What do you do when you want to go to Venice, but the hotels are way out of your budget, and you’d really rather get to know the locals anyway, than stay in an anonymous hotel in a crazy tourist area? You try couch surfing! Couch surfing is more of a cultural exchange than a free place to stay. True, there is no charge (although it’s suggested that you bring your host a small gift, or cook them a meal). If you are not familiar with...

Tasmania is where? Isn’t that a country somewhere near Australia? An island maybe… That’s what a lot of people from other parts of the world seem to think (ok, I admit, while still in the States, I thought it was a country of its own, and maybe Tasmanians would prefer it that way). It’s actually a part of Australia, and a very beautiful part, where many mainland Aussie’s come to get away from the heat, go...

So you’ve been invited to stay with someone while you travel, maybe a friend or acquaintance, maybe someone you met through couch surfing, or while on a tour. How can you make sure you’re the kind of guest they’re genuinely sorry to see leave instead of the one they can’t wait to see go? There are no guarantees things will go smoothly no matter what the circumstances, as people and personalities and customs vary so much....

We go through life making connections, some sought, but many appearing happenstance. When looking for your calling or pursuing a dream, many of the best connections appear synchronistically, amazing “coincidences” that move you ahead in wonderful ways, that there’s no way you could have dreamed up. Traveling is one of those times when synchronistic events seem to come in waves, I’m not sure why. I’ve read that they...

Why is it harder to receive than to give? If you’re a woman, especially, you’re trained from a very young age to be a caretaker, of your friends, then later on, your partner, your children, your parents as they age. We feel uncomfortable in the receiving role, uncomfortable even in taking care of ourselves. We fear we’re being selfish. So we give until we’re all burned out. What does this have to do with travel? I am putting myself in the...