Travel Tips

Our team of brave travelers are off and running on the adventure of a lifetime!!! While they're busy booking flights, comparing tents and checking out GPS systems, be sure to drop them a line of encouragement--we're sure they could use it! If you happen to live in the areas through which the team will pass and want to do some in-person cheerleading, drop us a line at feedback@virtualtourist.com and we'll connect you.

For now...let's meet the team!

Meet Ant1606 - When I told him about this, I think it struck a chord!!! Read what he wrote
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Your post about the Caucasian Challenge was like a lightning in the clear sky.
Come un fulmine a ciel sereno! [Sorry folks, this is plain Italian!]

I'm serious about considering to participate for several reasons:

1. Not only you took the fabulous rickshaw thing in India, you won the
competition! Forza VT! I would be double proud to honor the Italian "tradition"
by carrying a VT flag through a challenging rally.
2. To me, seeing places means meeting people and dive into their culture. My
favorite travels are on-the-road adventures and the quest for the unknown, my
vacations normally average 6,000 to 10,000 Km.
3. As an experienced mountaineer I'm used to crawl for the night on haystacks,
dried dung (yes I did!), prickly vegetation, rocks and who knows what. A large
stone can be a comfortable pillow. I withstood any sort of weather condition and
a tent is already a luxury.
4. I can eat most anything.
5. My survival skills include emergency and first aid notions.
6. I'm an automotive engineer and I have 8 motorcycles. Give me anything with
wheels and an engine, best if something that needs to be fixed. I can deal with
most mechanical and electrical problems. There must be a reason why my friends
call me "McGyver".
7. I have solid orientation, navigation, planning and problem-solving skills.
8. I'm fit and in good health conditions.
9. I used to be a professional tester pilot driver for vehicle development -
electric cars in Michigan. Motocross and off-road riding for fun since 1973.
10. I was long thinking to visit the Caucasian Republics.

Ten good reasons for throwing myself in as a candidate!
I work on my own and I can take the necessary time off.
Moreover, I've already decided to cycle from Germany to Budapest in August.
Perfect timing that would allow to get there in advance and get
organized/prepared.

The only problem is that I can't provide a vehicle and I would rely on offers of
any kind. I believe a plain, old, charismatic car would be a good VT icon. I
could do it on a motorcycle but VT crew must be a team to share the fun!

What do you think?

A presto
Antonello

About as dedicated a VT’er as ever there was one, Frankcanfly was a perfect choice for our team and we were thrilled when he told us he wanted to participate. Looking at his travel resume, it’s easy to see why we said yes. Not only has this modern day Magellan racked up an astounding number of travel milestones, but he’s done a lot of the flying on his own. A commercial, military and private pilot, when Frank sees the world, it’s literally from a front row seat, but he wanders off the beaten path as well. Among his many travel accomplishments, this self proclaimed “geography geek” has been to all seven continents, 97 countries, all 50 US State capitol buildings and has even raised the VirtualTourist flag at the South Pole! Not only that, he:

• has been an active VT member since 2001
• has circled the globe (literally) several times
• has crossed the Equator in Africa and South America
• has visited numerous UNESCO world heritage sites
• has met over 200 VTers!
• has a great sense of humor, as you’ll see from his pages!

In short, we are thrilled to have him and we hope that you’ll visit his pages to find out more about Frank before the race begins.

The youngest member of our team may not have quite as many pins in her map, but at 24 she’s well on her way. Perhaps our most enthusiastic and diligent applicant, Laurel914 has everything it takes to endure this harrowing race. The lone woman on the team, Laurel has done much of her traveling on her own and expresses her travel philosophy like this: “I would have to say that I'm somewhere between the person who goes to a country just to add it to the list of places they've been and the person who does nothing but delve deeper into whatever country they're in.” Take a look at these other impressive facts about Laurel:

• She’s a certified CPA
• She just bought her own house (at 24!)
• She has a travel goal of getting one passport stamp per year

We’re so excited to see Laurel bring her girl power to this event!

Very few people could possibly rival the itineraries completed by Frankcanfly, but if anyone could, it’s JohnSakura. Originally from Portugal, he now lives in southeast Morocco and has built some incredible pages about it. Having originally backpacked there in 2000, he decided to make it home about a year ago where he has a house and his own advertisement company.

Although he loves his new country and makes all kinds of travel jaunts within it, he certainly manages to see the rest of the world at the same time.

Apart from traveling and between many other of his interests it's art (BA in Plastic Arts himself), cooking, history and languages, kissing, tofuing!!!, tattoos, managing swords, massage, drinking water, incenses and driving that get on the top of list.

Just take a look at some of his qualifications:

• He's been to 51 countries (59 by the time the race is over!)
• He crossed Sahara Desert hitch hiking and several more times driving on his own
• He often bicycles 75 miles in a day
• He can pretty well communicate in 9 languages
• He was a Kung-Fu teacher for 7 years
• He lived in countries as diverse as Portugal, USA, Finland and Morocco
• He had guns pointed out at him in Russia, Mauritania, Iran, Romania and Mali
• Drove from Sahara Desert to the Polar Circle
• Took VT t-shirts to forbidden regions of northern-Mauritania

Again, a perfect candidate who we are thrilled to have along for the ride!

Giampiero6 is the General Manager of VirtualTourist. In January 2008, Giampiero and his friends took part in the amazing Indian Autorickshaw Challenge as Team Namascar which they won as World Champions ;). Inspired Giampiero made friends with organizer Aravind, who has since joined forces with VT to inspire this VT Team in the CaucasianChallenge. Giampiero would love love love to go on this trip! It's not certain if he'll ride the whole way or just part of it, or just help things happen!

Here is an anticipation of our VT Team machine, although it will be much sweeter once all stickers will be in place!
Embedding the pride and joy of a 1,000,000+ VT members, this "baby" will rock!

*** It needs a name and your suggestions will be highly appreciated ***

The mighty Moskvich 2140, sturdy and simple.
No frills....yet!