Traveler Sunday: The Lost Girls

This website has been close to 100% Gary-centric since I started it. I don’t accept many guest posters and I don’t write about things which don’t pertain to what I’m doing or places I have been. I take all the photography and I write almost all the articles. Hell, I don’t even run advertisements.

Surprisingly enough, there a lot of great stuff going on around the inter-webs which has nothing to do with me (shocking I know). In particular, bloggers and other travelers who are doing great things and launching exciting projects. I’ve been thinking how I could better integrate what they are doing into my blog and I’ve finally settled on devoting every Sunday to other people. I’ll be doing reviews, interviews or other profiles of bloggers and travelers who I think are doing great things and who I think everyone should be aware of. There is no shortage of interesting travelers and exciting projects which are being launched, so I should have no problem finding something to publish.

The first travelers and blogger which I am going to feature are the Lost Girls: Jennifer Baggett, Holly Corbett and Amanda Pressner. The three friend from New York set out in 2006 to travel around the world.

I first became aware of the Lost Girls because the last half of their trip overlapped with the beginning of my trip in 2007. At the time there weren’t many travel blogs on the internet so I was aware of most of the other travel blogs. it turns out we just missed each other in New Zealand by about a week.

After their trip was over they went back to lives in New York and eventually came out with a book in May 2010. I actually purchased a copy for my iPad at TBEX in New York when I finally got to meet Amanda and Holly in person for the first time.

The book chronicles not only their adventure, but the backstory behind it in terms of work and relationships. I’ve read several reviews of the book which compared it to Eat, Pray, Love or put it in terms of solely in terms of women’s travel, but I honestly think there are lessons and parallels which anyone can take away from it. I meet people all the time who are looking for motivation and inspiration for taking a trip of a lifetime, and the Lost Girls is one of the best books to come out in the last several years in that department.

The biggest take away I got from the book was that there is no perfect time to travel. Each of the girls had issues with work or relationships but decided to take the plunge anyway and all were the better for it in the end. I have yet to meet anyone who has taken a long term voyage and regretted it.

In addition to their book they also recently announced that ABC had picked up the rights and was shooting a TV pilot based on the book. Not too shabby for three girls who just wanted to travel together!

I also have to mention their website, LostGirlsWorld.com. Since the end of their travels they have successfully transitioned their website from a travelogue to a general purpose travel magazine with multiple writers and a focus on women’s travel.

Having done all my traveling by myself, I’m amazed that they have managed to stay friends through a year of traveling, writing a book and now a TV show. I’m sure if I had been traveling with anyone else, they would have long since killed me. Their adventure is a testament to the power of travel as well as friendship.