Get into the spirit of Yellow cabs and steaming man hole covers with entries from the blogs of Danny, a Lancastrian fellow hanging out on the east coast and Dave, who’s been embedding himself in The Big Apple.

Dave is accompanied in New York by Erin, who takes the liberty of assuming control of this post and giving us the NYC vibe in an instant:

“WOW what a day! My first subway ride, hula-hooping in Central Park, my first trip to Time Square and to finish..my first blog entry. Luckily Dave has been there to keep me from walking into traffic several times as I was too busy people watching or trying to take a picture.”

If only we all had a Dave to stop us being totalled by oncoming traffic as we stare at sky scrapers with our jaw on the floor. When not directing vehicles around a wandering Erin, Dave was able to post on the reason why we all love NYC - the shopping.

Danny has also been sampling the New York (Nuyorcian?) experience by following a ritual and taken part in the more cultural pursuits, including a visit to the The Met.

Away from NYC, Danny has visited Washington DC and Philadelphia, where he mooched and shopped for souveniers as well as checking in on a couple of the sights.

Ever since an early understanding that Point Break is, without exception, the best action film ever made, I’ve accepted that surfing is pretty much the coolest way to spend your time.

So when the opportunity arose to cover a few web based travel morsels on the subject, including World Surf Travel Blog, I stepped up. Sadly this site looks a little dormant, no posts since June. Nevertheless, there is plenty of insight (see Inca Cola’s slogan, Peru’s favourite drink - ‘With creativity, anything is possible’) all punctuated by wave walking escapades.

Next up is this short thread from LonelyPlanets’ Thorn Tree Travel forum that ties nicely in with the above, as folks give up their picks for the best Peruvian breaks. Before tackling these though, it’s probably best, in my case at least, to admit beginner status and do as Andy Brook did, have a lesson.

Once up to scratch, the World Reviewer’s Best Surfing in the World page will offer more than just rich pictures of dudes doing their thing in spectacular board and water based scenarios. It’ll be a site full of places for you to get in touch with the ‘source‘.

Anywhere but Here is always worth a read. A popular blog from 26 year old Canadian ‘wanderlusting’, it’s an addictively personal, opinionated travelogue from a self-declared free spirit:

I spent eight years getting an education “my style,” which amounts to alternating one year of university with a year of backpacking around the world. So far, my approach to life has landed me an amazing rockstar boyfriend, an insatiable wanderlust, a penchant for spontaneity and too many ideas of what I want to be when I grown up. Oh, and of course, a nagging urge to be Anywhere but Here.

Her recent post promoting the wonders of her hometown Vancouver is enough to make anyone want to visit the Canadian city which is, as she points out, constantly rated as one of the most livable cities in the world. Although she admits Vancouver has downsides - namely the traffic, house prices, and the worst drugs problem in North America - her series of stunning views and comments on the best bits of Vancouver - such as Stanley Park, the beach, Grouse Mountain, nearby Gulf Islands and the 2010 Winter Olympics - has persuaded me to chalk it down as a definite maybe for a trip next spring.

Wanderlusting also challenges other travel-nuts to resist their home-hating tendencies and ‘find the beauty in your city’. So does anyone else out there recommend their hometown as somewhere that STA travellers should add to their itinerary?

Now having spent some time in Middle America, I must confess to never making it into Texas (barring airports for connecting flights). This is something I am hoping to address in September, where on my usual jaunt to NW Arkansas and the surrounding states I’ll be taking in a road trip across that south western border!

Already taking the pleasures of The Lone Star State are Rick and Steph who have been visiting Dallas, the capital Austin, The Johnson Space centre (that’ll be “Houston we have a problem”) and doing a spot of camping near San Antonio.

After the camping, a trip to the Alamo led to some drinks in the Buckhorn Saloon, which Rick and Steph refer to as a taxidermist’s dream. This I feel may be a common feature of the region. Anecdotally, I ventured in to what is literally the biggest store I have ever seen while in Missouri. It was called Cabela’s (a fishing and hunting superstore) and never have I seen such stuffery, gnus to rhinos, marlins to tigers. They had a better collection than NYC’s natural history museum!

That aside, should you want more on all that can be done in Texas, slide your way down this lonelyplanet thread. It includes a veritable plethora of options, worthy of the US’s largest state.

If you’re simply looking for some independent word of mouth about the pros and cons of booking through STA Travel, here’s one for you. This Yahoo! Answers thread, named in true spade-is-a-spade fashion ‘Have you used STA Travel? If so, what is it like?’ has inspired 4 responses, all very positive. Mark D recommends their ‘expertise and experience’ with gap years; Schauden F’s daughter got some good deals with them on her New York flights; whilst Jonathan B finds that ‘they are really good and set up for backpackers and young or older people who want to do the whole backpack around the world. would recommend any time’.

Emma’s experience was more mixed, but she has some great advice about making sure you book in advance and on home ground:

I used STA travel to book my flights from New Zealand to Argentina then from Brazil to Mexico. They had the best deals by far to go to Argentina, but I don’t think we got a very good deal travelling from Brazil to Mexico, because we used a New Zealand based branch, and I have now learned it is best and cheapest to deal with a travel agent in either the country you are flying from or to, in order to get the best deals.

It’s good to see people speaking up - but the Yahoo! thread is now closed. So if you have an opinion on STA, start a thread or post an article and point us to it, so we can get more STA travellers out there piling in with their experiences and advice.

STA Explorers Neil and Megan have reached the ’summer holiday’ part of their round the world trip - the bit where they relax in the sun after all their energetic globe-trotting - and Naples, Florida is obviously an excellent place to do it.

Before completely chilling they packed in a last bit of culture on the west coast, discovering native American history at the Ah-Tah-Tee-Kee Museum in the Seminole Indian Reserve, and taking a ‘Billie Swamp Safari’ tour by both boat and air, fending off alligators and spotting bison, water buffalo, deer, pigs, wild horses and ostriches.

However, now they’ve hit the beach and recommend Naples to any travellers looking for a restful pit-stop. On a solo walk along the shore, Neil had a close encounter with a dolphin; Megan has been checking out the shops and the personal trainers at the Ritz;and they’ve both been para-sailing in tandem. Not to mention Neil’s first ever pedicure, after which

I did, however, still have to make myself feel more manly by reading ‘Sports Illustrated’ and other manly magazines whilst having my feet done

Head over to their blog and 91-photo Picasa photo album if you want relaxing recommendations for Florida-based fun.

Sherry Ott is an American and after working in a six by eight foot office for 14 years, decided to pack it in and travel. The journey began in 2006 and took in 23 countries in 16 months.

The article Coming to America that features on the The Indie Travel Podcast site is an expression of how she believes people hitting the States should go about finding the country’s culture. Many may guffaw at such an assumption, but I believe such chortling to be misguided – as does Sherry.

Sherry, although attached to the big cities of her homeland, feels a pang of disappointment that NYC, San Fran and LA are where most visitors find themselves a-wandering. Although offering advice on what to do in each, it is the barely travelled routes that offer the valuable experiences of the US.

“Rent a car and drive on highways, not interstates, stopping at small towns along the way. Visit a national park. Have dinner at local establishments, frequent the local watering holes, go to the town baseball game or sporting event. Go to a church service on Sunday (heck, you visit temples all the time while you travel the world – why not stop in at a Sunday service?). It’s these places where you will find the culture of America.”

This list continues with mentions of cowpat bingo and a note to chat to all you meet. And if my own experiences of middle America are anything to go by, this will happen, which although bizarrely alien to my quiet English sentiments, is actually great. Never do I learn so much and so little, with such pleasure, than on my scoots across the Southern States of America.