On 9 July Lonely Planet launches the trial of Pick & Mix, a new travel guide product that enables travellers to select and purchase individual chapters from a range of Lonely Planet’s award winning guidebooks.

Pick & Mix chapters are delivered as downloadable PDF documents – enabling travellers to select trustworthy, independent content that meets their specific needs.

The trial currently covers Latin America: Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America. Over 350 chapters across 35 guidebooks are available, including destination guides, phrasebooks and activity guides such as trekking.

“Over the years we’ve received countless letters and emails from travellers telling us they’d like to take just the parts of our book that match their travel,” explained Tom Hall from Lonely Planet.

“Pick & Mix enables this and is perfect for people travelling to multiple destinations not covered by one or two individual guidebooks, or those looking for very specific information. It’s also handy when plans change or you can’t get to a book store.”

The chapters feature the exact same content as the guidebook, and can be downloaded to various devices. The majority of chapters cost $2 to $4 and travellers receive a discount when purchasing multiple chapters. Travellers can try Pick & Mix for free by downloading the Planning chapter from each book, which includes the Getting Started, Snapshots and Itineraries sections. All Pick & Mix chapters are available in the Buy by Chapter section of the Lonely Planet Shop.

Based on feedback from the trial, Lonely Planet may expand the product range to include other destinations, as well as explore additional functionality such as combining selected chapters into one customised product that can be downloaded or printed on demand.

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About LonelyPlanet.com

Covering the world from Lombok to London, LonelyPlanet.com provides the latest independent travel information and advice from the global traveller community. Over 4 million unique visitors per month visit LonelyPlanet.com to dream, plan, book and talk about real travels. Travellers can research thousands of destinations around the world, exchange travel advice and opinions with a loyal community of over 400,000 registered members, read blogs and in-depth reports from authors on the road, and book everything from unique hotels to round-the-world air tickets. Travellers can also purchase from the complete Lonely Planet guidebook catalogue.

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My new Creative Zen mp3 player came with a booklet of free trial offers for online music stores. I signed up for Napster, thinking I had read the fine print and understood it. Once my free month ended, I reviewed the terms again, and realized I would need to continue paying a monthly fee for access to the tracks I downloaded. I was a bit miffed that I didn’t pick up on that in the first place.

I searched around on the Internet a bit, reading press releases and blog reactions from 2005 when Napster re-launched it’s services. I saw someone recommend a link to Tunebite, and upon following it, found a $26 software program that seemed too good to be true.

Tunebite’s maker explains it this way:

Tunebite is a Windows software product, which, once installed on the PC, fully automatically or manually records media files that were purchased online as the files are played. It is completely legal to record and playback on a different reproducer of yours. Tunebite is technology-proof, does not bypass any digital copy protection and therefore confirms with all digital copy protection measures, provided that the user is legally entitled to listen to the music.

A trial version of the software can be downloaded for free so you can evaluate it. Tunebite works with Apple iTunes (.m4p, .m4b, .m4v), Window Media (.wma, .wmv) and Audible (.aa) protected files.

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Now that I’m playing with the idea of incorporating video into my blog and travels, I’ve started to spend time exploring what’s posted on YouTube. For the next few months, I’ll post my favorite backpacker videos every Friday.

To kick things off, I was excited to find the 4-minute European montage from the movie “The Rules of Attraction.” When I first saw this part in the movie, it instantly reminded me of my backpacking trip in Europe (minus the models, heavy drug use, Ferrari, and Paul Oakenfold).

Parental warning: Clip includes dirty language, brief nudity, and lots of drug references. Enjoy!

PS - the line “we drink Absinthe at a bar called Absinthe” is timely, as I just posted a poll in the left sidebar tied to when I should imbibe a shot of the green fairy. Please be sure to cast your vote!

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Until two years ago, I thought it was rather courageous of me to be planning to backpack around the world as soon as I could muster up the money. I was going to give an obscene gesture to “the man” and delve into the counter-culture of backpacking and the vagabond’s lifestyle.

Then Jon, my younger brother, joined the Marine Reserves and my perspective on courage changed drastically. He knew he’d be going to Iraq when he joined, yet he did so anyways out of a sense of duty to his country. I use to think such words were cheesy and vapid, until I sensed the sincerity behind them after he joined (while trying to justify the action with his petrified older brother and parents).

Last week we received an e-mail from him after he arrived safely in Kuwait. Two days later was his first e-mail from Iraq, which was surprisingly upbeat. It’s the 16th country he’s visited (he’s ahead of me in that regard, though not for long).  Below is an excerpt:

Funniest thing so far: Immediately after landing in a combat zone, we stand in line to receive our linens. Some of them are pink, tinker bell sheets.

Regardless of your thoughts on the war, please keep our soldiers, and the innocent people of Iraq in your thoughts and prayers. I know I will.

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Last Summer I faced a tough choice when deciding upon a departure date. I could plan to leave at the end of 2007, thereby missing the busiest period of the year for my department and company, or I could leave in early 2008, after qualifying to receive a 10% annual bonus.

Ultimately, I realized if I could meet my savings goal by the earlier time frame, it’d be best to hit the road. If I continued to stick around, I felt as though there was an increased risk of something occurring to derail my travel plans. So far, I’ve been very happy with my decision.

My employer’s new CEO believes in the importance of providing quarterly updates on our company’s performance as it relates to the annual bonus. Updates are based on actual results and projections for the remainder of the year. I received the 2nd quarter update last week, and was reminded of how much money I’m passing up by leaving the company before 12/31/07!

I’ve found it somewhat easy to be cavalier about leaving my job, however it’s a lot harder to feel that way when I think about the salary and benefits I’m leaving behind. After all, I’ve been working my way up the food chain for the past 5 years. C’est la vie! (aka “That’s life!”)

When money is taken freedom is forsaken. – Proverb

Money makes a good servant, but a bad master. — Francis Bacon

Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants. — Benjamin Franklin

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The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone. — Orison Swett Marden

The quote above rang true for me when I came across it in a journal I received as part of my company’s 2-day culture shaping workshop. I’ve often used quotes as motivational tools for staff, and myself, and I drew an instant connection between the message in this one and my solo backpacking trip.

I interpret it to mean the growth and personal potential I hope to realize is within my power to achieve, and not by a simple change in physical location, the luck of the Irish, or support of others. I have the power to realize my full potential here and now, in my seat, at my computer desk in Arlington, Virginia, USA.

Of course, I think it’ll be a heck of a lot more fun to “be here and now” while sipping a Capirinha on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro!!

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As the Countdown Timer to the right indicates, I’m 99 days from expected departure! When I first set the timer up earlier in the year, I believe it was somewhere just over 200 days. While that may seem like a drop in the bucket, in reality it has been an eternity!

The waiting this year has reminded me of the months preceding my first semester of college. After the excitement of high school graduation, I found myself unable to get a summer job. Having moved to Virginia two years prior, and not done a good job at making friends, I just kept telling myself I’d start a new (and more sociable) chapter of life once I arrived at college. In the meantime though, I was simply counting down the days.

This time around, I have a career and plenty of friends, however I once again find myself simply counting down the days until the next (and most adventurous) chapter in my life. I stay in during the weekends to prevent myself from spending money. I’m not pressing myself to date. I make do with the clothes I have, rather than buying new stuff. I tune out all conversations about high-definition TV!

Regardless of how successful I am at staying in the present moment these last 99 days, it’ll all be worth it when I’m swaying in the breeze on a hammock in the South Pacific, and falling asleep on the deck of a felucca while sailing down the Nile River.

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It’s no secret I’ve decided to backpack around the world, heading west until I cover the approximately 24,900 miles which account for it’s circumference. The idea of non-stop travel in one general direction for months, if not years, has an exciting draw to it I can’t resist. That’s not to say there aren’t more accessible, though equally exciting, approaches to traveling the world.

1. One Country At A Time - With 194 countries in the world today, few people will reach them all in a single lifetime, yet visiting them one by one remains the most popular approach, at least in the United States. Pacing oneself at a trip, or two if you’re lucky, per year can slowly build up one’s experience abroad over the course of a lifetime.

2. Circuits - The world’s geography can be broken up into circuits, or well worn backpacker trails, on each of the continents. Traveling by circuit usually requires more time and money, however the reward is a much greater sense of freedom. I experienced traveling my first circuit when I spent the Summer after college graduation backpacking around Europe (in a clockwise rotation from Paris). Currently, Central America and Southeast Asia are two very popular circuits due to beneficial exchange rates.

3. ‘Round the World by Circuit - If the idea of non-stop, boots to the ground, travel seems less appealing, then consider a more unique strategy. The idea is to stop back at home between circuits. The duration at home can be as little as a few weeks to rest, relax, and rebuild stamina or health, or longer to earn more money. Last year in Guatemala, I met a Brit who spent 6 months working, followed by 6 months traveling a different circuit, each year. He had taken this approach for 5 years in a row!

4. Non-stop ‘Round the World - The ultimate option in terms of freedom, traveling around the world non-stop is for those who truly have a passion for being on the road, and can effectively manage the added physical, mental and emotional stresses that go along with it. The world is your very large oyster!

5. Employment/Education/Volunteering - Possibly the smartest approach to seeing the world, if you can swing it, is to work, learn, or volunteer abroad. Such a strategy can allow you to use your new home base as a launching pad for exploration of the countries in that circuit. Not only are you closer to the countries, thus making them less costly to visit, you are immersed in a new culture when not traveling! My friend Charlie has been living in China for 2.5 years, earning his living as a DJ, which allows him to work his way around China, while taking side trips to Russia and Southeast Asia in his free time.

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