Q. In 2006, you began a round-the-world bicycle trip called ‘Ride Earth,’ an epic challenge you had never attempted before. What is it about seeing the world with a bicycle that excites you, and can you describe what the first few weeks of your journey were like? It was the promise of freedom that first drew me to bicycle travel. I’m sure that’s a common motive among travelers but doing it under pedal power really elevated the sense of boundlessness: no bus schedules, no cramped hostels, no fuel stations, just […]

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Paul Salopek is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer from the US, raised in central Mexico. He has reported globally for the Chicago Tribune, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, National Geographic Magazine and many other publications. His Out of Eden Walk is a multiyear, 21,000-mile storytelling odyssey across the globe, following the footsteps of our ancestors. He began his journey in Ethiopia in 2013 and will walk 33,800 kilometers (21,000 miles) to the southern tip of South America. Along the way, he is walking with guides, stopping to speak with […]

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Exploring coffee cultures around the world. Follow two caffeine junkie-backpackers searching for the world’s best coffee! The quality of a cup of coffee is determined by a complex combination of factors, both environmental and method of preparation. Since altitude, soil quality and climate are influential factors,  the bean origin influences coffee quality. These were our favorite coffees around the world. South East Asia Coffee culture here varies between nothing and top quality around here. Coffee culture in Indonesia Indonesia is a big player, the fourth biggest coffee producer in the […]

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  It may sound like a crock of balderdash to start out a review of a luxury resort with a statement about how happy the employees seem. Or that the property has transformed an area by emphasizing local hiring and local artists. But cross my heart, the service people weren’t smiling at Maryland’s MGM National Harbor resort because they were Westworld robots. And the place has such regional roots that the very clay from the property construction diggings was the literal hands-on material for a giant artwork map that greets […]

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Harar is undoubtedly Ethiopia’s brightest flower. If a jewel, she may be slightly chipped around the edges, though her centre continues to shine with undiminished brilliance. Of course, like most places on the continent – which Paul Theroux encapsulates as ‘a Dark Star’ – everything is a bit messed up. Located on the border of the far eastern Somali region, French-imported blue and white vintage Peugeot taxis cruise beneath Italian-built colonial buildings decked with tropical flowers, giving a strange Cuban twist to Sunni Islam’s fourth most holy city after Mecca, […]

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When our rafts were bitten by crocodiles or hippos, complications ensued we hadn’t imagined. We were in Ethiopia making a series of first descents down big rivers that fall off the Abyssinian Plateau: The Omo, Baro, Blue Nile, and the Awash. We called our little expedition Sobek, after the ancient Egyptian crocodile god, hoping the homage would ensure safe passage. But, another challenge reared its head, one unanticipated. When we entered the country, we discovered the customs authorities wanted us to either pay an outrageous duty (150 percent of the […]

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People travel to distant and exotic climes for a variety of reasons: a box on their bucket list, inner personal experience, cross-cultural understanding, or simple rest and relaxation. East Africa, and Tanzania in particular, gives its visitors everything they could wish in a single trip; then, leaves them coming back for more. Whether you’ve saved for months and planned your trip to Africa down to the last detail or just hopped on the next plane to Dar es Salaam, your trip should be all you expected and more. The planners […]

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One of these claims to be “The Most Interesting Blogger in the World” I was surprised when I picked up a copy USAToday and saw an item that cited me as “The first travel blogger.” I doubt it, though I was early to the game, not long after Al Gore invented the Internet. In 1993 the term “blogger” didn’t exist, so what I was posting was a real-time serialized account of my travels. If that qualifies, then perhaps the first travel blogger was Henry Morton Stanley, who sent dispatches back […]

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When Christopher Columbus made landfall in Puerto Rico during his second trans-Atlantic voyage, in 1493, a young Spanish nobleman, Ponce de León, some scholars believe, was on board. Rumors of hefty quantities of gold brought Ponce de Leon back, in 1508, where he found an islet with an excellent harbor he named Puerto Rico, or Rich Port. This would become the name of the island, while the town was renamed San Juan. He didn’t find gold, but was named first governor of the new territory, and when he heard stories […]

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“The [Café] Central is a place for people who have to kill time, so as not to be killed by it. . . .” –Alfred Polgar “I AM SIGMUND SPIELBERG!!!” The obviously unemployable flaneur with umlaut eyes landed at my marble-topped table without a proper invite, brusquely pushing aside a Thonet wooden chair. Brandishing a copy of Der Spiegel on a wooden rolling pin in his left hand, and reeking from an unfortunate cologne resembling turning fruit or female arousal or even Cutter ™, Sigmund sighed, coughing up and swallowing […]

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John M. Edwards Liquors Up and Loosens the Tongue of Adventure Journalist Bruce Northam, the Guru of Globetrotter Dogma Award-winning travel journalist Bruce Northam has wandered freestyle in over 100 countries on seven continents, with experiences ranging from drifting with Burma’s sea gypsies, playing naked Frisbee with New Guinea natives, and beholding the beguiling shores of Antarctica. With three books under his equatorial belt and a fourth on the way called “The Wisdom of Strangers”—a 108-country journey in search of unsung hero wisdom and happiness–Bruce still finds time to contribute […]

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While scouting for the first descent of the Baro River in Ethiopia, a tributary of the White Nile, I heard about a Peace Corps volunteer, Bill Olsen, 25, a recent graduate of Cornell, who decided to take a dip in the river at Gambella, a village near the South Sudan border. The locals warned to stay away from the river, which they claimed was busy with monsters. Bill ignored the cautions, and swam to a sandbar on the far side of the muddy river, and sat there, his feet on […]

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In May of 2009, my mother and I traversed France over 10 days.  On our final day, at a Paris hotel, I perused cheap flights on the Internet, chancing upon a low-cost Belgian airline, JetAirFly, with one-way flights from Liege, Belgium, to Tel Aviv, for 99 euros.  In Jerusalem, my nephew, Guy, and his mother, Miri, agreed to shelter me from the incoming cultural storm.  My nerves tingled as I considered the implications: Judea, Israel, Jerusalem, the Temple Mount and Mount of Olives; wading in the Jordan River, floating in the […]

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From 2005 through 2009 Savannah traveled the world with her family. We recently came across her book and were fascinated by her travels, details from the road and depth of writing. Recently we had the opportunity to ask her a number of questions about her travels, first book and upcoming plans.   Q. Tell us a little about yourself and how you first decided to write “Sihpromatum, I Grew My Boobs in China”. My name is Savannah Grace, I was born and raised in North and West Vancouver, Canada. I […]

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Organic farmer, Jay Ruskey has been at the forefront in California of commercially growing exotic and rare fruit species at his farm perched on the side of the Santa Ynez Mountains above Goleta since the mid 1990’s. The 42 acre farm is about 650 feet above sea level about two miles inland from the Pacific Ocean and on a clear day (of which there are many at this elevation) there are great views of the ocean and the Channel Islands. For many years it was a rare opportunity to visit […]

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