Going Local Travel

All across Bolivia you see backpackers wearing their “I survived the Death Road” T-shirts. It refers to a mountain biking trip you can take down the terrifying Yungas Road, nicknamed El Camino de la Muerte. It’s a ‘must-do’ for many on the stereotypical circuit around the country. The trouble is lots of people – mainly [...]

Big news came last week in the announcement that Couchsurfing.com had decided to abandon its non-profitmaking roots and accept £4.7m of venture capital. I wrote about it for the Guardian here: Not-for-profit Couchsurfing becomes a company (with a conscience) Some members are angry about the move and protest groups have already been formed on the [...]

Photo: Obelisco, via Wikicommons Victoria Rachitzky There are protests every day in Buenos Aires. It is said that you can actually make a living in this city from renting your services out as a rallying frontperson or drummer to whatever cause needs to get their voice heard. As  a tourist, it can be part of [...]

After recent debates on travel and technology, this Charlie Brooker rant against the iPad had to be shared. The specific attack on “rectangle-worshiping” travellers is short (find it at 1m56), but the clip is entertaining – and typically caustic – in is entirety.

Here’s an update stay with the locals schemes that I wrote for yesterday’s Guardian travel section.  The aim of the piece was to look at what was new in the field and how the site’s are developing. It ran alongside a piece about an interesting, new homestay project in India and an account by one [...]

Imagine closing a city of 13 million people for one day only. It couldn’t happen, right? Impossible?
On Wednesday October 27th, Buenos Aires managed to pull it off.

Well, everyone knew it was going to happen. Tourism companies would, of course, be jumping on the back of the Chilean mine rescue. The question was how soon. At 7.46am today, just a few hours after the 33 men were all finally above ground, I got an email. “Fresh air holidays for recently freed miners,” [...]

If you like the idea of renting an apartment during a short break in New York, you could be facing some problems if new legislation is pushed through. The controversial proposal could make it illegal to rent an apartment in the city for any period under 30 days. The “subletting” bill – which has been [...]

This week sees the launch of Candela Live, "Britain’s first online Latin American and Spanish lifestyle magazine". It looks like a great port of call for Latino expats and travellers missing the food, culture and music that they got to love on their trips. Alongside some interesting features and news round-ups, it lists forthcoming events, [...]

There was a cry of horror when Royal Caribbean announced it would be resuming cruises to Haiti as early as last Friday. Immediately, people started to picture the scenario: hoards of spoilt tourists shaking their head in pity, before sailing away into the sunset and taking their minds off the nastiness with an all-you-can-eat midnight [...]