Photo by Chocolate Reviews

The Fair Trade for a Trip for 4 to Africa contest allows you to fair trade your way to winning this vacation. To enter you need to register at the site and then decide what you are willing to trade to win the trip. So far entries include volunteering at food banks, helping with animal welfare groups, and teaching in schools around

Traveling food lovers everywhere are celebrating the 100^th episode of the show that combines the ultimate in travel writing, culture and food — Anthony Bourdain No Reservations! In honor, of the episode which airs September 6, 2010, the Travel Channel and Foodspotting have teamed up to help you eat what Tony eats!

Fans can check out the Foodspotting No Reservations page for location-based guides that feature foods pulled right from the content of popular episodes. You find exactly what Tony ate and where he got it by checking out the destination guides for New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hawaii and Tokyo.  

If you are not headed to those locations, then take a look at the 100^th episode guide which lists 100 food spots Tony has visited around the world! If you’ve already followed the shows trail and have some good eats of your own, you can post your pictures of foods Tony has eaten to the current guides.

Have you been on your own traveling food adventure, or have the perfect spot in your hometown for a No Reservations visit? A guide has been created just for

Price: FREE

What we like: Much like the Galavanting Gals, this site is not only cute, but it’s super functional and efficient. Their search engine boasts the most site searches of all its competitors. The site is extremely user friendly and sleek. Momondo is so asthetically pleasing because they don’t clutter up their pages with “This Weeks Best Deals” or any other ploys to get you to click. We also love, love, love their price transparency policy. All fees and taxes are included in the price that you see. In addition, Momondo will always present you with your options from lowest to highest price. This website truly has the traveler in mind and that’s why they’ve simply blown the competition out of the water. From Frommer’s to CNN, their buzz as a cutting edge search engine is with reason. (Oh, and don’t forget to check out their rockin travel guides!)

What we could do without: All around, I loved using this search engine but I didn’t find a “flexible dates” option. Sometimes you can get a better deal if you are willing to leave one or two days later or earlier. We may have just overlooked it but couldn’t find such an option.

Overall, the title sums it up. We absolutely love this up and coming search engine that keeps our travel costs to a minimum with little fuss.

If the heat index is pushing up past 100 degrees you may not be thinking about a tropical vacation at the moment.  But when the temperature falls and prices heat up, you’re going to wish you booked a vacation early.  Well you still can!  Paradise by Marriott is offering up to 40% off their nine resorts in the Caribbean and Mexico if you book before August 31 and travel by December 20, 2010.  Visit Paradise by Marriott or call 1-888-PARADISE for more details.

If you’re stuck on which resort to visit, you can get a sneak peek into activities at each resort August 21 - 24 by following the hashtag #Blogparadise. Marriott Resorts is kindly hosting nine bloggers, including GoGalavanting Contributing Editor Shanna Quinn, at one of the Marriott Resorts in the Caribbean and Mexico. 

The Bloggers:

• Donna Hull from My Itchy Travel Feet 
• JoAnna Haugen from Kaleidoscopic Wandering and BootsnAll 
• Annie Scott from Pure Happy Travel, Gadling, and Luxist 
• Dave Bouskill/Debra Corbeil from The Planetd 
• Vikki Stenstream from Hipster Travel Guide 
• Patti Hodapp from Lost Girls World and Travel Squire 
• Shanna Quinn from Go Galavanting 
• Sonja Stark from GoNomad/Pilot Girl
• Lisa Overman from Wanderlust & Lipstick

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Shanna Quinn is a Galavanting contributing editor, based in Chicago, IL, and also writes about life in the Windy City on Gaper’s Block. She likes lattes, going barefoot, when public transit is on time (not that it happens…ever) and of course traveling.

Photo by geoftheref

CheapOAir, a discount travel booking website, recently announced the Send Me to South Africa travel contest. Like so many great contests these days, all you need to do is be a Twitter regular.

First you need to follow CheapOair on Twitter. Then keep your eyes peeled. From Tuesday August 17, 2010 to Tuesday, August 31, 2010 the website will tweet a South Africa related question each day. Answer the question and include @CheapOair and the hash tag #SACOA to be entered daily.

Each of the ten days a random winner will be selected from the Twitter answers. That winner will receive a South Africa Lonely Planet Guidebook, and be entered into the final grand prize drawing. On August 31, 2010 a winner will be drawn from the pool and given two economy class, round-trip tickets from South African Airways to either Cape Town or Johannesburg!

If Twitter isn’t your thing or it’s not your lucky day you can also be entered in the grand prize drawing by signing up for the CheapOair newsletter.

So brush up on your knowledge of South Africa, and get ready to tweet your answers and win those tickets!

Lori Rice is a freelance health and travel writer, and Galavanting travel news and reviews correspondent. You can follow her adventures at 3 Star Traveler or explore her thoughts as a nutritionist, wellness advocate and foodie traveler at Fake Food Free.

Fontainebleu Miami Beach

4441 Collins Avenue Miami Beach, Florida 33140 USA

A stylish spot for all the hip cats in Miami Beach, the Fontainebleu is everything you want your Vegas-hotel-away-from-Vegas to be. In fact, it’s hard to find a spot at this luxuriant beachside resort that isn’t happening, except maybe the spa, which is designed to be nice and quiet. Honestly, I made friends in the bathroom, that’s how “social” this place is.

From the poolside cabanas (with mini fridges!) to the Liv nightclub (recently voted by Reuters as one of the Top 10 nightclubs in the WORLD), there is something going on in nearly every nook and cranny of this modernized bastion of old world glamour.

What I loved: The attention to detail (they even stamp the ashtrays every five minutes!), the blown-glass light fixtures, the long luxuriant hallways where you can practice walking in the mile-high heels you’ll need to even stroll through the lobby, the poolside restaurant, and the breathtaking views. I also thought the focus in the lobby on the huge circular bar rather than the check-in, made the entire lobby feel like a party you’d just arrived to rather than a waiting area, which I liked. Social glamour wins over utilitarian service every time in my book.

What I hated: The money spent on the rest of the hotel must have been saved in the bathroom design stage. Going from a sexy, opulent room to a minimalist bathroom with no counter space and no division between shower and the rest of the bathroom, is a little disconcerting. And after a few days, making sure you look at least as good as a Kardashian before crossing the lobby gets a little tiresome.

What I have no clue about: I didn’t eat at any of the restaurants while I was at the Fontainebleu, preferring to sample local fare while there. However, I did nibble on room service and a breakfast buffet. For the record the chorizo was unreal, but like this guy, I was less than impressed with the late-night pizza.  But it sounds like the desserts are delicious!

Who should go: Want to live like a Miami socialite for a few days? This is the hotel to do it. Get to know the bouncers, nibble at fresh fruit by the pool, hit the spa and make sure you bring your dancing shoes and hit LIV (you can’t book ahead, so make sure you look sharp!) This is not the place to relax and get away but it IS the place to eat, drink and be merry. You should also take the time to learn a bit about the history of this jewel of the “American Riviera”.

Save your pennies because a stay at the Fontainebleu isn’t cheap. Fortunately, you only have to stay a few days to be completely saturated with fun, sun, nightlife and glamour and if you book at the right time, you might just find special rights! Facebook Twitter



Stay connected while you’re out in big ol’ world with JiWire’s Global Wi-Fi Finder. I don’t know about you, but traveling is less and less vacation oriented. Whether you’re at your desk or in Timbucktu, the whole world is still doin their thang and you’ve got to stay on top of it. This app locates where you’re at and maps out the nearest public wi-fi spots. This especially comes in handy for our next top app choice…

The Skype app is great for a number of reasons. Firstly, whether you are Skyping off of the network or from that wi-fi spot you found, you can chat without using your minutes. Secondly, you don’t have to spring for an outrageous international plan, they offer low cost calls to phones abroad on 3G or WiFi. And Skype to Skype calls are free. Can’t beat that with a stick eh? You can check who’s online and send instant messages. Thank you-o-thank you Skype for your wonderful app.

Once you get where you’re going and you’ve Skyped all your friends, you’re gonna need places to eat, drink and be merry. With Yelp you can search for businesses nearby with their built-in location finder, narrow your search by neighborhood, distance, price and hours of business, you can get the location’s address, phone number and map their location. All that said, the most important reason to download Yelp is for the reviews. As an out of towner, you don’t know who makes the best martini, or what hotel has a bed bug problem, but the everyday consumers on Yelp will give it to ya straight. (I also recommend UrbanSpoon as a fine fun app when you’re searching for some grub.)

Stop walking around the airport aimlessly trying to find someting other than a soft pretzel, no more walking up and down terminals looking to score a good book. Take the hectic unfamiliarity of the airport and put it in order in the palm of your hand. Whether you’ve got four hours to burn or you need to grab something good to eat in fifteen flat, GateGuru can help you make your time in the airport more enjoyable.

The ladies of Galavanting are taking a moment to give a shout out to the hottest men in travel today. To make our list they had to catch our eye for not only being hunky, but famously passionate about travel.

Here’s looking at you fellas!

Compiled by Courtney McGann
& contributed to by Kim Mance & Maren Hogan.

Travel Television Hunks

Famous for: Über popular travel TV show “No Reservations”
Website: Travel Channel
Anthony Bourdain - Chef, author, world traveler, Tony’s got it all. His salt-n-pepper hair spices up our living rooms with each episode of “No Reservations”. He can have all the sheep balls he wants, we still eat him up. World-weary, take charge attitude, looks great in Levi’s, that’s our kinda travelin’ man.

Famous for: Adventure TV show “Man Vs. Wild” and
generally being a bad ass
Website: Bear Grylls
Bear Grylls - So he eats bugs and drinks his own urine from time to time, but we’re willing to overlook it. Whether he’s sporting Columbia or a tux, this Tarzan traveler’s philanthropic side just adds to his swoon factor. Also, you just KNOW a man like that can find a way to make any relationship exciting.

Famous for: Zane-y TV show “Three Sheets”
Website: Zane Lamprey
Zane Lamprey - This pub-crawling hottie drank his way into our hearts. If you’ve ever seen a Galavanting Gal’s bar tab, you’d know why Zane was a unanimous pick. This boy next door somehow finds a way to make beer breath and stubble sizzle. He had us at drinking games.

Famous for: Host on the “Today Show” and
“Where in the World is Matt Lauer?”
Website: MSNBC
Matt Lauer - Lauer’s globe-trotting special gives us an excuse to put this news hunk on the list. He can be as cheesy as he wants with a smile like that. While other women may have abandoned him for silver fox Anderson Cooper (ha, a twofer!) we’re staying put — even though his hairline won’t.

Travel-Writing Hotties

Famous for: Co-founder & co-editor of online
travel magazine World Hum
Website: Jim Benning
Jim Benning - Remember that boy in high school who you only knew was cute when he’d raise his head up soulfully from his poetry? Benning is that guy. Sweet, soft and funny as hell, he’s likely the only person who’ll be truly surprised to find his name on this list.

Famous for: US editor for Lonely Planet
and host of the “76 Second Travel Show”
Website: Reid on Travel
Robert Reid - This funny man of the travel world manages to pull off a constant five o’clock shadow that could rival even that of George Clooney. And the hair, flopping over his perpetually tan forehead, helps him pull off those witty and deadpan one-liners with ease. We’re pretty certain he’ll never be truly lonely on this planet.

Famous for: Legendary travel writer and editor
Website: Don’s Place
Don George - Hair schmair, Don George has a that Captain Picard cool kinda charm. Intelligent without being arrogant, he’s got all the stories those young bucks have and the books to back them up. The laugh, the charm, the say-anything-you want-honey wit, we’re all dying to know what’s happening behind those Richard Gere eyes.


Famous for: CEO of BootsnAll Travel Network
Website: BootsnAll
Sean Keener - This strapping traveler and CEO can work a room and podium like nobody’s business. Charming, fun and friendly, he’s got the twinkling eyes of a single fella but be careful, his wife’s just as smokin’ hot. And don’t let his Robert Redford Americana looks fool you, he’s one of those smart and savvy tech guys to boot.

Famous for: Saving money on the Continent, brother style!
Website: EuroCheapo
Tom & Pete Meyers - Good genes we guess! These two nice guys of travel turn heads around the world. You can have your Meyers light or dark, they come in both versions. Sweeties and studs alike, this (not twins, but wouldn’t that be COOL?) brotherly team both sport preppy style, perfect smiles and yeah…we’re going for it, NICE PECS! They can run a successful business and throw a hell of a party.

Famous for: Lonely Planet guidebook author
& world traveling blogger
Website: Killing Batteries
Leif Pettersen - Intense, hilarious and pretty darn hot. And ‘Leif’ is not a name for regular guys. Pettersen rocks it around the world and keeps it real in Midwestern Minneapolis. His penchant for danger, creative outlook, creamy skin and blue eyes have us swoon ready…just in case we should ever meet him in person.

Famous for: Travel blogger extraordinaire
Website: Nomadic Matt
Nomadic Matt - Remember those young bucks we were talking about? This is one. He even had to resort to a Muppet avatar to keep the ladies away at one point. Dark hair, green eyes, and one of the slickest wardrobes in the travel space. We’re sure it’s not hard to be nomadic, when you’re always assured of a place to rest your head.

Famous for: Circling the globe
Website: Johnny Jet
Johnny Jet - With a name like that, he’s gotta be cute. Jet-setter Johnny Jet’s camera isn’t the only thing we’re smiling at. A self-proclaimed shutterbug, Jet rarely accessorizes his white shirt and jeans with anything other than a smile wider than the Danube, and his trusty camera. Here’s lookin’ at you blue eyes.


Famous for: Travel editor, San Francisco Chronicle & proudly
keeping journalistic efforts alive in a new media age.
Website: Bad Latitude
Spud Hilton - The Galavanting Gals are known for loving their carbs and this spud’s no different. Cute alter ego glasses? Check. Perfect black muscle tee? Check. Snug jeans that say “I don’t care what the young kids are wearing. I KNOW what looks good on me.” Check. This SF Bay based writer is someone we’d ride a bull with…anytime.

Celebrity Travel Studs

Famous for: Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines,
and being filthy rich
Website: Virgin
Richard Branson - Any hunky world traveler that makes it into Forbes’ list of billionaires, would cause anyone stand up and take notice. But Lord Branson’s great hair and British accent aren’t hurting anything either. You know how some people just have that savoir faire? We think he may have invented it.

Famous for: Actor and World Traveler
Website: Ewan Mcgregor
Ewan Mcgregor - His globe-spanning motorcycle adventure lands him on this list. No business class for our Ewan, he chooses to ride around the world on a hog. Who knew a talented, handsome actor could rough it with us?

Famous for: Flying 1 million miles
Website: Up In the Air
Ryan Bingham - Don’t recognize this well-traveled dude? You might no doubt know the actor who played him, George Clooney. Bingham was the super hot, ready for anything biz traveler in the movie Up In The Air. But what really melts our butter are the gorgeous airport scenes - how can you not fall for a man who moves through security like that? Hips don’t lie.



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Editor’s note: a previous version of this article listed Nomadic Matt’s eyes as blue rather than green. So sorry green-eyes!

What is a Brazilian Blowout?

Price: Starts at about $300 but the treatment lasts about 3 months. We’d recommend saving it for the summer months.

What we like: All three of the Galavanting Gals have different hair types and styles, and all three of us experienced the same positive results from the treatment. Just about everything we heard about the treament ended up being true. The shine factor goes way up. You pretty much have to wear sunglasses when you’re around all three of us together. Frizz becomes virtually no problem. After the treatment, two of us spent some time in Florida in July and our hair remained slicker than the screen on the iPhone 4 (in case you missed it, that was a deliberate ploy for an iPhone 4). Drying and styling your hair takes about half the time and you end up using about half the product. Don’t ask me how, it’s just magic. Last but definitely not least, the treatment has a relaxing affect on your hair, curls are looser, waves are prettier, and straight is sleaker.

The not so great: They advertise the treatment as taking ninety minutes total but not one of the three of us walked out of the salon in less than two hours. We recommend finding a salon with wifi and getting some work done, otherwise you might just die of boredom. The price is pretty high for us thrifty fashionistas, but we all agreed that the time saving, beauty enhancing results were worth the cost.

We got ours at George The Salon in Chicago. They were friendly and great at what they do.

What is the Tugo?

Price: Around $13 

What we like: As one of those annoying people who constantly lets you know how much water they drink, I have a water bottle on me at all times. By the way, I’ve already had over 32 ounces and it’s not even noon yet. After a nasty incident involving Junior Mints in a watery puddle at the bottom of my favorite Chloe knock off purse, I stopped toting around water bottles in my hand bag. The Tugo is a pretty convenient little invention that keeps your refreshments (whatever they may be) handy when traveling. When you’re done using Tugo, it folds up to take virtually no space in that carry on bag that you’ve crammed full of five outfits for a weekend trip.

The not so great: I probably wouldn’t put anything in Tugo that doesn’t have a lid. Tugo stays upright when you tilt your bag, but there’s always the splash factor. Secondly, it can be more of a pain in the ass than a convenience when it’s time to fold up your bag and walk down stairs.

All in all, this is a product I would use and probably pimp out to my traveling buds.