Leffel projects

“If you make $1,000 a month, you can drive a small car, take your family out to decent restaurants sometimes, and visit a place like this on the weekends.” That was an offhand comment from my Nicaraguan guide Pablo when we were at the overlook area checking out Lake Apoyo between Managua and Granada. “On …

A lot of travel bloggers really don’t need to ever do a year-end summary because they’ve already told you about everything they ate for lunch in each destination and every monument they snapped a photo of. I try to be more evergreen than that, telling stories that are reasonably timeless and giving advice that is …

I launched Perceptive Travel webzine in 2006 and the blog soon after. It’s won a slew of “best travel writing” awards and gotten stories into travel writing anthologies. Each month the webzine publishes interesting narratives from wandering authors as well as reviews of new travel books and world music albums. In the first month of …

A survey of travelers came out recently showing that the thing blog readers get most annoyed by, with 72% putting this at the top, was pop-up ads asking them to sign up for something. I’m one very active blog reader who would be in that group. I frequently hit the back button or close the …

If you know someone about to hit retirement age, like your parents maybe, here’s a good travel book for them that has a chapter from yours truly. 65 Things to Do When You Retire – Travel is a collection of essays on various aspects of travel for the older set. Yes, there are 65 essays …