Way back in February, we announced the launch of the BootsnAll Travel Writer Platform, a partnership with travel writers who are passionate and excited about sharing their expertise. After sifting through a few hundred applications from talented and well-qualified writers, we finally selected our fabulous first five: JoAnna Haugen for WhyGo Las Vegas, Christine Cantera for WhyGo France, Nellie Huang for WhyGo Spain, Brooke Schoenman for WhyGo Australia and Amiee Maxwell for Travel Gear Blog.

Since May, they’ve been the embodiment of the BootsnAll spirit – providing useful and inspiring information and advice to travelers around the world. And now, we’re looking for more passionate travel experts to join them.

This time, we’re narrowing the field of destinations and themes for which we are looking for writers. So if you have expertise and passion for London, Ireland, New Zealand, Thailand, Brazil, Canada, Portugal, Vietnam, Mexico, Hawaii, business travel or adventure travel, we want to hear from you.

So, what does a BootsnAll Travel Writer do? Well, obviously, writing is a big part of the job. Each writer will be responsible for a set amount of blog posts per month, offering information on things to do and see in their destination, tips on scoring cheap flights and advice on the best hotels and hostels for travelers. But it doesn’t end there. Every BootsnAll Travel Writer needs to be an accessible expert who is available to answer questions and help travelers plan a trip to that destination.

The ideal candidate is not only an excellent writer who is passionate and knowledgeable about the destination and who is already familiar with the technical aspects of blogging, he or she is also an established member of the travel community, actively participating in social media.

There is work involved here, and we’re looking for people who will make a commitment to us to make these sites successful. BootsnAll will also be making an investment of both time and money in the sites themselves and in the writers with whom we’ll be working. What kind of investment, you ask? It will differ somewhat depending on the site, but the base monthly pay will be in the $500 range ($10-$25 per post, plus up to $200 per month for social media efforts) with a profit sharing system that will give the writer 30-40% of the site’s profits.

We think the program is unique in the travel world, and we’re so excited to expand it with another round of five writers. If you think you’ve got what it takes to join the team, we want to hear from you.

Want to learn more? Want to apply? Read the details about the BootsnAll Travel Writers Platform and apply by Monday, August 16, 2010 at 11pm PST.

I confess, I missed the time when plane tickets were booked via travel agent (or even at the airline counter), when travelers cheques were the only way to carry money on the road, and when the only portable resource available to most travelers was a dog-eared copy of a possibly outdated guidebook.

You see, I started traveling in the digital age. I booked my first international plane ticket over the internet. I reserved my first European hostel via email. And I created my own guide to my destination by printing out museum information, maps and restaurant menus that I found online. Those technological advances shaped the way I travel, and now I embrace even newer technology to help me travel better, smarter, and lighter.

One of the newest tools to improve my travels has been Twitter. Thanks to Twitter, I’ve been alerted to cheap international flights that I wouldn’t have otherwise known about. $250 round trip Chicago to Costa Rica, $500 round trip Chicago to Frankfurt, $400 round trip New York to Iceland – these are deals I would never have been aware of if they hadn’t made their way into my Twitter stream.

When I’ve needed first hand recommendations for where to stay or where to eat in a city, I’ve put out the call on Twitter, and my fellow travelers have always come through, suggesting out of the way places I otherwise might have missed.

Using Twitter to travel means not only getting first-hand tips from other travelers, it also means getting them in real time. If you have a smart phone, you can ask for advice on Twitter virtually anywhere, and have a response within a matter of seconds. You can even reach out to travel companies via Twitter when you have a problem. I’ve seen several companies respond to complaints posted on Twitter; it’s one more avenue for reaching a company representative directly.

Via Twitter, you can access the collective travel wisdom of the internet. We recently put out the call for some of our readers’ top travel tips, and compiled the best into a How I Travel: Twitter Edition. With tips on staying safe, staying connected, eating well on a budget, and traveling with kids, the members of the Twitterverse showed off their travel savvy and showed that Twitter is one of the best tools available to the modern-day traveler.

Photo by juicyrai

People who know me (and many who don’t) know that when I started working for BootsnAll back in 2006 I was, by any measure, the atypical BootsnAll traveler. At that point I’d never stayed in a hostel, I hadn’t taken off backpacking around Europe (or anywhere, for that matter), and I really didn’t relish the idea of traveling the world by myself. Despite having successfully navigated the subway in Paris alone (and thereby thinking I’d conquered the universe), at that point in my life I preferred traveling with other people.

Now, more than four years later, I’ve come to understand that although loads of people take off on what they call “solo trips” every single day, most of them don’t stay solo for long.
Read the rest of this entry »

I spent last weekend in New York at the second Travel Blog Exchange conference with colleagues Sean Keener and Katie Hammel, and since the trip was a whirlwind of activity (for more than just me) it’s been interesting to watch the recaps filter through the blogosphere over the last few days. It’s easy to say “what a great weekend, that was so much fun” – and it was. But in order to make sense of what the weekend was about, especially to a group of travel bloggers and writers, it’s taking a bit more time to process.

For me, the biggest part of TBEX – and, in fact, the reason for the formation of the group – is the people. I dearly love what I do, even if it means sitting in my house for days on end tapping away at a computer keyboard and not really interacting with anyone aside from my cats and my husband, and I also love that what I do has led me to meet so many incredible people. It’s things like TBEX that let me turn those virtual meetings into real-life meetings, and I can’t thank the organizers enough for that.

Not all travel bloggers are predisposed to craving human interaction, as blogging is a solitary art and travel is often about observation. I feel lucky, then, that so many of the people I’ve interacted with online have turned out to be gregarious folk who are as engaging in person as I hoped they’d be. Simply buying an around the world ticket doesn’t make someone interesting or outgoing, nor does it make them a travel blogger. So while TBEX certainly attracts a particular sub-set of the travel community, it’s one that seems to be growing.
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It’s finally technically and officially summer around here, although we’re still suffering from unseasonably cold and wet weather in Portland (remember this, people, next time you ask me if you should move here). I can tell from all of the “OH MY GOD IT’S SO HOT” updates on Twitter and Facebook, however, that bona fide summer has hit at least some parts of the country.

As I talked about a couple weeks ago, summer is the ideal time for a road trip. And what better destination for a summer road trip in the United States than one of our glorious National Parks?
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BootsnAll Travel Network is launching a Facebook application to connect travelers.

Portland, Oregon June 21, 2010 — BootsnAll Travel Network has created a Facebook application — BootsnAll Traveler Connect — that helps connect travelers. The app lets you find other travelers going to the same place you are, or connect with locals living there. Users can ask travel questions, arrange to meet for a drink, and create some unique experiences not found in a guidebook.

Sean Keener, CEO of BootsnAll said, “Travel is all about people. Connecting with people that you know, and people you don’t. We have been connecting independent travelers since 1998, so I’m excited that we can use our network of independent travelers and Facebook to connect even more travelers; whether that’s through just exchanging travel tips or making a new friend over a pint.”

What makes the application unique from other travel apps is that it connects you with other travelers — not just your current friends — so you can make new friends on the road.

For additional information, contact Sean Keener or visit http://www.bootsnall.com/apps to try BootsnAll Traveler Connect.

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. BootsnAll has over 3.6 million unique visitors per month and 100,000+ community members.

Contact:
Sean Keener, CEO
BootsnAll Travel Network – your one-stop indie travel guide
541-914-9150
sean@bootsnall.com
http://www.bootsnall.com
http://www.bootsnall.com/apps
http://apps.facebook.com/traveler-connect/

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This is the time of year when many people organize road trips, which makes sense. While some parts of the world experience decent weather year-round, summer is when you can count on good weather – and, in particular, good driving weather – in more places. And although a good road trip includes a list of stops along the way that you and your friends want to see, the reasons to road trip aren’t usually tied to sight-seeing. Instead, as the saying goes, the journey really is the destination.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that your best friends won’t necessarily make the best road trip partners. There are fairly specific qualities that make someone a good candidate for a companion on a road trip, and it’s the kind of thing you want to find out in advance – not midway through the plains states when you really wish you had stayed home.

So when you’re ready to plan a road trip, here are a few things to consider: Read the rest of this entry »

In case you’ve been living under a rock, World Cup starts in all of 2 days! So even though I’m not a die-hard soccer football fan, I have football on the brain this week. Thankfully, JibJab does as well.

So check out some of the BootsnAll crew (guys vs girls) and our mad soccer skills.

In all seriousness, Chris and Ian really are in South Africa for World Cup, and you can check in on them via Twitter.

Although you wouldn’t know it by looking outside the window in Portland right now, we’ve had a spate of abso-freaking-fabulous weather here lately. When the sun first starts streaming down on Portland, it’s intoxicating to the point of distraction – and it’s just a taste of things to come.

Summer brings out the festival spirit all over the world, partly because the weather is so awesome everyone just wants to be outside, and partly because so many of the people who go to big music festivals are people for whom summer is their one vacation time per year. We’ve had festivals on the brain lately at the office, so we recently put together a list of some of the best 2010 summer festivals – and we’re sure there are more out there that we missed. In fact, we’re kind of starting to wonder if you couldn’t pack an entire summer with music and arts festivals, going from one to the other without going home until September…
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There have been a lot of exciting things happening around BootsnAll lately, including: the travel writer program, a new BootsnAll logo (which you may have already noticed in the BootsnAll Travel newsletter or on Facebook), a few of the BootsnAll team getting ready to leave for World Cup in South Africa, and the exciting news of the newest BootsnAll member, Kai (Sean & Brandy’s new baby). So what are we up to now? A redesign!

What’s new:

• Travel articles – front and center — and bigger pictures!
• Flight, hotel, and hostel search – one-click away
• WhyGo travel guides – featured destination content
• The amazing deals feed - the latest and greatest deals to help you feed the travel bug.

So what do you think? Or let us know here, or on twitter or facebook.