Last updated on December 14, 2018
Stories of culture and social enterprise.
Discover stories focusing on culture, community, and responsible travel. Travel can be a force for good in the world when you travel with purpose and respect. These stories are all about unique ways to connect to cultures and communities, and profiles on amazing people, organizations, and travelers creating social change through travel.
- A Little Insight… What Goes Into a Sustainable Tourism Industry?
- A Little Delight… Stories of Responsible Travel in Hoi An, Vietnam
- A Little Portrait… Stories of Microfinance from the Women of the Oaxaca Valley, Mexico
- A Little Story… How One Maasai Tribe Is Changing the Face of Responsible Tourism
- A Little Story… And the Case for Planning a Trip to Nepal
- A Little Bit… About Grassroots Volunteering
Stories of life on the road.
Traveling the world these years has changed my life. I am a better person because of the lessons I’ve learned, the unique challenges and opportunities that have only come to me through nearly a decade of solo round the world travels. These stories share my fears, confessions, and musings on anything and everything related to a life of travel.
- A Little Adrift… Dispatch from Barcelona: Finding Home
- A Little Reckoning… On Transformative Travel Experiences and 9 Years of Travel
- A Little Choice… or a Big One? Reflections Making Choices & Seven Years of Travel
- A Little Adrift… In Search of Balance
- A Little Musing… Thoughts on Running My First Marathon
- A Little Adrift… 20 Powerful Life Lessons You Learn from Solo World Travel
Photoessays from around the world.
We live in such a pretty world. So much beauty to witness from nature, from people. Take a visual tour through cities, cultures, and landscapes with a selection of posts that focus on allowing the photos to tell the stories.
- A Little Photoessay… Two Weeks of Nuance & Culture in Japan
- A Little Story… How One Maasai Tribe Is Changing the Face of Responsible Tourism
- A Little Adventure… Going on an Incredible Safari in Tanzania’s National Parks
- A Little Photoessay… Snapshots & Stories from Colorful, Colonial Mexico
- A Little Photoessay… Slice of Life Snapshots of Mexico
- A Little Photoessay… A Glimpse of Gaudi’s Masterpiece, La Sagrada Familia
Latest stories and blog posts.
Although the blog was chronological in my early years on the road, now I share stories, advice, tips, and anecdotes that cover thousands of stories, hundreds of new friends, and more than a decade of traveling the world.
A Little Insight… What Goes Into a Sustainable Tourism Industry?
Around the time that I was struggling to hold down my breakfast, hiking at a clipped pace across the wild Kyrgyz countryside and up a mountain, I realized a few things needed to change. Having just finished hiking 500 miles of Spain’s Camino de Santiago a few weeks earlier, I was fit enough for the…
A Little Adrift… Dispatch from Russia: Upending Cultural Assumptions
Cold air gnawed through my layers, persistent and unrelenting. As an avowed lover of all things tropical—smoothie flavors, color pallets, and, yes, temperatures—I had dreaded exploring St. Petersburg, Russia in November, a month marked by gray skies, drizzling rain, and pervasive chill. Although my unsuitability for cold weather panned out, St. Petersburg upended my every…
A Little Adrift… Dispatch from Barcelona: Finding Home
Finding a way to stop traveling has been an evolving process. When I booked that one-way flight ten years ago, a year of travel loomed before me, an epic round-the-world trip that would fulfill my dreams to see more of the world while also preparing me to contentedly return to Los Angeles at the end….
A Little Delight… Stories of Responsible Travel in Hoi An, Vietnam
Drizzling rain pattered on my umbrella as I wove through throngs of tourists, their rainbow-hued ponchos forming sudden pops of contrast against the canary-colored walls. I dodged locals pedaling rickety bicycles on the rain-drenched streets, and darted into the calm oasis of a local teahouse-cum-social enterprise in Hoi An, Vietnam. The rain hadn’t let up…
A Little Reckoning… On Transformative Travel Experiences and 9 Years of Travel
Nearly a decade of travel. The top left is my final day as a Los Angeleno, and the other three are from France, Kyrgyzstan, and Vietnam—all places I have visited this year. To call it sadness gives it too much weight. But happiness is too vibrant and concrete. I don’t feel…
A Little Photoessay… Two Weeks of Nuance & Culture in Japan
The chaos of Tokyo crashed over me in waves when I first landed in Japan. I had booked my tickets on a whim—I found an affordable last-minute flight and jumped at the opportunity. Luckily, I had time to secure a Japan Rail pass, which allowed me to zip around the country on the speedy Shinkansen…