Photos courtesy of Grupo La Informacion

Running with the bulls in Pamplona is on many intrepid travelers’ to-do lists. Several Matador members have been there, done that, and have lived to tell the tale. One–contributor Michael Ward–even wrote about the experience, offering a beginner’s guide to bull running.

The Pamplona Bull Run, also known as the Festival of San Fermin, is held each July 6-14, drawing more than a million visitors.

Now, those of you who count this tradition among the experiences you want to have before you die have another resource to consult before you hit the ground running. The Spanish media company Grupo La Informacion has launched an English language website intended to provide information to novice bull runners to prevent injury or even death. www.bullrunning.com is a forum where experienced bull runners share their advice with new runners.

Start with the quiz that tells you whether you’re hardy enough to survive San Fermin. If the answer is yes, you can continue browsing through the clean, colorful site, which provides practical trip planning advice, including budgeting, lodging, and essential vocabulary (though I noticed “socorro” and “auxilio”– “HELP!”–weren’t among them!).

If you go to San Fermin this year and make it back in one piece, be sure to blog about your experience over in Matador’s community section!

Community Connection:

If you’re not the type to join in the run, you can still enjoy the San Fermin festivities. Check out Eva Holland’s “Armchair Travel: Running with the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain,” a round-up of some of the best books that have been published about this annual tradition. Eva’s list includes Ernest Hemingway’s classic, The Sun Also Rises.

Photo: Shane Sakata

I’m no trend-chaser–in fact, I tend to be trend-averse–but if you’re a traveler who’s (still) not on Twitter, I’ve gotta say: you’re missing out.

Twitter, a micro-blogging platform that gives users 140 characters to tell their followers what they’re doing– wasn’t designed specifically for travelers. Yet since it launched in 2006, users have found plenty of uses for Twitter that its own founders and developers never imagined.

Twitter is being used by travelers and travel-related businesses in especially innovative ways. Benji Lanyado, travel writer for the Guardian, used Twitter to plan a trip–which he called a TwiTrip– in real time. He’s @bejilanyado on Twitter. Diamond PR, a public relations firm specializing in travel and tourism, has filled last minute spots on press trips by reaching out to travel writers via Twitter. They’re @diamondpr on Twitter.

Another use of Twitter–the tweetchat–is being pioneered this week by travelers. A tweetchat allows users with similar interests to have chats on Twitter during a specific time designated for group conversation. On June 5, expats Honor Dargan and Shane Sakata, who have over 10 years of combined time living in Japan, will be launching a tweetchat called JapanDiscovered.

The purpose of JapanDiscovered is to help travelers make the most of their time in Japan. As Honor and Shane told Matador:

“We really want to share the knowledge that we’ve gained to give other people access to the wide variety of experiences available here. Japan is an amazing country with something for almost everyone. The difficult part of Japan travel planning is knowing where to look. JapanDiscovered! fills that gap with personalized Japan Travel planning recommendations.”

During the JapanDiscovered tweet chat, Honor and Shane will share what they know about Japan and Tokyo with participants so they can plan their travels more easily. “No guidebooks, no internet searches, just real-time answers” is the idea behind the JapanDiscovered tweetchat.

The JapanDiscovered tweetchat will be hosted by Honor and Shane each Friday at noon Japan Standard Time. You can read more about how you can participate here, and be sure to visit the JapanDiscovered website. And if you’re already on Twitter, be sure to add @japandiscovered to your follow list.

If you’ll be joining Twitter for the first time, you can sign up here. Honor and Shane will be giving away a copy of the book, Urawaza, Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan, to one lucky follower who adds @japandiscovered to their followers and then sends a Japan travel question to @japandiscovered on Twitter. Details about the giveaway are here.

Community Connection:

If you’re planning a trip to Japan, JapanDiscovered is a helpful resource. Be sure to touch base with any one of Matador’s 25 Asia destination experts, who have answers to your questions about everywhere from Taipei to Tibet– and all points in between. And be sure to check out Matador Abroad’s favorite Asia food blogs, too.

Of course you do.

Which is why our friends at Wend Magazine are offering a one-year digital subscription, which includes access to their adventurous archives, for the obscenely low price of $5.

You can’t even get a coffee and a muffin at Starbucks for five bucks!

Go ahead. Sign up now. That is all.

Photo by donjd2 (Creative Commons)

Oftentimes when I’m planning a trip, I check up on various hotels online and wish it was easier to put them into perspective, location-wise — both in terms of their location in the city and their location in relation to each other.

Well, the internet has a funny way of creating a niche site for your every desire these days: behold, SeeYourHotel.com.

It’s a simple Google Maps-based site. You plug in your destination, and orange pins pop up marking the locations of hotels across the city; blue stars represent the destination’s landmarks and attractions, another handy feature.

Then, you can filter your search by price range or star-rating, or search for a particular hotel name.

Clicking on any given property gets you a detailed description, links to TripAdvisor reviews, pictures and the relevant Google street view, plus the option to book a room or check availability.

Ordinarily I’d have a handful of tabs open to check all these things — SeeYourHotel does it all in one, while remaining uncluttered and easy to use. I’ll definitely be back next time I’m hunting for accommodation.

Photo by Olof S (Creative Commons)

If you’re like me, you spend some time wishing and hoping that your less-nomadic friends and family could catch up to you for a visit, or even join you on your travels, a little more often.

Our friends at Wend tipped us off to a web site that helps make that happen: Please Visit Me is a shockingly simply little site that lets you nudge the people in your life to, well, please visit!

Here’s how it works: input your name, email address and nearest airport, and the same info for the friend(s) you’re hoping to lure away.

Submit your info, and Please Visit Me emails your pals with the latest, cheapest airfares.

As Peter writes on the Wend blog:

It’s a fast, easy way to distract yourself from your dwindling vacation days and hold out some hope that someone from far far away will bring tales of adventure in an exotic accent. And in the time it took you to read this, wishing that someone would come by just to break up your day, you could have invited four people to visit you.

Amen!

Photo by mckaysavage (Creative Commons)

So, admit it. At some point, you’ve been sitting on the couch at night, watching the contestants on ‘The Amazing Race’ tearing around the world, and you’ve thought:

Man, how cool would that be?

Then one of the contestants has gotten stressed, or tired, and has broken down. Their face scrunches up; the tears start to fall — and the camera zooms in for the kill. The next day, all the gossip blogs run close-ups of the unlucky racer’s un-photogenic misery.

And you think: Nah…

Inevitable trials and frustrations are part of what makes travel so fulfilling; the challenge is commensurate with the reward, right? — but for my part, I could do without the reality TV humiliation. Which is where Competitours comes in.

Competitours is a travel competition pitting 17 adventurous twosomes against each other in a two week race around Europe. Teams cover 5 countries in 14 days, completing a quirky array of daily challenges each designed to highlight that day’s locale.

The requirements? Nope, you don’t have to be especially good-looking: the rule is, You Pay, You Play. There’s a fee to enter — paid after the race, incidentally — which includes your airfare, accommodation and rail pass.

Oh, and the prize? A package designed for a serious travel spree: 40 nights at Starwood hotels, 4 international flights, and more than six grand in spending money.

That sounds worth racing around Europe for, to me.

Intrigued? Check out Competitours for more info. Oh, and if you decide to give it a shot, be sure to let us know how it goes!

We might even blog about you and your adventure — but no public humiliation. We promise.

Photo by Martineric (Creative Commons)

Despite being in the news more or less constantly, the Middle East is an area that most outsiders — even those of us who travel frequently — don’t know very well.

Need proof?

Check out this Middle Eastern geography quiz. It extends beyond the Gulf into North Africa and Central Asia, and synching up the country names with their spots on the map may prove trickier than you think!

The quiz landed in my inbox as a forward. Scrolling through the email chain, I saw words like “educational”, “humbling” and “makes me feel dumb” used to describe it.

Give it a shot, and let us know how you do!

To learn more about the region, check out Matador’s recent article, What Every American Should Know about the Middle East.

Photo by HORIZON (Creative Commons)

My family was a little puzzled when my cousin announced, in the lead-up to her nuptials, that instead of wedding gifts she’d prefer contributions to her honeymoon.

That’s not traditional, aunts and uncles whispered. Why doesn’t she do a normal gift registry?

Non-traditional they may be, but increasingly, honeymoon registries make a lot of sense – whether for people who are getting married a little later than our parents’ generations, and so don’t need the traditional household basics of good kitchenware and towels, or even for those who (gasp!) just aren’t that into place settings.

Here’s the deal: honeymoon registries, set up through sites like Buy Our Honeymoon, allow for newlyweds to request specific experiences and gifts within the honeymoon umbrella.

It’s not like just forking over cash towards a trip — guests still get the satisfaction of selecting a particular event or activity, whether that means a scuba diving lesson or a special meal out, that the couple will remember (and, presumably, associate with the gift-giver) forever.

I haven’t got any wedding plans lined up at the moment (though any Yanks up for a greencard wedding should drop me a line!), but — as someone who spends nearly every penny I can spare on travel — I love the idea of receiving travel experiences as gifts, in lieu of the usual housewares.

To learn more, check out Buy Our Honeymoon.

Not convinced yet?

Check out Honeymoon Registries: Because You Already Have Enough Bath Towels.

Photo by gaminrey (Creative Commons)

Our friends over at World Nomads just announced the opening of their 2009 contest for aspiring travel writers.

If you include yourself among the legions of globe-trotting, pen-wielding writers looking for a free trip and a big break, then keep reading.

According to Chris Noble, World Nomad’s General Manager:

The scholarship recipient will go on assignment to Kerala, India in early 2009 with travel writing mentor David Stott, spending 10 days on tour with The Blue Yonder exploring the River Nila civilization and 10 days writing and reviewing for the upcoming Footprint India Handbook.

And if the destination itself doesn’t sound fantastic enough, there’s more:

The Blue Yonder Tour, specifically tailored for the scholarship recipient, will be based on the age-old tradition of story telling that reveals the uniqueness of the region and the importance of rivers for a sustainable life. It will include interactions with musicians, folk artists, bell metal workers, potters, sand miners, fire worshippers and ritualistic healers, and planting saplings at the Traveller’s Forest, a community driven eco-restoration project.

Sounds like a trip tailor-made for a Matador member!

Here’s what you need to know:

1. The trip is scheduled to take place between February 16-March 7, 2009, so you’ll need to be available these dates to be eligible to win.

2. You’ll need to write a 500 word essay on one of the following topics: a journey that changed lives; responsible travel; or adventure in an unknown culture.

3. Applications must be received by January 9, 2009.

For full contest submission details, visit World Nomad’s site.

Photo: Robbie73 (Flickr creative commons)

There are lots of online tools I use to get ready for trips and to stay connected with new friends once I’m back home.

I like the currency converter site, www.xe.com, the online world time clock, the AZ World Airports Guide, and this International Country Calling Codes site.

But while procrastinating today, I decided to look up the name of a newspaper I’d come across in Chile and wanted to read again. That’s when I stumbled upon the site Online Newspapers.

Online Newspapers is, as its name not so subtly suggests, is a listing of the world’s newspapers. Browse by continent, country, or region for local newspapers, and click on their names for a direct link to online versions. The listings are surprisingly comprehensive, though I did encounter a few broken links.

I’d be curious to see what other travelers and expats think of this site: is the listing for your favorite local paper included? Share your answer–and any other favorite online resources–in the comments below!

Photo: .leila (Flickr creative commons)

Now that the euphoria of the US election is dissipating, Americans and friends from around the world start to ask the question, “What next?” and “What can WE do to help realize the vision President-Elect Barack Obama has articulated?”

One of the answers is: Continue to look for ways to connect with one another.

Laura Bernhein, blogger over at the fantastic Spanish language blog Familia Natural, tipped me off to a worldwide effort being led by the organization, AVAAZ. AVAAZ, which means “voice” in many languages, describes itself as

…a new global web movement with a simple democratic mission: to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want.

AVAAZ’s current project is to gain 1 million electronic signatures of people around the world to send a message of congratulations and encouragement to President-Elect Obama. The messages will be displayed on a massive wall in the heart of Washington, D.C., representing the unification of diverse voices from around the world.

To add your message to the global guestbook, visit AVAAZ’s website.

Photo: Johnny Vulkan (Flickr creative commons)

Looking for some tips for your first couchsurfing experience?

Check out my post over at Vagablogging, How To Score Some Sweet Couch.

You’re just not into couchsurfing, you’re over hosteling, you think hotels are too impersonal, but a bed and breakfast is beyond your budget.

Where can you find a place, then, to lay your tired head?

The answer?

Airbed and Breakfast.

The service, brokered entirely via website, is described as “an online marketplace for peer-to-peer traveling.” People who love travel can connect with one another, with home or apartment owners making a little extra cash and tired travelers getting not only a safe place to sleep, but also local insights.

San Francisco roommates Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky came up with the idea for Airbed & Breakfast a year ago, and the concept spread quickly: the website now lists accommodations in 482 cities in 63 countries.

With rooms going for $35 a night in popular destinations like New York City, Airbed & Breakfast is definitely worth checking out for your next trip.

Photo: Peter (Flickr creative commons)

An innovative tour company is bringing visitors closer to the cutting-edge of design in London – and best of all, most of those new design trends are green!

Here’s how Insider London describes their “Cutting-Edge Green” tour:

This tour takes you straight to the most exciting and innovative sustainable retail concepts, buildings and designs that London has to offer. Travelling on foot and by public transport, we’ll show you the numerous sexy, innovative ways that sustainability can be brought to life, from gorgeous shops to futuristic architecture and inspiring communities.

Sure, the tour seems largely aimed at industry types who want to take notes for their own greenification, but if you ask me that just makes it all the more interesting.

What better way to see a new side of London than to take a tour that’s not actually for tourists?

Another Insider London tour that’s focused on sustainability? The Ethical Fashion Tour.

Photo by peter pearson (Creative Commons)

Photo by Tina Keller

I’ll be honest –

I’ve always been a little skeptical about the cross-cultural etiquette advice that crops up in guidebooks and on travel sites across the web.

The guidelines offered tend to be a little too black-and-white for me.

When a guide is written by one “expert” (usually a foreigner) there is not always room for nuance, for variations across society, or for the host’s understanding that visitors are just that: visitors, and therefore allowed some cultural leeway.

For example (and this is my personal hang-up, as a lefty): Will every single person in India really be horrified if you use your left hand to eat or, say, touch your face – or does the strength of the tradition vary according to education and income levels, rural vs. urban divides, and so on?

I was thrilled to hear about CultureCrossing.net, because it addresses exactly those concerns.

Culture Crossing is more of a travel etiquette wiki than a strict guide – the advice is constantly evolving, created and added upon by community members who also have the option of interacting with each other directly.

Got a question not fully addressed in the guide? You can ask the relevant community members directly, or post a question in the forums, for the whole group to discuss.

Like Matador, Culture Crossing is harnessing the interactive aspects of the internet not only to spread useful travel information, but to create dialogue, community and greater understanding.

As we’ve noted before here on Pulse, the world is watching the ongoing American election campaign very closely.

And now, all of us interested outsiders get a chance to have our say!

The Economist has created a worldwide poll – the Global Electoral College – to see whether the citizens of other nations would choose Obama or McCain on November 4th.

From the mag’s publisher, Ben Edwards:

Votes are cast on a country-wide level. Each country is assigned a number of votes according to the size of its population (we call these “electoral-college votes” on the model of America’s actual electoral-college system).

Then all the countries’ votes are tallied, to determine each candidate’s worldwide total. You can see at a glance which countries are pro-Obama or pro-McCain, along with their respective vote percentages. The candidate with the most electoral-college votes will win the worldwide election.

Think of it like that model election project you did in high school, but on a global scale.

Fun, right?!

I’m gonna go ahead and predict that Obama will stomp McCain in Europe, for a start. But it should be interesting to see how other countries will land.

Who will Pakistan vote for? Canada? Vietnam??

Stay tuned to find out, and don’t forget to vote, too!

The Guardian has a quick, ten-point quiz to test your knowledge.

It’s heavier on (pop-)cultural trivia rather than geographical, so geo-buffs beware: your in-depth knowledge of national capitals, Central African rivers or desert ecological zones won’t help you here!

Your humble blogger scored a perfect 10/10, on just the second try…

Photo by pintaa (Creative Commons)

Then, in the years that followed, something funny happened: that same movie became, in the words of Rolling Stone, “the most worshipped comedy of its generation.”

That flick was called ‘The Big Lebowski’ – and on its tenth anniversary, I’m pleased to announce that I finally know why I, and many other theater-goers, just didn’t quite get it when the Dude first walked onto our screens.

So why the dramatic shift in popularity?

Like so many geniuses, the Dude was simply ahead of his time.

According to Rolling Stone’s Andy Greene, the Dude represents everything that we long for in the post-Y2K world.

Sure, those yearnings existed in 1998, but before 9/11, Blackberries, and reality TV, they weren’t quite so powerful or finely honed.

Greene writes:

Early in Lebowski, the narrator (a cowboy named the Stranger, played by Sam Elliott) intones, “Sometimes there’s a man, who, well, he’s the man for his time ‘n place.” The odd truth is this man — the Dude — may have been a decade ahead of his time.

Today, as technology increasingly handcuffs us to schedules and appointments — in the time it takes you to read this, you’ve missed three e-mails — there’s something comforting about a fortysomething character who will blow an evening lying in the bathtub, getting high and listening to an audiotape of whale songs.

He’s not a 21st-century man… The Dude doesn’t care about a job, a salary, a 401(k), and definitely not an iPhone. The Dude just is, and he’s happy.

Slate’s David Hagland agrees that ‘Lebowski’ was ahead of its time, but sees the movie’s relevance today in even more specific terms. The Coen Brothers, he argues, accurately and eerily created the sort of character who would later dominate American politics:

The Dude is indeed a fantastic character. Ten years on, though, the movie’s most striking role belongs to John Goodman as Walter Sobchak: a hawkish, slightly unhinged Vietnam vet and the Dude’s best friend and bowling partner.

Watching The Big Lebowski in 2008, it becomes clear that appreciating Walter is essential to understanding what the Coen brothers are up to in this movie, which is slyer, more political, and more prescient than many of its fans have recognized. Perhaps that’s because Walter, with his bellowing, Old Testament righteousness and his deeply entrenched militarism, is an American type that barely registered on the pop-culture landscape 10 years ago.

He’s a neocon.

Grab a White Russian and click those links – both essays are well worth reading in full.

Oh, and of course you’ll need background music! Wired provides the ultimate 21-track salute to ‘The Big Lebowski’.

Happy birthday, Jeffrey Lebowski.

Even back in 1998, you knew us better than we know ourselves.

You’ve heard of Rate My Professors, right?

Well now, a new travel site offers a similar service – for local tour guides.

OurExplorer.com let’s you browse listings for hundreds of guides in dozens of countries, read reviews from other travelers, and rate your own guide after your trip.

The idea isn’t to get everyone signed up on large-scale bus tours – instead, OurExplorer aims to support local small businesses and independent guides, strengthening the grassroots economy and increasing interactions between locals and their visitors.

I’ve never been one for guided tours, but that’s a pretty compelling pitch, don’t you think?

Photo by Randy Son Of Robert (Creative Commons)

No matter where you travel, you’re sure to come across McDonald’s and KFC.

But you don’t REALLY want to eat there, do you?

The Internet offers some great resources for hungry travelers. From the high-budget to the low-budget, there’s no excuse for not going 100% local when you eat.

Chowhound, one of the web’s oldest and most popular food guides, has a home page that’s organized by region, both U.S. and international. With stories, blogs, videos, and unflinching praise and criticism by the site’s hounds, few corners of the Earth have been left untouched by Chowhound’s foodies.

Road tripping across the USA? Check out Traveling USA, which is comprehensive in its coverage of all types of culinary sites: from candy shops to roadside stands. You can search by state, too!

If you want to plan a trip around travel, check out Epicurious’s Dining & Travel blog. While many of the itineraries tend to focus on US destinations and on higher-end restaurants, the articles on this blog are delicious enough to savor as an armchair traveler. My favorite recent article is The Top 10 Farm-to-Table Restaurants. What’s nice about this article is that it overlooks predictable locavore restaurants like Chez Panisse, for lesser known restaurants in less frequented cities and towns.

*
Hungry for more? Check out Matador’s menu of food-related articles: 8 Surefire Ways to Spice Up Your Travels, What Every Backpacker Should Know About Cooking for Themselves, and The Ultimate Vegan’s Guide to Finding Food on the Road.

And food, of course, is great fodder for blogs. Check out some of my Matador favorites: An informative blog about eating in Japan by Matador member lizardlee; Common Denominators: Soy Sauce and Chilies by noellejt; and Hechizo: Culinary Enchantment in Tulum by Michelle in Playa.

Feature photo: dfinnecy (creative commons)
Photo: hazy jenius (creative commons)

In case you haven’t been following along, my cousin Sam and his friend Peter have completed their motorcycling trip from Cairo to Cape Town, arriving in the South Africa coastal city this week.

Though they were well-prepared, I get the feeling that the trip was even more challenging than the guys expected. Here are a couple of highlights from the blog:

A Nightmare in Gondar – Sam faced every motorcycle-tripper’s worst nightmare in Ethiopia: a collision involving a young child, followed by several days of nasty negotiations (read: haggling) with the local police.

One Road, One Desert, One Rib – The guys had a wild ride from Cairo to Khartoum.

So Far Away From Me – A dispatch from Nairobi, after the fiasco in Gondar and a ride down the ‘Bandit Road’.

I’m sure, somewhere, my aunt (and assorted other family members) are breathing sighs of relief.

Sam and Peter may have arrived safely in the Cape, but they’re still looking to raise more money for Spread the Net, a charity that provides treated nets for children in malarial zones. Swing by the blog and donate if you’re able!

Photo courtesy of Peter Loewen

No, it’s not just a catchy tagline with impossible fine print to follow.

It’s true: You can see an Olympic event for free.

In person.

Earlier today, Matador member Christine Gilbert announced on her website that John Britton is giving away three pairs of Olympics tickets to the people who impress him the most with a story of how they plan to pay his kind of generosity forward.

It’s imperative that you have flexibility: the tickets are for an equestrian event in Hong Kong that’s scheduled for August 9. If you fit the bill and you have a great idea about how you can spread generosity and kindness to someone else, visit John’s website and post your idea. Hurry, though; John will be selecting three winners on August 6!

Photo: Tama Leaver (creative commons)

Photo by Eva Holland

I’ve just arrived back in New Orleans for a second visit, after catching a serious case of the smittens for the city when I was here in March.

It’s one of those places that catches hold of people – I’ve lost count of the stories I’ve heard from people here, who arrived on holiday however many years back and never did manage to leave. It’s always “I came down here to party after college graduation…and never left,” or “I came down here 16 years ago… been here since.”

New Orleans is not a place that people gravitate to for logical reasons – it never seems to be about the job market or housing prices or an of the usual reasons people pick up and move their lives cross-country. At the risk of sounding completely corny, I’ll say it: there’s something almost mystical about the power this city holds over people.

I’m not the only Matador member who’s caught the New Orleans fever at one time or another. Here’s some of the best NOLA-related content on the network:

My Pulse co-editor Julie headed down this way in June, and turned out several great articles: Top 10 Reasons To Travel To New Orleans NOW (a must-read!), Top 6 Volunteer Experiences In New Orleans, and The Peace Corps For Cooks: Volunteer Travel With The Culinary Corps.

In Matador’s Traverse Magazine, Trips editor Tim Patterson interviewed Katherine Burgess, an urban planning student who got involved in the post-Katrina re-building: From Berlin To The Bayou.

Over at Brave New Traveler, Eric Daams tackled the touchy subject of ‘dark tourism’ – including the Hurricane Katrina tours on offer here.

Matador member Olivebeard has spent a lot of time in New Orleans since his parents relocated here. Check out his blogs: How The Grinch Gave Christmas Back, and Cajun-Tossing and Other Signs of Happiness.

Finally, I posted a few items from here myself: in Faulkner on New Orleans I shared the best description I’ve yet read of the city, and wrote about my impressions of voluntourism in the city in the blog post Seen & Heard.

Photo by vlauria (Creative Commons)

If you’ve been around the Matador community for long, you already know that there are lots of ways to get great, free, independent travel advice online.

(And if not, you’re about to learn! Check out our roster of friendly destination experts, or search our blog posts and articles by location, for a start.)

Online travel info has gone well beyond what you can find on booking sites like Travelocity or Expedia, or even on the sites put up by guidebook publishers like Lonely Planet or Rough Guides.

Some sites are user-generated, some are professionally written – and some are a mixture of both.

But what most of the newer sites – including Matador – have in common is the ability to network with the people providing the advice. After all, doesn’t it make sense to know a little bit about the person who’s just recommended a restaurant or a tour? If you know their style, you’re better able to tell whether it might be your style, too.

Here are a couple of new travel communities we’ve come across recently. They’re worth checking out – after you’re done browsing Matador, of course!

Viatribe: Viatribe is a “competitive community of travel writers” offering reviews of accommodation, eating and drinking options worldwide. Browse their reviews and rate your favorites – or, if you’re interested in travel writing, consider signing up to contribute reviews of your own. Details are a little vague, but payment is involved – that’s where the reader ratings and the “competitive” aspect come in.

Tripwolf: Tripwolf is a “social guide for the discerning traveler” – members can browse reviews and listings from both professionals and other users, and can create a personalized 10-20 page guide for their trips, using their favorite content from the site. Unlike many indie travel sites, which are only available in English, Tripwolf aspires to exist in several languages; so far it’s also available in German.

Photo by Obbino (Creative Commons)

If you know Vienna or Budapest like a local because you ARE a local, then PlanetEye wants to hear from you!

PlanetEye is an online travel planning service that is heavy on gorgeous photos, great content about the world’s most exciting cities, and technologies such as geotagging.

At present, PlanetEye is seeking local experts for Vienna and Budapest. Local experts are the backbone of PlanetEye’s content generation, sharing news, reviews, and exclusive insiders’ views of the cities they know so well. Local experts are expected to share at least three blog entries a week that give travelers a look at what’s going on in their city.

And for travel writers looking to build publication experience, there’s extra good news: the local expert positions are paid!

To apply for a local expert position, visit Planet Eye, get a feel for the site, and then check out the application process. Need some insider’s tips? Shoot me an e-mail; I’m PlanetEye’s Mexico City local expert.

I’m not one to get excited about advertisements, but I have been noting the increasing interest that the liquor industry is demonstrating in travel with more than a little fascination.

First, it was Bombay Sapphire’s travel blog contest , complete with a snazzy website designed to appeal to members of the hip young jetset who also happen to document their travels in writing.

Now, it’s Chivas Regal’s ThisIsTheLife.com, a website which would be just another well-designed, visually appealing, quality content-oriented travel site if it didn’t have that tiny little tag in the top left of your screen that says “Sponsored by Chivas Regal.”

But clever advertising aside, This Is The Life is actually a smart, attractive, highly navigable site for “people who want to get the most out of life.” The purpose?

…to replace the time invested ploughing through countless City guides, travel books and magazines with a singular world wide web forum where the earth’s best experiences could be raised and reviewed, not just by an editor and his team (although we do have very good ones), but by everyone.

You can look up other users’ top experiences by continent or by type of experience– from adrenaline thrills and best views to voluntourism travel and best places to propose. And you can share your own top experiences if you sign up for a free account.

For being a website designed and sponsored by a major liquor company, the site is refreshingly free of advertisements of all sorts, even subtle ones. Even under the World’s Best Bars, there’s no flashing ad or obvious pandering for the user to buy Chivas products. Believe it or not, this is a great website to add to your list of must-visits for planning trips.

Photo: jasoneppink (creative commons)

Photo by T U R K A I R O

I don’t want to become that “look! a good news story about Africa!” girl, but hey, here I go anyway:

Look! A good news story about Africa!

AfriGadget.com is a website that showcases the latest inventions and problem-solving tools created by entrepreneurs – often self-taught amateurs – on the continent.

The idea, in the words of the About AfriGadget page, is to publicize the many examples of “Africans bending the little they have to their will, using creativity to overcome life’s challenges.”

Re-using materials, and turning bad things into good things, are both common themes. Take this story: Ethiopian Ingenuity: Turning Mortar Shells Into Coffee Makers. Fair Trade latte, eat your heart out. That’s a cup of coffee with a difference!

The writers and editors behind AfriGadget get many of their stories from wire services and news organizations around the world, but they’re also actively looking to cultivate more grassroots reporting.

So writers and photographers, if you’re headed to the continent, or if you have cameras, audio recorders or other equipment to spare, get in touch!

In the first part of our occasional series spotlighting the interests and projects of Matador members, we introduced you to 7 people living, traveling, and realizing amazing projects all over the globe.

The piece was so popular, we’re back with round 2. Meet:

Craig Martin: www.indietravelpodcast.com

You may know him as the IndieTravelPodcast guy and Matador’s #1 podcaster. But did you also know that Craig has been living on the road full-time since 2006 with no fixed address? His most recent Matador article was “Everything You Need to Know About Traveling with a Eurail Pass.” If you need insider info. on a European destination, Craig’s website is sure to provide you with some useful tips.

N. Chrystine Olson: www.wranglingrhinos.com

Chrystine describes herself as a “geographical mutt,” which only serves to stoke her insatiable curiosity about almost everywhere! She’s wrangled rhinos in in Africa, tagged kangaroos in Australia, and rebuilt sailboats in Baja. In addition to contributing frequently to Matador–check out her latest piece, a road trip guide to Idaho’s panhandle–she also writes for Everywhere Magazine.

Stephen Orchard: www.freelancetravelwriter.co.uk

One of Matador’s consistently creative and funny writers, Stephen has written about everything from the five worst travel gadgets to surfing in Croyde Bay. He also has some pretty great photos in his online portfolio.

Michaela Lola: http://michatheperegrine.googlepages.com/

Born in the Philippines, Michaela currently calls Berlin home. Her candid blogs are funny snapshots of expat life, and her articles always tackle tough, travel-relevant issues. On her personal website, she brings all of these interests together under a single cyber roof, adding her vivid photos for a complete travel writer’s portfolio. Check out her thoughtful blog, The Second Leap.

Stay tuned! Installation 3 is coming up next week, introducing you to some of Matador’s newest members! And if you haven’t already sent us your website, what are you waiting for? Drop us a line, won’t you?

Photo: canonsnapper (creative commons)

Awhile back I wrote about my cousin Sam and his buddy Peter, who’ve been blogging about their preparations for a major motorcycle trip.

They’ll be riding from Cairo to Cape Town this summer, raising money for a great little malaria prevention charity, Spread The Net.

Well, the day has (almost) arrived: Sam and Peter have arrived in Cairo, and are just waiting for the bikes to clear customs in the nearby port, Alexandria.

Be sure to check out their blog and stay tuned – this promises to be an adventure worth following along with!

(Photo courtesy of Peter Loewen)

Photo by ny156uk (Creative Commons)

I have to admit, I’m not all that great at traveling light.

I’m far from the worst out there – you won’t see me carting around a hair dryer and straightener or multiple pairs of heels – but on my earliest backpacking trips, I routinely filled my pack to the point where I couldn’t lift it into an overhead rack without help. As a solo traveler, that probably wasn’t the best move!

So what are my weaknesses?

Books, for a start; I don’t leave home without at least two or three, plus a guidebook on longer trips. A huge amount of weight comes from toiletries – for most of my early travels, my hair reached most of the way down my back, and the fact of the matter was, a travel size shampoo lasted for, oh, one or two washes.

I tend to bring more clothing than I need, too. This may come as a shock to my mother, but I do at least try to be ready for more formal occasions, should they arise, so a couple of blouses and a skirt generally ride at the very bottom of my bag.

I’ve gotten better in recent years, but I still have a lot to learn. And that’s where OneBag.com comes in. It’s an entire website – and we’re not talking just three or four different pages here – devoted entirely to the art of packing light.

Check out articles on everything from the importance of a packing list (repeat after me: “if it’s not on my list, it shouldn’t be in my bag”) to the knock on wheeled bags – the site is detailed and informative, with a hint of fun.

You might be thinking, why an entire site? Is packing light really that big a deal? But, as OneBag.com explains, packing light can have an impact on your security, economy, mobility and serenity – not to mention on the environment.

I hit the road again in just over a week, on one of those complex, multi-stage trips that requires careful packing for a variety of climates and activities – so I’m off to study up!

Photo of Vanuatu by PhillipC

Okay, okay – bad pun, I know. But I couldn’t resist.

OurPlanet Retreats is pioneering a new form of eco-friendly tourist accommodation – spherical lodges suspended in trees, with the first locations planned for Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and the Philippines – and the twist is, anyone can become a shareholder.

Even if you’re not looking to get into the green tourism phenomenon on the business end of things, the site’s still worth taking a look at – those spheres are pretty darn cool!

Know of any innovative eco-tourism projects? What’s the strangest place you’ve ever slept while traveling? Let us know in the comments!

Photo by paul goyette

The United States has taken a lot of heat in the last few years.

Today, on the 4th of July, I thought I’d toss out a few links that dare to break the negative mold.

First off, over at Brave New Traveler, Pulse’s own Julie Schwietert on why traveling is the most patriotic act of all.

Meanwhile, Nerve.com’s indie movie blog, The Screengrab, offers up 15 Movies That Show What’s RIGHT With The U.S.

Lastly, my own national holiday, Canada Day, was earlier this week on July 1. I wrote a post at Vagablogging in its honour:
Do you celebrate national holidays when you travel?

Citysearch.
Zagat.
Time Out.
Village Voice.
Wallpaper City Guides.

There are hundreds of printed and online guides to New York City, but one of the newest is YourLocal, an online guide with an up-to-date searchable database of events and places, which you can check by date, neighborhood/zip code, or popularity.

The clean, clutter-free design makes it a welcome addition to the online guides, and the YourLocal editorial team plans to expand to other cities soon.

What websites to you use to learn about events in cities around the world? Share your suggestions below!

Photo: ontheinside new york (creative commons)

Matador member Lola Akinmade–herself a carrier of a well-inked passport leafed with multiple visas–sent in a tip about the website Most Traveled People.

Think you’re well-traveled?

Well, compare your passport stamps to those of Charles A. Veley, who has visited 630 of the world’s 673 “countries, territories, autonomous regions, enclaves, geographically separated island groups, and major states and provinces” and has the stories and pictures to prove it.

Nancy Dockry, though, isn’t far behind, clocking in with an impressive 620 place-visits on the MTP roster.

If you want to start keeping track of your travels, check out MTP’s printable list of places and see how you stack up beside Veley and Dockry.

Or if you think you’ve got what it takes to join the ranks of the world’s most traveled people, start your own account.

According to your own count, how many countries have you visited? Post your travel stats in the comments below!

Photo: disco~stu (creative commons)

Contributor Rob Verger offers a thoughtful dispatch on the slum tourism phenomenon, an accompanying audio slideshow, and his picks for the best movies on the subject.

The Matador Network has plenty of content tackling the favelas and urban poverty as well. Check out Why We Need Micro Loans Instead of Slum Tourism or get to know Matador member Beija-Flor, who works with Sao Paulo’s street children through the Children At Risk Foundation.

Here’s the trailer for the most famous of Verger’s movie picks, City of God:

With rising prices on–well, almost everything–your travel budget may be thinner than ever.

If that’s the case, check out these online contests, all of which offer travel as the big reward.

Some require penning a blog entry; others require a few simple clicks:

New York City Culinary Adventure Give-Away: Bon Appetit, The Food Network, O & Co., & Zagat have teamed up to sponsor the Foodie Tour Sweepstakes. The grand prize? A 3 day, 2 night “Foodie Tour” of New York City, which includes a $2,500 food allowance.

For this contest, all you have to do is enter your name and contact information to be eligible. You can also enter every day during the open contest period.

Bombay Sapphire’s Spirit of Exploration Blog: Blog your way to a trip to Bangkok by submitting an entry in response to the prompt “What is the spirit of exploration?” Sorry, this contest is only open to those of legal drinking age.

Conde Nast Traveler’s Where Are You Contest? Correctly identify the mystery location of the month and you’re automatically eligible for $1,000 in prizes and a $10,000 vacation. Conde Nast also sponsors a monthly World Trips contest.

Got any travel contest tips? Submit them below in the comments!

Photo: danorbit

Another one of the perks of the Pulse editing job is surfing through the Matador network and meeting really interesting travelers who aren’t simply taking cool trips, but are also realizing amazing projects along the way.

In this week’s Spotlight, we’re introducing Matador members who aren’t just frequent contributors to the community, but who’ve also got it going on online.

Lola Akinmade: www.lolaakinmade.com

You probably already know Lola for her fantastic photography articles on The Travelers Notebook and her beautiful photos (that’s hers above!).

Check out her website, though, and you’ll learn a little bit more about her other writing and travel interests. My favorite recent post is a thoughtful, funny, and informative piece about her sister’s wedding in Nigeria.

Christine Gilbert: www.almostfearless.com

In just 11 days, Christine and her husband will be pulling up their Boston roots and setting off on a who-knows-how-long-journey: first stop: Spain. She’s left a cushy job to commit herself to following her bliss, but each weekday she serves up funny and useful posts that are both intimate and totally relevant to the reader. Be sure to check out “Escapism: The Dirty Word That Keeps Us Doing What We Loathe.”

Eva Holland:

In addition to co-editing Pulse, writing for Vagablogging and World Hum, and contributing frequently to the Matador community with articles and blogs, Eva’s film and music blogs are evidence of how wide-ranging her interests are and how well she writes about all of them.

Matt Kepnes: www.nomadicmatt.com

Matt is also a frequent contributor of articles to the MatadorNetwork, but he also manages to post fresh content daily on his own website, which is full of useful tips and lively conversations about every travel-related topic you could imagine. His “Things I’d Tell a New Traveler” is a mandatory read for people new to the open road. Pass it on to someone you know.

Ian MacKenzie: www.ianmack.com

Ian is the founder of Brave New Traveler, one of the nine blogs in the MatadorNetwork, but on his personal website he reflects on film, pop culture and current events, and multimedia.

Richard McColl: http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/ricardo_emp

I’m headed down to Richard’s Casa Amarilla in Colombia in a week or so, and I can’t wait to meet this London expat who has called South America home for the past five years. In addition to contributing some great blog entries to Matador, Richard also writes insightful, important journalistic pieces from Latin America. If you don’t know who Ingrid Betancourt is, read Richard’s recent article, “Ingrid Betancourt: FARC Hostage 6 Years and Counting….”

Misty Tosh: www.bigsweettooth.com

Misty’s also a frequent contributor of articles to Matador and is the resident expert on living the solar life from a travel trailer or sailboat, but you have to check out her personal website to begin to get the full scope of what she’s got going on. Reading her blogs each morning gets me stoked for the whole day, but chatting with her just blows me away and reminds me why this one wild and precious life, as the poet Mary Oliver said, is so damn amazing.

Community Connection: Introduce yourself! Who are you? What are you doing? Where can we find you online and on the road? Share your story in the comments below.

Photo: Lola Akinmade

One of my perpetual interests and preoccupations is the loss and capture of great stories. Who used to live in my apartment? What was the corner store before it became a bodega?

The answers may not seem so important in the overall rush and bustle of life, but the stories that are saved open windows into the past that would otherwise remain closed.

A new website, City of Memory, opens lots of windows. An initiative pioneered by City Lore , a group of “cultural activists,” City of Memory lets folks, both storied and ordinary, share their memories and histories about places around New York City.

The site is easy to use and highly interactive. Click on the dots on the map and hear a story about the former Spanish Camp on Staten Island, read one woman’s memories of adolescence in the Bronx, or watch an audio slideshow about an Egyptian entrepreneur’s tough life after 9/11.

Have your own story of the city? City Lore actively solicits and curates stories, but also accepts submissions from the general public. Check out the submission guidelines here.

Community Connection: Make your own NYC story! MichaLola has just written a guide to NYC. The Traveler’s Notebook has a Green Guide to New York City. And I’ve got a few guides that might help you, too: 10 Best NYC Experiences. Period; Top 10 Tips for Navigating JFK; and Discover Lovely Long Island City!

Photo: DewCon (creative commons)

‘Are guidebooks becoming irrelevant?’ Adam Leith Gollner asks in the introduction to GOOD’s Guide to Guidebooks.

‘Not quite yet,’ he answers. After all, there’s something ‘reassuring about clutching a guidebook as you stumble from monument to monument through a foreign land’, isn’t there? Your Lonely Planet still feels ‘more dependable than some shut-in with a Wikitravel avatar’, doesn’t it?

I’m a guidebook fan, so I’d answer yes to both of those questions. But even an enthusiast can admit that not all guides are equal – that’s why blunt, entertaining reviews like the GOOD guide are so useful.

Plus, I give them a few huge bonus points for the mad alliteration.

Community Connection: The Matador community loves a good debate about guidebooks! Check out the articles “5 Reasons Wiki Travel Guides Are Better Than Guidebooks” and “6 Simple Ways to Travel Without Your Guidebook.”

Photo: Jaako

Lots of Matador members teach English abroad.

Abram is one of them.

At Abram’s blog, Yo!Japan, choice excerpts from his students’ essays are often featured, along with other oddities of daily life in Japan.

Laugh along with Abram by checking out this short essay.

Community Connection: Considering teaching abroad? Check out some of our favorite articles on the subject: Top 10 Places for Teaching English Abroad; How to Become an English Teacher in Mexico; and Beginner’s Guide to Teaching English in China.

Photo: Wm Jas (creative commons)

Along with the travel guidebook, printed atlases may soon be eclipsed in popularity by online mapping services.

Many sites like Mapquest have been around for awhile and Google Earth has helped many people procrastinate away an entire afternoon. But more and more sites are launching to respond to travelers’ interest in receiving updated and accurate maps that can be downloaded, printed, and stuffed into a rucksack.

Among these newer sites is National Geographic’s online national outdoor recreation database, TOPO! Explorer. TOPO! Explorer has a searchable dynamic archive of U.S maps that are updated and reviewed by government agencies, publishers, and the site’s own community of users.

As a TOPO! user, you can upload video, photos, and other multimedia data that serve as useful information for other outdoor enthusiasts…and which can’t fit in the pages of a book. If you want to download maps, prices start at $1.00 per page.

Community Connections: Matador members love maps! Geotraveler makes web-based maps for a living; Hal Amen recently wrote a great blog about his obsession with maps; Jacob Bielanski wrote a useful article about How to Find Your Way When You’re Lost; and Lisa Lubin recently wrote an article about how to avoid getting lost in cities.

Photo: Green Map System (creative commons)

Leave only footprints behind.

Recently, National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations and Ashoka’s Changemakers collaborated in creating the Geotourism Challenge.

From the press release:

The online contest was created to discover and support entrepreneurs with innovative approaches to geotourism, defined as tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place — its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and the well-being of its residents.

Now, fifteen finalists have been announced, and the competition needs your votes to select the three winners.

Swing by the contest site to check out the innovative, sustainable projects that are being built around the world, then vote for your favorites. Competition closes on Wednesday, June 11.

(Photo: Eva Holland)

Eva’s recent Picks of the Week post highlighted some of Matador’s fitness conscious content for travelers who want to work out on the road.

Since then, I’ve come across the great website, Run the Planet, which is a running traveler’s dream!

Among its best features, Run the Planet offers the following:

*More than 2,800 suggested running routes in the United States, with hundreds more from around the world;

*A calendar of races, runs, and marathons around the world;

*Versions of the site in Italian, Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

If you’re a runner, check out this site before your next trip. And don’t forget your shoes.

What resources do you use to find out about fitness opportunities on the road? Leave a suggestion in the Comments.

Photo: nic0 (creative commons)

So, you’ve plugged away in your cubicle all year and can FINALLY see your vacation days on the horizon. Your bags are packed, you’re on your way, you’re sure you’ll have a great time… and then it rains. For seven days straight. Back to the cube, it’s suddenly sunny.

Life can be so cruel.

That’s why Priceline is poised to revive itself as a go-to website of choice for travelers. Having identified the silver (or gold?) lining in the vacationer’s rain cloud, Priceline has announced a novel idea to attract customers: If it rains on your vacation, you’ll get your money back.

There’s fine print, of course, which you can read here. But the idea just might make you willing to endure William Shatner.

Sunshine guaranteed… that’s better than the local weatherman!

Photo: wiseacre

Here at Matador Pulse, Eva and I receive lots of e-mails notifying us of new books, products, events, and websites related to travel. Getting the inside scoop on new releases and deciding what’s the best of the best to share with readers are a couple of the perks of our job.

Truth is, we love sharing our opinions with you!

Sometimes, though, we like to leave the final call up to you.

In the past week, we’ve learned of two newish travel-related websites, UrbanStrolls, and Chickable, which seem as if they haven’t reached a critical mass of users just yet.

UrbanStrolls offers self-guided walking tours of San Francisco, Istanbul, and Singapore in MP-3 format for $12.99.

Chickable, on the other hand, is a website creating an online travel community for women “to capitalize on the explosive growth of the women-only travel market.”

Take a look at these sites and let us know what you think… What does a travel website need to do to be relevant, to reach a critical mass of users, and to engage you as a regular visitor? Share your comments below.

Photo: lavendamemory (creative commons)

I recently posted an entry about TripFilms, which I dubbed the traveler’s version of YouTube.

Afterwards, I received an e-mail from Matador member Chris Scott, co-founder of Triporia, another travel film website. I’d describe Triporia as YouTube crossed with TripAdvisor.

Most of Triporia’s content consists of short clips that are reviews of hotels, restaurants, and other travel-related sites. What makes Triporia’s niche distinct is that the videos are posted by travelers and businesses. In effect, Triporia serves as a visual, virtual guidebook… but may raise questions about the “true” nature of the places being reviewed. The site is still young, though, so time will tell how the public responds to the concept.

Have you checked out Triporia? Do you use TripAdvisor? How much do reviews of any type influence your travel decisions? Leave some feedback in the comments below.

Photo: bayswater97

Photo by kk+ (Creative Commons)

When I first did a google search to kick off my hunt for this week’s picks, I came across a lot of perky, apparently-this-is-news-to-us stuff like this:

Did you know that these days, any hotel worthy of the name will have a free fitness center for guests? Use it!

Or:

Ask your big-name, over-priced gym whether they have deals with franchises in other cities! They’ll hook you up!

Okay, so I’m paraphrasing. And maybe adding in a dose of sarcasm. But the point is, it was harder than I thought to find quality fitness tips for travelers who aren’t staying in four-star hotels and who don’t have global gym memberships.

There is some great stuff out there, though! If you’re an independent traveler looking to stay fit on the road without spending much money, look no further.

Start with Turner Wright’s 5 Lesser Known Ways To Stay Fit When Traveling – these not only get you exercising, but help you connect with your destination, too.

Over at World Hum, Rolf Potts gives a detailed answer to the question, How do you stay fit when you’re traveling? His personal road fitness routine requires nothing more than a resistance band and a pair of running shoes.

Finally, RealBuzz.com also offers some good tips, including simple items to pack, and ways to work fitness into your sightseeing.

Photo courtesy of Peter Loewen

Anyone else have that cousin or distant family member who’s always doing incredible, intimidating, admirable stuff?

Like, say, riding a motorcycle from Cairo to Cape Town for charity?

Meet my cousin Sam, and his friend Peter. This summer they’ll be doing just that, and blogging about it all the way.

The blog is already up and running, filled with details about bike maintenance and preparation, photos from their past long-distance rides through Quebec and Labrador, route planning, and more.

I may be a little biased, but I find it fascinating.

The goal is to raise $50,000 for Spread the Net, a charity that aims to tackle malaria by a simple, affordable method: providing at-risk children in sub-Saharan Africa’s malarial zones with an insecticide-treated mosquito net. $10 buys one net, and Sam and Peter have raised close to $20,000 already – that’s a lot of nets!

So swing by the blog, check it out, and keep it in mind over the coming months – it should be a great adventure to follow along with.

ps: This trip’s been in the works since before Ewan McGregor did it. I’m just sayin’.

While sitting on the patio of an outdoor cafe in Havana last week, I noticed a woman reading Lonely Planet’s Cuba guide. Wondering how she would get outside the guidebook for an “authentic” experience, I asked her what resources she would consult if she wanted to try experiencing Cuba like a local. “Good question,” she said.

The question sparked an interesting conversation about the limited information available for travelers who aren’t interested in excursion buses or guided tours of overrun and overrated sites.

Fortunately, a notable exception is the compelling website, Dine With Locals. Started by a couple in Colorado, Dine With Locals matches locals and travelers around the world as hosts and guests in the ultimate form of cultural exchange: the sharing of a meal. Check out the site before your next trip!

Community Connection: Check out some of Matador’s great content about food and eating on the road:
Ross Tabak’s 7 Secrets for Eating Like a Local

Ian MacKenzie’s interview with Derek Wallace of OrganicReform.org

Photo: gilmarcil

Photo by goldberg (Creative Commons)

A team of journalists in Chicago is hard at work on an ever-expanding new project: LiveNewsCameras.com.

The site streams live news feeds from more than 150 channels around the world – perfect for pre-trip research, or for keeping up with events back home while you’re on the road!

So far, their offerings are heavy on US-based channels, but the site’s creators have big goals and are expanding their collection all the time.

The motto of Live News Cameras?

Veritas odit moras, or, Truth hates delay.

Whether you’re a city hopper or a slow traveler, the newish website Dopplr.com, founded in 2007, may be an interesting social networking tool to add alongside your Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn accounts.

The idea of Dopplr is simple. By creating a free account and noting your upcoming travel plans, you can let friends, family, and acquaintances keep you on their radar. If they also create an account and indicate their travel plans, then Dopplr will automatically let you know whether your paths might cross. Dopplr makes calling ahead and making arrangements to get together seem downright antiquated.

Clean of ads and functional, Dopplr has gained favorable coverage from TIME, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian.

Do you have a Dopplr account? If so, share your experience with Dopplr in the comments section!

Photo: upshift

Over at the Christian Science Monitor, staffers re-hash Conde Nast Traveler’s 10 tips and questions to consider before heading off on your next volunteer vacation.

Brave New Traveler has also addressed this question, with the Complete Guide to Volunteer Tourism.

Read up, and then head to Matador.org to find out more about some of the amazing volunteer/travel opportunities available worldwide!

Photo by Dave Bezaire and Susi Havens-Bezaire
(Creative Commons)

Photo by Stewart (Creative Commons)

That pillar of traditional print media, the Encyclopedia Britannica, has entered the 21st century.

Yes, the multi-volume source you turned to for every junior high science report you ever wrote now has a blog.

And it’s actually a pretty entertaining one, filled with well-written, thought-provoking and discussing-inducing coverage on everything from politics to the environment to the evolution of the English language. It’s an eclectic mix, and a compelling one.

Food for thought: If even the Encyclopedia Britannica has a blog, how much longer can we go on being considered “alternative” or “new” media? Put in other words: Is blogging still cool?

Photo by Eva Holland

Matador’s own Erin Granat has just launched a new season of her successful vblog, Erin 411!, showcasing the best in Reno-Tahoe nightlife, outdoor activities, quirky cultural events and more.

Be sure to check out the new episodes here.

Even if you’re not headed to the area anytime soon, swing by anyway and give Erin some support!

Your page hits and comments keep independent travel media running.

And speaking of Nevada: while you’re at it, give the Top 10 Lessons Learned at Burning Man ‘07 and The First Timer’s Guide to Participating at Burning Man a read, too!

Photo by DavidDennis (Creative Commons)

That’s isiZulu for “Letter from a person travelling in Africa,” and it’s also the name of Stephanie Nolen’s excellent new blog.

Nolen is the Globe and Mail’s Africa correspondent, and – as I wrote in a blog post months back – one of the best (if not the best) foreign journalists working on the continent.

She ordinarily files major, in-depth features (you can find a few in full on her website – check them out!), most of which are pretty heavy, subject matter-wise, so it’s great to have some lighter, day-to-day observations in the blog to balance things out.

After all, these days, how often do you get to read a story about Africa that makes you laugh?

Take this post, for example: Things people tried to sell me in a Freetown traffic jam. The list includes nail clippers, Lost bootlegs, fried plantains, and a Virgin Mary wall clock.

It’s nice to have a reminder that even in Sierra Leone, life goes on, people smile and laugh and sing, and hawkers sell sunglasses to drivers stuck in traffic.

Photo by malias (Creative Commons)

If you’re a fan of Google Earth– vanity googling your own address or using the site to check out places you’ll be visiting–check out www.everyblock.com.

Where Google Earth gives you a visual zoom on almost any block in the world, Everyblock zooms in on what’s happening on the ground.

Though the service is only available for Chicago, New York, and San Francisco, type in any address in one of these cities and a list of recent neighborhood activity– crime reports, restaurant inspections, and garden variety news–pops up for your perusal.

Still more evidence that the guide book may be headed towards oblivion!

Photo by Eva Holland

Ahhh, Europe.

Sometimes I think I could spend the rest of my life lounging on a bench in a Venetian campo, or wandering the coastal paths of south west England, and not get bored.

Of course, boredom probably wouldn’t be my first problem; bankruptcy would be!

In honor of the almighty Euro (and the powerful British Pound), this week Matador Pulse brings you the best of the Matador Network’s advice for cheaper travel in Europe.

For some general advice to get started, try Brave New Traveler’s 8 Budget Travel Tips to Make Europe Cheap Again and 5 Budget Friendly Ways to Get Around Europe.

Over at The Traveler’s Notebook, check out the Top 10 Hostels in Europe and the Top 10 Websites for Finding a Cheap Place to Stay.

Getting down to specific destinations, check the Notebook again for a podcast on the Top 5 European Travels for a Falling US Dollar. Headed to the British Isles? Browse through Brave New Traveler’s Budget Travel Tips for Great Britain.

Finally, Matador Trips has kicked off a whole series on cheap European travel with two great articles about France: How to Travel in France For Less Than $100 a Day and How to Enjoy Paris On $100 a Day.

Enjoy! And stay tuned for lots more cheap Europe advice from Matador Trips!

Community Connections:

Lots of Matador members have been traveling around Europe and posting fantastic blogs about their experiences. Here’s a small sample: jgbrandt’s Crashing at James Joyce’s House, Adam’s The Old Front, or Valerie’s No Looking Back.

Join Matador today and start your own travel blog!

Photo by jillclardy (Creative Commons)

Everyone knows that the world’s landfills are piled high with empty bottles of Dasani, Evian, Aquafina, and the rest.

But there’s more to the impact of our bottled water obsession than the heaps of plastic empties.

The good folks at Environmental Graffiti break down the true cost of bottled water – factoring in everything from the bottle manufacturing process to the oil burned in transport.

Of course, in many parts of the world the tap water isn’t safe – for travelers or locals. Matador member Josh Kearns is on the case: check out his ground-breaking research into safe and affordable water filtration systems at Aqueous Solutions.

How do you handle water concerns when you travel? Let us know in the comments!

Here at Matador, we work hard to put together high-quality online resources for travelers. But we’re just getting started, and we’re lucky to have a few longstanding models to look up to; Transitions Abroad is one of those models.

For more than thirty years (mostly in print, and more recently on the web), Transitions Abroad has been an invaluable source of information on long-term travel, cultural immersion, study abroad, work abroad, and more.

Transitions Abroad also runs travel writing contests, and has published and nurtured a lot of young writers who’ve gone on to great travel writing careers.

As the Mission Statement says, the goal of Transitions Abroad is to “enable travelers to actually meet the people of other countries, to learn about their culture, to speak their language, and to ‘transition’ to a new level of understanding and appreciation for our fascinating world.”

Be sure to check it out.

Community Connection: Transitions Abroad point man Gregory Hubbs is also a Matador member.

Photo by Wm Jas (Creative Commons)

Not so long ago, travel writer Kelsey Timmerman asked himself, Where am I wearing?

Or in other words: where, exactly, do the clothes we wear every day come from?

The question led him on a trek through the garment factories of Honduras, Cambodia, Bangladesh and China; it also led to a blog, and – soon – a book.

The blog is a great source for tidbits of news and opinion on the garment industry, globalization and responsible consumerism more generally. In the newest feature, Where I’m wearing today: Adventures of an engaged consumer, Kelsey checks out the credentials of the brand he finds himself in that day – in four quick steps.

The results make for an interesting read. They also show you just how easy it can be to learn more about the brands we wear, and to act accordingly.

So go ahead: do a background check on your sweater or your jeans.

Where are you wearing today?

How do you get information about what’s going on around the world? Here are three of the best websites offering dynamic content about countries that rarely make it into the news.

1. Frontline and Frontline World
Frontline has been producing fantastic documentaries for years, but their online archive has allowed a much larger audience to learn about places and events that are often off the general radar screen.

More than 70 documentaries are available for immediate viewing online—and best of all, you don’t have to sign up as a user. Type “Frontline World” into the “Search” box, and you’ll see more than 100 short documentaries from around the world. Be sure to check out the FlashPoint slideshows, too.

2. Magnum Photos
Beyond being a stunning archive of some of the best photos, period, Magnum’s website offers essays, podcasts, and blogs about people and places in every corner of the world.

What could be more timely than photos from the demonstration at the Olympic torch relay in Paris? Want a quick photo fix? Type any country into the “search” box and feast your eyes on the thumbnails that pop up.

3. Leonard Lopate Show, “Underreported”
Tired of the same old news? Check out the online version of “Underreported,” a segment from the Leonard Lopate Show, which airs on New York radio station, WNYC. Lopate chooses a new topic every week—recent subjects have included “Swaziland’s Royal Family,” “Eating Insects,” and “The News from East Timor”—and goes in depth to tell stories no one else is tackling.

Photo: Frabuleuse

Share your favorite sites in the Comments section below!

Photo by Chach Coati (Creative Commons)

Over at Vagablogging, Aaron Hotfelder has some inspiring words about the power of pre-trip research:

“There’s so much misinformation out there about the “rest of the world”– be it India, the Middle East, Africa, Central America, you name it,” he writes.

“I found Russia uninteresting because I didn’t know anything about it. After learning even a little of its history and culture, it was like new doors suddenly opened.”

So go ahead. Invest some time in making the world a bigger, more varied, more dynamic place. Look at that map on your wall, and find somewhere you’ve never been and never wanted to go– Uruguay, Tajikistan, El Salvador, wherever. Dig up some pictures of the country, read an article or two about it, see if they have any English-language newspapers. After thirty minutes, I admit, you still might not want to go there– but it probably won’t be because the place is uninteresting.

Amen, Aaron.

The good folks over at IgoUgo have just completed a revamp of their reviews section, allowing more customized search and display options and adding “Editor’s Pick” and “First Reviewer” features.

Minor details? Sure, you could look at it that way. But every change that gives travelers more options and more control over our own booking destinies helps more of us to get off the moving sidewalk that is, at times, the mainstream travel industry.

Photo: wiseacre photo

Talk to us! What sites do you use to plan your travels? Leave a comment below.