Starring British adventure traveller Ben Fogle, this series follows the fearless explorer as he goes to the ends of the earth in pursuit of action and adventure.  Unlike some other shows where hosts do things you can’t (and probably wouldn’t) do yourself, Ben’s adventures are accessible to any traveller with a sense of adventure and love of physical challenges. His exploits include competing in a 24-hour bike race across the Moab desert, an off-road race across Australia’s outback, para-gliding in Italy, diving in Iceland and ‘coasteering’ along the jagged cliffs in Wales.

Check out the trailer below:

See more details and clips from upcoming episodes, and learn more about your fearless guide Ben Fogle on the Year of Adventures website.

Year of Adventures is premiering in the USA on Travel Channel on 20 May at 11am EST (check Travel Channel for local times). Elsewhere around the world, Year of Adventures is also airing on BBC Knowledge Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Nordic, Italy, Poland, South Africa and BBC Entertainment India.

Before we reveal the winning entry, let’s have a look at the 5 runner ups (in no particular order):

1. Top of the World trail in Moab, Utah. Just one of the many breathtaking stops on a cross country road trip with 5 of my best friends in our modified Jeep Cherokee’s – Samuel M.

2. Sunset Safari through dazzling dubai dunes (Dubai, UAE) – Anne S.

3. Yellow Ambassadors and Tram Rule the Calcutta tradition and the Roads – Saurabh S.

4. I clicked this picture of a fellow rider early morning on our ride in Nepal. This is one of my favourite picture, it perfectly captures the motorcycle travel romanticism – Jitendra B.

5. In the Heart of Patagonia during the 2nd trip to South-America – Gyoengyi F.

All of the above will receive a copy of a Lonely Planet travel guide of their choice. Congratulations!

And without further ado, let’s reveal the winning entry of our Road Trips photo competition:

A motorcycle ride across the Himalayas! Congratulations to Rajan S. who sent this picture of a rare roadside view of the 22km long Drang-Drung-Glacier, 11,000fts above sea level in Zanskar Valley (Indian Himalayas). This is what our independent judge Callum had to say about this entry and why he chose it as the winner: “A glaciers journey leaves its indelible mark on the landscape and in many ways a great road trip does the same to those of us lucky enough to go on one. This great shot captures where the two collide. Now where’s my Steppenwolf album?”.

Well done, Rajan. A Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone will be making its way to you very soon. Thank you to everyone who took part in the competition and keep an eye on our Facebook page for any future contests.

Here are some of the best ones:

Gap year comfort food from Nicole M: I was on my gap year and had been moving from guesthouse to guesthouse in a little village on the coast of England – my money was being eaten up and I had no kitchen for myself! The food in the area was awful and I was terribly homesick and lonely. A colleague of mine lent me her place for a weekend, knowing how uncomfortable the whole situation was, and my first night I cooked up some yummy plaice with a garlic and herb butter, grilled vegetables and a jacket potato. Heaven!

The missing ingredient you just can’t get at home from Tracy Y: Fresh Khmer spring rolls in Cambodia. The ingredients & flavours were so light and delicious, it was an amazing taste sensation. Sadly I haven’t been able to find them since coming home.

Singapore Gourmet session from Kerry-Anne D: Sometimes life is full of surprises, two weeks ago I was through into a whirlwind trip to Hong Kong (30 hrs worth) and ended up at Cuisine Cuisine in the Mira Hotel Hong Kong by arrangement from their sales manager, we were treated to the award winning Dinner of Roasted crispy pork belly and jelly fish, Crab meat with minced shrimp balls and black truffle, topped with caviar served in pumpkin soup, sautéd garoupa fillet with vegetables and fresh lily bulbs,Grilled lamb chop with cumin, Poached seasonal vegetable with dried scallops in supreme broth,Fried rice with foie gras, diced barbecued pork and shrimps. Once in a life time experience and another ticked off the bucket list!

The humble alternative, from Fiona H: The best meal was the simplest meal – fresh fish just caught from the sea, fried and served with cous cous mixed with harissa – I had this on Kerkennah which is a group of islands just off the coast of Tunisia – I was visiting for a day and whilst travelling there and back was involved in a train crash, a broken down ferry in the middle of a force 9 storm and a fight in a crowded train carriage – the meal was the simplest thing of the day.

But our absolute favourite, and the winner of the culinary adventure competition, has to be Nikki Tucker’s entry: After a day of wandering the streets of Singapore in the heat, we stumbled across a hawker stall in Little India. Hassled, hot, tired and thirsty we allowed the hawker vendor to guide us to a table. There was a brief discussion involving the word chicken before we were presented with a huge plate of rice, half a chicken, some cucumber salad and a spicy chilli sauce. He disappeared to return again with mango drinks and a plate of chapattis. The most amazing meal ever and less than a fiver for us both !  So not only a great meal but on an amazing budget!

Thanks again to everyone who took part and don’t forget to check our Lonely Planet Facebook page for any future competitions.

We have now gone through all of the pictures and have whittled them down to the last 20, featured below in no particular order. From this selection, an independent judge will pick 1 winner and 5 runner-ups. The lucky winner will be taking home a Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone, while the runner-ups will be awarded a Lonely Planet guide of their choice. Watch this space as we will be announcing them very soon!

1. When I think road trip, Cambodia instantly springs to mind. A gruelling 24 hour trip, where every hour or so, the van gets stuck in the mud, and the paying customers are asked to get out and push – Sam F.

2. Lake, grass, mountains, snow and sky all at the same time! (State Highway 6 at South Island, New Zealand) – Charles P.

3. Dubai Desert Safari across the dunes by 4WD @ Dubai, U.A.E. – Sirish B.

4. Love for life, love for summer, love for sweden, love for my girl, love for my volkswagen bus…a road trip is what it’s all about… – Andi R.

5. On a motorcycle ride in Himalaya a rare roadside view of 22km long Drang-Drung-Glacier @above 11,000fts sea level source of Zanskar river in Zanskar Valley, Himalaya’s, India – Rajan S.

6. Through the sunny red Australian desert..during a 4months on the road trip: dream country!! – Mariella R.

7. Rock and Road! Along the way to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge near Ballintoy, County Antrim, Northern Ireland – Anirudha A.

8. In the Heart of Patagonia during the 2nd trip to South-America – Gyoengyi F.

9. Top of the World trail in Moab, Utah. Just one of the many breathtaking stops on a cross country road trip with 5 of my best friends in our modified Jeep Cherokee’s – Samuel M.

10. “Photogenic Bridge” One of the most visited and photographed bridge in Ilocos Norte Philippines, overlooking the South China Sea. Some say that one could actually see Taiwan from here – Maja T.

11. Classic Africa: Cruising the Serengeti, Tanzania – Jakhan N.

12. Road between Cusco & the Machupicchu in the magnificant Incas’ Land. It resums road trips spirit: adventure traveling without a total vision of the path in incredible countries – Thomas J.

13. Seem to be lost in Salt Desert of Uyuni but the jeep was just out of order and we were waiting for some bolivian help ! – Yann R.

14. Taken in Peru. On the road to see the Salinas salt flats – Janice S.

15. Joy of the Journey: A signboard at Nathula Pass, the India-China border – Dinesh S.

16. Sunset Safari through dazzling dubai dunes (Dubai, UAE) – Anne S.

17. Stopped for a photo op in Savannah Georgia on our way back to Canada. Live oaks covered in Spanish moss line the lane to Wormsloe Plantation – Stephen T.

18. Yellow Ambassadors and Tram Rule the Calcutta tradition and the Roads – Saurabh S.

19. Philippines, Palawan. On the way from Puerto Princesa to El Nido – Irina R.

20. I clicked this picture of a fellow rider early morning on our ride in Nepal. This is one of my favourite picture, it perfectly captures the motorcycle travel romanticism – Jitendra B.

Which one is your favourite?

Do you think it’s safe to go to Texas?

To be clear, violence in Mexico is no joke. There have been over 47,000 drug-related murders alone in the past five years. Its murder rate – 18 per 100,000 according to this United Nations Office on Drugs & Crime report – is more than three times the US rate of 4.8 per 100,000. Though Mexican tourism is starting to bounce back, Americans appear more reluctant to return than Canadians and Brits (5.7 million Americans visited in 2011, down 3% from 2010 – and, according to Expedia, more than four of five bookings were adults going without children). Many who don’t go cite violence as the reason.

What you don’t get from most reports in the US is statistical evidence that Americans are less likely to face violence on average in Mexico than at home, particularly when you zero in on Mexico’s most popular travel destinations. For example, the gateway to Disney World, Orlando, saw 7.5 murders per 100,000 residents in 2010 per the FBI; this is higher than Cancun or Puerto Vallarta, with rates of 1.83 and 5.9 respectively, per a Stanford University report (see data visualization here, summarized on this chart, page 21). Yet in March, the Texas Department of Public Safety advised against ‘spring break’ travel anywhere in Mexico, a country the size of the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy combined. Never mind that popular destinations like the Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica have far higher homicide rates (36, 42 and 52 per 100,000). Why the singular focus?

Before you nix Mexico altogether, consider these five things:

1. Mexico may be more dangerous than the US overall, but not for Americans.

According to FBI crime statistics, 4.8 Americans per 100,000 were murdered in the US in 2010. The US State Department reports that 120 Americans of the 5.7 million who visited Mexico last year were murdered, which is a rate of 2.1 of 100,000 visitors. Regardless of whether they were or weren’t connected to drug trafficking, which is often not clear, it’s less than half the US national rate.

2. Texans are twice as safe in Mexico, and three times safer than in Houston.

Looking at the numbers, it might be wise for Texans to ignore their Public Safety department’s advice against Mexico travel. Five per 100,000 Texans were homicide victims in 2010, per the FBI. Houston was worse, with 143 murders, or a rate of 6.8 – over three times the rate for Americans in Mexico.

3. And it’s not just Texas.

It’s interesting comparing each of the countries’ most dangerous cities. New Orleans, host city of next year’s Super Bowl, broke its own tourism record last year with 8 million visitors. Yet the Big Easy has ten times the US homicide rate, close to triple Mexico’s national rate.

Few go to Ciudad Juarez, a border town of 1.3 million that saw 8 to 11 murders a day in 2010 (accounts differ – CNN went with 8). It’s unlikely to ever be a tourism hostpot, but things have been quietly improving there. By 2011, CNN reported, the homicide rate dropped by 45%, and the first six weeks of this year saw an additional 57% drop, per this BBC story.

If that trend in Juarez continues all year, and it might not, the number of homicides would have dropped from over 3000 in 2010 to 710 in 2012. Meanwhile New Orleans’ homicide rate is increasing, up to 199 murders last year, equivalent to 736 in a city with the population of Juarez.

4. By the way, most of Mexico is not on the State Department’s travel warning.

The best of Mexico, in terms of travel, isn’t on the warning. The US warns against ‘non-essential travel’ to just four of Mexico’s 31 states (all in the north: Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango and Tamaulipas). The warning goes on to recommend against travel to select parts of other states, but not including many popular destinations such as Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, the Riviera Nayarit, Cancun, Cozumel and Tulum.

Meanwhile, 13 states are fully free from the State Department’s warning, including Baja California Sur, Yucatan, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guanajuato and others.

5. Malia Obama ignored the Texas advice.

Of all people, President Obama and first lady said ‘OK’ to their 13-year-old daughter’s spring break destination this year: Oaxaca. Then Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum made snide remarks over that, perhaps overlooking that Oaxaca state has a smaller body count from the drug war than his home state’s murder rate (Oaxaca’s 4.39 per 100,000 to Pennsylvania’s 5.2).

Oaxaca state, not on the US travel warning, is famed for its colonial city, Zapotec ruins and emerging beach destinations like Huatulco. Lonely Planet author Greg Benchwick even tried grasshoppers with the local mezcal (Malia apparently stuck with vanilla shakes.)

So, can you go to Mexico?

Yes. As the US State Department says, ‘millions of US citizens safely visit Mexico each year.’ Last year, when I took on the subject for CNN, one commenter suggested Lonely Planet was being paid to promote travel there. No we weren’t. We took on the subject simply because – as travelers so often know – there is another story beyond the perception back home, be it Vietnam welcoming Americans in the ’90s or Colombia’s dramatic safety improvements in the ’00s. And, equally as importantly, Mexico makes for some of the world’s greatest travel experiences – it’s honestly why I’m in this line of work.

So yes, you can go to Mexico, just as you can go to Texas, or New Orleans, or Orlando, or the Bahamas. It’s simply up to you to decide whether you want to.

Robert Reid is Lonely Planet’s New York–based US Travel Editor and has been going to Mexico since he was three (most recently to Chacala).

Earlier this week, we were amused to see The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart, poking fun at the sensationalized media coverage of the scandal, using a mock ‘Very Lonely Planet’ guide to Colombia:

The Daily Show’s nicely doctored ‘Very Lonely Planet’ guide to Colombia (see original clip here)

And he was right to tease. The characterization of Cartagena in the clip by CNN’s Drew Griffin paints a lewd portrait of the historic Colombian city: ‘The sex tourist trade here is very popular – you’re going to be approached on just about every corner.’ He confirms the shocking presence of ‘single scantily-clad women’ in a discotheque visited by the Secret Service agents.

Is this really the Cartagena a traveler will encounter? Lonely Planet Colombia guidebook author Kevin Raub has this to say: ‘While prostitution is legal in Colombia, I’m sorry to report that Cartagena is not, in fact, the world’s best preserved colonial brothel. Like any big city, those seeking certain services can find them, as they can in New York, Paris, Tokyo and Vienna. Cartagena’s Old Town remains one of the most unspoiled and cinematic examples of colonial Spanish architecture in the Americas. A visit here should not be missed, Secret Service behavior notwithstanding.’

For a fuller picture of Cartagena, here is how we introduce the city in our latest guidebook:

Cartagena de Indias is the undisputed queen of the coast, a fairy-tale city of romance, legends and superbly preserved beauty lying within an impressive 13km of centuries-old colonial stonewalls. Cartagena’s Old Town is a Unesco World Heritage Site – a maze of cobbled alleys, balconies covered in bougainvillea, and massive churches casting their shadows across plazas…Cartagena is a place to drop all sightseeing routines. Instead, just stroll through the old town day and night. Soak up the sensual atmosphere, pausing to ward off the brutal heat and humidity in one of the city’s many open-air cafes.

Cartagena’s Old Town is the #1 recommended experience in our Colombia guidebook (as it is in the upcoming guide due out in August 2012), and we’ve waxed poetic about the city’s culture and colonial charms in every edition going back to the first edition. Given the increasing popularity of Colombia as a travel destination over the past decade, this won’t be the last time you hear about Caratgena – hopefully next time it hits the news it’s for the right reasons.

And if you’re really looking for a dirty good time, take a day trip to Volcán de Lodo El Totumo (Totumo mud volcano) 50km northeast of Cartagena and bathe in the lukewarm mud bath bubbling up from the deep. You’re guaranteed to leave with a smile. You might also leave with something extra caked around your nether regions, but at least this kind of dirt won’t get you sacked.

While the number of travel agents have dropped by two-thirds in the past couple decades, the news of agencies’ death, per a recent New York Times article, has been greatly exaggerated. The 14 to 15,000 still-active agents have racked up two years of growth, and actually make up a third of the US$284 billion travel market still, particularly regarding ‘complex leisure travel’ like cruises, per this PhoCusWright study. (According to a 2010 Travelmole piece, travelers aged 16 to 24, often first-timers surely, are the most likely to use an agent.)

When should you use a travel agent? Here are a few reasons why an agents are working for some travelers.

1. Saving time and money

Some travelers just don’t have time to plan for themselves, or they hate the time and effort it takes. And at the end of sorting through the myriad options online, it’s hard to be confident that you’ve found the best deal. We wondered how much of the Lonely Planet community would be willing to pay for five hours’ of saved online planning time, maybe just $30 to $50, and our poll (below) showed a nearly 50-50 split:

It’s worth noting that over half of the US responders (52%) said ‘yes,’ while just about a third (35%) of Brits would. One of the Americans who said yes was Travel Channel’s Samantha Brown, who told me, ‘I like planning myself, but if they can save you five hours, sure, I’d pay $30 to $50.’

2. Special access

The Times article suggests that agents with specific niches have the relationships built to offer travelers access to places DIY planners couldn’t find on their own, like a special after-hours tour of the Sistine Chapel. That’s a temptation, surely. Even if you could find some of these special experiences yourself, they can save hours of research.

3. Building on your research

What’s most interesting in the Times article is how agents are changing how they work. Travelers know much more what they want before going in than before. According to one upscale agency network, the better approach today is to say, ‘You’ve done a lot of research, now how do we work together?’

It’s frequently like that for guidebook authors when we meet fellow travelers. People sometimes ask what’s cool or new, but just as many already know the basics already and ask for a recommendation for a specific need, like a beach hotel with nanny service and oodles of kid-friendly activities so the parents can feel like they’re on vacation too.

4. Help with difficult/remote locations

The more challenging the place, the more useful an agent can be. Even intrepid guidebook authors find agents useful in certain circumstances. I’ve relied on agents for a number of things, such as add-on trips to river lodges and river cruises in eastern Siberia, or transport details and tickets from a private agent in Myanmar. Local agents are often invaluable when there are language barriers or when it takes someone with connections in the local community to facilitate travel or lodging.

How about you? Do you, or would you, use a travel agent?

This is a guest post from Vivek Wagle at social accommodation service Airbnb.

The idea of sharing space is nothing new. From way back when grunting Neanderthals decided that being cavemates was preferable to clubbing each others’ brains out, we’ve been very sharing animals. But until recently, it didn’t make sense to share resources with people who lived far away. The costs were too high, and the social bonds too weak.

The internet has changed all that. A new marketplace philosophy, known as ‘collaborative consumption’ has begun gaining traction. Espoused by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers in What’s Mine Is Yours and by Lisa Gansky in The Mesh, collaborative consumption is based on the principle that being able to benefit from a good – tangible or intangible – is more important than actual possession of that good. Or, more succinctly, access trumps ownership. And that access, coupled with the social context that allows for cross-border interaction, is now available on a truly global scale thanks to the internet.

This shift in thinking is at the heart of social accommodation services such as Airbnb. These marketplaces for space allow direct access to unique, diverse lodging experiences anywhere in the world. They enable more authentic trips for travellers, who can choose from a wide spectrum of options that better reflect life in a destination. Anyone with spare space can be a host, whether they have a shared living room, a private bedroom, an entire apartment, or even a castle. This means that hosts can get immediate financial benefit from the space they’re using, and guests can stay at places beyond their wildest dreams – as well as enjoy local insight, if they choose

This form of collaboration has benefits that extend well beyond the transaction between a host and a guest. Local economies benefit, as traveller money is spread beyond a city’s hotel quarter or tourism centre. Because sharing space necessitates less land use and lower resource consumption, the environment benefits. And, as communities from around the world get to know each other better, cultural barriers are eroded and we begin to regain our faith in strangers.

Although we can’t be naive about risk, the evidence shows that the right environment and opportunities allow people to shine. With the proper risk controls in place – such as cutting-edge communication tools, a supportive and involved community, and firm commitment to trust and safety from a provider – ‘stranger’ suddenly becomes a much less scary term. After all, when Airbnb’s founder Brian told his mother about the concept, she thought he was crazy. But his grandparents knew it made sense: it was how they had lived their whole lives.

How quickly our societies take up the mantle of collaborative consumption is anybody’s guess. But in the meantime, it’s taking hold of the travel industry in a huge way – enabling people to rent out, and stay in, everything from treehouses to luxury boats.

Without a doubt, we have access to more than we think.

Vivek Wagle is the head of content and marketing at Airbnb.

Ever stayed in a houseboat, treehouse or underground cavern? Let us know in the comments!

And with the summer months seeing the lion’s share of visitors, April is a great time to go. An analysis of the best times to visit national parks as recommended by Lonely Planet authors found October to be the most highly recommended month, with September and April close runners-up. If you have to go in the summer, go (and we have some great tips on how to find solitude even during the busiest times of year); but if you can, shoot for the shoulder season, that sweet spot between high and low season, to enjoy some of the most popular parks without the crowds.

Which parks are best best in April? Spring wildflowers are carpeting the lower elevations, desert parks are at their most pleasant temperatures for exploration, and waterfalls are beginning to flow with full force with the onset of the snowmelt. Here’s a short list of some of our authors’ favorite parks to visit during National Park Week:

• Arches
• Big Bend
• Bryce Canyon
• Capitol Reef
• Death Valley
• Everglades
• Grand Canyon
• Great Smoky Mountains
• Joshua Tree
• Sequoia & Kings Canyon
• Shenandoah
• Yosemite
• Zion

Planning to explore a National Park this year? Where are you headed?

[Photo: Yosemite's Vernal Falls from the Mist Trail, taken in April by jeroen020 on Flickr]

Plan the perfect trip to a national park – download our free planning PDF, an excerpt from Lonely Planet’s Discover USA’s Best National Parks

Before we reveal the winning entry, let’s have a look at the five runner-ups, in no particular order:

Let dreams come true! A gigantic mountain of Moroccan sweets! Believe me. No one can resist this! – Thomas W.

Grilled salted fish in Damnoen Saduak floating market, Thailand. – Rene B.

To anyone who has experienced the madness that is the local Laos bus service, they will recognise these wonderful fish and chicken “lollipops” that the local ladies bring aboard along your journey… – Angela P.

Havana, Cuba. A local man prepares a New Year’s Day feast. Hours later, the pig was still cooking, and residents of the street were having an unofficial block party! – Jana I.

Nothing says Thailand more than having your meal prepared fresh on a boat. Here a bowl of Thai dry noodles is being skilfully made – so scrumptious you might even consider having seconds! – Christopher R.

All of the above will receive a copy of a Lonely Planet travel guide of their choice. Congratulations!

And without further ado, let’s reveal the winning entry of our World Food competition:

Applause! Congratulations to Archana S., who sent this picture of an Indian master chef making jalebis, orange colored fried flour crisps dipped in sugar syrup – sounds positively delicious. Callum, our independent judge, chose this picture as the winning entry because he loved “the concentration of the cook set against the bustle and noise of street life carrying on behind”, exemplifying “world food at its best”. Also, you can’t go wrong with a bit of deep fried dough! A Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone will be making its way to Archana in the next few days.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the competition and keep an eye on our Facebook page for any future contests.