The holiday season. It arrives with festivities and departs with similar flair. Goodbye…and please do not return until next year.

Christmas has always been about family, yet in the same context, Christmas has been about the spirit of giving-in many different ways.

When I say giving, I am referring to a scale of giving; from honest care to its’ opposite, or shall we say mass consumption and the hoards of consumers, entering shops and browsing online catalogs with as deep or as shallow of pockets permissible.

This holiday season I experienced both worlds, but fortunately, there was a choice, and on the family side of things we removed ourselves from ritualistic spending and nonsensical wasting of resources. Instead, we decided to give back, both with thought and action.

There is a way to find balance. With the Christmas spirit, it is to be thoughtful in all one gives and possibly volunteer for those less fortunate.

The Corporate Holiday

Spending the fall and winter seasons in the midst of corporate America did not elevate my excitement for the holidays. Whether it was the exhausting rush of Thanksgiving sales, the merciless orgy of Black Friday, to the final week before Christmas, I clocked my hours at Seattle’s REI Flagship store as a snow-sports specialist.

I sold snowboards, packaging the hard-goods with boots and bindings to push a 10% discount. I rearranged, organized and picked up after customers in the helmets and goggles department where plastic and cardboard boxes splayed across shelves. I answered phones, ordered unavailable products, put others on hold, and directed individuals to their desirous locales, pointing at signs clearly posted but apparently lost to the sights of shoppers too cluttered to notice.

The retail world roundabout the holiday season: I came, I went, and I shall never return.

Likewise, for a month straight I heard Christmas carols echoing from the wooden rafters. From Michael Bolton to Alvin & The Chipmunks and way back with Doctor Demento-they bounced off nuts and bolts, across metal air ducts and through vast open spaces.

My head spun with cheesy saxophones and piercing voices and jangling bells, along with the questions, services, projects, areas to tidy, customers to greet. Influenced by this madness, the idea of Christmas was appalling. And yet I still needed to shop.

Therefore, my hours were minimal. Having lived the false spirit of Christmas via retail with maddened shoppers who believe the higher the price, the more love received, the more gratitude awarded-I went homegrown.

Back Home

The best gift is one with heart and soul. It is a gift with thought, personalized with the flavor of the giver and the appetite of the receiver. Since youth, my mother has reminded me: “The best gift is one made by you and your imagination alone.”

So I lived the consumption at work, and in the end I quit, giving my two weeks notice long before December 25th arrived. I had to leave.

Back home I spurred my imagination into creativity, thinking of family and friends, lovers near and lovers far. I mended my Grinch-filled spirit so as not to steal away the blessings of Christmas and I designed my own gifts.

I wrote poetry and prose. I concocted a blend of organic hot cocoa mix, baked sweet yummy banana-carob goodness bread, and shared music to continue the dance of life. In essence, I stayed away from the money-frenzied Western culture and supplied the core of Christmas giving with my own two hands and my own open mind, combining their creativity into one.

Assuaged from corporate nightmares, the spirit of Christmas was born again.

A Spiritual Rebirth

Morning arrived: December 25th, 2007. All shopping ceased. All those long lists of desires, wants and dreams shortened until tomorrow, next week, the year’s resolutions.

Yet, nestled within a small home, my family and I drank tea and coffee as we sat on the couch and watched two dogs bound upon one other. There was no Christmas tree. There were no lights, no stuffed Santa Clauses, no ornaments and no scents of cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves from fresh batches of Egg Nog.

There was only family and the call within each of our hearts to reunite from our individual lives and be near each other. The sun rose, and shortly we were off.

What truly rings clear not only during the holidays, but every day, is that spirit of sharing. Having so much, granted the ability to experience many things, there comes an alignment within oneself to give back and actively show appreciation.

As a family, we wanted to share our energies with those most in need.

To emerge from the bubble of one’s single-track lifestyle and share oneself with others less fortunate is the best gift, not only to give to those asking for help, but to oneself as well.

Coming Full Circle

At 9:30 Christmas morning we unloaded and stepped into a large grassy park in southern California. The sun was shining, the air comfortable with a short breeze, and all around were hundreds of volunteers busily organizing themselves and preparing for the annual Christmas feed.

Stepping up to the volunteer table, we presented ourselves and set to work in the spirit of giving, one not of monetary means, clothes, jewelry or cars, but simply of our time, our concern and our compassion.

We filled and tied balloons. We decorated. Others set up chairs and tables, cones for lines, stalls of beverages, collected donations of food and carved slices of honey ham. Yams were plentiful, as were the pies, peas and sweet corn. Cars drove up and provided more food, more gifts and more love.

The spirit of giving-a true Christmas-was alive and well.

From the wastelands of consumerism to the return of Christmas and the spirit of giving, sharing, and gratitude. The holiday season can come full circle, traveling through the polar opposites of living and the joys and pains it can bring.

With all things in life, in each moment, there are choices to be made, and whether from motherly advice or individual participation, the holiday season can be one of humble creativity and compassionate giving.

As members of the human family, we all have to learn to cherish each other; this includes ourselves as well as those nearest to, and farthest from, our circle of understanding.

Come again, sweet holidays, and bring with you the joy of giving, the gratitude of receiving, and the spirit of sharing.

Cameron Karsten writes spiritual and health travel columns for Brave New Traveler. He left his formal classroom studies to indulge in dreams of travel at 19 years old, and has been wandering ever since. Visit his personal website.

It’s time now to roundup our favourite links from around the web.

Chuck Thompson, author of Smile When You’re Lying, offers up the similarly scathing 10 Most Overrated US Tourist Attractions.

Find out Rick Steves secret weapon! Read Confessions of a Guidebook Writer (hattip Gadling).

Vagabondish lists a few good reasons on keeping a travel blog your friends will love to read. Hint: just give us the highlights.

Chris has a useful list of budget travel websites for Europe that may come in handy if you’re heading that way.

An inspirational public school in Georgia has evolved into “a laboratory for the art of getting along, a place that embraces the idea that people from different cultures and classes can benefit each other.” Read the full story here.

If you had it all, would you give it up? Young, rich, and miserable, computer whiz Tom Williams ditched the fast lane and started his own charity social network Give Meaning.

Enjoy the weekend!

Travel is one of the rare circumstances in life that reveals something new about the traveler with each journey.

Often, we begin with a preconceived notion of how we want to approach new experiences; how we want to encounter new places; how we expect to see the unexpected.

Fortunately, travel rarely complies with our terms.

Earlier this year, I was called to “The Land of the Long White Cloud” by chance. Instead of visiting friends and staying in the bustling metropolis of Sydney, I flew 9,292 miles to rent a campervan and drive around New Zealand’s South Island.

I knew it was going to be a different kind of journey for me when all the gear had been packed into the van and we set off down the road, heading toward a general area a few hours away that had been recommended by a local barber just the day before.

Herein lies the eternal struggle: whether to fight for control of a trip or let the destination determine your course. Follow the pre-planned route and make the right turn to the next big thing, or decide to take the longer road through a smaller town, known among locals for its artisans?

Illusion of Control

On the surface, it seems an easy decision to make. Many of us prefer planning for logical, practical reasons. Usually we’re only in a destination for a finite period of time, so it makes sense to maximize the time visiting the best an area has to offer and minimize the time making decisions or getting lost.

But by its very design, planning doesn’t account for the things that could – and inevitably do – go wrong: transit strikes, flash floods, airport delays, and the like. Even more infuriating than a wrench suddenly being thrown into the plan is the fact that there’s no way that anyone could control it.

After all, daily life in most of the Western world is all about personal control – what size latte we order, what clothes we wear, what decisions we make at work, what activities we choose during our spare time.

From programming the TiVo to ordering dinner, the outcome of our choices serve as a constant reminder that we are ultimately in control of what we receive and that goods, services, and experiences should cater to our needs and expectations.

But even though it’s easy to stay in that state of mind, travel often presents opportunities to relinquish control and see the world as it is, rather than how we assume it to be.

Planning = Intended Reality

“I like having an idea of the things I want to do so I don’t miss something,” says Kelly St. Hilaire, 27, a human resources generalist who takes more frequent, smaller trips. “But I think when you plan too much it’s more stressful. I don’t want to have to be somewhere because my schedule says I have to.”

When it comes down to it, what’s there to lose by pulling over for an impromptu pit stop? What’s wrong with backtracking and heading to a town that’s not on the itinerary? What’s to be missed by further exploring a great location rather than racing off to the next must-see?

“Some people want to know exactly what to expect. I would hate to travel that way because it takes all the fun out of it,” said Sara Kriegel, 29, who most recently visited India earlier this year.

“What’s to be gained is actually experiencing another place and learning more about how other people live; seeing something you might’ve missed if you were just walking around with your nose in a guidebook. I would rather experience something I can’t just read about.”

The key is realizing that if you approach a location with an open mind and good company, the trip most certainly won’t be filled with regrets. Sure, being logical and prepared is basic common sense, especially when visiting a culture vastly different than your own.

No Set Plans

Allowing for more freedom during traveling, however, also allows for opportunities that couldn’t be planned.

Within a few days of driving around the South Island, my yearning to grab the guidebooks calmed to an appreciation of what was being seen and done at each moment.

So although this meant being unable to find a open pub in Greymouth on a Tuesday evening (who knew the city shut down at 8 pm?), it also meant spontaneously hiking, fishing, glacier climbing, skydiving, and horseback riding – as well as sleeping in almost every morning.

It meant deciding where to go based on the weather and picking up hitchhikers who were wandering in our general direction. It meant being ready for all that couldn’t possibly be penciled into any schedule.

How long would you allot for gazing at mountains or wandering into a ravine on the side of the road? Talking to a farmer at the local outdoor market? Taking the metro a stop too far and discovering a new neighborhood?

Probably nowhere near enough.

Kim Greene has written for several publications, most recently the New York Resident. She works at a publishing house in New York and her travel plans for the next year include jaunts to Ireland and Canada.

Note: Read to the end for your chance at a fabulous prize!

Maybe it’s because I’m female. Or maybe it’s because I’m a prude, or, who knows what it is, but I always find it troubling when sex tourism gets treated more with irony than outrage.

Gonzo travel guys seem to visit these places and merely raise an ironic eyebrow over their tourist priced beer while not being particularly bothered one way or the other about the fate of underaged prostitutes or women who make money by writing banners with markers stuffed in … oh, you get it.

It disappoints me when these otherwise funny, smart, insightful, (many positive adjectives here) seem to give sex tourism a get out of scrutiny free card.

I have to read the sections in question in “Smile When You’re Lying” again to confirm this is correct and that I’ve not put the book down with a false impression.

That’s all I’ve got by way of criticism about Chuck Thompson’s hilarious, painful, scathing, and again hilarious book.

It was especially excruciating to read it following our press junket. We both indulged in and were victims of all the things Thompson takes down in his book – the freebies, the PR rep hosted cocktail hours, the nonexistent support for our trip from the publisher, and still, I sit at my desk every day involved in the terrible evil of writing noncritical prose about our destination.

Take That, Rick Steves

Forgive me, Thompson, for I have sinned, and am surrounded by sinners.

I spent the two days it took me to read the book – I could not put it down – alternating between groaning and laughing. Thompson takes potshots at travel writers, editors, expats, English teachers abroad, the programs that sponsor them, Paul Theroux, and the nicest guy in travel, Rick Steves. Rick Steves! Who takes shots at Rick Steves?

Sadly, he’s right on with most of it. Most commercial travel writing is insipid. Real travel stories, those about getting ripped off by four Catholic schoolgirl types or the ridiculous things expats will do to cope with the crippling boredom of being isolated in a culture not your own (a-hem) never make it to ink.

Editors need to sell ad space to hotels and airlines and oh, Expedia, and stories of your (you thought) near death at the roadside are not going to encourage readers to travel.

True story: I once wrote a story about the lodge out on Lake Quinalt on the Olympic Peninsula. It’s a lovely place, but they gave us a room with no view (fine) over the kitchen (noisy). I gave the place a decent review – it’s a nice place, actually – but I also suggested that visitors might want make sure they’re not over the kitchen or the restaurant.

The editor killed that remark, and it wasn’t because of the word count. I also wrote a piece about sailing in which I opened with my great dislike of watercraft, but that got reworked to. First person adventure, be gone! All of a sudden, I love boats. Dude. I hate boats.

No Spin Zone

I loved the writing in this book. Thompson spins a travel tale the way it should be done, leaving out none of the good stuff that sets the scene, glossing over none of the ugly details sitting just off screen.

He’s got unflinching nerve – talk about biting the hand that feeds you – doesn’t spare himself when it comes to criticism, and he’s just plain funny. Smile When You’re Lying is a great read for expats, travel writers, wanna be travel writers, and people who think travel writers have it easy. Hilarious.

Sidebar thing I’m pysched about: You don’t read that stuff in magazines, but the sheer mass of Travel Stories on the Web means that the stories are getting told. They’re hard to find in all the noise, but while publishers are overlooking them, travelers are telling them on their own. Woot for that.

Hey, I’d like to give you my copy of this book. The PR folks sent me a review copy and now, I’d like to give it away. If you want it, here’s how you get it:

Post a link to your “never gonna be published” travel or expat story in the comments on my site. We’ll pick our favorite at the NEV HQ and send you the book. (Hmmm. Maybe we’ll do a reader vote depending on how many entries are posted. Stay tuned.)

You’ve got until January 2nd to post your links, I’ll send the winner my copy of the book sometime after that. If you can’t stand to wait, you can buy Smile When You’re Lying here.

Pam Mandel is a freelance writer and the travel editor for BlogHer. She blogs about travel, seafood, the ukulele, and more at Nerd’s Eye View.

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in Corte Madera, California, at the closing ceremonies of the Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference.

I was working on my fourth glass of complimentary champagne and talking to Matthew Polly, a faculty member and author of the travel/kung fu memoir, American Shaolin.

“Playboy!” I was saying, waving my glass for emphasis. “I don’t think I could even go into a store and buy a Playboy, let alone aspire to write for them someday.”

The problem I was trying to explain was this: ever since I had started seriously thinking about trying to make it as a travel writer, I had noticed that a lot of the best travel narratives out there were being published by men’s magazines like GQ, Esquire, Men’s Journal, and yes, even Playboy.

The magazine my idols were writing for, the one I should logically hope to write for someday, was kept under plastic on the top shelf at my local newsstand, right below the security camera.

“I counted up all the entries in all seven editions of the Best American Travel Writing,” I continued, “and then I counted up all the other magazines that all those authors had written for. I made charts! Graphs!”

Matthew Polly, who has himself written for both Playboy and Esquire, looked impressed. Or possibly weirded out. “I mean, does Playboy even publish articles written by women?”

“Sure,” he said calmly. “If your story’s good enough.”

Hearing him say that made me feel a little better about my future in the industry. But it didn’t answer the question that had first occurred to me when I noticed that one of the Best American anthologies had more selections from Men’s Journal than from all the big-name travel glossies combined.

The Plot Thickens

Why is so much of the best travel writing today running in men’s magazines? And conversely, why do women’s magazines abstain almost entirely from running quality travel narratives, sticking instead to “charticles” about beaches and fake tanner?

I emailed several well-known travel writers to find out.

At first I thought the connection between the big-name men’s mags and travel writing must be the popularity of adventure travel – the traditional domain of your stereotypical rugged outdoorsman, though of course that’s starting to change.

Jim Benning, co-editor of World Hum and a freelancer for publications like Outside, National Geographic Traveler and National Geographic Adventure, agrees that extreme outdoor travel is part of the equation:

“Men like to think of themselves as the adventurer-explorer types, even if they spend most of their time in cubicles,” Benning told me. “It gets at that Hemingway archetype that’s still strong in North America today. Men no longer go through rites of passage rituals as they did centuries ago, but I think men still have a need to test themselves in the world, and travel and adventure is one of the ways men do that today.”

That made a lot of sense. But I was still wondering about all those travel narratives I’d encountered in GQ or Esquire that had nothing to do heli-skiing or canyon-running or dog-sledding or mountain-climbing.

What was driving the editors of men’s magazines to run these long, first-person narratives? Why didn’t the staffers at Elle or Glamour do the same?

And for that matter, what was stopping women’s magazines from running something comparable to the adventure stuff, using stereotypically “feminine” subjects?

The Edge of the Abyss

There was a tiny voice in my head the whole time I was thinking about this question.

The voice was saying, “Stop! Stop while you’re ahead! If you’re not careful you’re going to find out that none of your female peers want anything to do with thoughtful, intellectually-stimulating narratives about far-away places.”

Deep down, I was a bit afraid that the average Esquire reader was simply more engaged with the world than the average Glamour reader.

Thankfully, though, my interviewees all dismissed the idea. Tom Bissell, whose stories have appeared in Esquire, Men’s Health and Men’s Journal, and whose resume was one of the first to get me thinking about the question, suggested publishing tradition was more to blame than readership preferences.

“I would imagine that if a magazine such as O or Elle published a gritty travel piece about Burma, many of their readers would respond favorably. I think that men’s magazines publish such pieces more reflexively has a lot to do with the traditions behind magazines aimed at men, which are about an entirely different sort of wish-fulfillment than magazines traditionally aimed at women. In other words, we’re working within an eighty-year-old paradigm and don’t appear fully to realize it.”

Matthew Polly agreed that there was a different dynamic at work.

“I think women’s magazines tend to trade in envy rather than desire,” he told me when I contacted him for a (sober) follow-up to our conversation at Book Passage. And he suggested that the serious content in men’s mags was partly required to balance out the smut:

“To justify buying a soft-core porn magazine, a Playboy reader needed a couple of serious articles by serious authors in every issue. GQ & Esquire really are the same, just with more clothing. Women’s magazines are not really as racy.”

The Cold Hard Facts

Just to be sure that my fears were unfounded, I did a bit of poking around on the web and came up with some demographic numbers: Outside’s female readership is 33%, while 55% of The New Yorker’s readers are women. Travel and Leisure’s female readers clock in at 52%, and Budget Travel’s readership is the highest of all, at 66%.

So clearly, there are plenty of women out there who are interested in travel, and in longer, intellectual magazine articles. I was relieved, but I still didn’t have an answer to my question.

It was David Farley, a travel writer who has contributed to both Playboy and GQ, who got me thinking about male and female spending habits.

He noted that women buy more books (and presumably, magazines) than men. But, he suggested, different magazines serve different purposes for their female readers: “Magazines like The New Yorker, which is a general magazine and read (I suspect) by as many women as men help fill the void for interesting travel narratives that women’s magazines don’t supply.”

Polly agreed, suggesting that there is a difference in the way men and women consume magazines:

“Men read magazines in far fewer numbers and less frequently, but when they do they want to feel like it was really worth their time. So men’s magazines have a smaller, more selective market, kinda like HBO. Whereas women’s magazines are more like network TV, because the audience is bigger and less critical. I watch women on airplanes and they will have half-a-dozen magazines that they flip through quickly. A man will have one.”

I pondered Farley’s suggestion about subject-specific female reading habits, combined with Polly’s (extremely accurate) observation about the number of magazines women go through on your average flight. Was that the answer?

Personal Reflection

I decided to conduct an unscientific survey of one woman’s magazine readership: my own. I knocked the dust off the stack of magazines that have accumulated next to my bed in the year since I moved in, and counted them up.

My dearly departed Jane led the pack with seven issues, while In Style, The New Yorker, Glamour, Vanity Fair, and The Walrus had two each. Rounding out the pile were single issues of Outside, National Geographic Traveler, Cosmopolitan, Harpers, The Atlantic, People, Travel and Leisure, Vogue, Outpost, and Elle.

Quite the mixed bag. The GQs and Esquires of the world cover everything from gadgets and girls to books, politics, and travel. But their female equivalents, the Glamours and In Styles, really don’t get much beyond hair, make-up and clothes – hence my varied magazine collection.

Maybe, just maybe, when women want to read about travel, we buy travel magazines.

When we want to read about the arts and current affairs, we buy intellectually-oriented generalist publications. And when we really just want to read about shoes, handbags, and Nine Ways To Blow His Mind, we buy women’s magazines.

Can it really be that simple? I don’t have all the answers, but whatever the reason it looks like I’ll have to come to terms with men’s magazines if I want to make it in this business.

If anyone gives me trouble when I’m perusing that plastic-wrapped top shelf, I’ll just have to tell them: it’s for the articles.

Why do you think there’s never quality travel writing in women’s magazines?

Eva Holland is a historical researcher and freelance writer based in Ottawa, Canada. She is a blogger for World Hum and for Rolf Potts’ Vagablogging, and her travel writing has appeared in The Ottawa Citizen, The Edmonton Journal, and Matador Travel.

Sometimes, when I tell people I’m a travel writer, they ask if I studied journalism in college.

“No,” I answer. “I didn’t.” And I’m not really a journalist either. Journalism is a noble profession, but as a species of writing it’s sometimes hamstrung by its own rulebook.

Here’s an excerpt from one of my Cambodia notebooks:

Why I’m a travel writer, not a journalist. I can follow a hunch, record hearsay, call an asshole an asshole, make an impression of a place that will be true for me, to this experience, something deeper than a dossier of facts and smellier than a press room briefing: truth in color. You’ve got to go, you’ve got to see, you’ve got to piss people off – you’ve got to float down a Cambodian river, and feel the heat of the sun.

Enjoy the stories.

1. “Bethlehem” by Michael Finkel, National Geographic

Michael Finkel is one of the most talented travel writers in the world. My admiration for his work is in no way diminished by the revelation that he created a composite character for a New York Times Magazine piece, a scandal that banished him from ever writing for the Times again. Their loss.

Finkel’s stunning portrait of a little scrap of Holy Land encircled by razor wire, hate and fear is one of those rare stories that not only captures a place in time, but holds meaning and insight on a far broader and deeper scale.

2. “My Biafran Eyes” by Okey Ndibe, Guernica

Winners may write the history books, but survivors of lost wars can still tell stories. Okey Ndibe was only a child during the Biafran War, but his descriptions of his family’s travails lose no poignancy to the passage of time. Few writers have captured the perspective of looking up to falling bombs so well:

From our hiding spots, frozen with fright, we watched as the bombs tumbled from the sky, hideous metallic eggs shat by mammoth mindless birds.

3. “Death Of An Adventure Traveler” by Rolf Potts, The Smart Set

“Death Of An Adventure Traveler” might just be the best story Rolf Potts has written to date. Rolf nails a theme I’ve been struggling to address in my own life and writing recently: the contrast between high-end “adventure travel” and the humble travelers whose lives are a series of adventures that can’t be picked out of a catalog.

“How did risking frostbite on a helicopter-supported journey to arctic Siberia constitute more of an “adventure” than risking frostbite on a winter road-crew in Upper Peninsula Michigan?” Rolf asks an editor of a “Major Adventure Travel Magazine”.

It’s an important question.

4. “Song Of Hypothermia” by Jason Anthony, Albedo Images

Jason Anthony, Bard of Antarctica, tells the story of a season shaped by wind, ice and companionship on the Odell Glacier, a landscape of isolation where “raw self swells to fill the emptiness.”

5. “Another End Of The Road: Still Searching For Surf In Centro-America” by Spencer Klein, Traverse

There are some feelings you just can’t capture in words. This is one reason why writing about sex is so, um, hard. Surfing is another act of communion that doesn’t lend itself to language, but man, Spencer Klein just about pulls it off:

There was only adrenaline and the thunder of the waves, and the warm colors above and the deep blue ocean below, and you had it, all of it, in the equatorial warmth, and there was no one and nothing out of place, just you and the waves and the feeling – the feeling was there – and you had it, the one you lived for and loved, and the very reason you traveled, the reason you surfed – it shot up your spine – and just when you had it a set would stack up on the horizon and you stroked hard and deep and everything in your body accelerated, and then wait, that wave there, and you turned and it really was just to that point where solitude is fine, to the point where a look over the edge gave you a rush, and a bit of anxiety, and the nerves came even more with the drop, and when you stuck it it felt good and you knew you had it, and checked out, forgot everything, and unleashed a fluid image onto that massive blue canvas, until you came out of it a few hundred yards later, and the after-feeling was there, still no one around, that sense of discovery and purity and timelessness, and all you could think to do was sustain it.

Found a good travel story lately? Share it below!

BNT contributing editor Tim Patterson travels with a sleeping bag and pup tent strapped to the back of his folding bicycle. His articles and travel guides have appeared in The San Francisco Chronicle, Get Lost Magazine, Tales Of Asia and Traverse Magazine. Check out his personal site Rucksack Wanderer.

Like millions of others, I have been plotting my round-the-world journey and absolute cultural immersion for years.

Sometimes, a lengthy trip just isn’t possible. For various reasons (such as family commitments, financial priorities and other responsibilities), you may end up working the 9 to 5 gig. This means you are given a few fleeting vacation days off a year, often amounting to just two weeks. That’s 14 days out of 365 you can dedicate to venturing into the unknown.

Deciding how to use those days can be quite the challenge for those who equally love their careers and also love to travel. Having dealt with that situation numerous times myself, I’ve managed to figure out the best ways to stretch your vacation days into a full-blown adventure:

1. First decide how to spend those 14 days

Do you want to take two (2) longer stints or four (4) short city breaks? Do you want to travel halfway across the world, or just hop over the Atlantic?

Choosing how you want to allocate those days is based on your individual travel style and travel goals for the year. A reasonable travel goal could be this: You want to volunteer in Nicaragua, experience San Fermin (Running of the Bulls) in Pamplona, and take a city break to Krakow, Poland before the end of the year.

Remember: You may also want to save a few days for when you are summoned by family for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

2. Yes, do travel around holidays

Planning your trips around holidays means you can save vacation days.

For example, if you want to travel to Spain and spend 9-10 days, leaving on a Friday evening and returning the following weekend, with Monday being a holiday in-between means that you will travel for 10 days but only take four (4) work vacation days. This leaves you with a balance of eight (8) vacation days.

By traveling around holidays twice or thrice a year, it allows you to make the most out of your allocated days.

3. Have flexible travel plans

You can argue that airfare prices might be higher around holidays. By picking holidays that fall around or flank the international travel off-season (for example, Memorial Day weekend in May or Labor Day weekend in September), you will find reasonable prices.

This means watching for low fares and being able to travel on a whim. Airlines such as United and Delta always send out weekly or bi-weekly emails with lots of international airfare sales.

4. For short city breaks, use budget airlines to cut costs.

Four or five day city breaks mean leaving mid-week (for example, on a Wednesday evening) and returning on a Sunday (or Monday if it is a holiday). This means you take only 2 vacation days off (Thursday and Friday), but use up your weekend as well.

For example, if you want to travel to Dublin or Edinburgh for a short break, flying to a larger hub like London will be much cheaper than directly to your destination. From London, you can hop on one of the many budget airlines like Easy Jet and Ryan Air which run roundtrip fares as low as 20 pounds ($40).

These budget airlines also fly to many cities in Europe such as Sofia, Bulgaria and Poznan, Poland so your city break options are limitless. (But don’t forget: offset your carbon).

5. Traveling to farther destinations like Asia or South America on only 12 days

A short break to Buenos Aires or Tokyo seems very unrealistic; however, don’t strike them off your list just yet. Try focusing on one activity, event, or festival when traveling to farther destinations.

If your goal is to go hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, you can take a 10 day longer stint (weekends included of course!), and visit Peru for this specific purpose. You can also visit Cuzco or nearby cities as a daytrip.

6. Use time differences to your advantage

If you travel eastwards to Europe from the US, you will move ahead a couple hours. If you travel westwards to Central and South America, you will fall behind a few hours. So returning from Europe on a holiday Monday means you arrive on the same day. This does not count towards your vacation days. When traveling to South America, you will arrive on the same day you depart, which means you will not lose any additional days.

7. Volunteer internationally

You can still get to off-beaten locations and paths by volunteering for 7-12 days (including weekends) with international organizations that operate in less touristy locations. You can work at an orphanage in a remote part of Central America or work with school children in Cambodia.

GlobeAware offers short-term (one week) volunteer opportunities that focus on cultural awareness and sustainability. This will focus your trip by allowing you to interact with the locals, and give you a real insight into their way of life and customs.

Note: be sure to read BNT’s volunteer tourism archives as well.

8. Explore your own backyard

Whether it is visiting Chinatown in San Francisco, or learning more about Native American culture in the Southwest, you can still immerse yourself in culture without leaving the country.

Note: Tim Patterson wrote an excellent article on the topic of local travel.

Overall, nothing beats extended travel and total immersion. As an avid traveler myself, I operate under that school of thought. Until you get to that point personally, you can still work with what you have.

Lola Akinmade is a GIS consultant who moonlights as a photojournalist. She has contributed to many online travel resources such as Matador Travel, Common Language Project, Black Travels as well as magazines. She can be reached via her personal site.

It’s time now to round-up our favourite links from the week.

Guidebooks are building their online presence says Eric Pfanner. Trouble is, they’re a little late to the online world.

How do you choose where to travel next? A married couple from Seattle, choose their vacation destinations based on what they fear is fated to destruction.

Justin Sailor shares the 13 points it takes to be a true world explorer.

Want to polish your travel writing or photography? Head to Florida for the 13th Annual SATW weekend conference.

Malaria continues to be the scourge of Africa – what’s the remedy? “Bad Blood” an-depth article from OnEarth Magazine explores the issue.

Craig Martin for Traveler’s Notebook outlines a step-by-step guide to creating a Wordpress travel blog.

Finally, the Story of Stuff short film comes with a handy guide on 10 Little and Big Things You Can Do to change the system.

Enjoy the weekend!