As part of STA Travel’s 30^th anniversary celebrations we asked our tribe of Explorers to give us their thoughts on how traversing this little old green and blue planet has changed in the last three decades. We’ve had great responses so far, among the highlights are Malph’s back-packing in 2009 and Rob Strauss on hitch-hiking, but now it is the turn of Dylan – the Ramblin’ Rucksack Man.

He begins his post with a tale of a heady night in the house of Junior, a Fijian and staff member of the Coral View Resort. Junior’s Father was in full flow showing proudly a collection of items, one of which was a ‘beautifully preserved guestbook’ from when the household used to double as a guesthouse in the 80s. The book to him,

“represented the regretfully passed days of travel, when travellers could legitimately title themselves as adventurers.”

Not missing the opportunity, Dylan asked the question and in his words,

“[…] grew fascinated with the priceless perspective of a local on how travelling has changed since thirty years ago.”

Dylan relays exactly that perspective on the changing face of the practice of exploring foreign destinations and their cultures. It raised seriousness, nostalgia and some points worth considering about the connections made between nations through the global paths we tread. Let Dylan know your thoughts by leaving a comment on his excellent (and cleverly titled) post - [Insert travel-related title here].