Archive for the ‘Travel Writing’ Category

December26

Best of Kaleidoscopic Wandering 2011

By: JoAnna

Best of Kaleidoscopic Wandering 2011With 2012 knocking on my back door, I figured it would be appropriate to take a journey through the last 365 days of Kaleidoscopic Wandering. This travel blog has been going strong for two-and-a-half years now with a variety of narratives, advice, interviews and insights into tripping around the globe.

This year I started my travels with a trip to Baja California, Mexico, where I went whale watching in Magdalena Bay. Shortly thereafter, I met my dad in Costa Rica for a trip packed with hiking excursions. In March, I visited the Cook Islands for the first time. Though I don’t care for the word “paradise,” if I had to pinpoint it on a map, it might be located here.

Early in the summer, I took a trip to Vancouver, Canada, for a conference, then made it home just in time to hop into the car with my husband for an epic 35-day road trip that took us through 19 states and two Canadian provinces. Highlights of our trip included visiting the Distillery District in Toronto, wine tasting near Niagara Falls, catching a Washington Nationals baseball game and watching fireworks in Washington D.C. on the 4th of July.

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Posted in: Contemplation, Inspiration, Travel Writing11 comments

June28

Reading: AFAR Magazine

By: JoAnna

Reading: AFAR MagazineTrisha Miller from Travel Writers Exchange recently wrote about the power of print and how, as travel writers, we should support the magazines we want to write for. While I agree with her completely, I can guarantee that I would be reading AFAR whether I was a travel writer or not.

When all other magazines were downsizing staff, shrinking budgets and closing doors, the founders of AFAR, Greg Sullivan and Joe Diaz, began publishing what is arguably one of the most genuine, readable magazines on the market today. It was an idea that went against all logic, but so does their magazine, which is why it’s such a great discovery.

AFAR Media sums up its mission succinctly:

Travel is changing. The world has grown smaller, more accessible, yet homogenized and less exotic. Today’s travelers want to get beyond the superficial, the mass-produced, the mass-consumed, and the mass-experienced. They look for the authentic in people, places, and things.

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Posted in: Reading, Travel Writing11 comments

June7

Kaleidoscopic Wandering Turns One Year Old!

By: JoAnna

Kaleidoscopic Wandering Turns One Year Old!

My dad and me at Death Valley in May 2009. I blame him for my love of travel.

It’s hard to believe that only one year ago I called my dad on my way to work and asked him a question that has changed the course of my life. The question was this: Should I apply for the Digital Vagabonding Roads Scholarship?

Applying for the scholarship meant that, if I won, I would have to quit my full-time job to road trip for the whole summer, writing and photographing my journey as I went. The idea of applying for a scholarship that would force me to leave the confining, restricting and suffocating but comforting full-time job in a full-time crappy economy was a scary one.

My dad, who worked in Corporate America for the same company up until the day he was forced to retire, said one word in response to my question: Yes.

And so I applied.

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Posted in: Contemplation, Roads Scholars 2009, Travel Writing22 comments

December31

Best of Kaleidoscopic Wandering 2009

By: JoAnna

Best of Kaleidoscopic Wandering 2009I started my travel blog, Kaleidoscopic Wandering in June of this year as a way to record my journey as a Digital Vagabonding Roads Scholar. Who knew that so much could happen in seven short months?

Since June, Kaleidoscopic Wandering has blossomed to nearly 70 posts with more than 350 comments. Nearly 90 people follow this blog via RSS, 148 of you are fans of its Facebook page and almost 1,500 followers are kept updated on this blog’s contents via Twitter.

To round out the year, I wanted to share the most popular posts on Kaleidoscopic Wandering (just in case you missed them the first time around):

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Posted in: Travel Writing5 comments

November14

Reliving Burning Man

By: JoAnna

Reliving Burning ManOf all the places in the world that I’ve traveled, Burning Man seems to intrigue people the most. Perhaps it’s the elusive nature of the festival or the inability to define something so life-altering and profound to someone who has never experienced it. Or maybe it is the contradictory fact that Burning Man is so harsh and raw and unforgiving yet so real and generous that piques people’s interest.

It’s been more than two months since I stepped off the dusty playa and back into the default world. For me, however, the default world has changed as a result of Burning Man. I’ve made drastic changes in my life and am living my dream. I am defining the default world.

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Posted in: Go, Travel Writing5 comments

November2

Online Resources for the Press Trip Newbies

By: JoAnna

Online Resources for the Press Trip NewbiesI am on the verge of leaving for my first ever press trip, a week-long, whirlwind tour through Honduras. The itinerary is jam packed, and I’m rip-roaring ready to go, but every once in awhile a little tiny wave of panic shoots down my spine. What am I doing preparing for a press trip? This is definitely territory I’ve never been in, and it all seems just a bit overwhelming.

My contacts in the travel writing industry have been great in answering my questions and providing insight into the world of press trips, and I’ve also been doing some research on my own. Here are some of the best resources I’ve found around the web that have been helpful in my preparation for the quickly approaching departure date:

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Posted in: Travel Writing5 comments

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