There was a time back when I was young and foolish when I thought I knew what “business travel” looked like. It looked like men in business suits carrying leather briefcases. I’ll admit to being old, but I’m not old enough to remember the 1950s firsthand - and yet that’s kind of the image I used to have of business travel. Which is why I find it so amusing to be doing some business travel myself these days - sans a business suit or leather briefcase (not to mention anything that would remotely qualify me as male).

While business travel used to be that sort of 1950s image, it’s certainly not limited to that any longer. As travel got cheaper, more people were traveling for work - whatever their work was. And even if a particular job doesn’t require regular travel or seem like an occupation that would involve any kind of travel whatsoever, there are so many professional conferences these days that basically anyone could find one to attend if they wanted to. In other words, business travel now comes in lots of different colors and flavors.
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Those of you who read the BootBlog may remember my recent musings on how online friends become real-life friends. What some of you who read that article may not know is that I heard from several BootsnAll members after it was published who said, “Yeah, that’s interesting and all, but we’ve been doing that for years now.” And it’s true. The BootsnAll Travel Community is a seriously social bunch, many of whom aren’t content to carry on cyber-friendships. Booties (as they tend to call themselves) have been organizing and enjoying meetups all over the world for ages, and we at BootsnAll love that.

So while it shouldn’t surprise us that a concentrated pool of people who love travel and like to socialize with one another should, occasionally, produce a romantic liaison, we were absolutely chuffed to learn that there was a Bootie proposal this week. And even better, she said yes.

Stu proposed to Robyn!

(Or, for those of you who know them by their BootsnAll screen names, Stoo proposed to dopeyzn!)
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On my last Sunday in Italy during my most recent visit, I spent six and a half hours having lunch with some new Italian friends. (And as an aside, if anyone had any remaining questions about why I love Italy, let me reiterate that one lunch lasted six and a half hours. Case closed.) The conversation went back and forth between Italian and English, and for the most part it revolved around subjects for which I know the Italian vocabulary well - namely, food and travel. But one question from the host of the fabulous lunch forced me to dig a little deeper into my language well, as it was one I sometimes struggle with in English. “Why,” he asked me, “do people travel?”

Why, indeed.

The quick answer is that there are many reasons why people travel, but I do think that saying, “there are as many reasons to travel as there are travelers” is incorrect. There are some big over-arching reasons to travel under which you can group just about everyone who packs a bag and hits the road. And at the same time, most people are probably going to find they can identify with more than one of those reasons. But my opinion, the one I tried to communicate at that marathon lunch in Milan (albeit probably quite inelegantly, especially after much wine and homemade licorice digestivo), is that no matter what your reason for traveling - travel is good.

Now, this might sound like a statement straight out of the “duh” file to the travel addicts who read this blog, but hear me out.
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To say that I love Italy is a bit of an understatement, and I consider myself extraordinarily fortunate that I get to write about Italy as much as I do for work. But people who know my Italy writing are sometimes surprised to hear that I write about other things for work, too. No, really, it’s true! And since it’s all travel-related, it’s all still incredibly fun to research, talk about, and write. In fact, sometimes the non-Italy stuff is the most exciting to write about.

A perfect example of a great non-Italy subject that I’ve been writing about quite a bit lately is how cheap travel is these days. The economic news is, for the most part, pretty dreary - but after the initial shock wore off people started trying to (a) figure out how to cope with the reality of a new economic situation, and (b) look for any possible bright side. For travelers who can take advantage of it, there’s a huge bright side to the economic downturn - that nearly every element of travel is cheaper right now than it’s been in years.

To start with, let’s look at airfare. It’s almost always going to be the biggest chunk of your travel budget, so it makes sense to start there when you’re planning a trip. International tickets in particular are going to cost you a pretty penny, but this year the cost of an airline ticket to just about anywhere is a fraction of what it was last year. During the low season in Europe this past winter, a time when we expect prices to drop anyway, prices were even lower than we’ve gotten used to. And the prices on airfare to Europe this summer are low enough that they look like off-season fares in some cases. Even long-time travel industry professionals are gushing over the low fares.
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The sixth and final prize of BootsnAll’s Travel Stimulus Package has been drawn, and the lucky winner of the Kindle 2 from Amazon is Silvia Sanchez!

Silvia Sanchez is a recent Stanford University alum and is currently working for Beau-coup Favors. She has been obsessed with traveling since she was a little girl and some of her adventures include travels to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Spain, Morocco, England, and France. Aside from traveling, her hobbies include reading, writing, yoga, cooking, and anything outdoors.

Congratulations, Silvia, we hope you enjoy the Kindle.

The Travel Stimulus Package is now over. Thank you to all who entered and congratulations to the lucky winners!

I’m a Europhile. I have always had (and probably will always have) a major crush on Europe, despite the fact that for years she’s sapped my bank account dry for even the shortest of trips. I’m enjoying a trip to Italy right now that’s a helluva lot cheaper than other recent trips to Italy have been, but I’m still spending way more every day here than I would if I’d fallen in love with some other destination on the planet.

The truth is that there are so many travel bargains out there right now that it almost doesn’t matter if your favorite place is typically on the more expensive list. Visiting that place right now will still likely cost you a fraction of what it cost last year. But if you’re talking about going to a place that even last year was a bargain, then you’re really going to be saving a bundle.

One of the places that fits that description is the Philippines. Southeast Asia in general has always been much cheaper than Europe to travel in, which is one of the biggest reasons it’s such a rite of passage for so many budget travelers and college backpackers. But while places like Thailand (Bangkok in particular) and Bali are almost always on the must-visit lists of budget travelers, the Philippines doesn’t always make the cut. Is it because people can’t remember whether it’s two Ls or two Ps in the name? Who can say?
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We’ve drawn the fourth & fifth prizes in BootsnAll’s Travel Stimulus Package contest.

The lucky winner of the Olympus Stylus Digital Camera is Suzie Woods. She was leaving for Thailand just a few days after the drawing and unfortunately we weren’t able to get her prize to her in time before she left. But we bet she’s having a great time on her 2 week Thai Yoga Massage class.

Erik Blair is the winner of the ASUS netbook. Erik quit his job, sold everything on Craigslist and eBay and is moving to paradise this summer. Starting in July he’ll be roaming the beaches of Maui in search of a new life, job, car and a place to hang his hat. Travel consulting is just a hobby according to Erik who describes himself as an adventurer, entrepreneur and writer who is dedicated to the concept of linked prosperity through pay-it-forward principles. You can follow Erik’s adventures from his Twitter profile which includes links to his website, facebook, and blog.

Congratulations, Suzie & Erik! This is the final week of the Travel Stimulus Package contest. Enter now to win the last prize, a Kindle 2 from amazon.com.

Multiple entries are allowed and encouraged. Get your entries in today!

I wasn’t the only one who got interviewed on the radio - our resident Francophile, Julie, was asked to divulge her best secret spots on the French Riviera. Places that are both less expensive than the more famous spots, and also less crowded. She may regret giving up state secrets like that eventually, but for now you can benefit from her knowledge of traveling in France.

Here’s Julie’s radio interview about places to visit on the French Riviera:

If you follow me on Twitter, you probably saw me mention that I was being interviewed by a local Portland radio station’s travel show about the article I wrote a month or so back, “To Use Twitter for Travel or Not to Use It: Is That Really the Question?” They wanted to talk about Twitter, as everyone in the media seems to want to these days, and specifically how it could actually be useful for a traveler.

I recorded the interview a week before I left for Italy, and it aired a few days before my flight out. The interview was streamed live on the station’s website, but since there isn’t an archive on the site they’re kind enough to send out MP3s of the interviews they do.

So, in case you missed it, here’s my radio interview about using Twitter for travel:

Not that long ago, my mother still looked at me with a deer-in-headlights look when I said the word “blog.” She knew I was working for a web company, and she knew what the internet and email were, but blogs were just something she’d heard someone mention on NPR - she didn’t actually know what one was.

While Mom’s still not a blog-reader, she at least knows what they are now. The new thing that I can’t quite explain to her is Twitter. Although she has (again) heard them talk about it on NPR, she has no earthly idea what it is. So when I read something on Twitter, I tell my mom I read it on a blog. That way she knows it’s something online, but she doesn’t want to know anything more than that.

Which is why I’m sure she’d raise an eyebrow (at the very least) if I told her how I’d spent the last two days in Rome. On Friday night, I met up with a couple I’d never laid eyes on before, but one of whom I’d interacted extensively with via Twitter and email. We had a lovely long dinner on a tiny side-street not far from the Campo dei Fiori, talking non-stop until after midnight.

On Saturday night, I met another Twitter friend I’d never seen before for a drink atop a posh hotel in Rome’s city center in their rooftop bar. Again, we chatted easily, enjoying the spectacular early evening weather and the views overlooking the outskirts of Rome. After our drinks, we made our way to an apartment being rented by yet another pair of Twitterers none of us had met before, where they were hosting a meetup of foodies - expats in Italy and travelers alike - most of whom had only interacted previously on Twitter and perhaps via email.
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