black bear cub climbing down rockface near sonora island, british columbia

the frugal traveler: budget travel for history buffs

"On a free tour of Florence by foot, I marveled at the bronze- relief doors of the city's historic baptistry, gazed in awe at the architecture of the duomo and leisurely strolled along the Ponte Vecchio. While traveling, your love of antiquity doesn't have to bust your vacation budget. Here are four fun tips for cost control."

Read the rest of the KansasCity.com article here: The Frugal Traveler: Budget travel for history buffs.

adventurous kate recaps this week's travelers' night in | spicy travel

On this week’s round of Travelers’ Night In, the interactive Twitter discussion for avid travelers and travel lovers, the theme was Spicy Travel! Turns out that means anything Latin American, hot and/or exotic! As always, ten questions were asked, people responded while tagging their tweets #TNI, and learned quite a bit about some new destinations. Read the rest of Adventurous Kate's recap here. Or follow her on Twitter.

As always, big besos to Kate for taking the time to pull together the best of the TNI responses and write a lovely recap. After this week's topic, I'm sure she needed a shower when it was all said and done. I'm not naming names, but more than a few participants took some (ahem) liberties with the definition of spicy.

adventurous kate's recap of travelers night in

Every Thursday night, Adventurous Kate takes the time to pull together a well-rounded recap of Travelers' Night In. Today's topic - Nature vs. Human Impact on Travel - was no exception, and yours truly (one of the hosts with the most) made the quoted cut. Check out Kate's recap here. As always, my favorite Bostonian vagabondress brings us a highly entertaining and informative read. Thank you, Kate.

my volunteer travel first aid kit

People frequently ask me what I pack in my travel first aid kit. I tweak the contents of my kit depending upon the destination, availability of pharmaceutical supplies and foreseeable medical services. Believe it or not, everything on this list fits into a fairly small zipped container, with the exception of prescription drugs, which I always put in my carry on luggage – just in case. Since most of my volunteer projects for The Global Citizen Project are in impoverished places, I plan to take this locked and loaded version of my travel first aid kit to all the destinations. Once there, I can pick and choose what I may need on a daily basis and stash a short list of items in my day pack (in a Ziplock bag to play it weather safe). So far, I haven’t run into a situation where I’ve needed something not on this grandmaster list. Since I’m always eager to improve my Girl Scout-like packing and travel skills, please share any can’t-live-without first aid items I should add to my kit. Check out the contents of first aid kit here.

media mention: traveldudes.org

Looky here! I was quoted today on TravelDudes.org with a nifty travel tip. Check it out here.

recipes needed for travelers’ night in e-cookbook for charity, Tasty TwEats

It’s no secret how much I love Travelers’ Night In (#TNI on Twitter), the 90-minute, fast-paced, weekly travel Tweet-up. I’ve been lucky to be a semi-regular host of the cyber soiree and now, this avid home chef is a recipe contributor to the first and only cookbook created by travelers and conceived from #TNI, Tasty TwEats. It will take readers on a round-the-world culinary adventure and 100% of all sponsorship or donation dollars to Tasty TwEats goes directly to Planeterra, a global grassroots organization donating to the people and communities around the world.

Do you have a can’t-live-without ingredient from afar? A local dish that instantly reminds you of a favorite destination? Don’t keep all the deliciousness to yourself. The deadline to submit recipes is this Thursday, July 1, 2010. The cookbook will be available Aug.1 for a minimum $10 donation.

Tune in to Travelers’ Night In this Thursday at 3:30 EST. Your truly is co-hostess with the mostest and the topic is Nature vs. Human Impact (like what happens when swine flu, volcanoes and oil spills affect your travel plans). Be sure to follow the #TNI hashtag and if you can’t make the spirited festivities, keep your eyes peeled for Adventurous Kate’s always awesome post play report.