Those of you living outside the UK may have missed the ‘media storm’ surrounding the woefully shrunken economy and the effect it’s having on University admissions this summer but for the Brits among us it’s been impossible to escape! According to sources,  applications to UK Universities are up by 250,000, but with 6000 fewer places available than last year it is believed that up to 200,000 British students may miss out on their places, despite having secured the grades they required.
Ultimately this means lots of tears and tantrums and a …

Lately I’ve been reading up on some of the latest news regarding Cuba. I was very elated to find out what may happen in just a few short months or years (who really knows), that has the potential to impact travelers immensely. Mainly, the American travelers have been restricted from touring the island for years, but things may change. The restriction may become “loosened.”  Meaning, they may be able to travel there again. For most travelers, they will be very much excited about venturing back into Cuba.
One thing’s for sure, that if you …

by Lisa
Once upon a time (six years ago) I embarked upon a six week hiking and camping road trip.  Since I was going solo — and since I had never done such a thing before — I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what equipment I needed and where to get it.  Before long, I had my shiny new equipment in piles in my bedroom.  The tent, sleeping bag, cooking equipment, backpack, lanterns, first aid kits, clothing, shoes, reading material, non-perishable food…the pile grew and grew and …

Last weekend I took the train home from Boston to Rhode Island. I arrived at the station from my umpteenth job interview and I hadn’t eaten since an early breakfast hours before. Evidently I wasn’t the only person who was hungry. It was just after 1 p.m., and the terminal was hectic and crowded. Every food franchise had a line of customers, many with distracted, put-upon expression so characteristic of people who have somewhere else they’d rather be.
I got in line to buy a lemonade and a muffin, and watched …

I was chatting with a friend the other day and realized I haven’t travelled very much during this year. My year has been filled with short day trips to different cities within VA, a week trip to Tampa, but nothing too far. I miss the old days. I long to surf the waves, listen to the ocean, and watch kids build sandcastles.
I vow this day, that 2011 will be the year I get a couple new stamps on the passport.
I have a few places in mind, but not too sure …

Long before I’d set foot in another country, I’d visited dozens of foreign and fantastical worlds through the pages of my favorite books. To me, reading and traveling are natural companions. I hardly ever head anywhere—be it the grocery store, or the other side of the world—without at least one book tucked safely into my bag. So it was with excitement and, yes, a little bit of envy that I opened Travelers’ Tales sixth annual anthology of women’s travel writing,  The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010: True Stories from Around …

Here they are again. You can hear them a mile away, like a siren.
They’re unavoidable.
AMERICANS.
My eyes roll to the back of my head. They come in like a storm cloud- a pulsing, absorbing blob of short shorts and flip flops and ponytails and- the worst- shirts with Hawaiian print. They could be in Switzerland in January, and they’ve still got the Hawaiian print. They are an unstoppable force. They dig into their pockets for two minutes fishing out their shiny blue passports. They speak slowly – and loudly – to …

Thank goodness! I have somehow managed to get through the 10 hour coach journey from Arusha to Dar (from one side of Tanzania to the other). After arguing with a man who I thought was trying to run off with my luggage for about 15 minutes, me and my Friend Fran get in to one of the million taxis and head to a hotel for the night. Cant wait for the morning to get to Zanzibar!
Yawn…I get woken up at 6:30am by the guy working at the hotel. He has …

Everything is finally unpacked from that last adventure and you have just uploaded the pictures from your amazing trip onto the computer.  Friends are still asking about your journey and you can smell the spice or the air from the place/country you just left.  Now what?  What happens when people stop inquiring about your trip?  When they roll their eyes when you mention your last vacation to where-ever-it-was?  What will happen to those memories that you made when time comes in to slowly wash them away?
A journal can capture your …

I have been back from France for a little over two months now, and these past few weeks–perhaps because of all the travel literature I’ve been reading, which you’ll soon hear more about in our new Reviews Section–I’ve begun to feel antsy. It’s not an unhappy antsy-ness, like some I’ve felt in the past, it’s just that I’ve been wishing I could wake up some mornings to the sun rising over a part of the world I’ve never seen before.
I’m not really in a position to hop a 747 to …