Is July 15, 2011, a travel blackout date in your world?

It is in mine, as that's the release date of the final 'Harry Potter' film, the 'Deathly Hallows Part 2'.  

My wife, a self-proclaimed 'Harry Potter nerd,' has declared that all travel - in addition to any plan not related to seeing the film its opening night -  is entirely off-limits.

Admittedly, I'm not a fan (though our marriage survives regardless).

I've never participated in marathon-like cramming sessions whenever a new, phonebook-sized novel is released. I've never chimed in on any message board to resolve why so-and-so killed what's-his-name.

And if you think I'll be dressed up like a wizard while I wait with my wife in a queue on opening night for the latest film, think again.

I do, however, appreciate the cleverness of the magical items presented in the various films I've sat through, prompting me to dream of how much more pleasant travel would be if they existed. 

So whether you are hardcore about Harry or not, here's my take on five magical items from the world of 'Potter' that would prove invaluable to the avid traveler.

Magic Items

1. Liquid Luck

How sweet would it be to drink a vial of Liquid Luck, a potion designed to bring unbelievable luck to whoever consumes it for a short period of time?

I'd down a bottle on my way to the airport, to ensure construction and accident-free travel while my cab zipped along traffic-free expressways.

At the airport itself? Even sweeter.

"Sorry, Mr. Mandra - we overbooked coach so we'll have to upgrade you to first class free of charge. Now let's hurry you along - we're actually departing on time today."

Of course, thanks to a nice tailwind, we arrive much earlier than planned, too.

And did I mention the flight itself is entirely free of screaming babies, armrest hogs, and chatterboxes?

2. Time Turner

The Time Turner, a slick little device allowing for short travels forward in time, might be best used to avoid those inevitable 'dud' tourist attractions we sometimes all fall prey to.

If I had the Time Turner with me in London, I would have dialed it up before visiting a specific museum, to prepare myself for the comical disappointment I would soon experience.

The disappointment?

This museum, dedicated to a prominent English literary figure, proudly presented a 'special' exhibit - an entire room, no less - dedicated to 'Beards Throughout History' (since this literary giant wore a beard at one point in his life, of course….).

Think it's impossible to fill four museum walls with nothing but photos of our hairy heroes? 

Not when you include, alongside photos of actual persons, images of completely unrelated fictional television and movie characters.

Bearded images of everyone from professional wrestler Randy 'Macho Man' Savage to 'Star Wars' character Obi-Wan Kenobi to ape characters from the 'Planet of the Apes' films inexplicably hung prominently from the museum walls, alongside former heads of state and other noted historical stalwarts.

I'd be willing to risk altering the fragile Time-Space Continuum to avoid that mess again.

See also: 9 Places Every Harry Potter Fan Needs to Visit

3. Sneakoscope

A naïve woman I traveled with as part of a group once - I'll call her 'Anne' - would have benefited from using a Sneakoscope, a spinning top that lights up, spins, and whistles if someone is doing something untrustworthy nearby.

First, after arriving in Zimbabwe, she trusted her cab driver enough to exchange her US dollars into local currency (he ripped her off, of course).

Later, 'Anne' swaps her wristwatch (working) with one offered by a street vendor (not working).

Good thing the vendor just happened to have an over-priced watch battery on hand he could sell her!

For 'Anne,' I'd recommend a heavy-duty Sneakoscope because that poor, overworked top would eventually spin itself right into the ground.

4. Hermoine's (Expanding) Handbag

Duct tape. I'm convinced I could earn a small fortune selling nothing but rolls of duct tape near airport check-in, typically the last line of defense for bloated, broken-down luggage. 

One beaten-up suitcase I noticed on its way from Chicago for Amsterdam appeared so bandaged together and wrapped with silver it resembled a round football.

A better solution for those travelers - as well as the rest of us - would be a suitcase with the expandable characteristics of Hermoine's Handbag, allowing you to carry a ton more inside it than outwardly appears.

Maybe that single, magical suitcase (carry-on size, naturally) would be large enough to fit everything - shoes, clothes, and souvenirs.

Of course, even though you could fit everything inside a single bag, the challenge would then be lugging all that weight around with you.

Sounds like we'll get to hear a lot of entertaining airport bickering among couples to me.

5. Invisibility Cloak

The Invisibility Cloak is a no-brainer, handy for any situation where you might want to slip away without a trace.

I would have loved possessing that Cloak one particular time in Scotland, where a plan to share a drink with my wife in a small-town pub got a little uncomfortable thanks to a gregarious (at first) but over-served local man.

He seemed friendly at first ("Pete from Seattle - how are ya, man?"), soon shifted to mean ("My wife's got a face like a wheelbarrow!"), then depressing ("I'm not bein' served!"), before ending on downright weird/creepy/nonsensical ("Jessica Rabbit! Jessica Rabbit!").

Note to the drunk guy: whenever a pub - a pub in Scotland, no less - refuses to serve you liquor, you probably should have stopped consuming a while ago.

Regardless, the Invisibility Cloak would've helped us escape that scene earlier, while also being useful for anyone needing to slip away from awkward situations, boring tour groups and the like.

The following is a guest post by Pete Mandra, author of Overland.

Berating lost cab drivers, rushing through exotic landscapes most of us have only dreamed of visiting, and more tears, bickering and overall bad behavior than a liquor-infused holiday get-together.

At its worst, I’ve just described an episode of the popular reality television program The Amazing Race, where pairs of travelers compete against other teams in a race around the world to win $1 million US.

Personally, I have a ‘love-hate’ relationship with The Amazing Race. When I curl up with my wife, Jessica, on Sunday nights to tune it in, the program serves as the perfect kindling to fuel dreams of our next exotic trip, whether it's Morocco, India or the Seychelles Islands.

So what do I hate? ‘Ugly American’ behavior (which, as an American, I am skilled at identifying). Pseudo celebrity contestants, like reality show ‘stars’, athletes, and beauty pageant winners.

Mostly, though, I think it’s the fact that I haven’t been asked to be a contestant yet…

So, aside from brushing up on my geography, what have I learned from watching The Amazing Race? Plenty, which, when combined with my own travel experiences, may assist you in navigating your next journey through an exotic land.

Play To Your Strengths

When an Amazing Race team is assigned a task to perform as part of the contest, they must decide what team member is best suited to perform that task, without any assistance by their teammate, and hope for the best.

Many otherwise strong teams finish last and are eliminated after they mistakenly select the team member who can’t perform the assigned task in timely fashion, like dance the Samba in Brazil or excel in an Indian tea tasting.

Are you one of those people who can be dropped anywhere yet orient themselves instantly? Lucky you – I can get lost in a hall closet.

So when my wife and I drove our rental car through the winding, narrow roads of a seaside town in Italy, I resigned myself to map duty while she somehow instinctively guided us to our intended destination successfully. But when we negotiated the price on that exotic, Jordanian vase?  I handled that. Know what you excel at and know when you’re overmatched.

Pack Lightly

The Amazing Race is all about flying from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible, meaning saving time by carrying on all luggage is a must (just once, I’d love to see a team mistakenly check luggage and wait, exasperated, for it to finally roll off the carousel).

One past season, a team even lost their carry-on luggage and had to make do exclusively with only the clothes on their backs (until afforded the opportunity to buy additional clothes at the next travel stop).

With charges levied for checking bags on airlines, it’s in your best interest to pack lightly, or forgo checking bags altogether if possible. Just don’t be one of those people who hog all the overhead space, or frantically push and grab their bag the very second the plane lands (we aren’t going anywhere until they open the doors!).

At the other extreme, don’t be compelled to travel without luggage at all, choosing instead to wear layer upon layer upon layer of clothes onto the plane. I’ve seen it. It’s a little weird.

Expect To Get Lost At Some Point

Without fail, it seems that during every Amazing Race season finale, when the three remaining teams are on the journey’s last leg for the million dollar prize, victory comes down to being lucky enough to find a cab driver who knows the area.

This past season played out like most others – two teams were both fortunate to work with speedy and knowledgeable cab drivers, while the third team lost valuable time after their driver had steered them well off course.

Personally, I’ve had the particularly mind-numbing experience of spending three hours(!) in smoggy and suffocating bumper-to-bumper Cairo traffic, trying in vain to translate a hotel map written in English to a cab driver who didn’t read the language.

Next time, I think I’ll take a page from The Amazing Race playbook and insist we stop at a hotel to ask for directions. It won’t prevent you from getting lost, but most hotels have English-speaking staff able to help bridge your communication gap. Of course, as viewers of The Amazing Race have witnessed, not all cab drivers are humble enough to ask for directions……

Tread Lightly

Though it may make for interesting television, it’s hard to watch Amazing Race contestants become rude and obnoxious towards the locals. As stressful as racing for $1  million must be, it makes me cringe each time I see contestants yell directions in English to non-speakers (‘If I scream it loud enough, they’ll understand!’) or discount cultural differences out of sheer frustration (‘This is completely stupid! I hate this country!’). Not exactly the ambassadors you would hope for……

‘Bashish.’ ‘Bashish.’ When an Egyptian local first shared that word with me, I forgot the few terms I memorized prior to my trip and mistakenly interpreted it as a greeting. “Wow!”, I told my wife. “These people are really friendly!”

Only then did she (thankfully) remind me that ‘bashish’ is a request/expectation of a monetary tip for services rendered, whether it’s uttered by a smiling uniformed police officer snapping your photo in front of the Giza pyramids or by the shopkeeper’s son who tosses your water bottle purchases into a plastic sack.

I’m not going to deny that getting hit up for tips at every turn doesn’t get a little frustrating, because it absolutely, truly does. But if you try to accept it as strictly a difference in culture, no different than how we Americans seemingly wrap ourselves in our country’s Flag, it’s a little more tolerable.

Live In The Moment

Ironically enough, due to the frantic pacing of The Amazing Race, contestants seem to only appreciate their international experience when their own journey concludes, usually when they discover they’re in last place and will likely be eliminated from the $1 million competition as a result.

It’s at that moment, after reflecting on all of their shared, special moments, does the magnitude of what they’ve been lucky enough to experience – visiting scores of exotic places around the world - sink in.

Don’t wait until your journey’s end to appreciate and enjoy your travel experience, whether you find yourself in a city a few hours away from home or in some exotic stretch of South American jungle.

Find some quiet time to experience life around you. Pause to the intoxicating aroma of freshly baked croissants from a humble Paris café. Observe children at play in a schoolyard in Africa and delight in their laughter. Embrace the haunting, spiritual sound of the Mecca Call to Prayer, its echoes amplified further as it bounces across a stone clad, Jordanian town square.

Remember: travelling somewhere – anywhere – isn’t about marking it off your checklist just to say you’ve been there. No matter where you journey takes you, experience it. Live it.

________

About the Author: Pete Mandra is the author of Overland, a humorous travel narrative (‘Bill Bryson meets Generation X’) chronicling his budget, six-week ‘overland’ tour through Africa with his wife and a truckload of strangers. To learn more about Pete and his novel, check out the Facebook page for Overland.

Photo Credit:  David Lee

Are you interested in volunteering abroad? Bombarded with lots of different organizations claiming they offer the best deals?

It is not always best to rely on a cool name, and a brand new website may not necessarily guarantee an organization's credibility.

Whether you are going away for four weeks, four months, or even a whole year - here are five important questions to ask before choosing a volunteer organization and taking the trip of a lifetime.

1. How long has the organization been running?

Taking a gap year or volunteering abroad has become increasingly popular.

All the cool kids are doing it, and there are a growing number of people taking trips in between jobs or as a total career break.

Due to this high demand, more and more organizations are becoming established in promoting volunteer abroad trips and eco-travel.

This is reflected in the seemingly endless organizations vying for your attention.  

However, one of the critical aspects of knowing if an organization is well run is finding out how long have they been running for.

When parting with your hard-earned cash, you want to be confident that the organization is reliable and in it for the long haul; they're not going to go bust and leave you out of pocket.

2. How long has the project been running?

If the project has been running for a while, the chances of them having a good working relationship with the locals is high.

Additionally, if a project is well established, it will have a much better chance of everything running smoothly, from the airport pickup to the accommodation you stay in; it should all be in place.

A good way of finding out if a project has been running for a while is by looking for feedback from past volunteers.

As well as feedback on independent travel websites, it's also worth looking at organizations' own Facebook page, where you can have a look at pictures uploaded by previous volunteers, which should give you a good idea of what it would be like out on the project you are interested in.

Other things to think about are nice freebies, such as will there be a complimentary airport pickup?

Are meals and accommodation included in the price?

Are there any other freebies thrown in, such as PADI training on marine conservation projects or a TEFL qualification in the teaching projects?

3. Has the organization been independently assessed, and do they have a responsible tourism policy?

You want to be traveling with an accredited and professional organization while you are in a country or countries you are not familiar with. 

Therefore, making sure the organization you choose has independent accreditation is crucial.

In the UK, the British Standard 8848 is given to organizations by the Young Explorers Trust and pulls together the expertise and good practice into a national standard for the safe management of overseas ventures.

Additionally, you also want to know that your organization is helping the local communities they work within.

There are many different types of volunteering organizations, and you want to ask questions such as are they a non-government organization (NGO)?

Are they non-profit organizations? Make sure you do your homework.

Travel is about giving something back, leaving a destination and host community in a better condition than when you found it, even if it simply means giving a smile to everyone you encounter.

By volunteering abroad, you should be able to make a real contribution to the lives of the communities you have visited via sustainable community development projects, teaching children, health care, or the conservation of wildlife, both terrestrial and marine.

4. How do you make sure that the program is suitable for you?

Choosing the appropriate project for you is another necessity. Will you be gaining qualifications to strengthen your CV? Will it give you relevant experience for a future job?

At Frontier you can choose a project that will give you a qualification when finishing your time abroad.

5. How will I contact my friends and family if I have an emergency during my program?

Not being in contact with your family for an extended period may seem like bliss to most of us.

No nagging parents telling you what to do or managers are giving you yet another deadline.

However, if an emergency arises, you want to ensure the volunteering organization has a 24-hour support line.

For example, with Frontier, no matter what the time difference is, an allocated staff member will be on standby to answer the emergency phone and ring you back if needed.

The next thing to decide is which country to visit?

I'll leave this one up to you. Good luck and happy traveling!

The following is a guest post by Pete Mandra. If you’d like to guest post on Go Backpacking, please read our submission guidelines.

When I returned from my recent extended tour of southern Africa, friends and family pressed me to know what aspect of my trip brought on the most stress:

Was it tenting in the African bush, surrounded by wild animals? The risk of contracting a deadly, exotic disease? All that time away from home, separated from loved ones and all things familiar?

Nope, I told them. Not even close. Because I couldn’t think of a single, hungry African carnivore, a mysterious diseases whose symptoms still stumped brilliant scientists, or any amount of solitude that compared, at least to me, to the sometimes challenging dynamics of group travel.

Don’t get me wrong - signing on with a group travel tour, just as I had to visit southern Africa (and later Egypt and Jordan), is an effective way to navigate across a country while taking in its highlights. You not only eliminate the hassle of getting from Point A to Point B, but it’s generally much more cost effective than if you were to attempt it by yourself.

The challenge, though, arrives when your tour takes you through a less-developed country, where personal safety, and few diversions like museums and shopping, dictates the group spending time together for seemingly every waking moment. It is then that a strange, almost magical transformation occurs – you stop acting like a group and start acting more like a dysfunctional, slightly manic family, filled with just enough underlying tension to drive one another crazy. In Africa, we fought over food, relaxed every ambition imaginable a little too much for comfort, and almost purposefully got on each other’s nerves. Though I can’t share all of the sordid details here, suffice to say I did start to wonder, after that whole experience, how any of us could once again function in normal, everyday society.

OK – so I exaggerate a bit. Then why, you’re probably asking yourself, after my trying experience traveling with a group through Africa, did I participate in another such trip shortly afterwards through Egypt and Jordan?

Because Africa taught me what I refer to as essential ‘mental survival strategies’ for group travel, essential to enjoying your trip and dealing with the sometimes difficult group mentality.

The following, then, are my 5 tips for mentally ‘surviving’ a group travel tour:

1. Stay connected with family and friends back home.

Receiving an email, video chat, or just hearing the voice of a loved one has a way of bringing you back to reality, especially when you need a break from present company. And best of all, you can find an Internet café in even the most remote places in the world (though you may have to deal with a dial-up connection).

2. Grab alone time (when you can get it!).

There’s nothing wrong with retreating to your tent or room for a little bit if you need a break. Don’t think that just because others always hang out that you are required to, also.

3. Zone out.

Bring that music-loaded Ipod for those long road trips when you don’t want to spend another 4 hours (again) talking to your seat mate. Or be really devious and only pretend you’ve fallen asleep.

4. Protect that personal space!

In Africa, the seat you grabbed on the truck that first day was yours for the next six weeks. It sounds crazy, but on group tours, your instinct is to protect all space in that immediate vicinity as your own, so you don’t feel too crowded and have room for your gear. Only remove gear from the truck that you need for that particular moment, using the rest as a personal space holder.

5. Go with the flow.

Will the group annoy you at times? Absolutely! So expect that you may not get along with everyone, and accept that you’re personal freedom may seem compromised from the outset as you (often) follow rigid schedules and full days to take in all the sites. A mantra may help, too. Whenever I wanted to strangle someone, I took a deep breath and repeated to myself you’re on vacation…you’re on vacation. It usually did the trick.

Hopefully, after reading this you aren’t scared off if you were considering signing on with a group tour in a less-developed part of the world. Following my own advice on my Egypt and Jordan trip proved extremely helpful, so I’m confident, if you have any such concerns, these same strategies can work for you, too.

Group experience aside, I wouldn’t trade the enjoyable experience I had traveling through Africa for anything. We slept under star-filled skies in the middle of the desert, navigated through the hippos and crocodiles of the Zambezi River in canoes, and joined an armed military convoy in Zambia through a patch of land contested by rebel fighters– if that’s not living life, I don’t know what is!

________

About the Author: Pete Mandra is the author of Overland, a humorous travel narrative (‘Bill Bryson meets Generation X’) chronicling his budget, six-week ‘overland’ tour through Africa with his wife and a truckload of strangers.

Photos Credit: David Lee

Why did the chameleon cross the road?

To give all the tourists on a Kruger Park safari a great photo-op!