Travel Tales features essays, photos, video, artwork and journal entries from travel writers (and some wise traveling teddy bears) that will draw you in, make you laugh, cause you to shed a tear or two, but most of all, we hope will inspire you to get out, explore more, savor every bite, and then share your narrative with us. Travel is not something one does to check a box. It is that place where cultures, places, people and adventure intersect.
Reading Time: 6 minutes 10 photos from the 10s. Michael Hodgson and Therese Iknoian pick 10 photos that meant the most to them from the last decade of travel around the world. Our favorite photographs of the decade.
Reading Time: 5 minutes Times have changed a lot over the years, especially when it comes to travel, travel preparation, and things we don’t do anymore when traveling: Postcards? How quaint. Paper lists of addressees? Ah, adorable and clumsy. Paper maps? Why when we have Google?
Reading Time: 9 minutes When travel goes wrong you are rarely as prepared as you’d like to be. I had made my way to Berlin two weeks before a long-planned photo trip to Morocco that I was beyond excited about. My plans were about to go sideways.
Reading Time: 4 minutes A daily bike safety check while you are on a bike tour will help you identify potential bicycle part problems that could cause discomfort, inconvenience, or even serious injury when on the bicycle ride — such as a missing bike seat!
Reading Time: 5 minutes Armed with digital cameras and smartphones travelers are able to detail every idyllic moment of every trip in all its “Instagrammable” glory with often ridiculous travel photos.
Reading Time: 9 minutes I had been volunteered to learn to hang glide for a feature story. So like Icarus centuries before, I found myself attached to a set of wings — learning to fly a hang glider — wondering if it were really possible to soar like a bird.
Reading Time: 6 minutes Body odor is a rather personal subject, so while it is not my intention to offend, consider this a warning up front – I stink. I was both thrilled and slightly apprehensive at the prospect of testing odor free antimicrobial clothing.
Reading Time: 7 minutes I have an inability to say “no” when presented with an enticing adventure and story angle, no matter how far outside my comfort zone the adventure is. Which is how I found myself discovering fear and loathing while climbing Moosedog Tower in Joshua Tree.
Reading Time: 7 minutes When I received a phone invitation to go on a hike through the Giant Sequoias in California with President George H.W. Bush during the summer of 1992, my initial reaction was, “Right, who is this, really?” I could name any number of wonderful friends who would make such an “official” offer while doubled up with mirth and glee – eager to hang any appearance of gullibility over my head for a lifetime.
Reading Time: 5 minutes The secrets of my grandfather’s life are held in a box — a 1914 Princess Mary gift box. It’s just a simple brass box. Weathered, dented, tarnished. But to me it is precious because this box saved his life. Which meant this box, in a way, saved my mum’s, mine and my daughter’s life too.
Reading Time: < 1 minute Luis Vargas, founder of ModernAdventure.com, talks with us about tranformative travel, curated experiential travel, and how his vision for a new type of travel company will help travelers connect with the intersections of art, music, food, culture, history, design, and fashion on a truly local level.
Reading Time: 7 minutes I arrived at my photography workshop eager and excited for learning while traveling, but also more than a bit nervous. “Why?” asked one of the instructors earlier when I mentioned that I was a bit anxious. “We don’t bite.” Transformative travel is a marvelous thing for learning.
Fabrizio Ghilardi started Socompa Adventure Travel in November 2004 as a lark – with a website, a 4x4, and not much else. In listening to him talk about the early years of Socompa, Fabrizio seemed destined for adventure. Yes, he had a good job in Italy,...
Reading Time: < 1 minute It doesn’t take you very long to determine Frank Hugelmeyer is pretty comfortable traveling to exotic places. Apparently, that’s what happens after spending your childhood on a sport fishing boat and then 30 years or so promoting the sporting goods, fitness, outdoor and RV lifestyles across the globe.
Reading Time: < 1 minute Kevin Wenning is our guest on this episode of My Travel Tales. Kevin decided to create his bike photography tours when he couldn’t find a cycling vacation that catered to photography enthusiasts. You’ll hear about bike touring with cameras, and four tips you can use right now to make any photo better on any trip you take. And what does this experienced bike guide and photographer always pack with him where ever he goes in the world? Listen in to find out.
It doesn’t come easily, this crashing into a place. I am not a traveler, not really. I am a creature of habit, slipping smoothly into routine. From one country to another, I unfold and refold my clothes, placing them in the same stacks in different drawers. I buy...
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ajay Jain is our guest on this episode of My Travel Tales. In the summer of 2007, with a camera and notebook in hand, Ajay left behind a corporate career for good and began driving, eventually ending up in Kunzum La (a very remote pass in the Indian Himalayas). He was so taken by the destination he named his business after it. Since then, he has been traveling all over India, and also covering a fair amount of the world, chronicling his journeys in blog posts and in his photography books. You’ll hear all about his beloved Indian Himalayas and much more in our conversation.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Tim McGuire is our guest on this episode of My Travel Tales. Listen in to find out how the search for an easy college class while playing Division 1 soccer at San Diego State University led him down a path of adventure, travel, and now as part of the executive team at Eagle Creek. Learn too why even an experienced world traveler like Tim can end up in the wrong country while simply trying to get back to his hotel. And what does this experienced adventure traveler always pack with him where ever he goes in the world?
Reading Time: 2 minutes Since witnessing ivory being set on fire in Kenya as a child, Soraya Shattuck has been driven to help the travel community understand, minimize and mitigate negative impacts of travel. Listen in to Soraya’s My Travel Tales episode to learn more about her and the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Katie and Jim Thomsen were living in Antwerp, Belgium when Katie returned from a kayaking trip off Vancouver Island, British Columbia and announced, “I could live on a boat.” That started a path of global adventuring that hasn’t begun to slow down yet. Listen in to our podcast to learn more.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Shannon Stowell is our guest on this episode of My Travel Tales. Listen in to find out why Shannon decided to buy the Adventure Travel Trade Association in 2004, why he feels a deep connection to Kurdistan, what place he has dreamed of since childhood but has yet to visit, five things he always travels with, why a visit to Barentsburg on Svalbard in Norway was surreal, and a few surprises including the “hot chili pepper incident” at an ATTA event.
Korean War Memorials are always on my list to visit when traveling. You see, my Uncle Ara disappeared on Oct. 23, 1951, less than a year into the Korean War. A part of an air mission with nine Super Fortresses, his B-29 bomber was attacked by Soviet MIGs, and it was...
Reading Time: 2 minutes Rick Saez, adventure travel photographer and host of the Outdoor Biz Podcast is our guest on this episode of My Travel Tales.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Jen Taylor, brand manager and director of creative development for Mountain Khakis is our guest. Learn about Grand Junction, her favorite travel destination, riding motorcycles, how a fish taco inspired her next great idea, and five things she always travels with.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chez Chesak is our guest for the first episode of My Travel Tales. Hear about a travel fail that turned out well, what inspired him to be the traveler he is, and what five things he always carries with him — pants are thankfully one.