Our salute this week goes out to the travel community website Travel With a Mate.

As the header of the Travel With a Mate states their content is built up of ‘advice and experiences from global nomads’, and it all adheres to the sentiment that,

“The more we share, the more we learn and the more we get to experience!”

There is nothing not to like about these guys!

The site was setup by Matt and Deborah who are described as two energetic English travellers. When looking at the list of countries they’ve visited there is no doubt that energetic is appropriate, you’d have to be a fairly quick mover simply to have fit them all in,

“Japan, China, Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Uruguay, Kenya, Egypt, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Austria, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Mexico, Bali, Finland, Sweden, Hungary, Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.”

The site expands well beyond Matt and Deborah though, with a varied list of contributors and an equally diverse community all coming together to share their experiences of travelling the world.

Content on the site is categorised by places, travel advice and travel features. A delve into their vault of travel related goodness revealed an interview with our very own STA Explorer Amar of Gap Year Escape, a fabulous post on making the most out of Twitter while in foreign lands and an intriguing assessment of 3 ways to travel: solo, with mates or with strangers.

Of course there is much more to discover on the site, so head over and get involved. Travel with a Mate consider STA travelbuzz among your fans!

#traveltuesday

If your Monday is a little grey then look no further than this video update from Amar (@gapyearescape) to brighten it up. A rapid fire three minute tour of the East coast of Australia.

The YouTube clip includes footage of Amar’s exploits in Sydney, Byron Bay, Nimbin, Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Kroombit, Whitsundays, Fraser Island, Great Ocean Road, Wilsons Promontory and Cairns. If you want to read more details then visit his site Gap Year Escape.

Now one could watch this and feel slightly envious, however I’m way more positive than that (mostly) – summer is on the way people!

Fraser Island has ranked high on Amar’s (our STA Explorer known as Gap Year Go Getter) list of favourite destinations since he’s been travelling. And this is despite the negatives of sand getting everywhere and the loss of his flip-flops.

He’s in love with the emerald water of Lake Wabby, the beaches of Lake Mackenzie that rival those of Whitehaven and the ‘stunning’ views from Indian Head. The romantic mood continues,

“You’ll also never have a better chance to watch the stars. It’s as quiet as you want it to be and you can see every star in the sky. I spent hours one night watching shooting stars. I made a lot of wishes that night, let’s hope they come true.”

He produced the video a few weeks ago, but has only had the opportunity to post it on Gap Year Escape now, enjoy Fraser Island with Amar.

STA Explorer Amar has interviewed STA Travel USA’s World Traveller Intern of 2009 Lindsay Clark. Since this is the maiden voyage for the UK version of the internship, Amar reckoned it’d be good to get in touch with, and pick the brain of, someone who has been there and done it – and Lindsay Clark has.

Lindsay is currently spending time in Fiji and is in the process of setting up a voluntary work based project helping the Nakavika community. She’s been working on it for a few months and things are currently in the balance but, as she says, the whole endeavour has been an amazing experience.

When talking about her time as STA Travel USA’s intern she talks on how the highlight of the whole adventure was the job itself, but does suggest that sky-diving in South Africa and lion sightings in East Africa are just two of the collection of experiences she’ll never forget. And then she passes advice to those applying to the UK 2010 internship,

“Remember that the position is about being an inspiration. Don’t calm the viewer down…pump them up. And by applying for the WTI, it’s implied that you love travelling. Saying it even once is redundant, and what time you have to impress the judges is vital. Don’t waste it saying things they can already guess about you.”

If you’d like to read more of the interview go to Amar’s site Gap Year Escape, and for more on Lindsay visit NoMadderWhere.com. Of course after reading this you might also feel tempted to get involved trying to bag one of the UK World Traveller Intern positions – if so, it’s all happening here.

Gap Year Go Getter Amar has been taking surfing lessons in Australia. Specifically he’s been to Spot X to get to grips with the board riding, a place that is great for honing the art and mastering the wave.

Well, that’s the idea anyway; sadly Amar didn’t quite find things as easy as he hoped despite having done it before,

“Three hour surf lesson and I couldn’t get on the board. On reflection I can attribute this to two reasons. The first being that my knee was playing up and putting weight on caused a sharp pain, the second reason being that beautiful women in wet suits are a little distracting.”

What can I say, two perfectly valid reasons for having trouble in the surf. Regardless of the difficulties, Amar had cool time just ‘lolling around in the waves’ and suggests giving surfing lessons a go if you haven’t already. Especially in Byron Bay if you’re in the area, but make sure to shop around as there are a heap of schools offering all sorts of packages.

Got something to add on surfing? Cool, do so below…

We’re back, and normal service is about to resume, but before it does a run through our friendfeed – the place to keep up with us and our tribe of STA Explorers and their travelling experiences – has spilled the details on all that they’ve been up to over the festive break.

We have to begin with this tweet from Escaping the Grind, Alice in Down-underland and Hang 10 and Party or, Marianne, Alice and Chris, stating that they miss us. Aww. It’s great to see Explorers getting together and having an ace time! We miss you too. Marianne has also posted on the experience of spending Christmas on Bondi Beach and being one of the 1.5 million people bring in New Year in Sydney…

Samantha’s Christmas in Melbourne was all good once the pressies had arrived and the tree was up,

“I could have nearly mistaken it as an English chrissy until walking outside to 40 degree heat…dreaming of a white Christmas, no chance Sheila!!”

Her new year was spent at the Falls Festival, a celebration of the arts, where she welcomed in 2010 with acts including Jamie T and Moby.

Laura and Jamie, Having a Ball from NZ to SE Asia, enjoyed mince pies on the beach and had ‘the best NYE ever’ in Sydney.

Alex welcomed in the New Year with 12 grapes, taking part in a Spanish tradition of eating one on each stroke of midnight to bring you good fortune for the coming year.

Like Marianne, Amar hit Bondi Beach despite the weather being somewhat less favourable than glorious sunshine. He was there for New Year also,

“The atmosphere, the 20,000 people at your side, everything. Makes me grin like an idiot just thinking about it again. Yesterday will be with me for the rest of my life. When that bridge lights up it truly is a magical moment. I hope one day that you’ll get to see it for yourself.”

Well, you can see it for yourself thanks to Amar and the power of YouTube.

OK, admittedly not the same, but if it makes you head there next year…

Finally we have Our Little Jaunt who didn’t just celebrate Christmas and New Year in Sydney, it was also their first wedding anniversary. Congratulations!

I think we’re just about up to date. It’s 2010 and we’re looking to expand our community as always, so if you had a superb Christmas break while travelling, or are about to head off to far flung lands let us known via email or Twitter.

‘Reasons to travel’ is the latest post from Amar, our Gap Year Go Getter. In it he considers the reasons people go travelling and what they look to get out of their time away.

The thoughts were kicked off by his own moment of realisation, as he describes,

“I guess I had a little epiphany or moment of enlightenment. Call it what you will, something happened. I don’t think the circumstances matter as long as you learn from it. I couldn’t even begin to explain what ‘clicked’. Unless you were me, you wouldn’t understand.”

Like all good scholars, Amar doesn’t rely on his own words to get the message across. Instead he turns to spiritual activist Marianne Williamson for further clarity, providing a quote that is certainly designed to get you thinking about yourself and your place in the world. If you’re the philosophical sort then click through and share your thoughts with Amar…