Insider tips, global travel advice and inspiration.
Viewing entries by
Ellen Barone
Do improved relations between Cuba and the U.S. have you eager to visit the island before broader tourism changes it forever? Here are 5 Cuba adventures for 2015 with government-approved permits that legally allow Americans to go now.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Do you return home from a vacation resolved to learn from your travels and to navigate your next adventure with a little more wisdom than your last? I do. But resolutions take practice and require consistent attention. Who hasn’t experienced the fierce surge of a New Year’s resolution, only to feel it fade away to a faint tickle of desire until eventually, it is forgotten?
A few weeks ago, travel expert Wendy Perrin asked professional wanderers, like myself, to share their travel resolutions for 2015. If one of your New Year’s Resolutions is to use your vacation days to travel—and to make every trip truly count—you’ll find inspiration in the collection of ideas that she published...
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Here’s a secret: Pay attention to your conversations after you return home from traveling. Listen for the insights and observations you exhale as naturally as your breath—the stories that are so much a part of you that you barely notice. This is where you will find the lessons of your trip.
Do you complain incessantly about the lack of WiFi at the remote Patagonian lodge where you stayed?
Perhaps you tell everyone how much you enjoyed the experience of eating in Italy—the outdoor cafes, the leisurely pace of meals, shopping for fresh produce in the markets?
Are you unable to stop talking about the 10-day silent retreat you’re just back from?
Hidden in each story is a nugget of self-awareness.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
Here’s the thing: Living the American Dream is expensive.
If your income is unpredictable or fixed, as it is for self-employed and retired Americans like my husband Hank and me, the financial weight of home ownership and a rising cost-of-living can feel overwhelming and render travel an unaffordable luxury you once enjoyed.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
I asked my 22-year-old niece, just back from summer travels in Europe, to give us the inside scoop on hosteling. Learn her list of myth-busting tips and packing must-haves.
by Madeleine Clute
My first foray into hosteling was at the end of high school when some friends and I took a road trip to Quebec, Canada, and it’s been my preferred method of seeing new places since. Most recently, my friend Elizabeth and I traveled on students’ budgets for 30-days in Europe, spanning 10 cities and 8 countries, primarily staying in hostels.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
I’m going to be honest with you: I would have never guessed that at the age of fifty I’d be a nomad.
Here’s the thing: I’m a homebody at heart and up until a few years ago I viewed the contentment of home and the thrill of exploration as mutually exclusive destinations.
Then my husband, Hank, and I set off on a multi-year journey with a vague plan of temporarily inhabiting Latin America and the adventure opened my eyes and heart to new truths about myself and the world around me.
Ellen Barone is an American writer and wanderer. She co-founded and publishes the group travel blog YourLifeIsATrip.com and is currently at work on her first book "I Could Live Here".
