Archive for February, 2010

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Benny Lewis will be Fluent in Three Months

February 22, 2010

It takes an unconventional guy to set such an unconventional goal.

Benny Lewis started traveling the world to learn the Czech language to fluency.

He believes that anyone can learn a language in three months and he set out to prove it.

Benny Lewis on Mount Teide in Tenerife

“I spend 2-3 months in a country with the specific goal of learning the language, and of course I move to a new country at the end of every ‘mission’,” Benny says.

He mostly writes on his blog, Fluentin3months about tips to learn languages quickly, which is especially relevant to travelers.

Since he started his mission, he has blogged about Czech and the Czech republic, Brazilian Portuguese and Brazilians and he’s currently in Thailand getting a basic grasp on Thai.

Shane Brown’s a spicy jalapeno

February 22, 2010

Shane Brown has been one of my favourite TravelPod bloggers for a while now.

He’s branched out on his own since he started on our site, and it looks great.

He’s christened his independent travel blog SanchezJalapeno.

It’s a website devoted to discussing the “spicier side of travel”, Shane says, “the food, people, beach bars and over zealous immigration officials – anything and everything that’s a little kooky, off kilter and definitely memorable.”

Last year, he took a 12 months to backpack around the globe, visiting Christmas Island and spending a week in Morocco, working at hostels and vineyards along the way.

But now he’s back in his cubicle, paying off the credit card while planning and counting down the days till the next trip.

To pass the time until this happens, Shane also writes for Have Pack, Will Travel, and has been known to occasionally Google himself, with mixed results.

Candice Walsh “does the world”

February 22, 2010

At the very eastern end of Canada, in St. John’s, Newfoundland, you can find Candice Walsh.

She has cultivated a sense of humour bold enough to deal with extreme weather and small towns in this part of the world.

Candice Walsh with a "shiny gent" named Adrian

She works full-time as a technical writer, but is also an active blogger and associate editor at Matador Network.

Her blog, Candice Does the World, contains personal narrative accounts of her global adventures while profiling the incredible city of St. John’s.

“St. John’s is one of the most under-appreciated cities in Canada,” she says. “It has a small-town feel with a vibrant nightlife and loads of culture.”

Newfoundland is a unique part of Canada and Candice does a great job of summing up the atmosphere in this island province she calls home.

She’s also not afraid to say that she loves resort vacations, and gives 10 reasons why.

Hilarious writing and by an irreverent lady.

Just when you thought travel writing was all fluff and nonsense, Candice’s blog hits you with a brick and makes you say thanks for the favour.

Eric Mohl and Karen Catchpole’s 200,000 mile road trip

February 22, 2010

They’ve been constantly on the move for five years now, on a “working road trip” through North, Central and South America.

Their blog is called Trans-Americas Journey and it’s a fascinating account of life on the road.

Eric Mohl and Karen Catchpole are well-oiled travel blogging team: Karen is a writer and Eric is a photographer.

They usually focus their sights on wildlife and national parks on their great journey.

“We strive to create blog content that’s as professional, accurate, compelling, unexpected and useful as the work we do for the magazines and newspapers which we regularly contribute to,” Karen says.

“Our blog posts incorporate honest, well-researched information and opinion presented in a conversational, anecdotal style with a heavy emphasis on humor and smarts,” she continues, “two things we believe are essential to all successful independent travel.”

You can currently find them exploring the Pacific coast of Mexico, their most recent post being a humorous account of Mardi Gras in Ajijic.

Cecil Lee’s TravelFeeder

February 22, 2010

Since June 2008, Cecil Lee has been filling his blog, Travel Feeder up with all kinds of tips for travel in Asia and Australia.

Cecil Lee has travel advice on Asia and Australia

He’s recently been exploring Bali, Phuket, Shanghai, HangZhou, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Gold Coast, and Queensland, Australia.

Cecil has also been adding his photography to the blog lately.

They are amazing examples of his creativity and the reader may find him or herself traveling along just by glancing at some of the images he has captured.

He loves photography so much that sometimes he doesn’t know which came first, the photos or the traveling.

“Am I traveling for photos, or photographing my travels?” Cecil wonders.

Julia Dimon: high profile travel junkie

February 22, 2010

She’s been living the ultimate travel junkie’s life for seven years and she doesn’t appear to be ready to stop anytime soon.

Julia Dimon began her career by writing a backpacking column for the Toronto Star, and then she moved to Metro News, developing readership of 23.1 million worldwide.

From there, she starred in World Travels, a 39-episode TV show broadcast on the National Geographic Adventure channel.

Julia is now writing her own travel blog called Travel Junkie.

She says she travels “from the snow-capped mountains of the Chilean Andes, to the fast-paced neon nightlife of Las Vegas.”

“I explore everything from unique customs, to historic sites, adrenaline-soaked activities, to bizarre foods, local budget getaways to high-end holidays.”

Julia also shares tips and travel advice, helpful for planning your own travel adventures, international and domestic.

Having an adventure with Ben Reed

February 19, 2010

Ben Reed started writing down his travels as a way to save all of his memories.

He decided to post those stories online to inspire others to travel, and thus began AdventureswithBen.com.

Benjamin Reed won the Ultimate Thailand Explorers Competition last year

“Along with sharing tales of my own travels, adventureswithben.com provides motivation, tips and inspiration to help others achieve their dream of traveling,” he says.

Last year, Ben won the the Ultimate Thailand Explorers Competition, sponsored by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

It gave him a chance to travel and blog from Pattaya, Thailand and also to promote the country as a tourist destination.

Now that he’s returned, Ben is planning on bringing his readers to Africa, Europe, Asia, Central Florida and his trip of a lifetime for 2010, Australia.

Sasha Peakall gets you “On ur way”

February 19, 2010

If you want to get that travel magazine experience on the web, Sasha Peakall’s On UR Way Travel is exactly what you’re looking for.

Sasha Peakall at Wat Pho in Bangkok

She’s got feature articles about the traveler vs. tourist debate and annoying hostel room characters as well as travel tips like packing in four steps and travel stories with detailed info like her last trip to Khao Sok National Park.

When Sasha finished high school, she had no idea what she wanted to do, but she knew she wanted to travel.

At age 19 she set off on her first big adventure to Europe.

“It was this point where I first caught the travel bug and since then it has never been cured,” she says.

Her naive 19 year old eyes were opened to a wide world of possibility.

“This was an experience I felt more young people need after being cooped up in the sheltered environment of school,” she continues.

“Where you learn about the world through the eyes of an encyclopedia author.”

Sasha has also just launched a new E-Mag extension of the website, it’s focused on telling stories through creative writing and photography.

It’s pretty amazing, you can actually flip the pages in the virtual magazine, which is laid out with Sasha’s signature flair.

Dianne Sharma-Winter’s Meditations on a Paper Bag

February 19, 2010

Her dreamy style and obsession with India percolates through her entire travel blog.

Dianne Sharma-Winter’s meditations are exactly what a curious traveler to India needs.

Dianne Sharma-Winter learned about traveling at a very young age.

You won’t find any hard and fast facts here.

What you will find is Dianne’s experiences living in India and wandering around the rest of the earth.

She says it best herself in this story about her childhood:

I left home when I was seven years old.

I reckoned it was time to hit the road.

So I packed a bag and plonked myself beside the Great Western Highway and waited for adventure to come and meet me.

The grown-ups had a different idea.

“Hit the road!” Roared my father, “I’ll show you hit the bloody road!”

I blamed the books.

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn did it, the Famous Five hardly saw a grown up from dawn to mystery laden dusk.

Kids did adventure, at least in every book that I had read. And if it was in a book then it must be true.

She’s still got that fearless countenance, and you can find it in her writing.

One of her latest posts that I liked was about her adventure in taking the public bus to Ajmer and her admirable inquisitive nature about the politics of Sri Lanka.

Sandy Salle’s Live the Magic of Africa blog

February 19, 2010

This blog is the mouthpiece of the Hills of Africa travel company, an outfit that specializes in customized African safari tours.

Sandy Salle is co-founder, and writes the company’s blog.

“Live the Magic of Africa, is a blog that explores exciting African destinations, safari and tour trips, and African travel trends and news,” Sandy says.

Her blog puts an emphasis on sustainable tourism and giving back to the local community.

A couple interesting posts include taking bike tours in Cape Town and saving the elephants in the Selinda Reserve in Botswana.

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