In a recent email, BMTM reader Isabella asked me, Do you think long term travel/backpacking is inherently selfish? One obvious reason is for people who are leaving friends and family and missing out on quality time with them. But I think a bigger reason is because backpackers are basically hedonists – they go out to […]
The Big Question Girls Who Travel are so Tired of Answering
The question comes up again in casual conversation. It can strike anywhere, while riding along in the car in Germany, at high tea in Zimbabwe, or in the middle of an adventure around Angkor Wat in Cambodia. At this point, I’m not even annoyed anymore because I understand that people are just curious and a […]
A Letter to My 21-Year-Old Self on My 31st Birthday
Dear 21-year-old Kristin, happy birthday! This is you from the future, sailing in to drop a few bombs of knowledge on that you will wish you knew back then. This is going to blow your mind, but in the last 10 years you didn’t become a rockstar, not that that was ever in your aspirations, […]
How Traveling Solo Healed My Heartbreak
The following guest blog is by Kirstin Winkler of the blog, 3 Days*: It hit me the second I inspected the obligatory post-breakup haircut. This new regrettable ‘do wouldn’t heal my bruised heart and the emotional wounds would only continue to fester unless I embraced a more drastic change – a geographical one. After years […]
Ringing in the New Year With Ten Days of Silent Meditation
Days 94-104 It was a starry night on Koh Tao in Southern Thailand. I was lying on a wooden deck, staring up at the stars as party revelers danced away at the bar to my right. I was tired of dancing, I was tired of reckless tourists — I was tired of the whole Thai […]