Traveling Australia in Two Weeks: An Experiential Guide and Itinerary

Interested in traveling to Australia, but only have two weeks or a limited amount of time? Overwhelmed by the choices and size of the country and don't know where to start in creating an Australia two week itinerary? Don't worry, we've been there. And that's why we created this Experiential Guide to help you choose a tour, plan your trip and create your own itinerary in Australia.

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The Power of Two-Way Storytelling

“How do you like your mother-in-law?” Shanti, a Bangladeshi university student asked me while our train made its way across western Bangladesh. After eyeing me for some time, she'd finally worked up the courage to sit next to me when our train compartment emptied at the previous stop.

Odd question, I thought. But she was deliberate and determined in the way she asked. I figured there was something more meaningful behind it, something at the root that she wanted to share. I also noticed her apprehension; I would need to open up and share my story first to find out.

This is how two-way storytelling often begins.

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Puglia, Italy Road Trip: 25 Things to See and Do in Puglia

If you're thinking of visiting Puglia, Italy, but don't know where to start in planning a road trip or what to see and do in Puglia, then you're in the right place. Read on for our top recommendations on things to do, where to eat, where to stay, and places to interest in Puglia from our own road trip.

The goal: help you create your own road trip route and Puglia itinerary of 7-10 days. This little-known province in southern Italy really has so much to offer in terms of history, beautiful old towns, beaches, landscapes, colorful markets and just incredible food.

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Colombia Travel Guide: 25 Experiences to Get You Started

When readers ask, “I’m traveling to Colombia. What should I do? Where should I go?” We’re left wondering how we’ll keep it short.

Because Colombia is so huge and diverse and serves so many different styles of travel, the answer is: it really depends on what you’re after.

To help (us and you), we created this experiential guide to travel in Colombia. It follows the sequence of our three weeks in the country. For any particular entry, maybe you like the image, perhaps the activity grabs your attention, or maybe both.

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Travel to Colombia: First Impressions

Call it my imagination. While I looked forward to our visit to Colombia, I harbored the occasional image of thuggy bush-mustached Colombian narco-gangsters and aggressive gold cap-toothed street thieves shaking me down in the back shadows of Bogota or Medellin. (Yes, I realize I’ve probably watched one too many bad airplane movies.)

Colombia, thankfully, was altogether different. We spent time on our own, under the auspices of friends, on tours, in cities, way up in the hills, on the coast, and in destinations in between.

No narco-gangsters. No untoward experiences, for us.

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Next Up: Exploring Colombia and Finding The Lost City

Cartagena

We're headed to Colombia tomorrow. We're off to see a country we were supposed to visit five years ago. We'll be on the trail for Colombian culture — from the Andes to the Pacific to the Caribbean — and to find The Lost City along the way.

Cartagena
The colorful streets of Cartagena, Colombia.

Colombia. It's one of the countries that got away during the 15 months we traveled through Latin America a few years ago. We didn’t skip it because of safety concerns — in fact, even at that time ever more travelers were saying the opposite and urging us to go. We just happened to pass it at the height of rainy season and we figured we’d return when we were certain to have ample time to explore.

We didn’t expect it would take five years to return, but here we are.

We leave for Colombia tomorrow.

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Bassin-Bleu Waterfall — Jacmel, Haiti

Exploring Bassin-Bleu Waterfall in Jacmel, Haiti

Life is a continual exercise in expectation management. Witness our journey to the Bassin-Bleu waterfall outside of Jacmel in southern Haiti.

Haiti, it turns out, possesses quite a many blue pools, all quite aptly if not unimaginatively named Bassin-Bleu or “blue pool.” The most famous of these, pictured below, is outside the town of Jacmel. If all the photos of Haiti's bassins-bleus are anything to go by, each one is pretty much the essence of inviting: hidden and tempting; turquoise, deep blue or mystically translucent pools of water depending on the angle of the sun and time of the day of the photo.

But half the fun is getting there.

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Travel to Haiti: First Impressions

Haiti. It’s a country that most people today still associate with earthquakes, coups, and unrest – a sort of irretrievable chaos. Before traveling to Haiti, we knew very little about the country. Even after performing our own research — let’s face it, there’s little information on Haiti beyond the headline news – we weren’t quite certain what we would find, experience or feel while there.

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