Dahomey: The Women Fetishers
A short travel story by Geoffrey Gorer (1905-1985), an English anthropologist and writer. He visited West Africa in 1934, in order to study...
Six Countries in Seven Days
I’m opening my eyes: morning, southern Turkey. Outside we first see stone houses in beige colour, then a gigantic oil refinery, then barbed wires...
Natal: A Sermon to the Zulu
A sermon that Francis Owen, a British missionary stationed in Natal, delivered to the Zulu king Dingaan and his people in the early 19th century....
Volunteer Tourism
The first time I came in contact with volunteer tourism, I was staying with my family in Swaziland. A company there had paying volunteers and I got...
Berber Motifs
There are more than a hundred thousand Berber motifs. Distributed for millennia throughout North Africa, they are everywhere: on murals, paintings,...
The Role of Poetry in Early Tribal Cultures
I want to take you on a poetic journey around the world through the ancient tribes and the poetry that lived in them. This journey will consist of...
House is a Work of Art
Burkina Faso is by no means an area frequented by tourists, but at the base of a hill overlooking the surrounding sun-drenched West African savannah...
The Khoisan Once Were Kings Of The Planet. What Happened?
Some 22,000 years ago, they were the largest group of humans on earth: the Khoisan, a tribe of hunter-gatherers in southern Africa. Today, only...
Kigali, Rwanda
"Do you always go to war zones with people you meet at parties?", my coworker asked as I explained that I wanted time off to go to Goma with this...
Maps: Religions, Plants, Diseases
In addition to their obvious purpose and function, maps can be many things: educational and didactic tools, scientific tools, works of art,...
A short guide to volunteering on organic farms around the world
WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) provides opportunities to volunteer on organic farms. The WWOOF system is based on a simple...
The Travel Club Symbol
When asked what the new Travel Club identity should look like, I pondered it for a long time. We all did, for countless nights. For months. We...
When tourism turns into narcissism
Years ago, I bumped into a Canadian couple in Patagonia whose every step had been pursued by serendipity. They'd arrived in the Los Glaciares...
Explore: Weddings
A group of couples in Taiwan, a Zulu king and Swazi princess in South Africa, a priest and child bride in Ethiopia—National Geographic has been...
House rules and application form
Welcome to The Travel Club’s Travel House in Tbilisi. Please read these basic house rules and notify us by filling out the form at the bottom of the...
House rules and application form
Welcome to The Travel Club’s Travel House in Athens. Please read these basic house rules and notify us by filling out the form at the bottom of the...
Walls in the Desert
– I’ve heard that there is a wall there – said I.
– What wall? – said Husam. – There are no walls there.
I asked him what was that Western...
No life: a short documentary
Travelers: Inesa, Uroš, Lazar In September 2013, using the Travel House in Granada as the starting point, we got on a ferry and crossed into...
The Travel Club Symbol
When asked what the new Travel Club identity should look like, I pondered it for a long time. We all did, for countless nights. For months. We...