A few weeks ago, Marcus Sortijas published an interesting piece on Vagabonding describing the Couchsurfing experience in the United States. As I am a Couchsurfing aficionado and have travelled more than 10 Asian countries using it, I would like to spend some words describing how this beautiful service works in another side of the world....

Cost/day: $0.8/day Guyana isn’t really that cheap. However, if you’re creative and have some skills, anything is possible. I worked at Dadanawa Cattle Ranch for two and a half months in exchange for food and board. Most of my money went towards toiletries, insect repellant and beer. Being frugal was easy because the nearest town...

Cost: $50/day What's the strangest thing you have seen lately? Lavacicles. These pointy tooth-like projections can be found on the roofs of many of the incredible lava tubes and caves at Lava Beds National Monument in northern California. They formed when viscous lava that was dripping from the top of the tubes cooled and hardened....

Let’s face it. There’s no use fighting the tourist industry. It’s exponential. My advice is to embrace it! Many people ask me how I’ve funded my travels for so many years. The answer; I’ve been: a tour guide; paid to be outdoors, able to ride my own horses; and gain knowledge of an area by...

The lure of the exotic is strong for travelers, but we may often forget that the exotic is here at home as well. I recently returned from a 42-mile hike in Rocky Mountain National Park—one of countless National Parks that I had not yet visited—and now I have a new appreciation for trails. It can...

When learning a new sport, especially one that you can do in a variety of environments like stand-up paddling (SUP), it’s not always convenient to take a class. But that doesn’t mean you can’t snag a solid how-to book to tote with you on your adventures—whether it’s merely paddling on a calm river or learning...

If you had asked me any time in the last couple of years what word I associated with San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua—I’d have said surfing . With waves on my mind, the region was the highlight of the surf trip I was planning with my husband. Sure, I wanted to see more of the...

First, a caveat, you are about to read a review of book about "Lady Adventurers," How to Climb Mt. Blanc in a Skirt written by a man, Mick Conefrey, reviewed by a man, me. That said, Conefrey's book is not just a handbook for the independent, female explorer, but a great look at the history...

I just returned from a trip to Baja California Sur, Mexico, and the highlight of my trip was an hour-long boat trip to see the California gray whales in Magdalena Bay. Aside from a kayak experience when my little boat and I were just a few inches from a humpback whale, this was the closest...

If you've always dreamed of working in Antarctica (the only continent you can't be a native of, and yet which doesn't officially belong any other country: a treaty made in 1961 suspends all claims of ownership, in favor of promoting valuable scientific research rather than arguing over whose flag flies where...and the penguins don't care),...

The Adventurer's Handbook is entertainingly subtitled, "From surviving an anaconda attack to finding your way out of the desert," which carries the implication that it's another one of those worst-case survival manuals that reminds you to clench your butt cheeks when you dive off a cliff so water doesn't rush into your nether regions and...

A friend of mine has a very specific definition of adventure: It must involve danger to life and limb. Mountain climbing? Check. Diving with sharks? Check. Taking on a new assignment at work? Nothing doing. For me, adventure has always included all of the above. Even taking a walk through my neighborhood has an air...

Crime scene tape. Photo: Alan Cleaver / Flickr Creative Commons The underground magazine Vice will be getting its own show on MTV. Magazine founder Shane Smith brings his trademark biting tone, irreverent take on current events, and in-your-face honesty to the small screen. Here's an article from MTV.com with more details: 'The Vice Guide to...

Hendri Coetzee Note : Earlier this month, global adventurer Hendri Coetzee was killed by a crocodile while leading a kayaking expedition down the Ruzizi River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Guidebook writer and no-baggage travel pioneer Jonathan Yevin was friends with Coetzee, and he sent me a heart-felt eulogy that explores Hendri's unique...

Latourex, short for Laboratoire de Tourisme Experimental, is a couple of French charmers who developed their experimental travel techniques to make their trips more interesting. Instead of just doing the same old same old -- go to a place, look at its museums, drink coffee at coffeeshops, attempt to blend in while suavely writing in...

You have a good start. Anyone who's even considered taking a long-term travel break, or even several shorter ones, has to have an adventurous spirit. But how do you stack up against other folks looking for adventure? A post on Gadling this week discussed a recent survey commissioned by Intrepid Travel , which found that...

As you might guess from the title, Don't Tell Mum I Work On The Rigs, She Thinks I'm The Piano Player In A Whorehouse , is a bit of a quirky exploration of the itinerant oil rigging lifestyle. As vagabonders, we get pretty focused on how we can work and travel; can we write for...

Unless you've been living in a place where popular media does not go (like with my mother), you might have noticed that Elizabeth Gilbert's surprise hit memoir "Eat, Pray, Love" has been made into a movie starring Julia Roberts...and it's getting released, on slightly different days, around this time in lots of different countries. The...

Shortly after last week's column which highlighted how Burning Man is like vagabonding , we loaded up our hatchback and drove to the event, about two hours north of Reno, Nevada, down a small two lane road that runs past deep blue Pyramid Lake , majestic mountains, and salt flats. We arrived on Saturday afternoon,...

My fellow contributors and I have made a few mentions of Burning Man when describing other extreme festivals such as Couchsurfing events or the Love Parade . However, those readers that have never been to "a Burn" may not realize that it's much more than just a week-long party, and in fact shares several fundamental...