Chris Guillebeau's Blog, page 96

Camping in Airports: A Modest Design Proposal

I’ve slept on the floor of at least twenty airports, many of them more than once. The worst was probably Dakar, Senegal, where I had to bribe my way to a room with a solitary plastic chair guarded by a swarm of mosquitoes.

Rome was also surprisingly awful. I’m not sure if I was expecting a maid to drop in with gelato at 3am, but I wasn’t expecting a janitor to try to rob me. I shook it off in the morning and headed to the lounge for a desperately-needed shower.

I don’t know if there’s a best a...

Getting Paid for Travel Writing: A Conversation with Kristin Luna

This is an excerpt from the Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing.

For over a decade, Kristin Luna has written about travel for some of the biggest names out there: Frommers, Time, Condé Nast, and Newsweek (just to name a few). She spoke with Amber Adrian about how she broke into the travel writing business, sharing several tricks she learned along the way.

Here’s a piece of their conversation:

Amber: What would your recommendations be for getting into travel writing and landing some of th...

The 7-Hour In-Flight Movie on British Airways

Last year I traveled to Norway with a small group of friends, family, and readers. We took the train from Oslo to Bergen, a long trip that winds through the heart of the country. The sightseeing was spectacular—outside the window we could see snow-capped mountains and icy streams of water.

I’m not sure I’d want to watch a 7-hour video of that train ride… but now I have the option to, thanks to the phenomenon of “slow TV” that is now making its way to in-flight screens.

Footage of a rail trip...

“It Was Too Ugly to Die in There”

Michael Graves, the designer who improved tea kettles for the masses thanks to his partnership with Target stores, recently took on a new challenge.

The original hospital wheelchair, apparently still in widespread use, was based off a design from way back in 1933. Graves decided to update it, and also worked on other hospital equipment to be of better use and more comfort to patients.

Graves’ interest in the field came when he was hospitalized from a severe sinus infection, and eventually beca...

Goodbye, Comfort Zone: On the Road with Marvin and Josephine Abisia

This is a travel hacking case study. ( Read others or nominate yourself .)

From Portland to Singapore—and probably a few other places—I’ve hung out with Marv and Jo on multiple continents. They’ve been a big part of our community for many years, and have been actively traveling for most of that time.

Tell us about yourselves.

We’re an adventurous young couple originally from California. Three years ago we left the jungles of Silicon Valley because we no longer wanted to settle for a life of medio...

The Virtue of Paranoia

It’s good to be a little paranoid. Keeps you on your game.

— Chris Guillebeau (@chrisguillebeau) June 5, 2014

Empires can crumble from lack of attention. Relationships can ebb when one person stops putting in the time and care.

If you’re not constantly worried about losing it all, you might lose it all.

Every day I worry. Maybe you should worry, too!

Just a little.

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Mini City Guides On the Way—Want to Help?

Greetings, everyone. I hope you’ve been enjoying the all-new blog!

In addition to the other new features we’ve already debuted—interviews with your fellow travelers, giveaways, and airline lounge tours, we’ll be publishing a number of “mini city guides” featuring photos and short narratives from readers.

Many people in our community are active travelers, and many others are reading from interesting hometowns far and wide. Want to participate? Let us know!

Post a comment with the city you’d like...

Impostor Travelers

I used to read Travel & Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, and other travel magazines. This was old-school reading: heavy magazines filled with hundreds of pages of editorial and advertising arrived in the mail at my house each month. It was fun to look at pictures and dream of exotic locales.

I gave that up when I actually started traveling, though. I didn’t need to dream anymore. Instead of dreaming, I packed my suitcase and hit the road.

I recently talked with an editor for one of these magazine...

“I wanted to quit, but I persevered”

Last week, Roger Poulin completed a journey. He became the first recorded person who is both blind and deaf to hike the entire 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail.

“I wanted to prove to the deaf-blind community that they could do something like this,” said Poulin, who lives in Washington state. “You don’t have to sit at home all day. You can go out and really adventure.”

Roger and his guide discovered that the quest was harder than they initially expected.

“I planned to go through the whole thing in si...

We Bought a Zoo

We didn’t buy it, but we did in fact rent it out.

Today I was working on my quarterly taxes and smiled when I saw the charge for the Oregon Zoo from last year. Aside from my house, the zoo was the largest thing I’ve ever paid for—and the largest credit card charge by far.

Renting a zoo is definitely not cheap. But it was a lot of fun and a great place to begin last year’s WDS. I’m so glad we did it.

More photos here (scroll down).

Speaking of, are you coming this year? Tickets to the main event a...