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Airline Miles / Frequent Fliers / Chris Guillebeau / Travel Blog Stars / → All Tags

Why We Want This Guy On Our Next Flight

Chris Guillebeau is the founder of artofnonconformity.com, a social media Web site and he was recently profiled in the NY Times about his quest to visit every single country before he turns 35. (He's 30 now.)

He's already visited 100 countries as part of an earlier quest and he's working his way through the rest of the world using his own expenses. He has no sponsorships (yet) and he's not depending on the kindness of Twitterers.

As you can imagine he's racked up a boatload of airline miles (also applying for 13 credit cards with mileage incentives helped him along) and here's why we hope he is on the next domestic flight that we take.

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Travel Blog Stars / Blogs / Travel Blogs / → All Tags

Travel Blog Star: Sand in My Shoes

Before she left for the achingly glamorous life of a Peace Corps volunteer in Namibia, Jill Nawrocki used to write for us. We miss her volunteer travel ideas and her flight reviews, but we're getting over it by reading about her adventures in Southern Africa.

At least for the time being, things aren't too busy:

I've perfected my raisin bread, white bread and pizza dough over the last two weeks and have an entire cookbook to tackle over the coming two years. It's lonely to cook for one, but my dad always told me in a new place, food helps make friends...

I've already polished off a library's worth of literature and can now safely say there is no such thing as a bad book when it's the only book left to read.

As time goes by, and her two-year gig with the Peace Corps rolls on, we'll be interested to see what adventures she gets up to. The latest is what looks like a great weekend trip to the Waterberg Plateau.

Think your travel blog has what it takes to make you a travel blog star? Send us the address and throw "Travel Blog Star" in the subject line.

Related Stories:
· Sand in My Shoes [Official Site]
· Weekend in Waterberg [SIMS]
· Travel Blog Stars coverage [Jaunted]

Travel Blog Stars / Travel Blogs / → All Tags

Travel Blog Stars: Kel And Fam

In The Global Nomads, a young American mother chronicles life as she, her husband, and three sons travel around the Middle East from their home base in Qatar. Known only as "Kel," she is to be commended for bucking the "settle down" myth that comes with marriage and kids.

Kel continues to pursue her wanderlust with man and boys in tow. Sure, she indulges a bit in exclamation marks!!! and emoticons ;-), but she's clearly excited to be living her happily-ever-after all over the world. We can hardly fault her for that.

Think your travel blog has what it takes to make you a travel blog star? Send us the address, throw "Travel Blog Star" in the subject line, and we will take a look. If your blog is deemed star worthy, linkage will no doubt be the result.

Related Stories:
· Travel Blog Stars [Jaunted]

Travel Blog Stars / → All Tags

Travel Blog Stars: Chasing Ideals

Skyler ______ (no last name provided) is a breath of fresh air. While it seems every travel blogger out there -- including us -- is sarcastic and cynical at times, our boy at Chasing Ideals is unabashedly optimistic. In part, it's because he and Jesus seem to be best buds. But he also takes a reflective, hopeful view about the places he visits.

Make no mistake, Skyler's not a pro at writing. He reminds us a bit of our high school days, when the big thoughts we carried around took pages and pages of essay paper to articulate. We find this earnestness endearing, and if you can get through the adjectives, you will find yourself rooting for Skyler as he travels around discovering a lot about himself and the world God created.

Think your travel blog has what it takes to make you a travel blog star? Send us the address, throw "Travel Blog Star" in the subject line, and we will take a look. If your blog is deemed star worthy, linkage will no doubt be the result.

Related Stories:
·Religious Travel [Jaunted]
·Travel Blog Stars [Jaunted]

[Photo: Perfekt]

Travel Blog Stars / Snarky Tofu / → All Tags

Travel Blog Stars: Snarky Tofu

Joshua Samuel Brown's travel blog, Snarky Tofu, chronicles the trials of a Lonely Planet guidebook writer. Brown offers painstaking detail about the political climate of the countries in which he's immersed.

Currently, Brown lives in Taiwan. He addresses the hiccups and hurdles -- like the arduous renaming of national monuments -- as the country transitions from totalitarian rule under The Kuomintang of China to a democratic state.

While he offers relevant cultural information, he doesn't take himself too seriously (see photo above). Brown also recounts the standard "oops" fare of an American traveler whose shaky knowledge of the native language leads to some pretty embarassing situations.

Think your travel blog has what it takes to make you a travel blog star? Send us the address, throw "Travel Blog Star" in the subject line, and we will take a look. If your blog is deemed star worthy, linkage will no doubt be the result.

Related Stories:
· Travel Blog Stars [Jaunted]
· Snarky Tofu [Official Site]

[Photo: Snarky Tofu]

Where The Hell Is Matt? / Travel Blog Stars / → All Tags

Travel Blog Stars: Where the Hell is Matt?

Where the Hell is Matt? incorporates our three favorite things: travel, a good sense of humor, and a lack of shame.

The video, and follow-up blog, chronicle the travels of Matt, a 30-year-old self-described slacker from Connecticut, who dances a crazy jig in front of the world's wonders. Sure, it's a gimmick, but since it's a funny one, we'll let it slide. Matt even somehow sweet-talked Stride Gum into sponsoring him. That means he now gets paid to dance in exotic locations and upload his exploits to YouTube -- nice.

Think your travel blog has what it takes to make you a travel blog star? Send us the address, throw "Travel Blog Star" in the subject line, and we will take a look. If your blog is deemed star worthy, linkage will no doubt be the result.

Related Stories:
· Travel Blog Stars [Jaunted]

Lisa Lubin / Travel Blog Stars / → All Tags

Travel Blog Stars: You Go Girl

We admire Lisa Lubin. Like Lisa, we studied journalism, and followed the expected trajectory: Moving to the proverbial big city, and landing a decent job in our chosen field. But we while we only travel occasionally, Lisa's is probably lounging in a Turkish bath as we type. Last August, she traded in her enviable life, found a baby-sitter for her cat, and set off to travel the world for a year. She chronicles her experiences on her blog, LL World Tour.

Lisa's background in TV production is evident in her site. We enjoy following her travels through the many photos, sound bites, video clips, and personal narrative she posts. Plus, she provides lots of little quick history lessons about the places she visits that make us think she might make an excellent 8th grade social studies teacher when she returns.

Is there a movement we didn't hear about? First, we discovered the Lost Girls, a trio of girlfriends touring the globe. Now Lisa took off solo for a round-the-world jaunt. Now all we need to do is save, oh, 20 grand or so, and join the pack.

Related Stories:
· Travel Blog Stars [Jaunted]

Tim Leffel / Travel Blog Stars / → All Tags

Travel Blog Stars: Another Funny White Guy

Tim Leffel's Cheapest Destinations is (like its title) straightforward. Tim's comedic voice, however, saves the blog from the saccharine repulsiveness that make service stories in, say, women's magazines, so unbearable. Less "how to get more for less" and more "how to have an awesome time traveling even if you're not loaded," Leffel gives helpful tips and tricks while still tackling the broader social issues of the places he visits.

According to his bio, Leffel also wrote The World's Cheapest Destinations, as well as Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune: The Contrarian Traveler's Guide to Getting More for Less. He is also editor of Perceptive Travel.

On second thought, Leffels' blog is so freaking comprehensive that he might put us out of a job. Nevermind. Don't click on this link.

(Publisher's Note: I don't think Claire knows this, but Tim is a long time contributing editor over at HotelChatter, Jaunted's big sister site. Then again, maybe Claire is fully aware, and this is all just subconscious travel media synergy at work. Who knows. Either way, he absolutely deservers being dubbed a travel blog star.)

Think your travel blog has what it takes to make you a travel blog star? Send us the address, throw "Travel Blog Star" in the subject line, and we will take a look. If your blog is deemed star worthy, linkage will no doubt be the result.

Related Stories:
· Travel Blog Stars [Jaunted]

Silver Surfers / Travel Blog Stars / → All Tags

Travel Blog Stars: Silver Surfers Will Save The World

For some seniors, travel means an annual migration to Del Boca Vista, but not Silver Surfers Hinda and Peter Schnurman, they would rather save the world, blog it, and have their travels indexed by Google, of course. Somewhere in the World recounts the travels of these blogger grandparents from Shoreline, Wash.

For the past seven years, the couple has volunteered with NGOs in countries throughout the world, including Thailand, India, Uganda, Namibia, and Ghana. The site, teaches their five grandchildren about the cultures in which they're immersed--at least it will someday.

Jaunted recently spoke with Hinda, who told us how their blog made them cool in the eyes of their grandchildren. The pair's oldest grandchild, Jeremy, 10, expressed little interest in reading about Grandma and Grandpa's travels. That is, until he "Google'd" them.

"I put in Grandpa's name, and all those pictures you guys send to me came up," Jeremy told his grandparents.

Grandparent travel slide shows are always cooler with a good dose of egoboo.

We think they sound pretty cool too, Jeremy.

Think your travel blog has what it takes to make you a travel blog star? Send us the address, throw "Travel Blog Star" in the subject line, and we will take a look. If your blog is deemed star worthy, linkage will no doubt be the result.

Related Stories:
· Travel Blog Stars [Jaunted]

Conor Grennan / Travel Blog Stars / Volunteer Travel / → All Tags

Travel Blog Stars: Orphans Are Chick Magnets

Last week we brought you Leif Even Pettersen. This week we're moving the spotlight to another self-deprecating travel blogger. Through Killing Batteries, we stumbled upon Mildly Thrilling Tales, written by Conor Grennan, a young idealist out saving orphans in Nepal.

While he thinks his "thrilling tales" deserve a "mildly" modifier, we think they're the type of random hilarity that occurs when someone, in the hopes of doing a little good, willingly becomes the outsider in a foreign country. Many of his stories involve kids acting out Power Rangers moves, while one incident borders on the surreal:

I got woken up at 7.30 a.m. by a monkey ringing my doorbell. And I don't mean like brushing past it and touching it, I'm talking like monkey-finger on the button, holding it down.

Um. Ok.

Once called "How Conor is Spending All His Money," Bootsnall now sponsors the site, and we're guessing he doesn't have much cash left since he launched his own non-profit.

Either way, he sounds like the kind of guy we'd like to hang out with. Plus, he openly admits posting gratuitous pictures with orphans to impress his lady back in the States. Well played.

Think your travel blog has what it takes to make you a travel blog star? Send us the address, throw "Travel Blog Star" in the subject line, and we will take a look. If your blog is deemed star worthy, linkage will no doubt be the result.

Related Stories:
· Travel Blog Stars [Jaunted]
· Mildly Thrilling Tales [conorgrennan.net]

Travel Blogs / Blogs / Leif Even Pettersen / Lonely Planet / Travel Blog Stars / → All Tags

Travel Blog Stars: Italy's Best Whine

Leif Even Pettersen is sort of like the Larry David of travel bloggers. At Killing Batteries, he's developed a cult following by griping incessantly about what, on the outset, appears to be a dream job. As a full-time travel writer (for Lonely Planet and others), Leif Even Pettersen logs a surprising number of complaints. Luckily, he's pretty hilarious.

Plus, he offers tons of useful tips that extend beyond the usual "hidden gem" clichés. For one, don't wear shorts in Italy.

Apparently, doing so lowered Pettersen's social rank to this level:

Dog with mange
Junkie
Me
Old man with the farts
Gas station attendant
Guy wearing Benetton
Domestic animal
Guy wearing Armani

Think your travel blog has what it takes to make you a travel blog star? Send us the address, throw "Travel Blog Star" in the subject line, and we will take a look. If your blog is deemed star worthy, linkage will no doubt be the result.

Related Stories:
· Killing Batteries [Official Site]