Going Local Travel

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 [...]

Mark Boyle, the freeconomy guy who I’ve written about before, has popped up in the Guardian today talking about how to travel for free. There are no real revelations in his recommendations – Couchsurfing, LiftShare and WWOOFing all get namechecked -  but I’m happy to hear that he is going to be writing more regularly [...]

Some people hate the idea of offline travel networking. I’m talking about anything – from Couchsurfing to an open-house dinner – which involve stepping out of a comfort zone and finding yourself in the company of strangers. Here are some tips for getting over the fear and making it work for you: Worried about awkward [...]

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I really can’t emphasis this point enough: Couchsurfing.com is fantastic for language learners. And not just for hosts/guests. It can be a godsend in your home town too and it needn’t involve a single couch. I have raved about Couchsurfing’s Buenos Aires forum before (see: Top three ways [...]

Yes, I chose this headline to get your attention. I’m not being trivial and I don’t really think Facebook alone can stop a war. But I do have a serious point to make, if you bear with me. This Wednesday is Día de la Memoria in Argentina. It’s remembrance day to honour the 30,000 people who [...]

Is Couchsurfing bad for local travel? Well, this is a new conundrum. Sort of. Couchsurfing has, of course, always had it’s critics. And so it should. There is no ‘perfect’ way to travel. Everything has pros and cons. And I’ve always been keen to tackle those belonging to couchsurfing. A very interesting blog over at the new Local Travel Movement site caught my eye today. Writer Ethan Gelber has picked up on some comments suggesting that couchsurfing sites do not fit in with the ‘local travel’ idea.

Dancing Matt is back. He’s just released a new video in conjunction with the World Cup in South Africa (above). It’s not his best perhaps, but I still love Dancing Matt. Who doesn’t? And who doesn’t want to be him? Imagine – this guy does a silly dances for a living. Yes, I’ll say that again: this is [...]

Well done Argentina for scoring an Oscar at the weekend for El Secreto de sus Ojos. The award for the Best Foreign Language Film does, indeed, go to the country not an individual filmmaker. And this isn’t the only little-known thing about this category.

Where next? A video introduction to the semantic web (aka Web 3.0)   Thanks for everyone who commented on the Guardian Travel Blog looking at ‘where we are now’ with travel networking. So far we’re up to 40-plus comments  and it seems everyone had something interesting to say. So where are travel networks going wrong? Here [...]