Editor’s Note: I got to ask travel blogger, writer, conference organizer, and travel guru Matt Kepnes of Nomadic Matt some questions about travel, writing, and books (some of my favorite subjects, and, luckily, his too). *This article contains affiliate link(s). Any affiliate link means that I may earn advertising/referral fees if you make a purchase […]
STORY
Vanlife, Bikes, Verbier
By Sophie McKeand Photos: Andy Garside & Sophie McKeand Verbier is a renown ski resort for the rich and famous in the Swiss Alps but, visit there out of season and you can still experience intense downhill thrills, on a mountain bike. Visit there in your campervan and stealth park and you can do biking […]
The Best Of Times
By Sallie Lewis Longoria It’s coming on Christmas, and up and down my street, twinkle lights glow softly, like summer fireflies. While my own home will soon be decked for the holidays, the house next door remains dark and shuttered, a lingering reminder of what I lost. My grandparents – who I called Honey and […]
Breaking Into France
By Christopher Dill It was the early 1980’s, the first hip-hop movement was spreading throughout the U.S. and the world, and I was probably one of the few white breakdancers in America. I was absurdly old (26) do be doing it compared to the black teens who taught me, but breakdancing was my true […]
The Bilingual Brain
Editor’s Note: There is nothing that bridges personal distance as much as a shared language. I recently read an article on hyperpolyglots and the ease with which they can navigate new places because of their languages. I can barely manage two languages, but I’m working on it. Bilingualism has been shown to expand the mind […]
There are Bridges (Cape May, NJ, USA; China)
By Ingrid Anders A canal dredged from Cape May’s harbor to the Delaware Bay separates the old seaside resort from the rest of New Jersey. This is the kind of island Brooke wants to be—man made and cut off, so separated from the mainland she can forget she was ever part of it. The open […]
In Space, There Really Might Be No Place Like Home
Editor’s Note: Space tourism is on the horizon, but while SpaceX and Blue Origin contemplate our new space home, Robert Hazen tells us a little bit about what makes our current home unique. By Robert Hazen Few topics in science command as much attention as the discovery of extrasolar planets – those as-yet-unseen worlds, light years beyond […]
On the Road to Hades (or the Via Domiziana in Castel Volturno, Italy)
By Jake Thomas Ferguson The nice lady pleaded with me that I should stay in an albergo tonight and not on the streets. Her eyes lit up with a mother’s protective passion. Her little son eyed my travel gear curiously, not used to seeing people like me come through here. She knew I was telling […]
Living Local: On Home Exchanges and Friendships
By Stephanie Schroeder I arranged my first home exchange in 2006. The deal was that my partner at the time and I would give up our Jersey City, NJ, apartment for a couple who had a house in Alkmaar, North Holland in The Netherlands. It was all very new to me, this home exchange adventure, […]
The Saving Grace of Books (Paris)
By Sammantha Bennett Paris was chaos. Ten days after suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a concert hall, a stadium, restaurants, and bars, I stepped off a train from Munich into a swarm of armed military and local law enforcement at Gare de l’Est. I had 40 liters on my back and a bit of panic […]