Volunteerism vs. Voluntourism: Are They Synonymous?
A few years ago I joined a travel-related website while researching a trip to Panama. Some of you know will know it as Travellerspoint.com. I have spent quite a bit of my online time over there and one of the common questions posed in the forums deals with volunteerism. “This company charges $X,XXX for a 2 month program. Is that cheap?” or “Is this company on the up & up?” or “Shouldn’t volunteering be free as long as I get there? I’m volunteering, after all.” All good questions. Ones that make me think daily as I remember volunteerism as something you did not pay for, except your transportation to get where you were needed.
Recent blog entries
And Baby Makes Three: An Interview with Wade Shepard
In his 2007 interview, Wade was described as a “modern-day nomad” and “travel was his lifestyle”. Not much has changed since that discussion. He’s still the “modern-day nomad” and “travel is still his lifestyle” but these days… That lifestyle includes a family. Wade met Chaya in 2008. They married and then gave birth to their daughter, Petra, in 2009. If you think parenthood overrides seeing the world – think again!
Lessons From a Cancelled Trip
My husband and I made the decision this past October to cancel a trip to Spain and Morocco that I’d spent innumerable hours planning. It was a complicated trip – several legs, transportation utilizing planes, trains and automobiles; 12 days in foreign countries. Since it’s been a brutal winter for many of us and thoughts of summer travel are rampant daydreams, I thought I’d finally sit down and share a few hard-earned tips for you to remember when planning your next trip abroad.
Create Your Location Independent Business the More Practical Way
Editor’s Introduction: Anyone who enjoys traveling, or has had their dreams haunted by picturesque places, has most likely thought to themselves, “If I worked for myself, I could just hop a plane for destinations unknown”. Sadly, and all too often, the alarm clock rings or the boss walks in or something snaps us back into reality. Honestly, there are those out there enjoying the fruits of location independent business opportunities and Jason Batansky is one of the fortunate. Here, he shares his beginnings, his dream business idea and what he has learned about making location independent business ventures successful.
Dumpster Diving: A Travel Strategy for Free Food
Dumpster Diving: The act of throwing the body into a dumpster in hopes of finding edible food; picking usable goods out of the trash; a good travel strategy.
I concurrently came upon the art of dumpster diving with the first steps I took off the family farm when I was 18. Before leaving on my first journey, my grandfather took me aside and bestowed some fine words of advice up me:
“If you ever don’t have enough money to get food, find a donut shop, go in back of it, and there you will find more free food than you can eat.”
The Movies and Music that Inspired Us to Travel in 2009
What inspired you to travel in 2009? Earlier this week, bloggers shared which books inspired them. Today, we have a dozen bloggers sharing which movies and music inspired them to travel this year. Again, it’s fascinating to see just how varied their sources of inspiration can be — people find travel inspiration in everything from the Bourne soundtracks to Indiana Jones and Lawrence of Arabia.
The Books that Inspired Us to Travel in 2009
If you’re an organized sort of person, you probably have your Christmas shopping out of the way by now. If you’re anything like me, you’re just biding your time, waiting for that last-minute rush as you try to cover all your bases.
For those of you who fall into the latter group, check this out. Here are eleven books that have inspired these intrepid travellers to hit — or stay on — the road in 2009. From short stories by a Maori writer to a book about the ethical implications of eating fish, the variety is vast.
Stay tuned. In a couple of days we’ll cover the movies and music that inspired the internet’s finest travel bloggers.
Support Passports with Purpose 2009
Passports with Purpose is back for another year, this time with the goal of raising $13,000 to build a school in rural Cambodia, through American Assistance for Cambodia.
Passports with Purpose, for those of you who haven’t heard of it, is an annual fundraiser organized by four travel bloggers: Debbie Dubrow of DeliciousBaby, Pam Mandel of Nerd’s Eye View, Michelle Duffy of WanderMom and Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick. It works as a raffle, with travel bloggers sponsoring a prize which donors can nominate as their preferred prize.
Last year, the Passports with Purpose fundraiser raised $7,420 for Heifer International. With this year’s goal set at $13,000, the stakes have been raised.
Do Travel Disasters Make the Best Travel Stories?
Less than one week into a nearly six-month stint in Brussels and I had already racked up my first travel mishap. Heading out to an Internet café for a scheduled online chat session, I was so sure of my route until I came up against a dead end with no sign of the correct street. Only then did I realize that I had walked a good 20 minutes in the wrong direction. I dejectedly backtracked, arriving at the café 30 minutes late only to discover it was closed.
While frustrating and a bit demoralizing, my story is nothing compared with the travel disasters most of us will accumulate in our lives on the go. But it still highlights that no matter how much you travel, no matter how experienced you think you are, stuff happens. I blogged about this topic – travel disasters – last year, insisting that things that go wrong, while maddening at the time, actually become our best travel stories.
How the Economy Affected 16 Travellers in 2009
How has the economy affected your travels in 2009?
That’s the question I put to the internet’s finest travel bloggers last week. For some, the economic crisis put trips on hold, while for others it seems to have had no impact whatsoever. Whatever the case, their responses show one thing: if you’re passionate about travel, you can pretty much always find a way to indulge that passion.
From the travel blogs
The right way to use Eigo Noto
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AONC Book Launch! (AKA “I Has a Book”)
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Breastfeeding, Undead Jobs, And Is Neil Patrick Harris Gay?
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Wales Tourist Attractions – WIN A FLIP HD and Shonky Travel Tart Promotion Video!
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California Redux
by Sallie Bingham There are times, and there are people, that we desire to erase ...
Daily Travel Photo – Alicante, Spain
Buying fruit at the market, Alicante, Spain Originally posted on the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. ...
A Peek at the Lomography Store in Taipei
Photography can be an intimidating hobby with a big learning curve. Nevertheless, Lomography puts the ...
Day 2 in Smithers, British Columbia – Twin Falls and a Reunion
Travel journal John and Caleb scaling the heights at Twin Falls in Smithers, BC Day ...
Peggy Teaches Chinese (28): Trying On Clothes in a Store
In this video, Peggy teaches us how to ask for different sizes and colors when ...
