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.

One of the obvious perks of traveling on your own is that you don’t have to compromise your travel plans one iota. Feel like spending an extra day or two in a city you’re really enjoying? Go for it. Want to skip a stop you’d originally planned on? No problem. You have only yourself to answer to, and someone else’s conflicting travel style or agenda never has to get in the way.

But something most people who aren’t into solo travel don’t realize is that solo travelers are constantly meeting people when they’re out and about. Sometimes they strike up conversations with fellow travelers in hostel common rooms, sometimes they share drinks with locals. The bottom line is that whether you set off by yourself or not, you have to be really anti-social to avoid interacting with other people the whole time you’re on the road.

If you’re not as extroverted as some of the people you know, however, but you still prefer to travel by yourself, the internet has become a great tool to help bridge the gap. Your trip planning might be all about the solo travel ideas, but if that research leaves you with no tips on how to connect with people, you might get lonely quickly. Of the many online tools you can use to “meet” people before you meet them, the one we’re partial to (for obvious reason) is BootsnAll’s Facebook app, BootsnAll Traveler Connect.

Not only does BootsnAll Traveler Connect help you find locals in the places you’re visiting (so you can ask them questions and get travel advice before you arrive), it also helps you find people who are visiting the same places you are (so you can meet up if you’ll be there at the same time). It all happens through the Facebook interface you already know and love, but you don’t have to “friend” a bunch of strangers and give them access to your prom photos. We think it’s a grand tool, and we hope you do, too. Please let us know what you think of the app!

photo by Peter Gene

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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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…

One thing we did notice when we were putting together that list of festivals is what great names they sometimes have. Sure, you have fairly self-explanatory festival names like the Glastonbury Festival, but most of them have some weird-sounding word in the name that just makes you curious to learn more, whether or not you plan to go to the festival. For instance, the name Bonnaroo Festival doesn’t necessarily scream “music festival” to you, does it? And yet that’s exactly what it is – a top-notch music festival in Manchester, Tennessee (making that two excellent music-related reasons to go to Tennessee). And if you heard there was a Sasquatch Festival, would you think it was more about music or hunting for Bigfoot? (Hint: it’s all about music.)

Other entries in the strangely-named festival contest include California’s Coachella Festival, Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival, and the long-running Lollapalooza Festival. And even though the Burning Man Festival isn’t such an odd name, considering they do actually burn a big statue of a man at the end, I think it’s safe to say that the whole festival itself falls into the “slightly off-kilter” category.

If your summer plans don’t include traveling to one of these festivals, don’t worry – we’re also keeping our holiday travel guide updated so that you can peek at it and see what excuse is coming up whenever you’re in the mood to plan a getaway.

photo by emilydickinsonridesabmx

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.

As a side note, because this was going to be the first group of writers in the BootsnAll Writers Platform, we knew we had to choose people who were not just good writers and knowledgeable about their topic, but also people who would be the perfect ambassadors of the program – and would serve as mentors for future groups of writers who will come after them. And we think that not only did we check all of those boxes off with this team, we hit it out of the park. It’s a stellar group of people who we’re all thrilled to have on board.

Read on to find out more about each one of our “fabulous first five.”

Christine Cantera: WhyGo France

Christine Cantera is our France expert, and we’ve got good reason to trust her with the most touristed country on earth. Christine has lived in Europe since 2002, and spends most of the year in the town of Montpellier in the South of France. She knows how popular travel to Paris is, and is eager to share with readers what makes venturing out into other parts of France so enchanting. Christine is a confident traveler with a dry wit, an eye for good photos, and the refreshing ability to tell it like it is.

You can find Christine in the following places:

• WhyGo France travel guide
• WhyGo France on Twitter
• WhyGo France RSS feed

JoAnna Haugen: WhyGo Las Vegas

Our Las Vegas expert is JoAnna Haugen, who is incredibly well-traveled – including a stint in Kenya in the Peace Corps. She’s lived in Sin City for three years, and her traveler instincts mean that she remains fascinated by the mix of people in Las Vegas, not to mention the variety of things to do. JoAnna isn’t one to turn down a nice meal or show on The Strip, and she’s equally happy hiking or skiing in the mountains surrounding the city – so she’s the ideal guide for an intrepid traveler in Las Vegas who wants to consider all their options.

You can find JoAnna in the following places:

• WhyGo Las Vegas travel guide
• WhyGo Las Vegas on Twitter
• WhyGo Las Vegas RSS feed

Nellie Huang: WhyGo Spain

Ever since our Spain expert, Nellie Huang, first set foot in the country three years ago, she’s been captivated by it. Nellie has traveled extensively, but that hasn’t stopped her from settling (in that way only nomads can, living in three different cities in three years) into the rhythms of a Spanish lifestyle. Because she’s lived in Madrid, Seville, and Granada – and because she’s just naturally good at making friends – Nellie has a network of contacts all over Spain who will supplement all her own great tips about traveling through Spain.

You can find Nellie in the following places:

• WhyGo Spain travel guide
• WhyGo Spain on Twitter
• WhyGo Spain RSS feed

Amiee Maxwell: Travel Gear Blog

Everyone likes picking up a new piece of travel gear before a trip, but our travel gear expert, Amiee Maxwell, is a real fanatic when it comes to gear. As she puts it, she “spends as much time as possible living out of her Subaru in the Utah and Nevada desert” – and you can’t do that (at least not with a smile on your face) without the right kind of travel gear to make your trip easier and more comfortable. Amiee is obsessed with getting the right gear – she knows how the wrong gear can wreck a trip, and she’s determined not to let that happen to you.

You can find Amiee in the following places:

• Travel Gear Blog
• Travel Gear Blog on Twitter
• Travel Gear Blog RSS feed

Brooke Schoenman: WhyGo Australia

Last but not least is our Australia expert, Brooke Schoenman. Brooke started traveling around the world in 2007, and although she didn’t plan to stop moving she has now lived in Sydney for more than a year – and absolutely loves it. She’s gifted with an explorer’s sensibilities, and is eager to get out and see the parts of Australia she hasn’t yet visited (it is, after all, a big place). Brooke is a wealth of information on Australia, and you can bet if she doesn’t know the answer she knows where to find it.

You can find Brooke in the following places:

• WhyGo Australia travel guide
• WhyGo Australia on Twitter
• WhyGo Australia RSS feed

A hearty welcome to our new BootsnAll writers!

photo at top by Michael | Ruiz

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.

• BootsnAll Travel Writers Platform – We announced this program a week ago, and we’re gratified to have gotten great feedback and response to it so far. We’re excited about being in a place where we can give talented and passionate travel writers an opportunity to fuel their travel obsessions. While we would have loved this idea 10 years ago, we weren’t in a position to launch it. So it’s exciting to still be inspired by great travel writing and be able to do something with it.
• How I Travel – We’ve always been able to while away the hours talking about travel philosophy, so launching the new “How I Travel” series in January of this year was something that was right up our alley. Again, we’ve been happy that so many people are enjoying reading about how other people travel, but we’d almost be just as content reading these profiles ourselves. We think you’re never too old to learn something about travel, and you’re never so much of a travel expert that you can’t still make mistakes. And these profiles are proving both of those things to be true.

In other words, while we’re always here to help you book the air tickets you need to get where you’re going, get your Eurail passes, find a hostel with a good social scene, and sort out the best travel insurance for your trip – if you happen to find us in the local cafe or pub we’re also just as eager to simply talk about travel until the wee hours.

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?

There is work involved here, don’t get me wrong – 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 the writers we’ll be working with. What kind of investment, you ask? It will differ somewhat depending on the site, but the base monthly pay will be in the $100-500 range 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 happy to finally be able to unveil it to the world after months of planning. But for me personally, the launch of this program is really special. When I started writing BootsnAll’s Italy travel guide back in 2007, it was on my own time and just because I loved it. That weekend hobby has turned into part of my job, and the site is also a major part of what helped me get the required paperwork to eventually move to Italy.

Now, I’m not saying every single writer who becomes part of the BootsnAll Travel Writers Platform will end up moving to another country (unless you want to, of course), but I’m personally gratified to know that the next time someone says, “Oh, you’re so lucky!” when I tell them what I do, at least now I can tell them they could be that lucky, too.

Want to learn more? Want to apply? Read the details about the BootsnAll Travel Writers Platform and apply by March 15, 2010.

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.

Our first “How I Travel” article featured our good friend Rolf Potts, whose great sense of adventure doesn’t stop him from dispensing practical advice like you should “always wash your hands before you eat.” The second article was all about pro surfer Holly Beck, who has the exact kind of free-spirited enthusiasm for life that you’d expect, even if she does go to bed early. This week’s installment is “How I Travel: Don Wildman,” with the host of “Cities of the Underworld,” who says the first thing he does upon arriving in a new place is find a cafe where he can write letters – actual letters on actual paper – to people back home.

And that brings up one of the treats of this series so far – that even when you think you know what you’ll get from a person, you can be pleasantly surprised. Each of the people we’ve featured so far has opened up enough to let us see something that one might not have anticipated about them. I love how travel can do that, and I’m really looking forward to more interesting surprises in the articles to come.

We hope you’re enjoying the “How I Travel” series, and we’d love to hear from you if there’s someone you think we should feature. If you’ve got a suggestion, please let us know. Oh, and if you’re so inclined, you can keep up to date with new articles in the series by following @HowITravel on Twitter and becoming a fan of How I Travel on Facebook.

photo provided by Rolf Potts and may not be used without permission

Simply customize the widget features to suit your site and insert the javascript code that is generated into your site template and the widget will do the rest. New travel story links will appear every day from all the best travel websites like Gadling, Jaunted, Frommers, and of course, BootsnAll.

Here is an example of how the BootsnAll Today Widget can look:

So what are you waiting for? Build your own widget!

These days it seems everybody has a Facebook profile. The social networking hub has come a long way from being able to poke your friends or throw a sheep at them. You also have to register using your real name. This makes Facebook perfectly aligned with BootsnAll and why we’re excited to announce that Facebook users can now comment on BootsnAll travel articles and leave reviews of hostels they have stayed in.

Anywhere you see the thumbs up/down icons on BootsnAll.com, you’ll be able to click on them and, if you’re logged in to Facebook, your vote will be registered and you’ll be able to leave a comment or review. If you’re not logged in, you’ll be given the choice to log in as a BootsnAll member or to your Facebook profile.

Now that you know how easy it is, why not give it a go? Here are some of our popular BootsnAll articles:

• To Use Twitter for Travel or Not to Use It: Is That Really the Question?
• Solo Travel: The Pros and Cons
• 12 Most Amazing Pools in the World
• Ten Toilets You’ll Meet on Your Travels (and how to cope with them)