Gapyear.com Magazine: Spring 2012

Gapyear.com Magazine: Spring 2012 Edition

The Spring 2012 edition of the gapyear.com magazine is the first since it's relaunch and it is jammed packed with inspiring articles. Features editor Andrew Tipp explores what it's like to work as a game ranger in South Africa and skydive in New Zealand (though sadly not at the same time). Site legend Warrick Howard goes beyond the beaten track in Peru and sub-editor Marcus Sherifi investigates the top ten destinations for 2012. We've featured a load of ‘how to' articles, such as the gapyear.com guide to planning your trip, member's tips on staying beautiful while travelling, and art director / photographer Cormac Scanlan reveals the art of travel photography. We've even got an interview with the highly talented (and altogether very nice) Ed Sheeran, and that's just the tip of the the iceberg.

Check out the Spring 2012 edition of the Gapyear.com Magazine by clicking on the magazine below:

Editor's Letter: Spring 2012

Welcome to the new gapyear.com magazine

In the age of apps and ever-connectedness, what do we want with a 500-year-old technology like print? Well, we like travel magazines, we like the way the pictures look, the way you can doodle in the margins and the fact that you can read them in the bath. But our first love is still the web. Gapyear.com was established in 1998 and remains the number one place to talk and learn about gap years.

Much of the material you’re about to read has been mined and refined from the rich seams of a site to which more than 100,000 members have contributed. If you’re not a member of gapyear.com, where have you been? Not very far is my guess.

What is a gap year? It doesn’t have to last a year. It doesn’t have to take place between school and university. But it should be an experience. It should be a break from the daily grind of work or study. It should involve new things, new places and new people. It should be a challenge; something to tell your friends about; something to be proud of; something that, in part, defines you.

In the UK alone, more than 2 million young people are expected to embark on a gap year in 2012. That’s partly because university tuition fees are predicted to fall in 2013 as competition for students begins to take effect. But it’s mainly down to a long-term trend. Globalisation is the main event of our age. The experience and skill to work across cultures is increasingly valuable. And those of us lucky enough to have the option to travel know that to fail to do so is to fail to live life to the full.

I hope you find lots to inspire you here. There are some great tales, tons of tips and a brilliant guide to planning your gap year. Tell me what you think and what you’d like to see in future editions. Feedback from readers is the most valuable of all.

Thank you to everyone who’s been involved. And thank you most of all to gapyear.com members. You are what makes us what we are.

Tim Fenton, Editor