March 2009 Archive
12 Hidden Gems: Great Destinations that Caught Us by Surprise
If places we expect much of sometimes disappoint, the inverse is also true. Today, travellers share about places they visited that turned out to be hidden gems.
From the very obscure to the well-known, each of these travel tales attests to the fact that the best moments in travel catch you by surprise.
Unearthing Asia
The brain child of Nikolas Tjhin and Michelle Lee, Unearthing Asia is a vibrant multi-author blog aiming to uncover and share the finest parts of Asia. Through destination guides and travel tales, the enthusiasm of the editors and writers shines through. A great resource for anyone planning a trip to Asia.
99 of the Best Travel Blogs
Travel blogs are a dime a dozen these days. But finding the good ones, that’s the challenge. You know, the ones that inspire you with a burning desire to dust off your old suitcase, stuff it with some clothes and gadgets, and buy an open-ended ticket to somewhere far far away.
Those are the kinds of blogs we feature on TravelBlogs. And we’ve uncovered plenty of gems over the past few years. As TravelBlogs is about to feature its 100th blog, I thought it would be an appropriate time to stop and heap praise upon the 99 excellent travel blogs already featured.
Planet Nomad
Late last year, Elizabeth Jones moved to Morocco with her husband and three kids. Her blog is an engaging account of expat life in Northern Africa.
“Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi” by Geoff Dyer
Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi
The Value of Voluntourism: Interview with Stephen Greenwood
In a time when voluntourism – the act of travelling to volunteer, or volunteering to travel – is becoming big business, there is one question I keep coming back to: Does voluntourism help the people who are supposedly being served, or is it primarily for the benefit of the volunteer?
It’s the question I asked Brian Hermon about his volunteer work in Ghana; and it’s the same question I asked Chris Guillebeau, who also volunteered for a time in Africa.
And now Stephen Greenwood. Last year, Stephen spent five months living in Tanzania, shooting footage for a documentary and film about an orphanage in Arusha, a city in northern Tanzania. His blog, Observations, is a treasure chest of insightful snippets, beautiful photos and probing questions. After spending an afternoon browsing through, I asked Stephen to share more about his experiences in Tanzania.
Bearshapedsphere
Eileen Smith is living the expat life in Santiago, Chile. Her blog is a collection of day-to-day observations, infused with her bright, sometimes snarky, writing style.
Farsighted Fly Girl
Farsighted Fly Girl is the glittering blog of Rosalind Cummings-Yeates, a freelance journalist with a passion for fashion, culture and travel.
Disappointment: When Places Don’t Live Up to Your Expectations
Expectation is a dangerous thing. The higher the expectations, the greater the chance they’ll be dashed. But when it does happen, know this: it happens to lots of travellers.
To prove it to you, I rounded up 19 travel bloggers and asked them to share a time when a trip or place didn’t live up to their expectations.
Why We Travel: Nancy Sathre-Vogel’s Story
What could possess an otherwise perfectly sane family to take off to pedal bicycles 20,000 miles from one end of the earth to the other? I wish I knew…
We were just your ordinary, everyday, American family one day. And the next we were anything but. In May 2008 the four of us were living in a typical American home in Boise, Idaho. The boys attended fourth grade at a local elementary school. I taught Special Ed at a local high school. John was serving as our stay-at-home dad, fixing up the house and doing other assorted chores. In short – life was typical and predictable.
But a month later, the four of us were living a life very few can imagine. We arose every morning in our tent, packed our sleeping bags, strapped all our earthly belongings onto our bicycles, and pedaled away to face the adventures of the day – of which there were plenty!
