Has anyone ever thought about writing down a bunch of places on separate bits of paper (with a pen), folding them up, putting them in a hat, then pulling one out?

Then, when you’ve done that, just buy a plane ticket. Go there, without making any plans, and just figuring it all out for yourself?

That’s what we used to do in the old days and it was fun!

may i add the excellent podzinger.com to the list - an excellent site.

garri: absolutely!!!

i remember when i first went travelling in the mid-1990s the only contact i had with home was when i sent a hastily scrawled postcard about a week before i was due home. email??!?!?! PAH!!!!

klm, ed, travo

@Kevin: same here. My girlfiend and I ventured to Morocco in mid 80’s. Flew into Agadir, flew out from Casablanca. We just bought tickets, didn’t organise any accomm until we got there.

I’ll never forget when we arrived by coach in Marrakech, middle of the night and found an old hotel, which was full of splendour in its better days. The owners were brilliant! Organised guides for us.

The night we arrived the owner wouldn’t let us venture out to eat on our own and from nowhere appeared our bodyguard, who didn’t say a word to us but lead us safely to a place to eat and arrived when we finished to escort us safely back to the hotel.

@Darren: presumably you didn’t arrive in France, Belgium and Holland at the same time? Well, not with National Express at least

I was reading a couple of years ago about a travel movement (if there’s such a thing) they’re calling random travel. You just turn up somewhere and get on with it! Sorta much like we did in our day but it didn’t have a fancy name.

Random Travel was Interrailing to a tee in its day…!!

I’ve recently Had a Booking whereby the Family promised their Children that in 2007 they would base there holiday on Whoever won the World Cup.

So it’s Italy for them. They Mentioned Thank God England didn’t win although they were secretly hoping that Brazil would be the winning destination.

I love the idea of travelling around with an iguide or audio guide. Im going to download one before I travel to Prague next month.

I just found out about a new site in this category: http://www.mp3travel.com/

Its probably got the most extensive collection I have found so far, but the audio is read by a computer voice. Quite annoying!

What is the best ipod to buy?

My nephew wants one for his birthday and I have no idea what to get him.

For a slightly different take on this, check out http://www.expodition.com - it’s a site I set up a few months ago which allows you to download personalised travel guides that you store and view on your iPod when you’re out and about.

In response to Debbie’s question - there’s no straightforward answer. iPod’s range from the ’shuffle’ which has no screen, to the nano which is small (small screen, small memory and small physical size), to the standard iPod which is bigger in all respects. Plus it can play video.

The nano is more robust than the standard iPod because the nano uses a ‘flash memory’ chip as opposed to the more fragile ‘hard disk’ in the standard iPod. If your nephew is a youngster, I would guess the nano would be the best bet.

Cheers!

Rod.

These are good suggestions! I’m just now testing downloadable travel guides; I’ve been using the free Frommer’s printable ones from Sidestep.com (click on Travel Guides.) They’re great if you aren’t fully up to speed on the downloading thing yet but amazingly portable and non-touristy looking when you reference them on the street. I’d recommend them for anyone not so tech-inclined. I also love the Lonely Planet books, although I’ve been known to rip out relevant pages to keep from carrying an entire book.