Matador is the world’s first interactive magazine for travel, lifestyle, and place.
Matador members believe they can change the world, and they’re out there doing it every day.
Sure, we publish the same sorts of articles you find in print publications, but these articles are just window-dressing. The editor in me cringes, but it’s true.
But no matter what we write, the most important part of Matador is the community. Whenever I need a little stoke, I browse Matador member profiles. I’m always awed by the sheer human optimism in this remarkable community.
Thank you so much for inspiring us.
Here are 10 incredible members of the Matador community. To meet the other 40 featured travelers, please follow the links at the bottom of this page.
Punchy
I travel to ride the many different waves of the world. Not only surfing swells in the ocean but riding the different waves of energy given off by every place and everyone I encounter along the way. No two waves are the same, and discovering how the wave works is what makes me want to travel.
Punchy’s full profile
VickyElizabeth
I want to make a difference by creating something that wasn´t there before, or revealing something that always was there, but was hidden from sight. Figuring out how to do the same for myself.
I felt the most immersed in a foreign culture when the women of the Ecuadorian village sang sad Arrullos to bid me farewell, after a month-long stay in the jungle. We walked slowly round the whole village and it was pouring with tropical rain, they said it was their tears.
VickiElizabeth’s full profile
Salcar
My full name is Salvador Carlucci. I just moved (last week) to Switzerland where I’ll be working as Senior Manager for Global Marketing and Sales for a big pharmaceutical company. I joined Matador during it’s infancy and it has been a great pleasure to see it grow and find like minded individual that feed my appetite of adventure.
Now, with a new job, new home town and new responsibilities it will be hard to find vacation time in the near future so Matador provides the perfect medium to travel vicariously among other “crazy” members of this amazing community!
Salcar’s full profile
MST
I’m usually on the road solo and travel very light; a solar backpack with a few changes of clothes is ’round about all I need. And one whisper of a fantastic off-grid meal will change my entire travel plan (as if there ever was one).
MST’s full profile
Asian Insights
I’m fired up on funding projects to help underprivileged communities. Help to preserve unique cultures. Enjoy languages, writing travel stories, learning about other cultures, photography and the arts. I love the mountains and the endless, peaceful stretches of Tibet and Mongolia.
I felt the most immersed in a foreign culture when I stay with local people, who invite me to sleep in their kitchens.
Asian Insights’ full profile
AliCat
I like to travel in small, intimate groups. I’m learning to travel lightly and am finding my possessions more and more unnecessary. I love learning and always have an open mind.
I want to make a difference by always showing compassion and empathy, keeping an open mind, seeing beauty in everything, staying positive.
AliCat’s full profile
Reed Lindsay
I want to make a difference by telling the truth, exposing corruption, abuse of power, exploitation, and always staying on the side of the poor and oppressed against the rich and powerful.
Reed Lindsay’s full profile
Oona Fay
I have always been a dreamer and fashion embodies the dreams of those who refuse to conform and instead, celebrates their uniqueness. I am a sucker for Aussie accents or any accent for that matter, Jameson Whiskey, and anything to do with fashion.
I was planning on hightailing it out of the states this summer to start grad school in Australia, but my bank account didn’t seem to agree. So for now am at home going stir crazy and trying to save up the funds to make that possible.
I’m killing time as a freelance fashion stylist and write for a local magazine and newspaper and I am always down for a challenge and will pretty much try anything once.
Oona Fay’s full profile
Our Man In Shanghai
I am a person that knows life is too short and have taken to travelling and working around the world. I have recently left Toronto for a first stop in Shanghai. I am a social networker who enjoys meeting people and I am always interested in learning more about local cultures and economies.
My real name is Peter Davison and I am working on finding interesting writing related projects in China.
Matador Travel has allowed me to find a cool blog space and expand on my portfolio of paid travel writing articles via the traveler’s notebook.
Our Man in Shanghai’s full profile
Sarah Menkedick
I think Matador is a great site, and I like the emphasis on community and on making connections between people, places and organizations.
I would like to see a bit more criticism of travel on the site–perhaps on travel myths that exist, or on ways in which travel sometimes acts as more of a self-congratulatory experience for Westerners than as a way to really force oneself to confront other ways of thinking.
I believe travel has amazing potential to change the world; but I also think that travel in and of itself is not enough, and that travelers also need to be very critical and self-aware of the ways in which they approach and analyze other cultures.
I think Matador would make a great forum for these kinds of discussions, since it brings together so many people that really believe in travel as a way of seeing, a way of life, and a way of connecting.
– Sarah Menkedick
To meet more Matador members, please follow the links below:
Travelers 1-10 at MatadorTrips.com
Travelers 11 – 20 at BraveNewTraveler.com
Travelers 21 – 30 at TheTravelersNotebook.com
Travelers 41 – 50 at Matador.org
Community Connection
These are only 50 out of thousands of travelers in our community. Who else should get a mention? Big them up in the comments, and if you haven’t yet, link up with us.
Matador is the world’s first interactive magazine for travel, lifestyle, and place.
Matador members believe they can change the world, and they’re out there doing it every day.
Sure, we publish the same sorts of articles you find in print publications, but these articles are just window-dressing. The editor in me cringes, but it’s true.
But no matter what we write, the most important part of Matador is the community. Whenever I need a little stoke, I browse Matador member profiles. I’m always awed by the sheer human optimism in this remarkable community.
Thank you so much for inspiring us.
Here are 10 incredible members of the Matador community. To meet the other 40 featured travelers, please follow the links at the bottom of this page.
Alsawo
Growing up in a two-stoplight Midwestern town, I had no idea how vast and interesting the world was.
In college, I did my best to make up for lost time, trekking to Norway to track down my great-grandparents’ village, studying abroad in Niger (where I apprenticed with a Tuareg silversmith and bought myself a pet donkey), trading my Spanish class for Zulu when I learned it would lead to a free summer in South Africa, building houses in Nicaragua, and so forth.
DeepSeaGangster
I believe that the meaning of life is to acquire virtues. I think Travel makes that process a whole lot more interesting.
I travel solo, but not without help. I have a definite plan, but it keeps changing. I’m trying to follow my spirit by whatever means necessary.
deepseagangster’s full profile
Roots-Koa
My birth name is Kalish, but my parents always called me Kalie. Koa is also a nickname I acquired after living in the wilderness for two months.
In June I moved out of my house in Santa Cruz for some free-spirited vagabonding. I did a lot of camping and even got to go horse camping in the High Sierras. On September first I moved into a house in Berkeley, and currently am making and selling delicious sorbets out of local, seasonal and organic produce from the farmer’s markets!
Something I have gained from the Matador community is the realization that there are many other people out there with the same interests and passions I have (i.e., TRAVELING, not just to be a tourist but to see.feel.hear the world, to experience other cultures, to learn experientially, to live creatively through photography, art, and to seek the joy, excitement and openness that traveling brings from stepping outside ones own mental and physical box… 
Good Farmer
I am traveling between the US and Asia – in the US I work with university researchers to develop simple, inexpensive, robust, and sustainable drinking water purification systems. In Asia (and also in Latin America through colleagues there) I implement and field-test systems serving rural communities with compromised drinking water sources.
I also co-facilitate programs in appropriate technology design with an agrarian community in Thailand that leads workshops and trainings in natural building and organic farming and seed saving for rural people from Thailand as well as Westerners interested in sustainable and self-reliant living.
Matador is an excellent networking tool, and a lot of the writing is top-notch.
Keri
I have no idea where I will be next week. And the week after that. In the last year and a half I have lived and partied hard in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I traveled the infamous Ruta 40 down to Patagonia to see the remains of the glaciers that once were. I then headed through the salt flats and killing mines of Bolivia. Saw a sunset at Lake Titicaca.
A few days later I was on a five day hiking trip through the snow-peaked mountains and jungles of Peru. Saw the sun rise at Machu Picchu. I flew home to Georgia for a while in order to graduate from college and the next day took a flight down to Costa Rica for two months. Watched a volcano erupt. Realized this world is incredibly beautiful.
Now I’m back in the U.S. without a clue as to my next move. I don’t have goals that involve money or promotion. I really just hope for a future of love, happiness, and eventually babies. Call me a dreamer. I’ll take that.
Hal Amen
My name is Hal. I’m a freelance writer, so ideally that means I’m traveling AND working all the time. English-language-learning texts pay the bills, but I’m currently slaving away on some personal projects as well.
My favorite thing about Matador is its supportive environment. As a newcomer to travel writing, I can’t emphasize how beneficial it’s been to receive the encouragement and constructive criticism that I have from the folks in charge–folks who obviously know what they’re talking about.
Whereas other online groups often dissolve from excessive cynicism, selfishness, and internal conflict, Matador has stayed positive. Quite the inspiration.
DanOnTheSnow
sometimes I roll in hotels and sit on beaches with funny colored drinks, sometimes I go three days in a tent with nuts, dried fruit, protein powder, ramen, energy bars and bear spray.
AnthonyGatti
I like to go deep; to speak in vibration and blend without losing the stark silhouette of a stranger.
I want to make a difference by channeling the inspiration I get from others.
Before I die I’d like to see a spectrum of light cast by the moon.
vardoyger
I want to make a difference by recording and sharing the good times & things, sad times & things, horrible times & things, and the wonderous times and tings via pictures so that we may remember to repeat the good; cherish, honour and learn from the sad and prevent the horrible..all in all to enjoy life to its fullest…
Switzin
My real name is Judy Swiss. Swiss is my maiden name translated into English. Since I am a Swiss citizen, I’ll stick with it.
Interestingly enough, when I was new to the United States, people – especially guys – would call me Swiss Miss since I LOVE chocolate and am from Switzerland. They never realized that this was actually my name!
When I discovered Matador, I felt home – virtually home that is. I love reading about the travels other people do and one of my favorite things is to browse pictures. I think it lends a picture so much more when I know who the person is who snapped it.
It’s a special bonus when I learn about that person, his or her interests, the reasons he/she was in that country, and why that picture is special to him/her. It all is part of Matador. Matador brings the world to me when I am sitting alone in my home office at the computer and need a little shot of adventure!
To meet more Matador members, please follow the links below:
Travelers 1-10 at MatadorTrips.com
Travelers 11 – 20 at BraveNewTraveler.com
Travelers 21 – 30 at TheTravelersNotebook.com
Travelers 31 – 40 at MatadorStudy.com
Community Connection
These are only 50 out of thousands of travelers in our community. Who else should get a mention? Big them up in the comments, and if you haven’t yet, link up with us.
Bailey Ash
Matador Community ambassador Bailey Ash just graduated from UCSB. She first went around the world while still in diapers. Since then she's never lost the travel bug.
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