WorldNomads.com free iPhone and iPod Touch Language Guides

The WorldNomads.com free iPhone and iPod Touch language guides have been a HUGE hit with travelers all over the world, with over 610,000 downloads from iTunes in the 9 months since launch! Now the media loves them too. This week the language guides were voted ŒBest Freebie¹ by MSNBC! Available in 22 languages including Spanish, French, Italian, Mandarin, Thai and Turkish (see Worldnomads.com for a full list and details) each guide includes a few dozen basic travel phrases organized by category (such as ‘transport’, ‘food & eating’ and ‘directions’). Tap a category, select a phrase and a native speaker pronounces the phrase. As the MSNBC reviews says “a high-end feature we’re surprised to find in a free app.” For the full review see: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32464923/ns/travel-tips/ World Nomads has always taken a different approach to travel insurance by providing not just great insurance coverage and travel safety services, but also other tools to keep... Read More →

InkaFest – Huaraz

Every August, the Peruvian city of Huaraz hosts the Mountain Film Fest or InkaFest.  This year, the festival runs from the 18th-22nd of August. Films can be entered into one of six categories (not including Best Picture and Viewer’s Choice): Mountaneering, Mountain Culture, Adventure, Rock Climbing and Sports Adventure and Nature.  Besides films, the festival hosts workshops and speakers.  And of course – there are endless opportunities for adventures in Huayhuash and Cordillera Blanca, climbing, hiking, rafting or exploring nearby ruins. We wrote about Huaraz last year, click here to read. Off the Radar is the online magazine for adventure travelers featuring responsible adventure operators, news from adventure destinations, images and personal accounts from the field.  Sign up for our newsletter here  Read More →

Smith Fork Ranch: Luxury Dude Ranch

Something amazing is happening in the North Fork Valley of Colorado: local, sustainable, and organic farms are thriving. Smith Fork Ranch in Crawford, Colorado, uses local fruits and vegetables from their own garden and surrounding organic farms, as well as lamb, beef, pheasant, and elk raised locally and sustainably, to create a delicious feast with fresh ingredients every day. The words “luxury” and “dude ranch” don’t often fit together in a sentence, but that’s exactly what the Hodgson family has created at the Smith Fork Ranch.  In the dramatic mesas and mountains of Colorado’s Western Slope, the wine industry is growing and thriving in Tuscan-like summers, and this ranch reflects this refined culture amid lush rolling countryside, with the dramatic (and undiscovered!) San Juan mountains as a backdrop. This piece of Colorado also has the nation’s newest national monument, the incredible Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Visit the... Read More →

Sea Kayak the Brazilian Amazon with Rumo Norte

Rumo Norte Expeditions, out of Belem, Brazil, has a truly unusual way to experience the grandeur of the Amazon, with minimal impact: by sea kayak. Rumo Norte owner Gelderson Pinheiro’s favorite kayak trip begins in the town of Alter do Chão, “Altar of the Earth,” where a white sand island known as the Island of Love glows in the clear waters of the Tapajos River (which feeds into the Amazon River 30km to the northeast.) Paddling a sea kayak south along Green Lake, where the Borari Indians extract stones for auspicious frog amulets, Gelderson says, “The sky is more blue, the sunset is more expressive, the water is warm and has a special blue-green color, and the local communities come to you with friendship and great hospitality.” If the wind permits, add a sail to your boat to get you to Belterra for lunch, then Maguari, where you’ll have dinner with the local community. You’ll hike through the forest and experience the Sumaúma tree, the Amazon’s largest, and known... Read More →

Watching Bonobos Deep in Equateur Province of the Congo

At Off the Radar, we usually write about trips you can book immediately – but traveling deep into Equateur Province of the Congo to visit the Lomako-Yokokala Faunal Reserve to see Bonobos in their natural habitat is not something you can do…yet. In April 2009 primatologist Jef Dupain of the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), in partnership with Jengai Tours out of Cameroon, led a group of 12 adventure tourists to test out a trip that AWF hopes to begin running four times a year. The Lomako reserve is the only place in the world tourists can visit to view Bonobos in their natural habitat. The endangered Bonobos are our closest living relative. They only live in the dense lowlands of the Congo Basin, and are rarely found in zoos, likely because of their sexual repertoire: they use sex for most types of communication, including greetings and conflict resolution. The group flew into Basankusu, where they climbed in pirogues – traditional dugout canoes carved from one tree, for... Read More →

Hiking holiday? Here’s what to bring… just in case!

WorldNomads.com’s roving medical expert and afficionado of Adventure Travel Health, Dr. Erik McLaughlin MD helps you prepare for a hiking excursion. Hiking holidays are a great way to spend your time off.  These trips are often done at new trails and areas you’ve never been before and that is part of the excitement.  Often, people do a bit of hiking while they are packing their trip with other activities and do not specifically plan for their outdoor adventure.  Shore excursions from cruise ships are a prime examples of this. The factors of an unfamiliar area, being unprepared and often in a hurry can stack up against someone, quickly.  When adventuring outdoors, you want as many things in your favor as possible.  Here’s what to prepare for your hiking excursion on your trip! Signaling Device Phone/mobile/sat phone Mirror Whistle Being able to contact someone for help is probably the most important thing in an outdoor emergency.  Popularity of mobile phones has... Read More →

11 tips for overseas hospital treatment

You could have sworn that sushi smelt funny.  Unfortunately that thought is two hours too late and now you’re curled up in the toilet inventing a new guttural language. And then a new fear strikes you.  You’re in a foreign country, alone, and you really should go to hospital. Or should you? What do you need to know? What should you look out for? Dr Sneh Khemka, Bupa International’s Medical Director, tells you what to look out for if you need hospitalisation overseas. Being admitted to hospital 1. Choose the best option If you’re being admitted as an emergency or taken by ambulance, you often won’t have much choice in where you go.  However, if you can exercise choice, it’s important to select the best hospital for you – does it have the right services (eg a CT scanner), is it clean, can the staff speak your language etc? 2. Let your insurer know Once there, you should let your insurer know you have been admitted as soon as possible so you can ensure you... Read More →

Travel Safety Tips for Women Travelers

So you’ve packed your common sense and are all ready to go out and explore the world, but remember that old Boy Scout motto? ‘always be prepared!’ By taking some basic security precautions both prior to departure and while away, women travelers can greatly reduce the travel risks they might otherwise face. We searched the web for a experts on travel safety for women and here is what we’ve come up with. What the Detectives Have to Say: Jade, an Australian police detective, recommends the following for women traveling alone: “My number one tip is when going out to remember to get the business card of where you are staying before you head out to show to the cab driver/tuk tuk driver/donkey to get home again. I make sure now that someone knows where I am and when they are next likely to hear from me again just in case something goes wrong in between. I take a mobile with me for emergencies when I’m on my own too. It’s just about trying to maintain a balance between having... Read More →

Travel Immunizations – What you Really Need in Asia

No matter what country you’re from and what you call immunizations (jabs, shots, pricks, inmunización, nadel) the bottom line is you probably need to get some before you do any traveling to third world countries. We asked our adventure friends around the world what they thought and below are their recommendations for travel to Asia. (Photo courtesy of One World Trekking) Andy Crisconi of One World Trekking recommends: I receive immunization questions all the time from clients. Personally, I believe in getting the minimum recommended or required by the country being visited. Most people hate shots and they are/have become a rather expensive part of trip preparations. Most of my treks are in the Himalayan countries of South Asia. Minimums I recommend to my clients are: Adult polio booster Tetanus / diphtheria Hepatitis A Typhoid Yellow Fever (required for all South America trips) Malaria medication only if visiting the jungle areas of these countries. Doctors and travel clinics tend... Read More →

Travel Immunizations – What you Really Need in Africa

So nobody likes getting shots but it seems every time you get ready to take a trip overseas you receive a laundry list of recommended immunizations. We asked our adventure friends around the world what they thought and below are their recommendations. (Photo Coutesty of Africa Adventure Consultants) Kent Redding from Africa Adventure Consultants recommends: Basically, in Africa you don’t want to mess around. We recommend that clients get all the recommended inoculations, which vary by country, but often include, M. Meningitis, typhoid, polio, tetanus, and yellow fever. Also recommend anti-malaria in almost every location. We even had our kids (ages 4 and 5) get all they could. I’ve had malaria several times and believe me you don’t want to get it. The shots hurt your arm and your pocket book but give you peace of mind and protection while on safari in Africa. Leslie Nevison from Mamatembo Tours recommends: The most misinformation that I encounter about an infectious disease is about... Read More →