About 15 miles outside of Ulaanbaatar, we made a sharp left turn off the main two-lane highway and started off-roading it in our Russian van south to the Gobi. For another six days we wouldn’t see another paved road. Part of the attraction of driving to the Gobi was just to be out in the [...]

By Danielle L. Krautmann The other day I was taking a taxi back from work.  I negotiated the fare to be eight soles, a fair price to go from San Borja to my apartment in San Isidro.  I told the taxi driver to please not take the street Javier Prado explaining “la trafica es mierda [...]

Happy Birthday GoMad Nomad! We’ve come a long way in our first year: published 115 posts from more than 15 writers and photographers, and just today got our 100th fan on Facebook and  over 700 followers on Twitter! Our goal remains the same: provide you with the best information to travel independently on a low [...]

I drove through Virginia countryside for five hours on my way to Goose Point Recreation area on Philpott Lake, passing scenes like this much of the way. This shot was taken off Route 221 in Floyd County heading north to Roanoke. I’m fascinated by barns and farm scenes lately—working farms, abandoned barns falling over, the [...]

Festa de São João, One of Europe’s Biggest Street Festivals By Stephen Bugno To experience Portugal at its most uninhibited, untamed and inebriated, don’t miss Porto’s massive, traditional annual Feast of St. John’s Eve. For one night every year, the city of Porto, Portugal goes absolutely wild. The celebration—Festa de São João—or Feast of St. [...]

Dear GoMad Nomad: My husband and I are going to England in two weeks. We have four days planned in London, but for the rest of the trip (6 days), we don’t really have plans.  I’ve been reading books and trying to figure out what to do.  Ideally, we’d like to take the train out [...]

Two Programs that Offer English-Speaking Volunteers Full Room and Board By Stephen Bugno I’m almost as exhausted as they are, but somehow they keep going. This is supposed to be easy for me, right? English is my native language. They sun is about to set in our small “English Village” but the Spaniards stay positive, [...]