A welcome and an introduction...

Hi, everybody! Thanks so much for showing an interest in my project. theALTERNAtraveler has been a wonderful concept floating around in my skull for a couple of years now, and yesterday it was finally born!

However, long before its conscious conception, theALTERNAtraveler was already inside of me...

No matter what town I've ended up in, near or far, whether for an hour, a day or a week, alone or with friends, I've always had a knack for finding the interesting local spots. In fact, I've never had much of an interest in any conventional "touristy" attractions - for example, when I graduated high school, my friend, Brown, and I went to England to visit a foreign exchange student that we were friends with (and just for the record, I will end a sentence with a preposition whenever I feel like it!). We spent 10 days there and never came within 20 feet of a well-known landmark; the closest we came to a tourist attraction was when I took a photo of Stonehenge out of the car window as we blurred by on our way back from the airport. I worried that once I was older, I would regret the fact that I had traveled across the sea and spent 10 days getting drunk in local pubs, sipping coffee, eating chip baps, snogging old men and napping all day. But you know what? I never have. Those 10 days made for one of the best vacations of my life.

I suspect that once other people begin exploring outside of the commercial constraints of a "vacation," they too will have some of the most memorable and satisfying experiences of their lives, and I'd like to help them.

Until next time, when I'll tell you all about Milwaukee and why I'd name it as the father of theALTERNAtraveler...

theALTERNAtraveler Mission Statement

theALTERNAtraveler is committed to showing the “anti-tourist” how to have a great vacation, particularly when they are under strict time constraints, are lacking in funds or will be traveling alone. In 2009, theALTERNAtraveler plans to take 25 trips in one year, with a total budget of only $10,000. Until her “launch date,” she will take you through every step of her journey, including choosing her destinations, saving money, arranging travel time and seeking out unconventional points of interest. theALTERNAtraveler wants to share all of her resources and stories with you through her blog – http://www.thealternatraveler.com/ – and plans to write a complete memoir of her travel experiences, with the hopes of having them published in 2010.

You can also visit her at http://www.myspace.com/thealternatraveler.