Dream List Media

Travel addict and expert, Beth Whitman, was the guest on Aug. 4, where she shared tips from her book, Wanderlust and Lipstick:  The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo.  This unique guidebook addresses the most common fears of would-be solo travelers and dispels the accompanying angst by providing practical advice to get beyond the usual excuses. In addition to this guidance, she inspires women to dream big and provides them with the tools and insider tips of the trade to make those dreams a reality. 
 
About Beth Whitman:
Beth Whitman is the founder and editor of Wanderlust and Lipstick, travel blogger for the Seattle Post Intelligencer, and women’s travel columnist for Transitions Abroad.  For more than 22 years, she has been traveling the globe as a contemporary Wanderer: combining her love for travel with volunteer work, adventure trips, travel writing and business. She has backpacked through Nepal and hiked the Himalayan foothills in Bhutan; ridden a motorcycle solo from Seattle to Panama; worked with orphans in Vietnam through various volunteer programs; driven the AlCan Highway to Alaska; and maneuvered the back roads of France’s Dijon region in a rental car. For more information, visit www.wanderlustandlipstick.com.
 

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Travel + Leisure magazine’s November 2008 issue listed 20 life-changing trips.  They write:

“There’s growing evidence that the Volunteer Vacations trend is blossoming into a bigger phenomena. A 2007 Travelocity survey found that 17.7 percent of respondents had taken a vacation that incorporated volunteering or philanthropy—a number that’s up 13 percent from the previous year and expected to rise even higher in 2008. But tour operators and travel companies, new and old, are one-upping that trend through new programs and products, tapping into the feel-good Zeitgeist and our collective desire for something more from our adventures abroad, and at home.”

Follow the link to view a slideshow of these 20 amazing trips.

Have you taken a volunteer vacation?  If so, what's your story?

I just read a great article in the OttawaCitizen.com by Jen Ross about Torres del Paine National Park.  Hikers and adventure seekers may need to add this to their travel dream list.  Here's a quick clip from the article:

"Torres del Paine National Park is a hiker's paradise that's fast becoming a pilgrimage of choice for nature buffs, adventure tourists and those with an appetite for the non-conventional. Peter Potterfield recommends it in his new book Classic Hikes of the World: 23 Breathtaking Treks. In its 15th anniversary issue, National Geographic Traveler named Torres del Paine as one of the Top 50 "greatest places of a lifetime" and in the Top 10 in the "Paradise Found" category."