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Travel Journals Must-Haves for Memories

2012-05-14T00:02:44Z

Travel journals are a must-have for me -- though I pen plenty for public consumption about my travels (that would be because I'm a travel writer), I also think some thoughts and see some things that are for my memory banks only, and those go in my beloved, battered travel journals: actual 3D things that live on a shelf when their pages have been filled with the dust of a distant desert, the sound of Indian Ocean surf, the guy in that Belgian train station... yeah, you get the drift.

You'll find the same is true for your own travel: blogging and emailing are all good, but sometimes paper and pen are the private preservation of the present you want for your future. And they're the place to scribble hostel recommendations and new friends' emails, and certainly where you'll tuck in those little bits of stuff that make a memory: concert ticket stubs, the map to the casbah...

Ask for a travel journal as a graduation gift and you'll be ready to record this summer's travels. Some ideas:

Photo courtesy Nomad | Student Travel blog home

Travel Journals Must-Haves for Memories originally appeared on About.com Student Travel on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 00:02:44.

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Top 5 Reasons to Travel After Graduation

2012-05-14T00:00:51Z

Chances are that your parents didn't travel after graduation (the majority of US citizens don't have passports), and maybe don't think you need to, either. And after you graduate from college, it's implied that you'll go straight to work for the rest of your young-enough-to-travel life. Why shouldn't you? A million reasons you'll never regret... here are just five:

Top Five Reasons to Travel After Graduation

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Top 5 Reasons to Travel After Graduation originally appeared on About.com Student Travel on Monday, May 14th, 2012 at 00:00:51.

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Let the Road Trip Planning Begin

2012-05-14T00:00:24Z

Spring break is so over that it's time to start thinking about summer, and road trips are a time honored way for students to get summer's motor running. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? Get some ideas, get out the maps, and get ready -- how about a test ride this weekend? You don't need to go far to head out on the highway or do some back road crawling -- and even stay for free.

Road Trip Planning 101

Your Opinion: Couchsurfing, Hospitality Club, or GlobalFreeloaders?

2012-04-30T22:32:49Z

Couchsurfing, Hospitality Club, and GlobalFreeloaders are the biggest examples of hospitality networks (with Couchsurfing being the true behemoth), and each has its own fans -- and non-fans. We've only Couchsurfed, and want to know: which is best -- Couchsurfing, Hospitality Club or GlobalFreeloaders? (Or, of course, something altogether different.) And why? Give us your opinion:

Readers Respond: Couchsurfing, Hospitality Club or GlobalFreeloaders?

_{Related reading: About Couchsurfing | Traveler Feedback Have You Tried Couchsurfing? | Couchsurfing Safety | Hostels 101 | Travel Websites for Great Deals, Part One | Travel Websites for Great Deals, Part Two

Photo © Jim Stone | Student Travel Blog Home}

Your Opinion: Couchsurfing, Hospitality Club, or GlobalFreeloaders? originally appeared on About.com Student Travel on Monday, April 30th, 2012 at 22:32:49.

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Get Lost in Laos: Luang Prabang

2012-04-25T02:53:52Z

Laos is one of the last places on mainstream travel lists, which is exactly why backpackers have been tramping about there for quite some time. Similar to the way our intrepid forebears happened across Thailand and Goa back in the day. And all of that means that now is (still) a great time to get going to places like Luang Prabang. This UNESCO World Heritage city (meaning it's just absolutely lovely) in Northern Laos should be on your list if you can spare the time -- takes a couple of days to get there via slow boat, though there are faster, more hair-raising ways to arrive -- and then you should assume you'll stay longer than you plan to. Especially if you also get on up the river to the villages of Nong Kiaow (little) and Muang Ngoi (littler; accessible by boat only), and get lost for another week or month or two.

Party Central Luang Prabang is not -- in fact, you'll find curfews -- but About's man in Asia, Greg Rodgers, comes through as always with a random tip: in this case, know that the bowling alley (you heard right) is the hot spot late night. Read all about it:

Luang Prabang Travel Guide

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Get Lost in Laos: Luang Prabang originally appeared on About.com Student Travel on Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 at 02:53:52.

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Buses Are Good Green Travel

2012-04-23T00:51:57Z

Earth Day happened April 22, and we were definitely thinking green; as backpackers, we essentially leave a small travel footprint to begin with, but most of us want to make our travel as green as we can. Buses, those big, exhaust-belching behemoths, are actually a greener travel method than most (especially when compared to driving our own cars, fun as road trips are). Some interesting stats... (Read More)

Buses Are Good Green Travel originally appeared on About.com Student Travel on Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at 00:51:57.

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Earth Day: What Can Green Travelers Do At Home?

2012-04-22T13:38:24Z

We backpackers are green travelers abroad. We take short showers in communal hostel bathrooms, we hoard soap slivers rather than use shampoo in hotels' complimentary plastic bottles (yeah, those don't exist in hostels, anyway); we walk and use public transportation a lot, seldom -- like never -- renting cars; we usually eat very locally abroad, thus supporting local grassroots/farm economies...and so forth. You can do all that at home too: learn how to bring some of the ways you travel abroad back home with you in honor of US's Earth Day on April 22:

Earth Day: What Can Green Travelers Do At Home?

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Earth Day: What Can Green Travelers Do At Home? originally appeared on About.com Student Travel on Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 at 13:38:24.

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Would You Pay For Carbon Offsets in Plane Travel?

2012-04-21T20:26:49Z

"Carbon neutral" is about buying carbon offsets to neutralize or offset pollutants, like an airplane's fossil fuel. Air travelers can make a contribution or pay a fee for carbon offsets in plane travel, and the fee goes to offset the effect of that fuel on the environment. Do you, or would you, pay that fee for carbon offsets in plane travel? Tell us what you think:

Would You Pay For Carbon Offsets in Plane Travel?

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Would You Pay For Carbon Offsets in Plane Travel? originally appeared on About.com Student Travel on Saturday, April 21st, 2012 at 20:26:49.

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Green Travel Tips From Let's Go

2012-04-21T10:25:40Z

Green travel ideas from your grandparents' guidebooks tend to tout tips like, "Use the towels in your hotel bathroom twice." As backpackers, we're lucky to have towels (it's not that we don't bathe, it's that we left the towel at the last hostel, after using it roughly 36 times between launderings).

Thus, we're thrilled to see some truly serious green travel tips that actually apply to us, like the ones the student travel writers from Let's Go travel guides put out in honor of Earth Day's (April 22) 40th anniversary last year. Check it out:

Green Travel Tips From Let's Go Student Travel Guides

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Green Travel Tips From Let's Go originally appeared on About.com Student Travel on Saturday, April 21st, 2012 at 10:25:40.

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Green Travel Guilt

2012-04-21T10:24:28Z

I think I try to be a good green traveler. I can't help it: I'm a backpacker, and we travel green as much by budgetary constriction as by design (public transportation being the cheapest way to go, lack of hot water in communal hostel living dictating short showers, and so on and so forth).

On the green travel guilt side: in developing nations, I take exhaust-spewing buses that probably, with one short trip, offset every plastic water bottle I've ever recycled in my life... (keep reading)

Green Travel Guilt originally appeared on About.com Student Travel on Saturday, April 21st, 2012 at 10:24:28.

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