World66 - World Traveler's Information

Here is a good website to add your worldly travel knowledge to. Its sister site is WikiTravel.org,
and it is open content, so you can find travel information, use the travel information, and edit the travel information. It is also downloadable to a handheld device. The more people that know about it and use, the better it will be.

World66.com: "Let's start with our credo:

We believe that travelers are the best source of travel information.

That is why we have setup World66, an open content travel guide, where people from all over the planet can write about the places they love, the hotels they stayed in, the restaurants that have eaten. Every part of the travel guide can be edited directly, just click the [edit] button and go ahead. You can change the info you find, do a write up, add a complete city or just a bar or a restaurant.

Does this work? We think it does. Thanks to this approach World66.com has become one of the most complete travel resources on the internet, with 136,233 articles on 68,444 destinations all over the world. Good info, more up to date than you find in travel books. Check for yourself. And should you find some wrong info, a hotel that has closed down, whatever, don't complain, but act. You can change it. It's up to you.

And together we can make world66.com the best travel guide on the planet."

You set up your own profile, and it lists every contribution you have made to the travel information on the site. PLUS, you can customize your very own kick-ass MyWorld Map!I thought I has traveled a few places, but I see I have been dancing around in a small circle we will call the Atlantic Rim. I haven't actually even been to Alaska, so it looks a bit better than the reality. Unfortunately, is goes only by country, not city, so we are painting in broad strokes here.
MyWorld66Map will continue to be located at the bottom of the home page of this blog, thePortableLife, and I will update it regularly.

Packing Fashion for Foreign Travel

Here is the companion print piece to the previous unrevealing video. The highlights are less about the actual packing, and more about packing the appropriate clothes for different countries.

Fashion Journal - WSJ.com: "Ms. Novogrod says she takes care to choose clothes that work, rather than those that make a statement. 'It's possible with fashion to become so concerned with the surface that you're not approachable,' she notes. 'I'm conscious of looking appropriate -- to my age, to my profession.'

But she is careful not to play it too safe, because there are situations where a distinctive, colorful piece can work. Ms. Novogrod has been very happy with a recent purchase of a cotton Pucci tunic. It has turned out both to be packable and to look great from stages or a dais.

Sometimes it can take several days for Nancy Novogrod to pack for an overseas business trip. Before putting things in her suitcase, she lays out all her outfits, along with shoes and handbags to go with them. Everything is packed within bags, with shoes and handbags traveling in the cloth bags they came in. Gym clothes go at the bottom of the suitcase.

The actual packing process for Ms. Novogrod can take place over several days. She makes notes in advance. When she settles down to pack, with her schedule in hand, she lays out outfits complete with shoes and handbags to be sure she has the right thing for each event -- and not a single extra item. 'Otherwise, you end up taking way too much,"

I do second the idea of laying out each total outfit, accessories included, before packing any of it in your luggage. This way you can ensure you don't have way more pants than shirts, etc. I think in the end it helps you reduce the amount you pack. Once you layout the outfits, you can figure out which pair(s) of shoes will go with the most outfits, so you can take fewer of those too.