Posted: 04/09/20 | April 9th, 2020

Last fall, we decided to host more events and create more opportunities for people to connect with each other (and us).

That’s why we started The Nomadic Network, a platform for travelers to meet one another — at home and abroad (we’re doing virtual events right now).

That’s why we started a conference.

That’s why we had planned to host a big gathering of somewhere in the world (it’s on hold for now).

Community is everything.

Now we are taking that community one step further with our new Patreon membership program!

You always get the content on this website for free but now, through our new Patreon, you can get more exclusive content, free books, planning calls, and cool gifts.

Want to get stories I’ve never told before? Photos from trips I’ve never posted? Free guides? Or more ways to connect with this community? Our Patreon has all that!!!!

By joining our Patreon, you’ll get access to these exclusive perks:

Wanderer – $3
As a Wanderer, you will gain access to more behind the scenes content and exclusive stories.

• Access to our exclusive Patreon feed
• Never before seen travel photos
• Exclusive members only travel stories and tips not shared on our blog!

Adventurer – $5
As an Adventurer, you’ll gain access to more behind the scenes content and some of my best selling guides.

• All previous benefits
• Access to some behind the scenes content on my Instagram “close friends” stories once a week
• Free copies of my guides, The Ultimate Guide to Travel Hacking and How to Teach English Overseas
• Private Facebook group

Vagabond – $10
As a Vagabond, you’ll get help planning your future travels plus access to our future travel events around the world.

• All previous benefits
• Our entire guidebook collection, with budget guides to Paris, Amsterdam, Thailand, Bangkok, Iceland, NYC, and Backpacking Europe
• Free entry to all future travel events through The Nomadic Network anywhere in the world
• Exclusive twice monthly Q&A livestreams

Backpacker – $25
If you’re a Backpacker, you’ll gain access to even more amazing content like exclusive blog posts, monthly Q&A’s, and webinars. You’ll also be supporting our community charity, FLYTE!

• All previous benefits
• Free virtual ticket to TravelCon*
• 10% of all donations go to our non-profit, FLYTE, which helps make travel accessible to students from around the country
• Handwritten postcards from my trips
• Gifted Kindle version of one of my books. You pick How to Travel the World on $50 a Day or Ten Years a Nomad

* Must be a Patron for at least 2 months

Globetrotter – $50
Thank you for this huge commitment! As a Globetrotter, the team and I want will provide even more hands-on help.

• All previous benefits
• Full access to our blogging course
• Your pick: A signed copy of How to Travel the World on $50 a Day or Ten Years A Nomad (USA/Canada only)
• One call per month with a Nomadic Matt team member: Raimee (social media consulting), Erica (community building and events), Chris (time management), Carmela (building a non-profit)
• First look at all our projects and content — with the ability to give us feedback!
• Archived videos on the Patreon feed

Nomad – $100
This is a huge level of support and we want to offer as much added value as we can. When you become a Nomad, you’ll get all of the previous rewards plus special shout outs, one-on-one calls, and more!

• All previous benefits
• Feature you (or your business) on our Instagram Stories once a month
• Ticket to TravelCon*
• A signed copy of both my books, How to Travel the World on $50 a Day or Ten Years A Nomad (USA/Canada only)
• One-on-one call with me to talk about travel planning, travel hacking, business, or whatever you want really! (Call last one hour and occurs on your first paid month and then once a quarter after!)

* Must be a Patron for at least 3 months

Supporting our Patreon is a way to get more out of your “Nomadic Matt experience” and get amazing behind-the-scenes access and exclusive perks every month!

And signing up is risk-free:

• You can cancel at any time.
• Your payment is safe and secure. (Your payment is SSL-encrypted.)

Plus, you’ll also get awesome customer support. If you have any questions, the team and I will always be around to help.

The team and I work to create content for you so you can travel better, cheaper, and longer. While we make some money from ads, product sales, and affiliates, we’re not some huge corporation or media conglomerate. We’re these people:

…just sharing what we love and always reinvesting in this website and community. We’re always trying to figure out more ways we can serve you and create cool things to bring everyone together!

This Patreon gives us more freedom to continue doing that, host more events, and create more travel content you love.

So check out our Patreon!

Your support is everything and we’re looking forward to continuing to improve this website, especially during these crazy times!

Sincerely,

Nomadic Matt

The post How to Get Untold Stories, Exclusive Tips, and One-on-One Phone Calls appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Baby Sinclair needs help.  In honor of Dodger, I’d like to jump in and help.  She is just 24 hours old.  Her Mom has no milk and this baby was rolled and kicked around before being rescued by LRTC.

Just born, tiny Sinclair. Her mother had no milk, she was failing, curled in a ball. The stallion was trying to get to the mare and in the scuffle, roughed up the baby.

In the car, racing to the hospital.

This baby is critical.  IN HONOR OF DODGER, can we help save this tiny newborn?!  She will need more plasma, meds, milk replacers and eye treatment (not sure what condition yet).  All donations are 100% tax deductible.  THANK YOU in advance.

  If you receive this post via email, please click here to donate.

THE STORY

A Nevada Range Wild Mama had no milk and the wild stallion was chasing the Mom and accidentally roughing up the baby.  Baby was down and couldn’t get up.  She was born yesterday but had gotten no milk and was in bad shape.

Advocates at LRTC stepped in to rescue little Sinclair.  She was raced to the hospital and given plasma immediately.  The vets worked to warm her body, tend to her bruised eye and tube her so that she could get the milk she so desperately needed.

LRTC volunteer with baby in the car, heading to the equine hospital.  Baby was alert but crashed on the way.

Baby Sinclair at the hospital, waiting to be seen. She was cold and shaking. (All volunteers are corona virus safe as well… )

Vet checks her color and her swollen eye. She is given plasma immediately and warming blankets.

The plasma did revive her… she was moving again. Vets tubed her to administer milk.

THIS BABY IS CRITICAL.  LET’S HELP THIS NEWBORN IN THE NAME OF DODGER THE ELDER WHO WE LOST LAST WEEK AT 40 YEARS OF AGE…

I think the old man would be very honored to help a young one.  Thank you from my heart.

  If  you receive this via email, please click here to donate!

She made it through the first night… very critical still. Her suck reflex is not good, but when she was awake, she did drink from a bucket, so there is great hope for her.

The post EMERGENCY APRIL BUCKET FUND FOR TINY, JUST BORN, WILD BABY: SINCLAIR. MAMA had no milk. Baby was discovered crumpled in a ball on the range – IN HONOR OF DODGER, please can we help save this newborn?! appeared first on Horse and Man.

HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!

Your purchase with R.W. through this link helps the Bucket Fund!

When you shop @AmazonSmile, Amazon will make a donation to Horse And Man Inc.



Supporting The Bucket Fund through Amazon Smile is HUGE for the horses. Please choose HORSE AND MAN when you make your Amazon purchase through this link. THANK YOU!

Posted: 4/8/20 | April 8th, 2020

With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, being safe and self-isolating at home means we now have a lot of time to learn new skills. Suddenly, the one thing we have is time. I’m finally getting through the online courses I’ve purchased over the years and my friends at Teachable told they’ve seen usage of their platform go through the roof.

This is an excellent time to learn something new.

While we’ve always had courses, we’ve decided to completely change them – and do something completely different than what you see online.

There’s plenty of free information and courses you can take on your own. You can Google anything and watch a YouTube video on any skill.

Information is a commodity.

But information alone is never enough. Education does not happen in a bubble.

Learning new skills is most effective when you get feedback and guidance.

Think of your skills.

The ones you learned best probably involved the help of teachers who used their deeper experience to give you advice and guidance.

Instead of just dumping information in your lap and saying “good luck”, we’ve changed our courses into actual ongoing training classes. While we always provided feedback, we’re taking that up a notch. Now, our courses are now monthly memberships that provide:

• Tech support for your blog (you break it, we fix it)
• Edits and feedback on your writing
• Weekly Q&A office hours (ask us anything)
• A community forum to network with your coursemates
• Unlimited email support

What separates our program from the other “blogging courses” you find online is that we’re not just going to give you information, we’re gonna be there to show you how to use it, help you fix any mistakes, provide hands-on feedback and strategy tips so you improve your skills and your business.

This is a class with full access to us.

Our writing course, Superstar Writing, is co-taught by David Farley, a professor of writing at NYU and Columbia University who has been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, Condé Nast Traveler, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

This course gets into the nitty-gritty of becoming a better writer. You’ll learn about structure, dialogue, self-editing, and how to craft evocative sensory descriptions that pull your reader in and keep them wanting more.

We’ll help you come up with story ideas, pitches for editors, and book proposals as well as give you sample proposals, emails, and scripts you can use. Plus, we have over a dozen hours of interviews with other expert writers who share their wisdom for you.

And, since writing is not taught in a bubble, David and I will give you feedback and edits on your writing for as long as you’re a member. We’ll read your story, provide notes, and copyedit it until you feel you’re ready to self-edit without us.

Additionally, David will be having online office hours twice a month, where you’ll be able to ask him questions directly.

And, our flagship course, Superstar Blogging, now goes even deeper into online business and marketing. In this course, using plenty of screenshots, I take you behind the scenes of my website and give you all my tips, tricks, and secrets to running a successful blog. I’ll show you how I create products, grow my email list, make money with affiliates, write sales pages, network in and out of travel, get media coverage, and much more. I share our metrics and strategies and take you behind the scenes on what we do.

But, as mentioned, information alone is never enough.

So, with our course, you’ll also get help from my team and me. You’ll get ongoing tech support (our motto is “you break it, we fix it”), weekly Q&As with me (where we’ll go over your problems and troubleshoot anything you need), editing feedback on your blogs, and strategy emails from me.

Moreover, we have a community forum where you can talk to your fellow students, ask questions, network, exchange guest posts, and conduct other collaborations.

My team and I are going to be fully hands-on to help you develop the skills you need to build a successful online business.

Both courses are $49 per month or $450 per year (a 23% discount). You can cancel anytime. No questions asked. And we have a 14 day trial period where you can test out the program risk-free!

And, right now, we’re offing a discount on both courses. You’ll get 50% off your monthly membership (saving $75) or $75 off the price of the yearly membership!

You can sign up for the writing masterclass here or the blogging masterclass here.

Too many courses out there are just content dumps. It’s time for something different.

If you’re ready for a new plan, join our programs. If you want someone to show you how to make sense of the firehose of information online, we’re here to help.

I’ve been writing and running online businesses for twelve years and want to teach you what I’ve learned, so you can get started on the right foot.

See you in class!

And, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments.

– Nomadic Matt

The post Our New Blogging & Writing Masterclasses! appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

Soft blue chambray is a universal love and this time of year, this hue is a standout in fashion choices. So today I’m pulling together a fun mood board of soft blue chambray in tops, dresses and shorts that I thought were all pretty and fresh and spring. 

Even though we’re not all out shopping right now, I hope this pretty diversion helps your mood just a little bit as spring is here. There’s even a pair of pretty pajamas pictured from Serena and Lily. It’s fun putting together clothing of the same color so I may do this more often! It sure looks pretty all together! 

The post Fashion over 50: Soft Blues for Spring appeared first on Southern Hospitality.

The hunting community is helping others during this challenging period, while also raising vital hunt funds

The Pembrokeshire hunt’s efforts to fundraise for new kennels are an example of how hunting is using online platforms during movement restrictions owing to the Covid-19 crisis.

John Manners-Bell, chairman of the Pembrokeshire hunt supporters’ club, told H&H planning permission had recently been granted for a new kennels site, just north of Haverfordwest.

“The hunt kennels have been in the same location for a century, and we’ve been aware for some time the lease was coming up and we would have to move,” he said.

You may also be interested in…

Love hunting? 7 ways you can make the most of your days during lockdown

The hunting person’s guide to occupying yourself for a whole day during the current Covid-19 crisis…

Hunting helps British women conquer the Gaucho Derby

‘Hunting people did fantastically well out there; we’re used to being in the saddle for long periods in all weathers’

Teenager hunts bareback for a full day in support of friend diagnosed with cancer

Veteran horse and hound retire with same family after many hunting seasons together

The pair, who have a combined age of 44, trailhunted together for years before retiring to enjoy their twilight years

An old hunting lodge with with unrivalled off-road hacking, seashore views and a rich history…

Are you hunting mad and ready to take on West Hacketty?

Posted: 04/07/2020 | April 7th, 2020

At a time when we can’t travel the world, the next best thing we can do is pick up a good travel book. As Emily Dickenson said, to shut our eyes is travel. Books transport us to distant lands and cultures. They nourish our wanderlust, entertain us, inform us, and provide us with a reservoir of potential trip ideas.

In short, they’re magic.

I love reading travel books. Without them, there would be places and cultures I’d never have heard of. Travel books have added depth to my travels and helped me develop much more nuanced perspectives of different countries and cultures.
They’ve also inspired me to visit tons of new places all around the globe.

Of course, I love traveling even more than reading but since we can’t do that right now, books are our window out into the world.

If you’re are itching to get your fix but are stuck in lockdown or self-isolation, here are some suggestions to get you started and keep your wanderlust stoked:
 

1. The Atlas of Happiness: The Global Secrets of How to Be Happy, by Helen Russell

Helen Russell, author of one of my favorite books, The Year of Living Danishly, wrote this comical visual guide that takes readers around the world — from Iceland to New Zealand to Japan to Ireland — in search of the ways that people define and discover happiness in their lives. It’s an informative, well-researched, and a feel-good guide to how the world stays happy — which is especailly important these days!
 

2. Ultimate Journeys for Two: Extraordinary Destinations on Every Continent, by Anne and Mike Howard

Having founded Honeytrek.com, Anne and Mike teamed up with National Geographic to curate these recommendations for intrepid couples. Chapters are organized by type of destination (beaches, mountains, deserts, and so on) to help travelers discover new places and experiences based on their interests.

It’s an amazing resource for finding inspiration and ideas for your own travels (even if you’re a solo traveler). The photos that fill its pages are stunning and will ignite the kind of wanderlust that will keep this on your coffee table for years.
 

3. The Dogs of ’Nam: Stories from the Road and Lessons Learned Abroad, by Christopher K. Oldfield

In this collection of short stories, our extremely budget-conscious Community Manager, Chris, recounts fumbling his way across the world as a backpacker on a budget. This is not a glamorous tale of luxury travel but rather a true and honest accounting of what it means to be a traveler.

His adventures (including being stalked by a jaguar in Costa Rica and living at a Buddhist monastery in Japan) will entertain you, make you think, and hopefully inspire you to get out there and have some adventures of your own!
 

4. Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea, by Kira Salak

The British explorer Ivan Champion was the first individual to successfully cross the island of Papua New Guinea in 1927. In this book, author Kira Salak, the first non–Papua New Guinean woman to traverse this relatively untouched country and write about it, details her own epic adventures, experiences, and self-discoveries as she tries to mimic Champion’s epic journey.

It’s a riveting look into the wild jungles of a country that so few have been able to visit firsthand.
 

5. Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana, by Stephanie Elizondo Griest

This is the story of a young journalist who travels to Russia, China, and Cuba to witness the effects of communism and explore a world not many of us get to see.

Griest relates her experiences as a volunteer at a children’s shelter in Moscow, a propaganda polisher at the office of the Communist Party’s English-language mouthpiece in Beijing, and a belly dancer among the rumba queens of Havana.
 

6. Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious, by Seth Kugel

In his book, Kugel challenges travelers to reignite our age-old sense of spontaneity (remember traveling without constantly summoning Google Maps, consulting TripAdvisor, and using travel points?).

The stories of his misadventures explain — often hilariously — how to make the most of new digital tools without living and dying by them.
 
 

7. My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile, by Isabel Allende

Allende is best known for some of her more famous works, such as The House of Spirits and The Japanese Lover. But in this memoir, she explores her personal journey living in numerous countries and her complex emotions toward her Chilean homeland.

The book paints a vivid, nostalgic picture of the world from which is is from. Sometimes funny, sometimes sorrowful, its insight and realism are what make this a captivating read.
 

8. Misadventure Is Better, by David Campbell

“If it isn’t a good time, it’s usually a good story.” That’s the backbone of this hilarious tale. Campbell, born to an American father and French mother, has been confused about where he belongs since day one.

After graduating from college, he decided to go abroad for a while to figure things out. He worked as a cycling tour guide in Europe, enrolled in the Peace Corps in Senegal, earned a master’s degree in New Zealand, went back to Senegal for his thesis research, and then returned to New Zealand.
 

9. Wanderlust: A Love Affair with Five Continents, by Elisabeth Eaves

Written by Elisabeth Eaves, this book follows her journeys around the world as she satiates her wanderlust and learns about herself. It started off slow but I really loved the writing here. It really drew you in and left you inspired. The book follows her from being a student studying a broad to being a backpacker around the world to living in Pakistan and Australia. Along the way she comes to peace with the wanderlust inside her and figures out how to balance being a nomad and someone with roots.
 

10. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford

I never knew much about Genghis Kahn so when this was recommended to me, I thought why not. It was a surprisingly pageturner. This was not some dry history book filled with footnotes but a vividly told story about Kahn and his descendants. Most history books miss the “story” part but not this one. It has an arch, vivid imagery, and incredible characters. And it fills you in a lot on the Mongolian empire. Who knew they had a central bank, universal education, paper money, didn’t torture, or had religious freedom?
 

11. Ten Years a Nomad: A Traveler’s Journey Home, by me!

This is a memoir about my ten years traveling and backpacking the world, my philosophy on travel, and the lessons I learned that can help you travel better. It takes you on a trip around the world from start to finish: getting the travel bug, planning, setting off, the highs and lows, the friends made, what happens when you come back — and the lessons and advice that result from all that.

It is my opus on travel.
 

12. How to Travel the World on $50 a Day, by me!

Okay, I know I include this book in every list, but it’s awesome, so you should read it! This New York Times best-seller, called “the bible for budget travelers” by the BBC, will teach how to master the art of travel so you can save money, get off the beaten path, and have a more local, richer travel experience, no matter where you’re going. It will help you plan for the trip you can take when the world starts again and we can all leave our house.

And it will help you score the budget deals that will make that trip even more affordable too!

***

In these times when we can’t travel with our bodies, we can still travel with our minds. These books will help fill your days and recharge your wanderlust battery for when you can finally traverse the world again.

If you have any suggestions that I can add to this list, leave them in the comments!

P.S. – We’ve launched a new members-only community on Patreon! Members get insider access to events, photos and stories I’ve told before, exclusive content, bonus social media posts, phone calls with me and the team, live Q&As, postcards, and much more! Click here to learn more!

The post 12 Books to Take You Around the World appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

I hope you all are doing well this week, as well as can be expected for all of us. It’s a hard time we are going through and I pray for an end sooner rather than later. Getting back to normal will be a good thing for all of us. 

Today I’m sharing more inspiration from my friends for spring and summer inspiration. At least the weather is mostly good right now and we can get outside more. Mark and I are starting to work on our under deck screened porch wall this month so hope to make progress on that. Enjoy! 

The post Style Showcase 24 appeared first on Southern Hospitality.

After eight endurance cases were heard by the FEI Tribunal during the past month, H&H finds out how the FEI’s risk-based strategic approach to dope-testing is paying off…

An increase in dope testing is on the cards for “high-risk” countries, the FEI has confirmed. The body has been increasing testing over the past four years and plans to expand this further.

You may also be interested in…

Dope testing: what is it and how does it work?

Find out everything about dope testing and how you can avoid an accidental positive test

FEI looking to introduce dope testing outside competition *H&H Plus*

News from the recent FEI general assembly includes the latest clean sport initiatives and wearing protective helmets when mounted to

FEI Tribunal suspends rider in ‘landmark’ horsemanship decision *H&H Plus*

Heated debate over endurance’s future continues *H&H Plus*

After new FEI endurance rules were published on 16 December, debate over the future of the sport continues

Trainer and rider suspended for two years after positive drug test at British endurance ride

Endurance trainer suspended for two years for injecting horses with banned substance

The FEI Tribunal has suspended two UAE riders for one year in the same case

I’m going to be sharing more up close details of the bathroom and today, it’s the free standing tub and the faucets I chose. I’m happy to be partnering with Signature Hardware for all of these products and we couldn’t be happier with how they look and function. I’m so happy that they wanted to work with me on this master bathroom project. It was a BIG project, the biggest project I’ve ever planned and overseen, so it’s so  nice to have it all finished and we are so enjoying it all now. I’ve never had a free standing tub, so it was fun to choose one as well as the faucets for our space.

The post Our New Free Standing Tub and Faucets appeared first on Southern Hospitality.

Hi, friends! Another week has passed during this pandemic and I hope you all are safe and sound in your homes. We have stayed in most of the time and have done grocery delivery a couple of times, only going in the grocery stores when we need to. It’s going to be a long month, so I hope these posts help you to find inspiration in your homes as we are going to be inside for so long. At least spring is a good time to be home. Spring is definitely here in Georgia and we are enjoying lots of outdoor days, taking bike rides and enjoying the fresh air and new leaves on the trees. We are about to start that wall in our underdeck space and hope to get that done this month, so that’s going to keep us busy this month. Another project to check off the list.

My parents are doing fine. We aren’t doing our normal lunches with them right now, we figure it’s best to stay away and not take a chance. We are doing grocery pick up for mom and getting them what they need as well. 

Enjoy these fun posts from my friends! 

The post Home Style Saturday 185 appeared first on Southern Hospitality.