In reality, long-term travel has nothing to do with demographics — age, ideology, income — and everything to do with personal outlook. Long-term travel isn’t about being a college student; it’s about being a student of daily life. Long-term travel isn’t an act of rebellion against society; it’s an act of common sense within society. Long-term travel doesn’t require a massive “bundle of cash”; it requires only that we walk through the world in a more deliberate way. Vagabonding is about refusing to exile travel to some other, seemingly more appropriate, time of your life. Vagabonding is about taking control of your circumstances instead of passively waiting for them to decide your fate." If I had seen the message, there’s a good chance I would have begun my travel career clutching an M-16 instead of a camera.

Love With A Chance Of Drowning is the travel memoir of Torre, who reluctantly leaves her corporate lifestyle to live on a sailboat with a man she just met, and their adventure across the South Pacific together. Relentlessly and mind-numbingly commonsensical, almost as bad as reminding you not to leave without your passport. I don't think anyone needs to be told "If you're taking a long journey, never take a dump on a bus…especially if it doesn’t have a restroom!" OK, I just made that up, but it's better advice than most of what you'll find in this book. The whole pamphlet is like one of those corny leadership posters with a photo of a guy climbing a mountain, or a kitten hanging from a tree branch and a slogan about how shitty Mondays are. But beyond travel, vagabonding is an outlook on life. Vagabonding is about using the prosperity and possibility of the information age to increase your personal options instead of your personal possessions. I feel like I may have dodged a bullet. Or IED. Or something equally unpleasant. Rolf Potts and BootsnallAs someone with no longterm residence, I found Rolf's exploration valuable and fulfilling. Perhaps its specifically because I've experienced the things that he talks about, the subjects he explores are of interest. But I think there is something in here for the non-vagabond as well. A Seattle-ite named Andrew Walker hired me to blog and take photos in Acapulco, Mexico, for three weeks. I got to photograph Fat Joe and some famous DJs, if that tells you anything.

Actually, he craved sunshine. He often went to work in the dark and then emerged later in the dark. Greg enjoyed eating mushrooms but determined that living like one wasn’t a healthy lifestyle.

Well written travel books like these have helped inspire my own personal travel goals over the years — and will continue to do so.

She does a solid job of discussing the emotional steps involved in her process too. I don’t know how Lauren gets into so many crazy situations on her travels, but they make for a very entertaining read! This requires a different mindset. To some this comes naturally (the possessions/options dilemma). But I think, it goes a little beyond that. We are addicted to relationships and continuity. We build routines of social interactions. When you are vagabonding, you miss these activities. You need to switch from known/familiar patterns of interactions with familiar people in familiar surroundings to very different somewhat unknown patterns of interactions with strangers. This deliberate way of walking through the world has always been intrinsic to the time-honored, quietly available travel tradition known as “vagabonding.” This is a powerful book that inspires courage & chasing your dreams. It teaches important life lessons using entertaining stories. It helped me overcome my own fears about what to do with my life, as well as millions of other readers around the world. Like most things, long-term travel starts with taking ownership of your actions and fate. It won’t happen unless you make it a priority.All I can think of is travel right now. Not just travel, but moreso exploring, adventure and discovery. Where will my next adventure be? I have that excited feeling right now that only the best possibilities bring us. You know, that one we used to all feel the night before Christmas? Something like that, but for adults. My long term travel adventures have been occurring off and on for the past few years ever since spending eighteen months exploring the south of Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Since then the addiction has taken over, and Rolf Potts has fully fired me up again with Vagabonding. The wonderful thing is that these opportunities are available to everyone. They are are not just for the mega-rich as so many of us have been trained to believe. In fact, often times it is overabundance that causes us to lose those first-hand experiences with other cultures. As nice as a five-star hotel is in Oman, it is showing you next to nothing about the Omani culture. Quite often one or two-week long travelers, especially the wealthy, travel far and wide to experience the same nice comforts and amenities and even people as at home. Why not just save the travel time and stay home? It really comes down to priorities. I believe if you have a burning desire to travel or do anything really, you can make it happen [See: Desire + Decision = Magic]. But this isn’t just a lesson I’ve learned from the book — I’m seeing it firsthand with the people I’ve met on the road: Being on the road for an extended period of time has a LOT of challenges. Potts doesn't tell you what each of these challenges would be--that's impossible--but he does show you ways of thinking and doing that can help you get the most out of these challenges.