We got our sticky little hands on something amazing and we are giving this bundle of awesomeness away to one, qualified and enthusiastic reader thanks to Eurail.com!
Host OTPs “Europe by Eurail” and
Win a 1st Class 15-Day Eurail Global Pass and your choice of a FLIP HD Camera or iPOD Nano!! 
Eurail (Eurail.com) is a great company designed to make train travel through Europe more affordable. Instead of buying single ride tickets at train stations (which can become costly if you plan to travel between various destinations), they sell passes that give you …

We are off to Bogota, Colombia this Monday to begin developing, researching and exploring material for OTP’s South America Travel Guide. For 2 months, we plan to explore the revival of Colombia, then down into Peru for Machu Picchu, up and across the Amazon River into Brazil and completely wing it from there on. We are particularly excited to explore Colombia as the country’s dramatic drop in crime rates and guerilla kidnappings over the past 5 years has made it the next top backpacking destination. 
We will be writing, sharing pictures …

You may sympathize with those signs and banners that read “Free Tibet”; maybe you even went out and bought the T-shirt. As much as we commend your attempts to spread the word (and be fashionable), here is a chance for you to actually do something to help Tibetans living in exile:
A brief history:
Tibet is a small Asian country that has been raped in every way possible by the Chinese from the 1949 Mao communist era until the present. Tibetans’ traditional beliefs were very much like those of Native Americans …

Swine flu. Scary scary stuff. Something about pigs and Mexicans and sure death. You remember SARS? How people sent it through your mailbox? Yeah that SARS killed off everyone you know, right? Oh and West Nile Virus. We hope you’re current on the vaccinations because you never know when those mosquitos might make it over here from Africa and bite your vulnerable flesh. Africanized Killer Bees still got you down? Point is, these disease fads have come and gone and have left no massacre behind. The damage they have had …

We believe the spirit of a backpacker is something that develops early in life. Its that burning urge to find out what’s behind every little door in the house (even if it turns out to be the linen closet or the drawer where your mom keeps the tupperware.) The desire to climb that old fence and peek at the neighbor’s backyard. The kids that imagine new worlds outside of their rooms, the dreamers, the creative thinkers. Once we gain independence with age, these qualities drive us …

Lets see, what can you do in a week? Get a great tan laying on the beach, organize your closet, maybe build a tree house? OR-you can change your life (and the lives of countless needy others) forever.
Cross Cultural Solutions, a well-established volunteer network, is currently offering week-long volunteer programs in the following locations (from October to December): Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Peru, Morocco and Russia. These short programs are perfect for commitment-phobes. All of these countries have struggling economies which have lead to widespread …

SEX
OTP is interested in featuring your sex stories from abroad. Wether it was that steamy hot latin boy you met at a bar who knew how to roll his rrr’s properly, or the Swedish girl in the hot bikini who would not stop talking about meatballs…Or, maybe you found yourself in a sticky situation (no pun intended) that didn’t go quite as well?  We demand to know! Click here to submit (Please keep it classy and under 1,000 words).
 
CONFESSION
How long has it been since your last confession? Get it off your mind …

Couchsurfing.com is hiring! Those clever couch-lovers have come up with new and interesting ways to improve their couchsurfing community.Every year, for roughly six month stretches, they set up a “collective” in some part of the world (the current collective is in Costa Rica). These collectives (really like a temporary office) are made up of diverse volunteers who work together to stay true to couchsurfing’s global connection and appeal. All accommodations are covered and no experience is necessary for some of the positions offered. Why not apply …

Think of Burning Man as a prep class for international travel (well a class with no desks, books or homework; just a lot of “f”s: fire, fun, food and ..). Although it is based here in the United States (San Francisco), it’s a unique event that provides a gateway to meeting international partying travelers; an event to inspire travel abroad. Here’s some background:
Burning Man began in San Francisco when Larry Harvey burned a wooden figure representing a failed romance on the beach. As the flames burned, crowds gathered, …