Does Travel Make Us Happier than Houses, Cars and Babies?

I’ve come across a survey about how important travel is when it comes to happiness. Of the 2,321 people surveyed, an impressive 71% agree that traveling is more vital to their happiness than retirement, having a baby, buying a car, getting married, being promoted, and purchasing a home. Other interesting findings from the study: traveling is more important to women than men. (More)...
Does Travel Make Us Happier than Houses, Cars and Babies?

Three Uncertainties about Carbon Offsets for Flights

Carbon offsets are imperfect, complicated, and highly debatable. Skeptics point out that they resemble the medieval Church’s selling of indulgences in the sense that they don’t actually require a change in behavior. In my opinion, in the absence of any real legislation/taxation that demands us to pay closer to the “true cost” for our flights and other inevitable emissions, carbon offsets are the best tool we’ve got for compensation. (More)...
Three Uncertainties about Carbon Offsets for Flights

Top first date question: have you ever traveled alone?

According to a dating website's statistics, this travel question actually says something about relationship potential. In my experience, here's what I've found: I'm drawn to people who can relate to the kind of solo travel that I've done. The data agrees. The fascinating OKCupid blog, OKTrends, crunches vast pool of dating profile data. In a post about good first date questions, they identified two very telling travel-related questions. (More)...
Top first date question: have you ever traveled alone?

My Top Ten Travel Movies

One way I get my travel fix is through movies that vicariously take me away. I do love foreign films set in far-away places around the globe, but those aren’t necessarily travel stories. For this list, I thought about movies that capture the ethos of travel itself. No matter how many times I’ve seen these, I’d watch all of them again any day of the week. In no particular order, here are my top travel movies: (More)...
My Top Ten Travel Movies

Boost Your Mood, Plan a Trip

According to a Dutch study on travel and happiness, tourists gain the most satisfaction from travel during the pre-trip phase. Anticipation, it seems, is a more powerful factor of travel happiness than the actual travel experiences or recollections of them. What makes the pre-trip phase the happiest? I’ve noticed that, for me, trip planning is the purest phase of travel. (More)...
Boost Your Mood, Plan a Trip

Dumpster Diving, Freely Giving and the Man Who Quit Money

Like a good book should, The Man Who Quit Money changed the way I see a few things. It changed the way I see money – rather than an absolute or a given, it’s a convention that (almost) all of us subscribe to. It changed the way I see my home state of Colorado, where Daniel is from. Mark Sundeen’s account of Daniel Suelo’s life also changed the way I see dumpsters. (More)...
Dumpster Diving, Freely Giving and the Man Who Quit Money

Tiny Lights and Winter Fun in Denver

On the darkest and coldest days of the year, I’m often tempted to just hunker down and hibernate. Luckily I live in a place that comes to life in the winter. Every weekend, there’s a mass exodus from Denver into the snow sport havens of the Rockies. For those who stick around, there’s a surprising amount of good cold-weather fun to be found here in the city. Here’s my list of worthwhile winter wonders in Denver: (More)...
Tiny Lights and Winter Fun in Denver

#PeoplePics from Ecuador

I'm always game for a good travel blogger contest. Here's one from Holiday Extras: the People Pics Competition. The idea is quite simple -- share two of your best people photos. Melvin from traveldudes.org will be judging entries based on "artistic presentation, character, originality, evocativeness, inspiration, photographic skill, provocativeness, humour." Here are my favorite PeoplePics from Ecuador. (More)...
#PeoplePics from Ecuador

5 Gift Ideas for Playing Travel’s Advocate

One fun thing about working in the adventure travel industry is that I get to encourage people to travel. I get to play travel’s advocate. Part of my task is to stir the wanderlust in others. How to awaken the inner traveler in tied-down family and friends? Make the case for world travel. Here are a few gift ideas for putting a sense of adventure in a box and wrapping it with a bow. (More)...
5 Gift Ideas for Playing Travel’s Advocate

Community-based Tourism Development: The Syllabus

Check it out - I'm an educator. After almost a year of developing an online course for the Certificate in Community-Based Development through Village Earth and Colorado State University, the 5-week course begins next week. It's called Community-Based Tourism Development, and I'm pretty excited about it. (More)...
Community-based Tourism Development: The Syllabus
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