One of the great joys of travel is walking around and sampling the local markets. Unlike the US, in many parts of the world, foos markets still sit at the center of an ecosystem that brings farmers and small producers in direct contact with their customers. The benefit to the VaVenturer — you get an immersion into daily life, surrounded by new sights and smells and get to eat fresh and wonderful foods!

Tiny seats, and getting smaller, plastic food, less and less baggage allowance, sleep deprivation — it’s not getting any easier to travel.

The good news is that there’s an endless amount of new tech and gadgetry designed to counter the trend — designed to bring you some level of physical comfort, isolation for the ambient noise as well as making every aspect of the process a little less frustrating.

Sometimes things just don't turn out as planned. You miss a connection, the bus doesn’t come, The museum is closed, you make a reservation for the wrong date, . ...  what do you do?   

VaVenturers love to explore major sites, buildings, battle grounds and all places of interest. We don’t lose our sense of curiosity when we travel and part of the enjoyment is better understanding the history and forces that are the foundation of countries and peoples we visit.

On the other hand, it’s a vacation — the last thing we want is to trail around another overcrowded stone pile with a bus load of sweaty bored tourists listening to a lengthy disquisition on some obscure detail from early modern history.

You are all excited - destination researched, flights booked, hotels reserved and now you are confronted with every travelers dilemma - what to pack what to wear on my trip?

You don’t want your clothes to scream “tourist.” Without being pretentious or fussy, you want to look a little elegant, possibly like a local or at least a sophisticated visitor. And you want to do it all with carry on baggage.

Travel - ultimately, its all about amazing, sumptuous fresh amazing food. Well, that’s the fantasy. Here are our tips to make sure the reality matches the fantasy and ensure you bring back memories of fabulous, authentic and well priced food!

Here’s the deal. That smartphone in your pocket is going to take better pictures every time then even the most expensive SLR. Why? Because its a world class camera that’s instantly accessible ready for you to see the moment and capture it perfectly — while you’re still struggling to zoom the lens and select your F stop on the SLR.