Reply #3: "so that everywhere is safe to travel"

[jberryhill]

That's kind of my "index of world peace", really.

If you watch those YouTube videos of that guy who did the "dancing around the world" thing a while back, it is interesting to figure out which ones on the list he would or would not be dancing in right now.

One thing the internet has enabled are more people-to-people travel experiences like couch surfing and connecting with owners of individual rental properties in a way that you couldn't even get through a travel agent years ago.

Time was that if you were planning a vacation to destination X, then you'd only hookup with the company that ran the big resort property in X. Now, you can find the guy that has a single apartment or home there. My business takes me to a lot of weird places, and being able to find a mountainside two bedroom villa with a beach view in South America for under $100 a night to someone who really valued $100 was a much better feeling than going with the BigChain Resort Hotel that charged $500 with most of that money going to BigChain corporate offices in New York.

It's doubly important to remember to "buy locally", even when traveling. It turns out that your dollar can go farther and leave a better social footprint.