"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness" - Mark Twain
Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

TRAVEL BLOG
ASK ROLF
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How Can I Save on Transportation During a Round-the-World Trip?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

THE LIST
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13 Great Travel Horror Movies

The Hollywood horror archives are filled with tales of bad trips. To celebrate Halloween, Eva Holland and Eli Ellison sift through the carnage to pick their favorites—and lose a little sleep doing so.

Q&A
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Matt Weiland: Through 50 States With 50 Writers

The coeditor of “State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America” talks to Frank Bures about the book, the WPA and how the United States hasn’t been “bulldozed for speed”

HOW TO
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Love Herring in Sweden

From artery-clogging casseroles to a fermented concoction that smells alarmingly like vinegary flatulence, Lola Akinmade digs in to a smörgåsbord of herring and explains how to best appreciate Scandinavia’s favorite fish. 

BOOKS
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The Water Is Wide

Bronwen Dickey considers Tim Butcher’s “Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart,” which takes readers deep into the Congo

SPEAKER'S CORNER
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Vagrant Ruminations of a Compulsive Traveler

Where does the urge to hunt for that “fleeting fix of elsewhere” come from? Peter Wortsman recalls a life of travel inspiration. 

AUDIO SLIDESHOW
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Notes From an Unofficial Tourist Greeter

Summer is over, and so is Julia Ross‘ season as an ambassador to travelers in Washington, D.C.’s Woodley Park neighborhood. She’s happy to be off duty.


DISPATCHES

2.27.06

A Brief and Awkward Tour of the End of the Earth

Jason Anthony was working as a U.S. Antarctic Program fuels operator when he was called to remote Vostok Station. It was a trip he would lie to take.


1.23.06

A Direct Impression

To guide him through Tunisia, E. Casey Kittrell chose a nearly 100-year-old travelogue and discovered what it’s like to travel with an observant, prescient, and, sometimes, bigoted man


12.30.05

The Art of Writing a Story About Walking Across Andorra

He traversed an entire nation in a long weekend. Now Rolf Potts shows how you can impress members of the opposite sex and write a textbook-perfect travel article in eight easy steps.


12.15.05

Incident in a Spanish Church

She never spoke to the boy in the red windbreaker. But Catherine Watson‘s encounter with her fellow pilgrim along the road to Santiago de Compostela transformed her in an unexpected way.


11.21.05

Sleepless in Rangoon

On his second visit in four years to the same Burmese pagoda, Tom Downey embraces his jet lag and revels in travel’s power to reveal change


11.3.05

The Joy of Steam

Tony Perrottet went for a simple scrub down at the oldest bath house in Istanbul and discovered a link to the ancient Roman Empire


10.11.05

Half Italian

Somewhere between the bucatini all’Amatriciana and the McRoyals with cheese, Cara O’Flynn made a true connection


9.9.05

Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans?

Kate Hahn shares her only souvenir of The Big Easy: the memory of a city that showed her how to let go


8.15.05

Mullet in the Treetops

In a land studded with theme parks promising manufactured thrills, Bill Belleville discovers a different kind of Florida Fantasyland


7.25.05

Derelicts in the Sinai

Israeli fighter planes flew over his kibbutz and suicide bombers blew up buses on the lines he traveled, but Porter Shreve still felt untouchable. Then he found himself aboard an ill-fated tour bus rolling through the Egyptian desert.


6.29.05

Whistling at the Northern Lights

Jason Wilson has spent more time than most travelers in Iceland. After a recent visit, he recalls being young and aimless there one summer, whistling at the aurora borealis.


4.20.05

Girl Power in the Land of the Maharajahs

Terry Ward took heat from her American friends when she strayed from convention to travel the world. In an Indian guesthouse, she learned that some struggles are universal. 


2.3.05

Confessions of a Chicken Man

Doug Mack knows exactly what you think of him when he orders the blandest thing on a foreign menu. And he’s okay with that. 


1.11.05

A Winter’s Tale

Had Jim Heintz misunderstood what travel is all about? In Iceland, where the mythic “hidden people” reside, he finds an answer.


12.3.04

Signs of Confusion

Bad translations abound. In a Thai restaurant, Rolf Potts struggles to make sense of them.


11.5.04

The Burden of War

Writer Wendy Knight went to Sudan in search of compelling war stories. Then her own personal battle began. 


10.27.04

The Politics of Travel

Travel writers on the U.S. presidential election


10.5.04

The Headmaster, the Terrorists and Me

Two years after the Bali bombing, Julia Ross recalls the attack’s unlikely impact on her teaching experience in China


7.11.04

Chasing Lance

Watching a recent Tour de France on TV wasn’t enough, so Frank Mungeam packed his bike for the main event


6.22.04

Journey Through the Earth

Out in the Whitsundays, Bill Belleville explores the underside of Australian dreamtime


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