In Toronto? Win an exotic trip TOMORROW!

Creative Commons photo by OliverN5 (Oliver Mallich).

Visiting Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival? Or do you live in T.O.? Either way, drag yourself away from the movie screens tomorrow and you could win a free trip from Intrepid Travel.

Here's the scoop. The Australian-based adventure tour company will be placing a total of eight globes in various Toronto locations on Tuesday. Each globe will have a "boarding pass" attached describing the prize trip (exotic locales include Morocco and Peru). The company is also giving away vouchers worth up to $1,000 toward an Intrepid trip.

So how do you find these globes? Follow the company's Twitter feed (@Intrepid_Travel) for clues. The fun starts at 9am on Tuesday, September 14.

Curious about Intrepid? Watch this blog for my post about a fun Toronto walking tour I took with Intrepid's "day trip" company, Urban Adventures. My Multicultural Kensington Market and Chinatown tour included lots of historical tidbits and fun shopping stops.

HostelBookers contest offers cool prizes

Staying in a hostel doesn't necessarily mean you're going to travel any more "like a local" than you would if you stayed in a posh hotel. But it does increase the chances of running into fellow budget travellers, who may be able to point you to restaurants, shops and attractions a little off the tourist trail. That's one reason I've long been a hostel fan.

And here's another reason to check out hostels: until June 9, British booking agency HostelBookers.com is running an easy contest on its website. All you need to do is answer one question (the answer is drop-dead easy to find on the site) and you could win a Travelex cash passport (like travellers' cheques, but plastic) loaded with £1,000 of travel mad money, a Panasonic Lumix TZ8 camera or a 32GB iPod Touch. Not bad for a free contest (you do give them your e-mail address, though).

Win a villa stay in Montserrat

The Caribbean island of Montserrat is one of my very favourite places to travel like a local. It's hard to do anything else; the island has only two hotels and they're only 18 rooms each, so even at a hotel you pretty much feel like you're staying with family.





Private villas are the main form of accommodation, and even though the word "villa" may conjure up visions of a grandiose mansion, many of these charming houses are well within the budget of the ordinary traveller. Here's a snap of Surfsighed, the lovely villa my sisters and I and our husbands rented last year. (Then again, if money is no object, you can rent or buy Paul McCartney's one-time digs.)





The island's tourism bureau is currently running a contest (with no deadline date, oddly) to win four nights in a villa, along with return airfare from Antigua, some restaurant meals and more. There's no cost to enter.


Looking for stuff to do when you get there? Check out "Do the Walk of Life," a series of Montserrat travel tips I wrote for the Ottawa Citizen in 2006 (check details before visiting, as some attractions may have closed in the meantime).

Another chance to win a home exchange club membership!

Julie Ovenell-Carter's contest to win a free membership in a home exchange club continues to generate interest! Just this week, another home exchange website, 1stHomeExchange.com, offered to give away a one-year membership to her readers--and sent a link to 66 great tips for home exchangers. Head over to the contest post at theseboots.travel for details.

Home exchange: Win a free year's membership in a home exchange club

My friend Julie Ovenell-Carter writes a great travel blog called These Boots, which is aimed at independent travellers, and she's running a contest. The prizes? One-year memberships offered by two home exchange organizations, HomeLink International and Intervac. All you have to do to enter is go to the blog post announcing the contest and leave a comment on the subject of home exchanges: a story about one you've done, a wishful note about why you'd like to do one--anything, really. The contest is open to Canadians 18 and over, and time is of the essence: the deadline is Wednesday, March 25 at 8pm Pacific Time. Good luck!

P.S.: Julie was on the CBC Radio One program "B.C. Almanac" yesterday, talking about the joys of home exchange and fielding questions from callers. The show will be archived for a few days on the "B.C. Almanac" website. Scroll down and click on the Openline Archive link for the Friday, March 20 show. (You'll need Real Player to hear the sound file.)

I've picked a contest winner

My book draw is now closed, and ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! I did the random draw this morning, and Colengal will be receiving a copy of my book, Wanderlust: A Social History of Travel. Colengal, I will be e-mailing you privately to get your snail mail address.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered--all 75 of you! This was my first contest, and it was a lot of fun.

Book giveaway: Wanderlust: A Social History of Travel

It all started when I began wondering where passports came from. I pitched every magazine editor I knew on a story about the history of passports, but no one--and I mean no one--was interested.

Fine, I thought. I'll broaden the concept and make it into a book.

The history of passports eventually became a chapter in my book Wanderlust: A Social History of Travel. The book also answers such burning questions as "Why did 1930s stewardesses carry wrenches?" (Answer: Because the planes' violent vibrations often shook loose the passenger seats, which were bolted to the floor.)

Back in the early days, just about all travellers "travelled like locals"--from the bureaucrat in ancient China who took 13 years to return from a government mission (partly because he married a local woman and started a family en route) to the medieval pilgrims who sought shelter in monasteries along the way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Intrigued? Want to know more? Well, enter my contest and you can win a copy of Wanderlust. If you like, I'll even autograph it for you (although I should warn you that my handwriting is atrocious).

So how do you enter? Just leave a comment on this post--even just "count me in!" will do--before midnight Eastern Time on Saturday, February 21. If you like, include a question about the history of travel; I'll answer it if I can. I'll pick a winner randomly from among the respondents, then e-mail the winner privately to get your mailing address.

That's all there is to it! So start typing and send those comments my way.