Smugmug vs Flickr

I’ve spent the last several days doing the time consuming chore of reformatting and redirecting all the old images on my site that point to Flickr and my self hosted photos, to Smugmug. I mentioned this on Twitter and I’ve gotten a lot of questions as to why I’m leaving Flickr and my self-hosted site …

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The Paradox of Travel Blogging

You may have noticed a significant amount of inactivity from myself on Twitter and on the website during the last week. Since I left Florence I’ve been extremely occupied taking photos, running around seeing things, experiencing Italy and generally doing things that travelers do. The problems with a travel blog is if you are traveling …

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Traveling to Dangerous Places

This Saturday I’m flying to Acapulco, Mexico. I’ll be there a few days before sailing on the Queen Elizabeth up to Los Angeles as a guest of Cunard Cruise Lines. Not surprisingly, almost everyone I’ve told mentioned something about crime, murders, drug gangs, or beheadings. Almost all the news coming from Mexico lately has been …

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Cruising as an Independent Traveler

Last May I was invited onboard the Carnival Magic for its inaugural cruise from Venice to Barcelona. With that cruise I have now been on a whopping 3 cruises in my life, which probably takes me out of the category of a rank novice but a far cry from the 100+ cruises that many people …

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My 10 Most Memorable Hotels of 2011

I stay in a lot of different hotels. A LOT of hotels. They range from 5-start luxury hotels to youth hostels. Some I pay for myself (aka the cheap ones) and others are provided by tourist boards (aka the nice ones). The majority of the places I stay at all sort of blur into one …

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The 12 Most Difficult To Visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The 12 Most Difficult To Visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites

As you have probably noticed, I have a fetish for visiting UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Having visited 400 of them, I often am asked if I plan on visiting all of them. The answer is “no” and I’m not even sure it is possible. As of 2020, there are 1,120 UNESCO World Heritage sites and …

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How Traveling Changed My View of Possessions

Despite 5 years of traveling around the world I think I am still fundamentally the same person I was before I started traveling. I’m kind of a smart ass and a bit cantankerous. There hasn’t been any sort of spiritual epiphany which has lead to a brand new Gary. That being said, my attitude towards …

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The Two Continent Club

I have this crazy thing I do where I categorize people based on the number of continents I’ve met them on in person. It all started in the first year of my travels with some random German girl who I first met in Japan and I later saw in Australia. I realized “Hey, we’ve met …

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Gutsy Women – A Traveler’s Life Lessons

No matter how long I travel or how many places I visit, there are certain questions that I will never be able to answer. One of them is what you need to know to travel as a woman. I’ve talked to many female travelers over the last several years, and without question, they have to …

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