Welcome members of Women on the Go (Venice, Fla.)! Thank you for inviting me to today’s meeting and allowing me share a little about my travel adventures.
If you live in Sarasota or Charlotte County and not familiar with the organization, Women on the Go is a group energizing women who encourage and support each other in their pursuit of travel. They meet the third Monday of the month (except January and February) at the Venice Library (300 Nokomis Ave.) and schedule trips throughout the year.
Today I presented “Evolution of Travel: Staying Connected and Being Responsible,” a modified edition of my October 24 for Edison College’s Lifelong Learning Institute.
Following is a list of travel resources included in the presentation along with some extras.
Again, thank you for the opportunity of sharing my travel experiences!
Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West [Deckle Edge] (Hardcover)
Facebook.com – To date, world’s largest social networking site. As of July 2011, the site has about 750 million users.
Flickr.com – Photo sharing site; Pro option (annual fee) allows you more flexibility with your images. Getty Images also has a relationship with Flickr for selling photos.
Global Exchange Reality Tours (www.globalexchange.org/tours) – Has a vision that meaningful, socially responsible travel, can and does, change the world. By offering experiential educational tours, Reality Tours has connected people to issues, issues to movements, and movements to social change.
Hole in the Donut (www.holeinthedonut.com) – Barbara Weibel, a 50-something woman abandoned a successful but unfulfilling career to become a writer and photographer, specializing in cultural travel.
Instagram (instagram.com) – Photo sharing application for the iPhone and iPad. Can link with Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites.
Insight Cuba (www.insightcuba.com) – Discovering Cuba (legally) in small groups.
My Itchy Travel Feet (www.myitchytravelfeet.com) – The Baby Boomers guide to travel authored by freelance writer Donna Hull.
NASA Tweetup (nasa.gov/tweetup) – An experience of a lifetime! Although the space shuttle missions are done, NASA is still launching rockets into space and carrying on research and will continue to hold Tweetups at NASA facilities throughout the country. Follow them on Twitter.com/nasatweetup for updates. (Find my blog posts about NASATweetup here.)
Passport Party Project (www.passportpartyproject.org) – A grassroots philanthropic initiative with an aim to gift 100 girls with their very first passports within the next 18 months. 10 girls x 10 Passport Parties = 100 new world views.
Rotary Group Study Exchange (www.rotary.org/gse) – Cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for businesspeople and professionals between the ages of 25 and 40 who are in the early stages of their careers. The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits in paired areas of different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country’s culture and institutions, observe how their vocations are practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas. (Read about my experience: Travel to Japan Via the Rotary International’s Group Study Exchange)
The Wine Sisterhood (www.winesisterhood.com) – Celebrating and sharing the world of wine from the female point of view. Actively participate in the creation of the next new hot wine brand.
Travel as a Political Act
TripAdvisor.com – World’s largest travel community where you can get real information, advice, and opinions from millions of travelers to plan and take your perfect trip. TripAdvisor is a place you can go for insights and tips, a place that is literally alive with experiences and opinions. It’s a place that feels like a local neighborhood coffee shop, a café, a pub.
Tripatini.com – A fun, free social network and blog where travelers and travel experts from across the planet hang out, share and learn how to travel better and smarter.
TripTrotting.com – A community of travelers and locals who are matched based on similar interests. Meet up with locals to get a real taste of your travel destination or host like-minded travelers visiting your city.
Twitter.com – Share what you’re doing in 140 characters or less.
World of A&K iPad Travel App (www.abercrombiekent.com/ipad) – Free application for travel planning.
YouTube.com – Second most searched website next to Google. A video sharing site where users can upload, view and share videos.
I would love to find a lady or two to travel around the world with. As a retired teacher I would like to visit places and enjoy my retirement years.