It wasn't that long ago that backpacking and hosteling were synonymous with wholesome youths trekking between Alpine villages, porting external frame packs with large rolled sleeping bags strapped on top, using sleeping bags in hostels. Looking at old travel guides makes me think that every traveler was an aspiring mountain climber!

Times have certainly changed, both for budget travelers and for the sleeping bag, once a ubiquitous travel staple! The sleeping bag's role in travel isn't quite as clear cut anymore. Readers have been asking sleeping bag related questions and I'm happy to help. 

Most travelers to Myanmar make Yangon their first stop, not their last, but we've been bucking the norm for a lot of our trip. With more and moretransportation options opening up in other cities, we were able to make the most of our limited time and not double back on our tracks. Yangon has plenty to offer visitors and, while you could easily spend a week or more exploring the city at a leisurely pace, it is compact enough to see a lot of the major sites in two days, which is exactly what we plan to do!

I'm thrilled to be heading to Chicago this spring for the inaugural Women in Travel Summit,  March 14-16 at the Palmer House Hilton.  I'll be leading a presentation all about editing and also participating in a panel about budget travel - but more than anything I'm thrilled to meet so many inspiring travelers and writers! Hosted by the Go Girl Travel Network (the same team who brings the #girlstravel Twitter chat to life each Monday!), I can't imagine anyone who is more dedicated to sharing women's travel stories and experiences. I've been a a passionate fan of Go Girls' work ever since I first started writing and I'm always proud to work with them, be it through #girlstravel or contributing to their website. I can't wait to see what they plan for WITS!

Many people have asked me if female travelers and travel writers really need their own conference - and my answer is a resounding YES.  One of my recent experiences illustrates how women face such unique travel conditions.

Welcome to the latest installment of the  "Save, Splurge, Steal" interview series.  Getting great value when I travel is always such a fun challenge for me and I love to learn how other people get the best possible experience for their available time and money. I'm asking top travel bloggers to share their expertise and I hope you enjoy their responses as much as I do!

Meet Justin from The Art of Scuba Diving! 

In 2011, Justin went on a university trip to South Africa. By the end of that trip he knew that he couldn't return home. He watched my classmate fly away and leave him in Africa alone. Justin found work in Mozambique at a dive shop, and soon realized that he could sustain his travels this way forever. That was 3 years, 59 countries and 6 continents ago, and he hasn't slowed down yet! He started his own travel blog called The Art of Scuba Diving, hoping to inspire others to see the world and live the life of freedom! 

Less than 12 hours after enjoying the BEST travel experience of our lives, we were off to catch the overnight train from Bagan to Yangon. An overnight train seemed to an efficient and economical way to get across the country without losing a precious day of sightseeing to transit and we were excited to try something new.

Our expectations for the train were very modest. We had done considerable research, learning a lot from The Man in Seat 61 and Lesley Leep Phoography  We had watched Anthony Bourdain’s Burmese train trip on the Parts Unknown series and had taken to heart a passage from Lonely Planet, in which a local resident advises that the train is “not as bad as you think, not as good as you hope”.

A trip to Bagan has been on our list of "must dos" ever since we first heard about Myanmar. The incredible archaeological and spiritual sites are unparalleled and the plains of Bagan are home to the largest concentration of religious buildings in the world. Over 2200 temples and pagodas remain from over 10,000 that were built starting in the 11th century, when Bagan was a thriving kingdom.  Built on fault lines, the surviving structures - some up to 1,000 years old - remain as an impressive testament to faith and community.

Thousands of travelers will stream into Myanmar this year, anxious to catch of glimpse of the ancient temples and famous hospitality that for so long have been kept in isolation. Unfortunately, transportation routes have not kept pace with the flow of visitors and it still takes considerable time to travel between cities that are quite close to one another.

This was the transportation dilemma we faced before deciding to include boat travel in our plans. We needed to go from Mandalay to Bagan, but the expense of flying was out of the question and neither the lengthy bus nor ancient train offered a comfortable or efficient option (as we would find out later in the trip!) That left the Irrawaddy River for a decidedly slow but relatively pleasant commute. 

Mandalay – the city of Kipling and Orwell, an ancient royal capital, a place of incredible beauty and history - no wonder it's no longer a secret! Over a year ago, when we started to draft an itinerary for this trip, the country known as both Myanmar and Burma was untouched, almost unheard of, to the average traveler. How much can change in a year! After topping everyone’s list of where to travel in 2013, tourism has exploded here, with the guidebooks barely able to keep up. Myanmar has hosted its first international literature festival and marathon in decades, hotels and guesthouses are cropping up on every corner – this is the place to be! Here are the Mandalay attractions we wanted to see and - because it's us - a realistic look at how our Mandalay sightseeing actually turned out.

I try to never lose track of how fortunate I am to travel and I always remind myself how lucky I am that my work as a travel writer introduces me to extraordinary locations, experiences, and people.  Never has this been more in focus than during my hot air balloon ride over the spectacular ancient temples of Bagan, Myanmar. Without a doubt it stands alone as the most incredible, breathtaking travel experience of my life and I'm so happy to share my memories with you here.