Back to Africa: Why This Family Left Los Angeles for Ghana The dust kicked up in the market place fills her nostrils, and the beads of sweat come trickling down her forehead. The market is loud, hot, and bustling, but Myra Parks is enjoying taking it all in. Vendors...
On the Road: A Quick Chat with Hip-Hop Violinist Damien Escobar If you already thought Damien Escobar was unbelievable, you might want to sit down as you learn more about the multi-talented hip-hop violinist. You already know the basics: 13-year old Juilliard graduate,...
Why I’m Proud to Call Myself a Tourist "And this," my tour guide says with a sense of reserved passion, "Is where the Berlin Wall once stood." His tone is somber, but there is unmistakably a sort of electric zeal in his words that he cannot hold...
Do I Even Want to Go Off the Beaten Path? When I first stepped off of the ferry that took me from Athens to Tinos -- a smaller, cheaper alternative to Mykonos -- I didn't realize that I had gone off the beaten path. After all, I was on a route that...
Why I Lived With a Strange Family in Italy to Learn a Language (and You Should Too) I found myself alone in Florence, suitcase in hand, on one of the most fashionable streets in the city: Via della Vigna Nuova. I was 20. The white taxi had already sped off and I was gazing at two intimidating...
All the Ways to Watch Your Manners in the Japanese Countryside Though most of Japan follows a certain mannerism in the way they greet, dress, eat and live, the touristy areas are more forgiving of westerners “trying” to assimilate in the culture. Once you get to the...
The Wait Is Over: Check Out the Winners of Our Travel Horror Story Competition! We asked, you delivered. Though we received a TON (we mean a TON) of amazingly horrifying travel horror stories, we managed to somehow narrow it down to the top three. Sure, there were some staff...
Been There, Done That: I Partied & Survived The Yacht Week in Croatia “Just jump!” My friends repeatedly called out as I sat on the back of a yacht in the middle of the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Croatia. I was mentally preparing to make the leap. We were anchored with...
From Behind the Iron Curtain to the Top of Choquequirao: How One Woman Made Her Travel Dreams Come True When I was four years old, I got a coconut as a gift from my father. It was so different from the fruits I had known. In communist Poland, where I grew up, it was impossible to buy any tropical fruit. There...
Don’t Take My Word For It: Hikes, Hits and Highways “Wherever yer goin’, I’ll take yeh there.” The grizzled man leans over two empty seats in his battered white Chevy truck so that we can hear him over the roar of the Oregon highway. It’s Memorial Day...
Reading This Post Will Inspire You to Go to Burning Man This weekend, the annual gathering known as Burning Man kicks off in the Nevada desert. Famous for its dedication to self-expression and self-reliance, the weeklong event grows in popularity and infamy every...
Happy 100th Birthday, US National Parks! Thanks for the Years of Cheap, Spectacular, Family Trips This week marks the 100th anniversary of the creation of the National Park Service, the federal agency in charge of managing all US national parks. In the years since that momentous event in 1916, America’s...
The Top 4 Things Study Abroad Taught Me (Sometimes the Hard Way) Studying abroad in Italy was everything you’d imagine it would be— delicious food, stunning architecture, incredible art and culture– basically a picture perfect four months. It was in the moments where...
Don’t Take My Word For It: A Travel Series I am twenty years old and on a nine-hour train ride from Munich to Amsterdam. I'm uncomfortably trying to settle in for the night in my second class economy seat that refuses to recline. "Want a...
