It’s National Procrastination Week, so I decided to start posting on Fridays instead of Mondays. Clever, yes?

My favorite travel stories this week:

• Best Architecture Cities in the World Stellar photos of the gorgeous Parc Guell in Barcelona, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, and a few more. How many have you been to?
• “I cringe whenever I see ‘travel clothes,’ those expensive, uber-zippered, earth-toned, polyester abominations. Never wear anything on the road you wouldn’t wear at home.” — Franz Wisner, author of Honeymoon With My Brother, in last week’s How I Travel.
• “Many people take the day off from work and start their morning with beer and eggs and keep drinking right on through dinner.” Katie Hammel on St. Patrick’s Day in Chicago
• “A kitchen that can actually support the capacity of the hostel” #7 of 8 Things that Separate Great Hostels from Average Hostels You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to cook without utensils!
• Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, a fun look at the Best-selling Beers Around the World. Although I was surprised to see Tiger beer missing from the list! Seemed to be everywhere in SE Asia.
• Six Travel Types You Love to Loathe #2: The Klingon “You meet in the hostel bar and hook up to visit a temple, but as far as you’re concerned that’s where the relationship ends. Sadly, the Klingon has other ideas…” ha! I’m one of those ‘leaves the hostel at 7am’ types (maybe the list should have been 7 travel types you love to loathe?). So there’s a tip for getting rid of followers, just leave before they wake up.

Remember, Monday is the last day to apply for the BootsnAll Travel Writer program! And no, you can’t use National Procrastination Week as an excuse.

In the early days of BootsnAll, Sean and Chris wrote up a “Code of Conduct” and although some of it might not hold up in the company today, most of it still applies.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that we recognize that there are many types of travelers, and “all types of independent travel will be encouraged.” BootsnAll probably still isn’t the right resource for people who just want to phone up a travel agent and let someone else do all the travel-planning work, but there are many different kinds of independent travel - whether you’re the kind of person who only travels solo and never makes plans until you get there, or you do all your own research online and sometimes take guided tours, or you fall somewhere in between. As long as you take matters into your own hands on some level, BootsnAll is here for you.

A couple projects we’ve launched recently reflect, I think, how BootsnAll is growing up but not giving up its original beliefs.
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One of the things that tends to happen when I talk to people about my job at BootsnAll is the, “Oh, you’re so lucky!” moment. I do consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to write about travel every day - to do something I love so much that work doesn’t feel like work. It’s the kind of feeling I wish everyone could have, pursuing their passion and being rewarded for it.

Well, now BootsnAll is going to help more travel writers have that very same feeling.

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the BootsnAll Travel Writer Platform, a partnership with travel writers who are passionate and excited about sharing their expertise. This is an opportunity for you to turn your passion into a regular paying gig, and to work with a company that will help spread the word about how great you are. We dream of someday having a website dedicated to every destination and travel style there is, and having an army of travel experts who are ready and willing to answer any and all questions the traveling public sends our way.

Sound good to you? Wanna be part of our army?
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South America is probably on most travel-related life lists. I have yet to check out the “other America,” but after spotting crazy, cheap flights to Peru last week, I’m tempted to move it up the list!

There is no shortage of information about the standard South America “circuit” of sightseeing (which undoubtedly are impressive), so it was fun to read Adam’s Five Unexpected Treasures of South America travel article today.

So mix up a recipe of Caipirinha (or Ceviche?), and finally crack open that Gabriel García Márquez novel you’ve been meaning to start — because it’s South America week!

photos by thejourney1972 and Martin Bartosch

It’s been a big couple of weeks for us at BootsnAll - we had the unexpected pleasure of being featured in Google’s Super Bowl ad (hooray for a free few seconds of ad space during the Super Bowl!), and we also welcomed a new staff member, who we officially annouced today in our latest BootsnAll newsletter.

Katie Hammel, who has contributed feature articles to BootsnAll in the past, has become our newest travel writer and editor. She’s already taken over our Chicago travel guide (she is based in Chicago, after all), will soon be writing on our Spain travel guide as well, and is editing the BootsnAll traveler articles. She spent a little over a week in Portland at the BootsnAll office learning all her new responsibilities, and proved remarkably good at getting the hang of things really quickly!

Like the rest of the BootsnAll staff, Katie’s passionate about travel - and we’re happy to have her on board. You can follow Katie on Twitter @KatieHammel and @WhyGoChicago. Please help us welcome Katie to BootsnAll!

As “Getaway month” continues, it’s about time we covered the often controversial (among independent travelers, anyway) all-inclusives. Joanna Haugen wrote a great pro and con article this week, about all-inclusive resorts that compares the drawbacks and perks of vacation packages.

After one transatlantic cruise, I don’t really see myself cruising again any time soon, but small group adventure trips I would give another go.

How about you, have you ever been tempted by an all-inclusive?

photo by galfred

Could February possibly be any busier of a month for holidays, sports and travel? I know I was just complaining that the next three day weekend is a ways off, but February is packed with events… the Super Bowl (*cough* and our free Super Bowl ad), NBA All-Star Weekend, Carnival in Venice & Brazil, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Am I missing anything? Oh yes, Chinese New Year!

So even if you’re staying local this February, if you’re thinking of traveling for St Patrick’s Day you better get planning. My pick for March? Where they dye the river green — Chicago! Check out our travel holiday calendar — if you needed any more reasons to take off.

photo: ajagendorf25

BootsnAll Travel Network’s Parislogue.com travel guide was featured on Google’s Parisian Love Story Super Bowl ad.

Portland, Oregon February 8, 2010 — Portland-based company, BootsnAll Travel Network was featured in Google’s Parisian Love Story Super Bowl ad on Sunday. According to Google’s blog, the ad has been airing on YouTube for several months, and it had gained such positive feedback that they turned it into a Super Bowl ad.

The ad is about an American finding love in Paris, and starts with a search for study abroad programs. The “How to impress a French girl” search features local company Parislogue.com (part of the BootsnAll Travel Network). BootsnAll CEO, Sean Keener, was at a local pub watching the game, “We were thrilled to see our company featured briefly on the Super Bowl ad. After 12 years of hard work by many people, and a little bit of luck, we’ve built our sites to the point that Google thinks our content is worthy to be displayed during a Super Bowl ad. One of BootsnAll’s values is connecting independent travelers, and this ad epitomizes one of the types of connections that happen for travelers — love.”

For additional information, contact Sean Keener or visit www.bootsnall.com.

About BootsnAll Travel Network:
BootsnAll Travel Network, started in 1998, is a community of over 30 online travel guides and resources that connect and encourage independent travel.

Contact:

Sean Keener, CEO
BootsnAll Travel Network
541-914-9150
sean@bootsnall.com
http://www.bootsnall.com
http://www.parislogue.com/travel-tips/how-to-impress-a-french-woman.html
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-and-super-bowl.html

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On the night before the Super Bowl, several BootsnAll employees went out for dinner and a few drinks at a local pub we love. Some of us made plans to watch the big football game together, but for the most part on Sunday we were scattered around the Portland area watching with family and friends.

Which is why we all had to start calling and text-messaging each other madly after we saw Google’s “Parisian Love Story” ad midway through the second half.

Didja see that? The part where the search for how to “impress a French girl” pops up? And the top search result is a post on BootsnAll’s WhyGo Paris about how to impress a French girl? Yeah, we saw it, too.

And there was much screaming.
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Generally speaking, at an internet company like BootsnAll most of the focus is on the future - writing the next post, starting the next site, booking the next trip. But this company has a fun history, and we quite like reminiscing about it from time to time. In fact, reminding ourselves what BootsnAll was about when it started back in 1998 often helps us focus on what direction we should go next.

For instance, one of the reasons Sean and Chris started BootsnAll in the first place was because they missed the camaraderie of hostel pubs and common rooms when they weren’t traveling. They missed talking to other people who loved travel as much as they did, swapping stories and sharing tips. It’s one of the things we all still love about BootsnAll today - that it gives us an opportunity to talk and hear about the way other people travel.

Which is why we’re particularly excited about a new series of articles we introduced last month called “How I Travel.” One of our feature writers, Steve Bramucci, came to us with the idea of getting people from all walks of life to talk about their travel philosophy - what they love about travel, their travel style, and travel tips they might have. We loved the idea instantly, and we’re pleased that after only a few weeks it seems like many other people love it, too.
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