Paris In The Spring In 2008, Lara Dunston was interviewed about her life as a travel writer and her experiences traveling with her husband, Terry Carter, who is also a travel writer, photographer and now – an expert in the art of eggs – culinary-style. (You think I’m kidding…) Together, they have taken on a new project, Grantourismo! , which has them traveling from their home-base-storage-unit in Dubai to a new destination every two weeks over the next twelve months. (Okay, it’s now a bit under 12 months but what the hell…) Regardless, not only are they investigating new destinations, Terry has found some new egg recipes and still travels with his trusty cleaver. Being avid travel writers, you’ve just begun yet another journey around the world. How did you choose which countries to visit considering HomeAway Holiday-Rentals’ numerous available locations? Lara: We’re two months into a 12-month grand tour of the globe, an experiential-cum-local travel project we’ve called Grantourismo. It’s a ‘contemporary’ grand tour, which means rather than learning to paint or do archery as the original grand tourists did way back we’re doing and learning things with contemporary relevance. Terence Meets Macarons As Terry is into cooking, he’s learning how to cook a quintessential dish in each place we visit (in Marrakech a local cook taught him how to make tajine) and I’m learning anything from languages to learning about immigration in Paris from an academic who just finished her thesis on the subject. We’re staying in each destination for two weeks, so we’ve traded hotel rooms for rentals this year and partnered with HomeAway Holiday-Rentals . HomeAway Holiday-Rentals had a long list of destinations they wanted us to cover so our choices were based on a combination of places that are popular where they have a lot of properties, destinations that are not as popular that they want to inspire people to visit, and destinations that show the variety of places they have from sleek apartments in Buenos Aires to rustic trullo in Puglia. You’ve written about “voluntourism” . What types of volunteer opportunities have you planned for yourselves during this endeavor? We’re ‘parachuting’ into places and using our skills to quickly learn about the place, meet people, get tips as to what we should do and learn, and then arrange things. Terence: We haven’t planned anything because for Grantourismo we’re not planning much ahead of time

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