It is time for an update on the activities of some of our STA Explorers and how their travelling experiences are currently panning out.

First a relative newbie to the clan – say hello to Nicole! She’s an Aussie who is heading to London after summer camp in the US. From our great capital she’ll set off again on adventures that will hopefully see her,

“… teach English, learn to snowboard in the Swiss Alps, master a foreign language and help save the giant pandas in China!”

All of this will be documented across Bitten by the Travel Bug, @NicoleTravelBlog and Facebook.

Alex of the South American loveliness that is afowen.com has added significant amounts to the sites What to do in Bogotá page. Basically it’s a must read if you’re visiting!

Michael has updated his Facebook photos with what he refers to as leftovers from Mongolia. Leftover doesn’t really do them justice as the images are great. I’ve included one below (statues/monuments are nothing without horses in my opinion), though I’d also like to recommend this super shot that has one commenter asking, ‘Did you accost a local?’

Travelling Editor Dylan has also updated, going into detail about the preparation and subsequent effects of kava. Something he experienced while in Fiji.

It was also experienced by our very own Cam and Siobhan at the Adventure Travel Show…

Finally if you’ve travelled and filled the less hectic days with music and film,the sharing of which with fellow backpackers is something Chris sees as a mainstay of travelling, you’ll enjoy his latest Top Ten Tuesday – Film’s and TV.

There is more from th STA travelbuzz tribe on our  travelling experiences page. If your interested in joining the STA Explorer fold, just leave us a comment below or get in touch via email or Twitter. We look forward to hearing from you.

Today’s hero of travel is the Globetrooper website, which promotes a truly shared experience when it comes to making your way around the world.

Essentially the site is a network where individuals just like you can build a journey of a lifetime and then ask like-minded folks to join you whether they’re friends, or those friends you haven’t met yet, strangers. In their own words,

“Globetrooper is a tool to find travel partners for group trips and world adventures.

More specifically, Globetrooper is a tool for adventurous travellers to create trips and invite people from all over the world to join them.”

Currently on the front page of their site are three featured trips, Sam’s Europe and anywhere else… no time limit, Mark’s Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge and Alice’s Backpacking/Working Europe in Spring ~ 2011 ~. Clicking through to these will give you a grand idea of what is possible at Globetrooper.

Obviously this is only scratching the surface of what is on offer, I looked though and found road trips from London to South Africa, plans to travel the world while playing poker and a Tour of Khovsgul Lake in Mongolia…

Of course there is also a page of travel guides to help with the planning, a forum for discussing said plans with the community and a blog covering plenty of useful and interesting travel related fare.

Globetrooper is lots of what we at STA travelbuzz love – community and travel. And this is why we’re giving them a Travel Tuesday virtual handshake of hearty approval! Good work!

#traveltuesday #tt

Last night we hosted our Latin America and STA Masterclass meet-up in the STA Travel Victoria store! We were treated to insight on the region thanks to STA Travel’s Andre and Danni along with some extraordinary tales from STA Explorer Jimmy @trekkingnut. The STA Masterclass element saw Benny Crime @bennycrime deliver a hectic rundown of how he shoots video while on the move…

Jayne introduced everyone and the travel chat began in earnest with Danni and Andre taking the lead. Danni focused on Mexico, having been there as recently as February she was able to pass on some great knowledge. Andre followed and having been scuba-diving in Brazil treated us to some tropical images which certainly whetted the appetite.

Jimmy, our very STA Explorer, then regaled us with his experiences of travelling from six week horse rides taken on as a bet and tribal tattoos… we’re talking pointed twigs and plant-dye here. There is also this fairly unforgettable image of his initiation ceremony…

Benny Crime then offered his tips on creating video content, with the big points being don’t be scared to reshoot, definitely improvise and keep things snappy!

Thanks to everyone who came along and got involved, and if you missed this one don’t fret. We’ve got more coming up in July! If you’re interested get in touch with us via @statravelbuzz or email.

As next week sees us hosting our Latin America and Masterclass #2 meet-up we thought it’d be a good opportunity to do a little retrospective on our get-togethers.

They began in an understated, quiet manner and now have expanded into vibrant celebrations of travel hosted in the STA Travel Victoria store, with the assistance of the wise and well travelled STA Travel staff.

In the past we’ve seen the introduction and retirement of the unofficial STA travelbuzz mascot Pete, a trip around the world (based in London) to celebrate STA Travel’s 30th birthday and of course an over packed suitcase load of travel discussion. And all the while we’ve made some great friends.

Meet ups have been themed around STA Travel 30th Birthday, Thailand, STA Travel’s World Traveller Internship and Australia!

Picking out highlights is always an awkward thing to do, there are so many!!! However, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to,

We had Alice’s Aus face,

AJ turning up to the Australian Gold Coast evening with his surfboard,

Maz and Cam dancing during the American leg of our around the world tour,

And sisters Sophie and Cherry’s tiger balm experiment…

And a whole load more – I haven’t even mentioned Paddy!

Needless to say we love our meet-ups as they give us a chance to hang out with our tribe, as well as meeting new people, and all with the shared interest of seeing everything the world has to offer.

Next Thursday will be no different and we can’t wait to see you there!

If you’re interested in coming along just get in touch via email, the comments below or @statravelbuzz. If you want to see even more of the sort of stuff we get up to, head back through our meet-up posts, land on our FaceBook page or visit our Flickr account. Fun times!

Today we’re going to celebrate the most excellent Vicky Baker, the girl behind Going Local Travel,

“[The site] contains news and musings on the rising popularity of hospitality tourism and travel-networking sites, plus anything to do with getting out of the typical tourism bubble.”

Vicky documented her travelling in South America during 2008 on the Guardian website and is now actually living in Argentina. She is an absolute ambassador for the area, encouraging people to visit all the while. There is a dedicated page on Going Local Travel to anyone planning a trip to South America, where Vicky offers advice and help – well worth getting in touch if indeed you’re on your way to the region. Do so through the contact page on the blog or @vickybaker.

Knowing that Vicky is in Argentina I clicked the tag to see what was returned and got an excellent post on couch surfing being great for language learners. If you haven’t heard of couch surfing, it is basically a way of travelling for those on a budget and happy to mingle with the locals – you literally surf from one couch to another. A task made simple by Couchsurfing.com – Vicky is quite the advocate.

I also got distracted by a post that contributed to a discussion started by travel writer Anthony Peregrine on ‘our right to enjoy the Great British breakfast abroad.’ Vicky’s addition to the debate is great stuff!

Vicky it is a pleasure and a delight to have you on our Travel Tuesday honour roll!

#traveltuesday

While on the subject of South America I just wanted to include a plug for our meet-up next week – 7:30PM Thursday 17th June in the STA Travel Victoria store. They’ll be chat on Latin America from the STA Experts and a bit of workshop on videography thanks to Benny Crime. We’d love to see you there!

We’ve had quite the boost to our tribe documenting their travelling experiences while traversing the globe with four new STA Explorers!

The four new additions are visiting three different continents – Africa, America and Australia. First up are our two African adventurers, Sports Sister in South Africa and the Border Jumpers.

Sports Sister in South Africa is Clarissa, she’s going to be staying in SA for 6 months playing a hockey season in Cape Town. Her blog is I Am Lucky and you can follow her @clarissagoodwin. After her season she’ll be looking to travel to Mozambique and Namibia.

Second of our new Explorers in Africa is the duo of Bernard and Danielle who are visiting nearly all the African nations looking to raise awareness of stories that aren’t being told. They can be found at Border Jumpers and have recently been visited the The Abooman Women’s Group in southern Ghana.

Next is Talking South America, also known as Jules, a former communication and media graduate who’ll be fulfilling her passions of writing and photography when travelling in September. Her blog is called Waking Up and she’s on Twitter too @julespaz.

Finally we have Cazz and Matt who together are An Oz Experience. They’re from San Fran, but will be experiencing some Oz Experience tours while travelling down under and we’re going to be sure to get the low down on what they think to them. The won a comp with this video…

Welcome aboard guys, can’t wait to share your adventures!

If it is travelling experiences that you’re after then look no further than our band of STA Explorers. We’ve got updates on three today – Jimmy, Michael and Kez.

Jimmy is a legend among mere mortals! His travelling, for want of a better metaphor, goes that little bit further…

To get the full flavour he’s put together a video of his travels and it is a brilliant watch. There is tribal tattoos (real tribal tattoos), playing with a leopard (possibly a Jaguar? Answers on a postcard…) and a 500km, 6 week horseback trek from Cuzco to Puno in Peru…

Second up is Michael, he’s our STA Explorer Stranger in Moscow. Originally Michael had planned to go across continents with a buddy, but things didn’t work out on the travel plans front for his pal. However, like a true adventurer, such adversary only spurred him on and if you read his Twitter @AlpeOnTour he’s currently in Ulaan Bataar Mongolia, prepping for horse riding.

The excellent image above was taken from Michael’s set on Facebook – go make friends and tell him how much you love his hat – I think there might be a story behind the hat…

Finally we have Kez. She’s the good half of the partnership that is her and STA Explorer Chris (who took a surfboard to the face recently, ouch! Be warned kids, fun can be dangerous). She’s witnessed him updating his blog and Twitter while travelling and decided she should get involved too. You can find her musings as she hangs out in Byron Bay at In the Words of Kez and on Twitter @kezisms. We’ll be giving her the STA Explorer name of Australian Artisan due to her artistic talents.

If you’ve got travelling experiences to share then we’d love to have you as an STA Explorer – just leave a comment below or drop us an email, jayne@statravelbuzz.co.uk.