I'm always finding new blogs and interesting travel ideas online, but one way to discover active blogs on every subject imaginable is to visit a blog carnival.

A "blog carnival" is a gathering of selected individual posts from lots of different blogs, all on one topic, with all of the post links on a single "hosting" blog. On active carnivals, new editions are usually published once a week or every other week. Sometimes the host blog duties rotate around the blogosphere, and sometimes the host blog… Read More

The conventional wisdom used to be that it was always cheaper to take the train in Europe -- you know, the classic backpacker clutching a Eurail pass.

It's a new world of transportation options these days, however. Let's catch up....

The combination of deregulation initiatives and the border-obliterating European Union and Schengen Agreement have made travel between European countries a snap compared to just a few decades ago. It has also resulted in an explosion of low-cost… Read More

In today's interconnected world, travelers not only have to figure out where to eat and sleep, they also want to know where they can surf the 'net.

If your children are about 12 or 13, they and their friends may have email accounts (by the way, a Web-based account like Yahoo! or gmail is really easy to check from anywhere.) At some point during a family trip -- daily if they're the chatty sort -- they will start bugging you about checking their… Read More

You'll have to excuse my terminology -- I'm at the great geek and "digital creatives" party conference called South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive in Austin, Texas, and to "rawk" something is apparently a positive experience.

Here's how to rawk Walt Disney World Orlando without losing your mind, in 8 not-so-easy-but-worth-it-anyway steps:

1) There aren't going to be as many "magical experiences" unless you plan ahead. There's too much to see, too many rides to do and too many people all there with you trying… Read More

I feel fortunate to have enjoyed many travel opportunities, but there is something I've noticed in every community where I've lived: people do not know their own town.

As a former Navy person who also grew up in a Navy family, I don't quite know what to do when I'm not uprooted every 2-3 years. My Mom and Dad taught me how to… Read More

Ah, the City of Light.

April (or whenever) in Paris.

There's a reason that people tend to get all goo-goo about Paris....it looks like, sounds like, feels like everything you would imagine after reading about it in books and seeing pictures or movies. At least once, every new visitor there probably stops like I did, a goofball in the middle of the sidewalk, and exclaims, "I'm in Paris!" Why not? It's a grand, centuries-old metropolis that pretty much… Read More