Solo Travel Hang-Ups and How to Fix Them
Updated: 2010-08-31 17:50:24
Traveling solo is one of those experiences that can be rewarding and life changing, but it can also be full of scary adjustments, even to the most seasoned traveler.
Evelyn Hannon, solo traveling expert and editor of journeywoman.com, knows all too well how challenging it can be. In the 80's, fresh from an amicable divorce with her partner of over 20 years, Hannon decided it was time to push herself further as a traveler.
“I thought I could die at home or I could die traveling.”
So traveling she went. She packed her bags for 35 days and just left. There was a lot of public crying involved, but in the end Hannon learned how wonderful it can be to be on your own. And she's been traveling solo and sharing her advice ever since.
For me photography and traveling go hand in hand, and just like most travelers, I am no professional photographer. When I look back at all the pictures I have taken of the beautiful places I have been, the pictures can never do those places justice. Although taking photography classes would be really interesting and exciting, it is pretty unrealistic for me.
Photography for Travelers is a website devoted to helping the average photographer get more out of their photography. It is not a technical website for photography students or enthusiasts, but a rich supply of ideas and useful information on how to enhance the quality your travel photos.
Good travel writing not only tells you what you need to know, but describes the location with such sensory details that the reader feels the experience.
City of Stairways: A Poet's Field Guide to San Francisco, although a poetry collection, evokes a sensory experience so similar it must be good travel writing.
A product of the afterschool program WritersCorp, students write about seven neighborhoods of San Francisco, California. With maps detailing each poems origin, poetry and travel lovers alike can benefit from this field guide.
Some say the best way to travel is to take the train. Visit GoNOMAD's new Railroad Travel Page with links to all our railroad stories.
If your tastes are a little bit more refined and want to indulge in the cultural cuisine of far off places, start by taking one of the indulgent tours listed below. Luxury, class and pampering are a specialty for most of these tours. Don't dare worry about a single thing, just sit back relax and let your taste buds take on all the excitement.
Avid to amateur wine enthusiasts are able to visit wineries from South Africa to Thailand to Spain. Cook like the Italians in private kitchens all over Italy. Leave your recipe book at home, and mix your own ingredients for one delicious and hedonistic adventure. Let the cooking and tasting begin!
Ann Torrence's U.S. Highway 89: The Scenic Route to Seven Western National Parks is a beautiful coffee table book with lots of gorgeous photographs, and it's a self-published project no less! Here's a gallery of our favorite selections, and be sure to check it out on Amazon!
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For travelers with special needs, planning any sort of vacation can be quite a production. With mobility equipment, oxygen tanks, medications, and service animals there is an endless possibility of potential packing and mobility problems.
Never mind that certain ports and countries around the world aren’t up to date on proper accessibility codes.
But traveling with special needs isn’t a pipe dream; it is possible. “Travelers with special needs assume that they have to stay home alone. Getting the word out allows people to start dreaming again and get out there” says Andrew Garnett, CEO of Special Needs Group.
Here at GoNOMAD, we receive hundreds and hundreds of top-notch travel photos. Every day brings a new suprise. In this section, we'd like to highlight our all-time top ten photos by some of the best photographers in the business.
Follow the links to the stories and you'll find many more.
Another selection of strange signs sent in by readers on their travels.
Maggie O'Sullivan profiles Posh, an online retailer of travel and lifestyle
accessories.
Clover Stroud reviews the latest travel books, including a stunning Taschen
photography book on Berlin.
A round-up of the week's travel news, including the closure of a
Dover-Boulogne ferry route.
The father of a 21-year-old British girl who drowned while riverboarding in
New Zealand will continue his fight for greater regulation of the country's
adventure tourism sector, despite new rules announced this week.
During the two days that I spent at the Mount Hagen Festival in Papua New Guinea, I saw tribes dressed in outfits that were surrealistic. Men and women painted their bodies. They drummed. They sang. They wore bird feathers and pigs’ tusks. And they looked fierce.
This tribal man from the Gor SingSing Group was probably [...]
After the failure of last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to deliver a legally binding global agreement on carbon emissions, the world’s countries have been left to come up with their own plans to reduce carbon emissions as much as they want (or don’t want). China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), [...]
I had the opportunity in Papua New Guinea to test out a couple of natural safe mosquito repellents. I am not one to take malaria tablets due to their side effects and I go running when I see a DEET-based mosquito repellent. While some might think this is irresponsible, I simply don’t like to ingest [...]
I’ve published my first article for the Huffington Post today. Please check it out and leave a comment! 20 Things I’ve Learned From Traveling Around the World for Three Years On March 13, 2007, I handed over the keys to my house, put my possessions in storage and headed out to travel around the world [...]
I shot more than 1,200 images in one day at the Mt. Hagen Show last week in Papua New Guinea. Having just arrived home today, I haven’t quite had the time to start sorting through them all so here is just one to whet your appetite. I’ll be writing more about my experiences and sharing [...]
(Photo: Condé Nast Traveler) In addition to being honored to be one of Wendy Perrin’s 135 Top Travel Specialists for 2010, we’re a big fan of the related spread in Conde Nast Traveler‘s August 2010 print issue. Perrin not only describes each selected travel agent, but also provides guidance on how to use the interactive listing [...]
The torrential rains that have plagued southwestern China this summer have caused even further damage, this time in Yunnan province. Xinhua reports that in Pudali Township of Yunnan’s Gongshan Drung-Nu Autonomous Region, “at least 67 people are missing and seven others injured after mudslides slammed [the] remote town” earlier today. In addition to affecting roads, power [...]
According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, China’s Three Gorges Dam, the country’s “largest construction project since the Great Wall,” is showing signs of strain. A summer of record-breaking rains and floodwaters has “severely tested the project’s capacity to control the surging Yangtze, the world’s third-longest river.” Given these conditions, a concerned traveler recently [...]
In the small Cambodian town of Skuon these creepy crawlies are a common snack, and any tourist sitting at a cafe may get a nasty fright when they first see the large plates of deep fried spiders being carried around, and being purchased by people feeling particularly peckish.
The small town is a mere 75 kilometers [...]