So you wanna be a badass, eh? Here’s your chance. Scotch liqueur maker Drambuie is giving away a spot in their annual Dambuie Pursuit, a grueling and ridiculously rad 100-mile adventure race through the Scottish Highlands, which includes a canoe race on the river Ness, an uphill mountain bike race, rock climbing and off-road dune buggy racing, all of which re-trace the footsteps of Bonnie Prince Charlie, for whom the spirit was created in 1745.

Just head over to Pursuitof1745.com by December 31st to register you and a three of your friends on a team. Or, if you’d rather not be a team leader (or don’t have three friends), you can sign up to land a spot on the “celebrity team,” headed up by actor Sean William Scott. If chosen, you and your team will have all travel and hotels expenses paid, a shot at Drambuie Pursuit-winning glory – and a hell of a lot of whisky.

So you booked a $225 plane ticket to Europe with ZoomAir, obtained your passport, read our guide on how to avoid health problems abroad and now there is one thing left to do–get wasted, see some culture, get wasted, hook up with a broad abroad (23% of women in Europe deliberately binge on alcohol and drugs to improve their sex lives), get wasted and do it on the cheap.

Hostels are very hit or miss–and your overnight experince will dictate whether you leave your trip abroad with memories of greatness or haunted dreams. (more…)

Everyone I’ve ever met has a dark past with tequila. Just the mention of it makes their face go sour–the shots, the smell, the blinding drunk, and a hellacious hangover the next morning. For some reason, I am not one of those people. But after my family vacation to Mexico last week, I learned a bit about another South-of-the-Border brew: Mezcal.

Like tequila (which is actually a type of mezcal), mezcal is made from agave, a cactus-like plant, native to Mexico. Mezcals are often aged, in oak barrels, for two months to seven years, giving the alcohol a brown coloration and woody flavor, but are available un-aged and clear.

Connoisseurs will tell you the best mezcals come from the Mexican state of Oaxaca (wah-hock-ah). To fully enjoy the complexities of this subtle liquor, go to the city of Oaxaca, the state’s capital, who’s colonial architecture and friendly people only add to the liquor’s historic mystic. (more…)

Planning a trip this summer? Short on cash? Here’s a quick guide to make sure you get the biggest bang for your buck.

1. Shop Around.
So-called “value” sites like Travelocity, Expedia, and Orbitz give you the best price for plane tickets–but have often been paid by airlines and hotels to promote their fares and rooms above all others, screwing you over in the process.

Instead, use an aggregator, like Momondo or Kayak, that searches hundreds of travel websites in order to find you the best deal. These Sites also feature flights from smaller airlines and airlines, like Southwest, that don’t actively participate in online travel booking sites. Also, aggregators won’t jack you for a fee, like most “value” travel sites.

2. Skip the Hotel.
Really, most hotels are the same. Except for rooms whose per-night price could pay for last semester, you won’t notice much of a difference, I promise. So, trade in the five-star for one of these inexpensive (but way more fun!) options:

Hostels - For international and domestic travel alike, hostels kick the crap out of everything else. They’re cheap, relaxing and extra fun–plus, you get to mingle with countless hotties from around the world. You may not have the privacy or luxury of a hotel, but it’s worth the “sacrifice.” (more…)

“Sex sells” was the basis for the sweetest class trip of all time. Students from Randolph College in Virginia, studying American consumption, recently visited the Chicken Ranch, a legal brothel outside Las Vegas, to help them more closely analyze the class’s focus of “the ideas that consume us.”

But what might seem to some as the beginning to a porno, the 11 girls (and no dudes) who made up the class absorbed the experience as a learning opportunity. (more…)

With gas prices around $3-per-gallon, traveling for hours on a bus with an overweight ex-male-stripper as your seat-mate seems more like a quality way to travel. BoltBus knows this.

So, as Consumerist.com reports, BoltBus will begin competing with Greyhound and the various “Chinatown buses” that run this route by offering passengers $1-fares, in-bus WiFi, electrical outlets for laptops and DVD players, “panoramic views [and] the normal coach accouterments,” as their Website advertises. And they make the trek eight times a day.

Can taking the bus really be that great, you ask? No, not really. (more…)

Cold winter days got you down?

Many college guys experience withdrawal (no pun intended) during winter break, since all the attractive, young snow bunnies are nowhere to be found. Even those who have no luck getting lucky during the school year can at least take solace in all the eye-candy on campus. Instead of quenching this thirst alone in front of your computer (or, even worse, at your old high school) go abroad.

Something happens to girls when they cross the border.

Good girls become bad; bad girls become worse; and everyone is making sure that they go home with a story. The question about traveling abroad is not if you’re going to get action but, rather, who it’s going to be with. You control your destiny, but follow these pointers. (more…)

Whether taking a flight home for the holidays or embarking on a cross-country road trip, traveling with electronics is essential to your happiness, unless you enjoy being bored out of your mind and are allergic to fun. If that’s the case…I can’t help you. Nobody can.

The following gadgets will assist you greatly on your grand adventure:

Nintendo DS

I love the multi-purpose Sony PSP as much as the next guy (what does that phrase even mean?), but I find myself returning to the simple charms of the Nintendo DS far more often. The stylus-based gameplay is tailor-made for wasting time during those long stretches on the road/in the air. Couple that with a long battery life and it’s a no-brainer (unless you have Brain Age 2). (more…)

I’m broke and lazy – are you broke and lazy? Of course you are. You’re a college student (or a big fan of college-related material if you’ve found yourself reading this).

To many, “college student” is synonymous with “too busy and too broke.” Even if you’re a part-time student/full-time worker it’s assumed that you’re a slacker. So instead of slacking off on ultra-cool college websites (…) how about you get off your ass and start preparing for your trip home?

Oh, you need help? Sigh…OK.

Just sit back and let COED do the dirty work of providing simple-yet-important travel tips while you reap the benefits. Lucky bastard.

Book your flight early

It’s surprising how many people don’t follow this all-important rule. Call it being a member of the A.D.D. Generation or being too busy with schoolwork, but there’s no excuse when purchasing a ticket home is just a click away. (more…)

One of the great things about college today is the opportunity to travel.

No matter what school you go to, it will most likely have some sort of abroad program. Or, if yours doesn’t, look into going with another school and transferring the credits. And seriously, what other time in your life will it be acceptable to take months off and travel the world?

Take it from someone who has recently joined the 9-5er workforce and regrets that she did not take advantage of the traveling opportunities available in college. So, for those brave and adventurous souls preparing to travel, there is one aspect that you may not have thought too much about in the midst of getting your passport, figuing out living arrangements, etc. That small, but important, detail being how to stay healthy while abroad. (more…)