Going Local Travel

There is an interesting article on the Betabeat site this week looking at how AirBnB users could be upsetting their neighbours. It’s a question worth asking. People using the phenomenally popular site to rent out their own self-contained house, that’s one thing. But giving a stream of people the keys to an apartment block with [...]

Inspired by Iceland Invitations from Inspired By Iceland on Vimeo. Icelanders are opening their homes to visitors, as part of a new tourism campaign — and leading the way is the country’s president. Watch this video above. It appears to be an invite around to the presidency for pancakes. Who’s up for paying him a [...]

Today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. With all the commemorations, tie-ins and, in some cases, blatant profiteering (fancy some 9/11 memorial wine priced at $19.11? ), I don’t think many people have failed to pick up on this. As midnight approaches, most of us have reached overload. Nonetheless, the following email sent out by [...]

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 [...]

The Independent published their list of 50 Best Travel Websites last week. At the time, I was off exploring Misiones, northern Argentina, so this is a belated catch-up. As some readers have pointed out on the Twitter, it’s frustrating that the online version isn’t accessible as a straight list and instead you have to click [...]

A few months back I was on the judging panel for two Leap Local competitions: best local guide and best travel writer. Not long after the winners were announced, an email landed in my inbox. “GOOOD NEEEWWWSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” read the subject line. It had been forward from a rather excited tour guide in Kyrgyzstan. His win [...]

Photo: Flickr Creative Commons by Daquella Manera Is the world a more or less interesting place for traveller today? That was the question that the Guardian was asking at the weekend. It was an interesting debate – featuring travel writers Jan Morris and Pico Iyer – among others. I added my two-penneth too, as the [...]

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 [...]

On Sunday I was planning a day trip to Ottawa to see a friend. The bus was going to cost me around 60 plus dollars (around £40). Or I could lift share. Remembering that PickupPal are Canada-based, I decided this was a good place give it a try. On a very short timeframe, I set [...]

Local blogs are the best insight into local life. The best in-situ bloggers know which places are over-hyped or past their peak. They look beyond the cliches and they are ahead of the guidebooks. This post is a work in process. I’ll add any new ones I find as I go along. Please do make [...]