Happy Christmas from Heather on her travels

I wish a very Happy Christmas and holiday season to all readers of Heather on her travels and my friends around the blogsphere.

I’ll be spending Christmas with my family and hope that you will also be enjoying a relaxing time with those you care for most.

Peace and love to all the peoples of the world and happy travels in 2012

Santa Baby, please bring me a library in Zambia from Passports with Purpose

If you are part of the travel blogging community, or even if you’re not, hopefully it won’t have escaped you that there’s a travel blogger’s charity initiative going on in the run-up to Christmas called Passports with Purpose. The initiative ends in a couple of days on Friday 16 December, so now is your last chance to support and win one of the great prizes on offer.

Passports with Purpose was started in 2008 and is a great way for travellers and travel bloggers and just anyone who wants to leave the world a little better than they found it, to give something back to communities that don’t have as much as we do in the UK. Things that we take for granted – like a school to go to, or a library where we can find books to read that give us a window on the world of possibilities.

Each year Passports with Purpose supports a different charity project in the developing world and this year we’re trying to raise money for two libraries in Zambia with Room to Read. The charity works with local communities to provide a library of books relevant to that school or community with resources for children who might struggle to even afford an exercise book can learn and develop their education through reading.

It’s a fantastic project to support, but even better, you can win any number of travel related prizes that have been donated by travel bloggers working with sponsors. I counted over 80 different prizes, from tech travel gear like a Kindle Fire or a digital camera, to luxury hotel stays, travel vouchers and tours. All you have to do is pledge $10 for the prize of your choice and you’re in the draw for that prize – the more pledges you make, the more chances you have to win one of these prizes. To check out all the prizes, go to the Passports with Purpose Donate page and follow the links to the individual blogs that have donated prizes, to find out more.

The Fund raiser ends in just a couple of days this Friday 16th December 2011 – so don’t delay – just hop over to the Passports with Purpose donate page and decide what you’d like Santa to bring your this Christmas. I wish you every luck in winning the prize of your dreams and every hope that we’ll raise enough for those two libraries in Zambia.

Here are some of the prizes that are tempting me;

A Kindle Fire – so much lighter than carrying travel guides and novels around, from Mother of all trips and a nunber of other bloggers too

A Nook tablet – from Foxnomad – an e-reader that is also wifi capable for a quick check of the e-mail or facebook page

A Sony Cyber Shot digital camera – from Amateur Traveler – A neat little camera to slip in your pocket

A stay at the Luxurious Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale Troon North – from My Itchy Travel Feet – the perfect place for a romantic gettaway

$500 stay in an apartment in a European city – from Ottsworld – Ideal for those who love to immerse themselves in local neighbourhoods when they travel

1 year’s worth of wifi with Boingo – from Everything Everywhere – Enabling you to login to any Boingo wifi point around the world

Hopefully I’ve encouraged you to head over now (before Passports with Purpose ends on 16 December 2011) and make your bid for a great travel prize and support the last push to fund those two libraries in Zambia. Go on – you deserve the chance to win, and those kids in Zambia deserve the room to read.

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

My 7 Links – a delve into the archives at Heather on her travels

Tag – I’m it! My blogging friend Barbara over at Hole in the Donut just passed on the challenge of a little rummage in the treasure chest (or should it be dusty attic?) that is my travel blog at Heatheronhertravels. For your delectation and delight I have come up with a few of my older posts that are noteworthy in one way or another. So without too much navel gazing I spent, oh about 5 seconds and came up with some of these past posts. Do let me know what you think!

Your most Beautiful post

In this category I nominate;

A Turtle spotting Boat trip on Zante – in Greece

Of course, like my children, I like to think that all my posts are beautiful in one way or another – with the amount of time I take shooting many colourful photos to bring my posts alive and crafting the words to try and be both inspirational and informative I hope you’d think so too.

But there’s something about the natural beauty of Greece (if you ignore the souvenir shops, the dusty broken pavements) that holds a special place in my heart. My sister lives on the Greek island of Zakynthos and so we get the chance to visit her every year there, normally in May when the flowers are still fresh on the hillside or in October when the cyclamen are flowering in the olive groves and the scent of woodsmoke from the olive prunings is in the air.

This Greek Turtle post and video bring back for me the gorgeous turquoise sea, the hot sun, and the pleasures of jumping off the boat and swimming into a sea cave to cool off. And if you’re lucky you might just see a turtle.

A Turtle spotting Boat trip on Zante – in Greece

Your most popular post

After I’d been blogging a while I started to gather a ton on information about how to do things better, especially after I moved the blog from its old home at Blogger to the current WordPress installation. I decided to share all that knowledge I gained along the way in a new area called My Blogging Journey and was surprised at how popular some of the articles became. Clearly there were other people tearing their hair out trying to work out how to set up their featured content gallery or changing their header and finding my articles helpful.

One of that series of articles that has been particularly popular has been;

How to set up and optimise your Youtube Channel

Because I wanted to continue to share the things that I’d learned but didn’t want to dilute the Travel inspiration articles, I decided to move all the “How To” articles to a new home of their own and now you’ll find them over at my new website

My Blogging Journey

Feel free to  go on over and take a look – you might find a useful article or two to help you improve your own travel blog.

Your most controversial post

To be absolutely honest I don’t really court controversy here at Heather on her travels. You’ll never find an article here on how to have sex in a hostel or the top 10 places not to visit. I prefer to see the positive in each situation and look at travel as a pleasure rather than a challenge. But occasionally an article has provoked an unexpectedly adverse reaction, such as the one where the owners of a restaurant I’d reviewed took issue with what I’d written. If you read through the comments you’ll see what I mean. It made me stop and wonder at the reach of our blogging opinions and how we have a responsibility to try and be fair and balanced in what we write that might impact the businesses and reputations of others.

A lacklustre lunch at Pepe’s Byblos Fishing Club – in Lebanon

Another example of unexpected controversy coming to me was the article I wrote in a fit of frustration after having a poor experience with a car hire company. Although I felt my article was balanced in tone, it seemed to open up a succession of similar unhappy tales from other customers who had experienced poor service – again read the comments to see what I mean.

Beware of hidden charges at Hertz Car Hire

Your most helpful post

In this category I nominate;

Don’t throw paper in the toilet in Greece

Much as I love visiting Greece, it’s always something of a relief to come home and be able to throw paper down the toilet again. This little article I wrote was prompted by the humorous signs I saw in the bathrooms of numerous bars in Greece whose owners clearly don’t enjoy having to unblock the toilet. If you’re visiting Greece I hope you’ll find it helpful!

A post whose success suprised you

A friend of ours from Bristol has decamped to enjoy his semi-retirement in Chiang Mai and I used his photos and stories to write this article about one of the many elephant sanctuaries in Thailand that are now a major tourist attraction.

Elephant Encounters at Chiang Mai in Thailand

Subsequently it’s become a very popular article on the blog that people are finding by searching for the term ‘Elephants’ – there must be something about these animals that attracts people.

A post you feel didn’t get the attention it deserved

I don’t really put too much store by whether an article is popular or not – I tend to write for my own pleasure as much as yours and put out there whatever catches my attention. So it was tough for me to think of anything in this category. However, I’d like to nominate;

Christmas shopping in Quito

This was my very first post back in December 2007 and I think it that it could deserve another airing, if only to see how far I’ve come in over 3 years of blogging.

The post that you are most proud of

It would be hard to single any one post out as I try to make all my articles as good as they can be, but I do enjoy making and listening to my Travel Podcasts. Although there are a handful of excellent travel podcasters out there, podcasting doesn’t seem to be a media that has been fully exploited in the travel niche. I’m proud that I have built up the expertise to make podcasts about the places I’ve travelled that I hope will inspire you and give a real flavour of the place with music, interviews and soundscenes. For my most recent example of a travel podcast, I hope you enjoy the sounds of Salzburg and Wolfgangsee;

16 Podcast – Salzburg and Wolfgangsee in Austria

If you enjoy listening to my travel podcasts you can download the audio files from my blog or Subscribe through iTunes

And now that I’ve cleared out that dusty attic, all that remains is for me to nominate a few more bloggers to share their 7 links with you – I nominate;

Sunee sees the world
Mother of all trips
Travel Rat

The 7 links idea was started by Tripbase – you can find more information here

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com – Read more travel articles at Travel Blog Home

You’ll also find our sister blog with tips on how to build a successful travel blog at My Blogging Journey

Don’t miss out – subscribe to Heather on her travels

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