replicating the experience for women would be majorly worth a … Read more »

A lot of travelers are romanced by the kind of retreat from civilization found in the pages of Henry David Thoreau and Carl G. Jung. Taking a break from our regular lives and living simply in nature is not only personally rewarding, it may be a little more essential to our well being than many may previously have thought.

However, embarking on a journey such as this requires the same amount of research … Read more »

I happened to be killing time in the Cairns airport flipping through the bookstore when I came across the travel memoir of “catching love, fish and wisdom”: Robyn Catchlove’s “Somewhere Down a Crazy River.”  I then promptly forgot about it until I received a notice from the publisher, and I gave it a read.  It’s … Read more »

Want to run away and live in a sustainable treehouse community? Go to Finca Bellavista in Costa Rica.

You can build your own stilthouse or other “arboreal dwelling”, as long as it abides by the community guidelines, which include such things as small square-footage structures, getting rid of waste through a compact biodigestor, and being attached to the community SkyTrail zipline pathways.  It’s located six miles from the Golfo Dulce coast as the … Read more »

I have a lot of nice stuff.

I have a painting of a peacock feather, all gold and blue and tiny jewels, that I plucked from a windswept art fair at Burning Man the first year I went by myself.  I have a curvacious photo that I took, developed, and printed myself, of the naked cyanotyped bodies of women who are no longer my friends.  I have fifteen boxes of books that were what remained … Read more »

While markets often get the prize for variety and amazing local color, grocery stores also allow great insight into a culture. Not the supermarkets we see back home, but small, neighborhood grocery shops. The necessities on store shelves can serve as a cultural study, souvenir source, or simply a place where you can restock your travel supplies.

When I’m traveling, I like to purposely forget some … Read more »

The Finger Lakes Trail is deceptively simple. Looking at the map above, you might think, “What’s there to see?” It doesn’t trace a rugged coast, doesn’t piggyback on the spine of a mountain range, and barely even interlaces with the Finger Lakes. Neither elevation nor landscape varies much — it’s mostly rolling hills. Consequently, the southern half of upstate New York isn’t thought of as a major outdoor … Read more »