One of the best things about being a travel writer is that I have the ability to work from anywhere in the world. With a laptop, a camera, and a dependable Internet connection, I can keep my blog updated, write content for clients and publishers, and even design the occasional website. I lived this kind of vagabond life for six months in 2007 when I backpacked around the world, blogging and building my portfolio and loved every moment.

Now available for download at foXnoMad.com for $8

Since returning, I’ve gone back on the road for up to six weeks at a time for travel assignments, but it’s not quite the same as long term, independent travel and frankly, I miss it. Lately I’ve been contemplating heading back out again, as I can live just as cheaply on the road as I can here in the States. But thinking and doing are two entirely different things; I just can’t seem to decide where to go, when to go, or if I should go.

If author Anil Polat is correct, I’m exhibiting classic symptoms that keep people from actually hitting the road long term. In his new e-book, Overcoming the 7 Major Obstacles to Traveling the World, Polat dissects the mental roadblocks that keep us at home. He explains that fear is the biggest factor – fear that travel is too expensive, that we won’t be able to earn enough money to survive while traveling; that we’ll miss our family and friends, etc.

Polat should know; he’s been traveling the world for years and chronicling his journey on his popular travel blog, foXnoMad.com. In keeping with his blog’s tag line: “travel smarter,” Polat has incorporated Read the rest of this entry »

So, I’m on the road again. Headed north. Which is crazy, because I hate the cold weather. But my entire family lives in Illinois and I travel back home for Christmas each year, so it is what it is. This trip, however, has presented a few challenges.

Things started to go wrong while I was still in the Tampa Bay, Florida area. On day three the temperature plummeted to 57 and the wind kicked up. The next morning I awoke with my annual sinus infection – a behind the nose raw kind of hurt that made it difficult to swallow. Usually, standing under a hot shower helps a lot, but this was the morning that I had no water in that lovely hotel in Clearwater Beach. I needed new sinuses and a shower that worked.

By the following day I had reached the home of friends in the Atlanta area, who always let me stay with them when I am traveling to Chicago because it is a very convenient midway point. Atlanta’s cold, gray weather ruled out any extended outdoor activity, however I had to wash my car, since it was covered with salt spray from the beach. Within an hour of putting the finishing touches on my now sparkling car, it began to pour rain and it didn’t stop for two days. Spending an hour at the car wash in the cold weather made my sinus infection worse and Read the rest of this entry »

I have always enjoyed roughing it, whether I was in a tent in a National Park or some remote location half a world away where my sleeping accommodations consisted of a floating bamboo shelter with no running water or electricity. One of the reasons I enjoy this experience so much is that when I get close to nature my spiritual condition is renewed. I feel close to ‘all that is’ and I am at peace. After exposure to such great beauty, the world could be falling down around my feet and I would walk peacefully through the rubble.

Especially with international destinations, I prefer to travel this way because it allows me to get close to the people and culture of the country I am visiting. Pricey, upscale hotels try their best to provide all the amenities the traveler would normally have at home. The result is often a sanitized, if well-intentioned, experience of the country and its people. On the few occasions when I stayed at all-inclusive resorts or five-star hotels, the hotel staff strongly encouraged me not to venture off the grounds because they “could not ensure my safety” in the event that I did so. This happened to me in Jamaica last year, and I thought it was Read the rest of this entry »

The more I travel, the more I want to travel – it’s an addiction of sorts, but a good one, I think. Over the past few years I’ve been able to “check off” a whole bunch of destinations that I was determined to see before I died, but there are still so many places I want to go. I decided that I needed to make a list of the places I’d been and the places I still want to visit:

WHERE I’VE BEEN:

• All around the U.S., with the exception of Alaska, Montana, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Alabama, Mississippi, and Rhode Island
• Canada (British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan)
• Mexico (Puerto Vallarta, Acupulco, Tijuana, Rosarita Beach, and Puerto Penasco)
• Caribbean (U.S. Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Curacao)
• Honduras
• Spain
• Gibraltar
• Italy and The Vatican
• Switzerland
• Portugal
• Morocco
• Tanzania
• Zanzibar
• South Africa
• Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls)
• Botswana (Chobe Game Park)
• Zambia (on the Zambezi River)
• Thailand
• Singapore
• Cambodia (Angkor Wat)
• Vietnam
• Bali
• Australia
• New Zealand
• India (Mumbai, Ajanta, Goa, Madhya Pradesh)

Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone has heard about the diner who claimed to find a fly in his food in order to get a free meal. Until now I believed that restaurateurs suffer more than most when it comes to customer complaints. Today, however, I read that travel specialists around the world have compiled a list of the most bizarre travel complaints ever received. The list, which was released by the ANI news service, featured the following examples:

One travel agent received a complaint from a tourist at a top African game lodge overlooking a waterhole, who spotted a visibly aroused elephant and complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel “inadequate.”

Another wacky complaint had a group of UFO-believers, who were Read the rest of this entry »

While it might seem simple to find food while driving down the Interstate, in my case the options are few, since I am vegetarian. At the moment I am traveling down I-20 in western South Carolina, examining the restaurant options at each exit, hoping beyond hope for something other than a diner, a buffet, or fast food. Around Columbia, the capitol of South Carolina, I spot McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Bojangles (now there’s a healthy option, with it’s butter-drenched biscuits), Popeye’s – absolutely nothing for me. A bit further along the highway the selection includes Waffle House, Perkins, KFC, Burger King, and Arby’s. Nope.

But wait! Here’s a sign in the distance that I don’t recognize. I am excited; there may actually be a restaurant that suits me in this remote pat of the Southeast. Hmmm….what does that sign say? Huddle House. Huh? Huddle House. The image conjured up by my mind Read the rest of this entry »