Talking Travel with Beth Whitman

by Kelly Amabile on

Writer and world traveler Beth Whitman is the author of Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo. We’ve mentioned her book here on Gadling before — we dig the catchy title! I recently caught up with Beth via email to chat more about solo travel and how she got started in traveling. She’s taken some really cool trips and has a few more on tap for later this year and next. Keep reading to find out the latest from this expert wandering woman:

How did you get started traveling?

I grew up in New Jersey and, for as long as I can remember, I wanted to get away. It was too crowded for me and I just couldn’t see myself settling down there. I love going back to visit family and friends and to enjoy the excellent Italian food that I can’t find in Seattle, but I think growing up there somehow gave me the travel bug.

Hmmm…interesting. I was born in Jersey and seem to have been bitten by a similar bug! So when did you first break out on your own to do some solo travel?

I took a college course at Oxford for three weeks to study classical music but it was with a group (although I didn’t know anyone in advance). That was my first trip abroad and I still remember my legs shaking at Newark Airport as I got ready to leave. My first “real” solo trip was when I drove around the U.S. for three months after I took a semester off from college. It was fantastic. I stayed with friends who were at colleges all over the country and I stayed in youth hostels. I got so hooked after that adventure that from then onward I would work a few jobs, save all my money and then set out on the road again.

When did you begin to write about your travels and traveling in general?

Even though I had been published here and there in the 90’s, I really started writing after my solo motorcycle trip from Seattle to Panama in 1997. I was published in BMW Magazine as well as some other magazines and newspapers across the country. But that was really just part time work back then.

When did you start riding motorcycles and how did the idea to go by bike come about for you?

I had been riding since 1990. I purchased my first bike when I moved from New Jersey to Seattle. I wanted to do a big motorcycle trip and wanted to go beyond North America. Central America was a great option since I didn’t have to ship the bike to start the trip out (although I DID ship the bike back from Panama).

And when did you first start teaching workshops for women about solo travel? How did that come about?

I started teaching workshops in 1993 after I returned from a yearlong trip through the Pacific Rim countries. I was concentrating on Vietnam and Cambodia since they had both just opened up to travelers. I quickly realized that women really needed some encouragement to travel on their own and I felt I had enough experience and enthusiasm to provide that type of information. So, I developed my class, For Women Traveling Solo, and right now teach at the University of Washington’s Women Center, Bellevue Community College and Discover U.

When did you decide to write the book and how did you come up with the title?

Writing a book has been in the back of my mind for several years but I got serious about it in January 2006. It seemed a natural extension of my travel workshops to write this first book as a how-to for women travelers. With regards to the title… I played around with probably a hundred different titles over several months. I bounced ideas off of other travelers, my editor and other professionals in the book industry but I knew I had the perfect title when I finally arrived upon Wanderlust and Lipstick. I am working on other books under this same brand. For example, I expect to publish Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling to India sometime in 2008.

One of the chapters in your book is about “Getting Beyond the Excuses.” What are some of the most common (and most creative) excuses you have heard from women who are hesitant to travel on their own?

The excuses generally aren’t very creative. They’re very standard excuses like, “I don’t have any money,” “I don’t like to be alone,” “I don’t have enough vacation time from work”. I can come up with a plan to get around any excuse you give me.

What are some of your favorite destinations for solo travel?

I don’t think I have a “favorite” destination as a solo traveler. Every trip has been great and if I find that I’m not having a great time, I have to adjust what it is that I’d doing or where I’m staying to make it better.

If approached correctly, any place could be great for solo travel. You can go to Puerto Vallarta solo and stay at a nice hotel that is filled with couples and families. You could easily have a bad time because it will be difficult to meet people and you’ll be constantly reminded that you’re on your own. Alternately, you could fly into Puerto Vallarta but stay at a traveler’s hotel like a youth hostel or head north to Sayulita which is where the young(er) travelers hang out. You’re more likely to meet up with lots of other people and have a better time. To meet locals, take a class in Spanish and live with a family. There’s nothing like immersion to add to your experience!

You’ve recently redesigned the “For Women Traveling Solo” website. Can you tell us a little bit about the new Wanderlust and Lipstick site and the resources it offers to women travelers?

Yes, I did just re-launch the site at www.WanderlustAndLipstick.com. I wanted to broaden the site to include all women travelers, not just those traveling solo. The new site was really created to foster a sense of community for women travelers. There’s a Forum where women can share information and I have travel bloggers concentrating on specific areas of interest. Some really talented writers have submitted articles for the Wander Tales area and I have lots of tips and links to other websites. I’ve also just launched a Wanderlusters Tips area so that people can submit their own travel tips to share.

What else do you have planned for the site?

I plan to include a photo gallery and eventually both a photo contest and travel tip contest.

Switching gears, can you tell us about the trip you are hosting to Bhutan that is scheduled for 2008?

I am leading this trip to Bhutan in April 2008 with Wild Card Adventures. They have been arranging personalized tours to Asia for ten years and have excellent guides available in many different countries. Bhutan is really the hidden gem of the Himalayas and only had 18,000 visitors in 2006. It’s a very special place and this trip is quite exclusive. Over 11 days, we’ll be trekking through the mountains, visiting villages and temples, and attending a Tsechu Mask Dance festival. It’s going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity for the attendees. The trip is open to 12 people and at this time there is still space available.

Have you led other tour groups like this before? And can you share a few thoughts on the different experiences of traveling solo vs. traveling with a group?

I haven’t led a tour before but I have been on tours. Obviously there are pluses and minuses to both solo and group travel. The camaraderie that develops between members of an organized group can be magical and life-long friends can be easily made because you are sharing a common interest. However, in a group, everyone has to be flexible and respectful of each other because you’re going to be spending a lot of time together. And, you may not have any option to break away on your own. As a solo traveler, you’ll have more flexibility but it can take more time and energy to meet people along the way. Having a guide, whether you are solo or in a group is key because he or she can really help you get under the surface of a culture.

Besides the trip to Bhutan, do you have other pending travel plans and/or projects you’d like to share with Gadling readers?

I’m planning a West Coast book tour this fall. I normally wouldn’t think this would be notable except that I’m going on my motorcycle (to be more eco-friendly) and will be staying with people I meet through GlobalFreeloaders.com and CouchSurfers.com.

I’m also planning to return to India (I was there early this year for a month) in January to research my next book. Other than that there are lots of places on my list, but nothing concrete.

Cool book tour idea. Can you share any details with us about your route or departure date?

I’m still working on details but the general route will start in Bellingham, Washington. I’ll be speaking at REI and Village Books on October 16th and 17th respectively. From there, I’ll head south through Oregon, again hitting a number of REI stores as well as independent bookstores such as Paulina Springs Books in Sisters and then on to the Bay Area and, hopefully, LA. As soon as I have firm dates, they will be posted on my website.

I plan to be on the East Coast for a tour there in the Spring (not on my motorcycle but I’m hoping to get a hybrid car donated from a rental car company).

Sounds like a fun trip — good luck with the tour and research for your next book!

Hey Gadling readers – get your hands on a copy of the latest Transitions Abroad to read Beth’s recently published article, For Women Traveling to India.

Talking Travel with Brad Olsen, Sacred Stomper

by Kelly Amabile on

Brad Olsen is the founder of CCC Publishing, the Consortium of Collective Consciousness, based in San Francisco. He is a man who wears many hats — publisher, writer, photographer, producer and artist. He’s also a seasoned world traveler and author of the new book Sacred Places Europe, the latest title in CCC’s series of travel guides focusing on spiritual journeys. Brad researched and wrote the book, and also provided all the photos and maps that appear throughout. Oh yeah, did we mention he dabbles in cartography too?

His strong interests in history, culture, spirituality and humanity have lead Brad down a career path full of creative pursuits and plenty of travel. I caught up with him recently via email for a quick chat about travel, the Sacred Places series and some of his other artistic projects.

How did you first getting started traveling?

It was an innate and insatiable curiosity to see the world in the days of my youth. And with many youthful indiscretions, partying with the opposite sex on the opposite side of the world had its draw.

When did you first begin writing about travel, both personally and professionally?

I started writing my first book World Stompers: A Global Travel Manifesto within the first week of getting my sponsored-visa job to teach English in Kyoto, Japan. That book was in the works for over three years, and has now gone into five editions. When I landed the job, I knew my dream of a self-financed backpacking trip around the world was going to happen. And it did.

Where did you go on that backpacking trip, and for how long did you travel?

I was out of the country for three years solid. I was in Japan for 14 months, Australia for 5 1/2 months, India for 5 months, Indonesia for two, plus Nepal, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Egypt, Israel and a dozen European countries in a month. See my online travelogue Stompers.

How did the idea for the Sacred Places book series first come about?

After a half dozen years publishing travel guides I started looking deeper into the demand of guides and saw an opportunity. From the beginning it was clear I needed to do a whole series on the subject. Besides, during my three-year trip around the world I found myself drawn to sacred places and I had a strong working knowledge coming into the first book.

What are the other titles in the series?

In order, we’ve published: Sacred Places Around the World: 108 Destinations (now in 2nd edition); Sacred Places North America: 108 Destinations (currently being rewritten into a 2nd edition); Sacred Places of Goddess: 108 Destinations (written by Karen Tate) and our latest, Sacred Places Europe: 108 Destinations.

Can you tell us a little bit about the destinations featured in the new Europe book?

It’s a collection of prehistoric megaliths, sacred mountains, pilgrimage destinations, obscure Christian shrines and other lesser-known locales. Some examples: In France, the book features sites like the caves of the Dordogne region and Carnac’s megaliths. In Central Europe, there is Rila Monastery in Bulgaria, Tipova in Moldova and The Visocica Valley Pyramids in Bosnia, to name a few. Special Christian sites pervade the European landscape. There are sections of sacred site listings for Scandinavia, Germany and the Alps, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain and Portugal too.

One place included in the Great Britain chapter is the assorted monuments around the small village of Avebury, among the most important Neolithic ruins in England. They include Europe’s tallest artificial hill, the skeleton of a monumental stone circle much like Stonehenge, several underground passage chambers, and the remnants of two 1.5-mile (2.4-km) long stone avenues. The Avebury monuments were not just a concentration of elaborate ruins, but also a prehistoric staging ground for seasonal rituals and courting dramas.


Can you share with us a few of your personal favorites from the book?

Like Avebury, the Neolithic sites of Europe really blew me away, both on my first backpack trips across the continent, and during my three-month research trip for the book in 2004. In Holland, the “hunnebeddens” or “giant’s beds” are charming and delightful just like the Dutch people themselves. Ireland is loaded with Neolithic sites like Hill of Tara, Loughcrew and Newgrange.

Why 108 Destinations?

If you were a Hindu or Buddhist, 108 would be one of the most familiar numbers you know. It is sacred for any number of reasons – and fully explained in all my books!

So what was your methodology for choosing the locations you did?

Of course, this is subjective to my own system of qualifying a site. There are some we would all agree upon: Stonehenge, the Scottish stone circle Callanish, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Great Pyramids. For the secondary tier, I look for what the locals consider a sacred place, and which locations have the best story to tell. I don’t report on battlefield or holocaust sites, nor haunted houses or anything like that.

Have you visited all of them?

Close to 80 percent.

“Sacred travel” and things like “metaphysical tourism” and “spirituality tours” have been growing in popularity. To what do you attribute this trend?

People are looking for more in their vacations besides sipping mai tais by the pool. Why not venture off the hotel grounds and check out some of these sites? After all, they are the places that define the very best of the civilizations that preceded us.

More and more travelers are booking their vacations with the expressed interest of experiencing the power of a sacred place. Taking a pilgrimage is not a new idea, but this type of trip seems to correspond with a growing trend in seeking spirituality on a more individual or secular level — all while having an enjoyable time on an educational and invigorating vacation!

Will there be another title in the Sacred Places series in the future?

Either Sacred Places Southeast Asia: 108 Destinations or Sacred Places Central America and the Caribbean: 108 Destinations. What do you think? Can we take a poll?

Sure, Brad, here’s a handy poll for readers who want to make their pick:

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So what’s next for you on the travel horizon?

I’m leaving for a camping and music event up at Mount Shasta, California. We are doing a Peace Tour event in the shadow of the holy mount to see if we can activate the consciousness grid. Go to www.peacetour.org to learn more.

Sounds like another sacred destination worth visiting. Good luck Brad, and thanks for chatting with us.

Talking Travel with Ingrid Emerick

by Kelly Amabile on

Writer Ingrid Emerick is one of three editors that worked on a just-released anthology of female-focused travel stories from Seal Press. She recently teamed up (again) with Faith Conlon and Christina Herny de Tessan on Go Your Own Way: Women Travel the World Solo. Five years ago, the three co-editors worked together on Seal’s previous solo title: A Woman Alone: Travel Tales from Around the Globe.

Ingrid works as a freelance editor and writing coach, and teaches courses at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she lives with her husband and two children. I recently caught up with Ingrid via email to talk more about female solo travel, writing and this fresh new collection of tales from wandering women.

Gadling readers: We’ve got two copies of the book to giveaway, so stick around after the interview to find out how you can win.

How did you first get started traveling?

I think my strong desire to travel was born from the complete lack of it as a child. I didn’t get on an airplane until I was 18 and heading to a college far enough away that air travel was the only viable option. My parents were not travelers by nature and so, as kids, we only went on relatively short car trips. My father did have a huge collection of National Geographic magazines, and I remember spending hours paging through those and dreaming of all the places I would one day hopefully visit.

I grew up on the east coast and went to college out west so I spent quite a bit of time years exploring the American West, which I just fell in love with. In my sophomore year, I took my first trip abroad. My boyfriend at the time was planning a trip with his father who was an advisor for the OAS. They were going to Ecuador for two weeks and invited me along. For a girl who had never even been to Canada, Ecuador provided quite the culture shock. It was an unforgettable trip and really awakened me to just how varied the world, its people, and our conditions were, and yet, of course, how alike we really all were too. After that, I just couldn’t wait to travel abroad again.

About five years later, I finally did. The lack of funds and traveling companions clipped my wings for those intermittent five years until, finally, at 25 I just thought, I don’t need anyone to go with me and I have a credit card, so why not? I bought a Lonely Planet guide for Ireland, a country I had always wanted to go to and figured would be an easy place to travel as a solo woman. That trip was life changing in many ways and just opened me up to the possibility of traveling anywhere and at anytime-as long as I could figure out a way to pay off the credit card bill somehow.

What are some of your best travel memories, both with others and when you went solo?

Oh, so many. I think on a very internal level Ireland was a pivotal trip for me. It gave me confidence and a sense of myself in the world that I hadn’t yet gained. After that trip, I felt I could go anywhere at anytime in my life. It opened the world for me, as corny as that sounds. I experienced a loneliness on that trip which I hope to never experience again, yet in the loneliness I think I really grew to know myself in ways I hadn’t discovered when always surrounded by people. I also met the most amazing, warm people. There is such a natural and deep sense of history in Ireland, you can almost feel it, especially in the west. Some days it felt like I had stepped back in time and other days through the looking glass. It was really magical in every sense. (Here’s a photo of me from that trip.)

Since then I have been lucky enough to travel quite a bit, mostly with my then boyfriend and now husband, as well as with my two children. Each scenario, solo, with another and with kids, is a wholly different experience. And, to be honest, I like them all equally. People worry about traveling with their kids but we have some of our best and funniest family memories from these experiences. Children make you see the world differently and force you to slow down and travel in a way you would not if alone or only with another adult. They also provide an entree into a world of locals that you would just not be privy to without them along.

Other favorite memories would be bathing at the Gellert Hotel in Budapest, and experiencing the slightly bizarre Eastern European spa rituals; Standing on the Academia Bridge taking in the majesty of Venice’s Grand Canal; Getting caught in a rainstorm on top of the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacán, outside of Mexico City; and watching the light bulb go on as my six-year-old really got it — that not everyone knows, or necessarily wants to know, English! It was like literally seeing his mind expand in a matter of seconds. (Here they are atop St. Peter’s in Rome.)


You’ve worked on several female-focused travel anthologies, often with an emphasis on the solo experience. In your opinion, what are some of the factors that inspire or motivate women to head out on their own?

I think it ranges from the practical to the improbable. For many women, it isn’t their first choice. They simply can’t find a travel companion that can commit. Yet, what I see over and over in the stories I receive is that once pushed to go alone, they have an unforgettable experience-and so different from the one had when traveling in the company of others. Some women travel solo as a right of passage. They have graduated from college and want to travel before “real life” begins. They have an empty nest and need to redefine themselves for this new stage in life. They have lost someone, either in a break-up or by death, and they need to get away from it all and take stock of who they are and what they want and need right now. I think travel, especially solo, allows enough distance from our every day realities to help guide us during times of transition and pain. I also see more women making their solo trips as a kind of pilgrimage to a certain place of significance for them. This inherently endows the trip with an immediate sense of importance and meaning that traveling as a tourist can sometimes lack.

Can you tell us a little bit about some of the contributors and stories included in Go Your Own Way?

Where to begin. We have women traveling to far-flung locales like Borneo and Labrador, and others much closer to home, in places like Yosemite and Hawaii. We have women traveling for a variety of reasons, some for adventure, some as a pilgrimage of sorts — whether to Iceland to walk in the footsteps of a hero or to Argentina to perfect the tango. We have women traveling at different points in their life, to mourn the end of a relationship, to mark the moment before marriage or children change their lives forever. Specifically, we have Jennifer Bingham Hull dodging bullets in revolutionary Nicaragua; Stephanie Eliz
ondo Griest, who finds female friends invaluable in her journey through Uzbekistan; and Amy Balfour, who recounts a hilarious trek up Yosemite’s Half Dome. Then there is Alice Carey, making new Egyptian friends on the streets of Cairo one year after 9/11; and Faith Adiele in Nigeria, where everyone knows her father, a man she has never met.

How did you and the other editors decide on which stories to include? Did the process and/or the submissions you received differ in any distinct way from previous anthologies you have worked on?

The whole collection feels very strong to me, and each story quite unique. We really tried to show the multitude of reasons that women travel solo, as well as feature a large cross-section of women and different locales. And, of course, the strongest writing we could find. I think we miraculously succeeded in each area. My co-editors and I divided up the hundreds of submissions, picked our favorites, and then swapped. We also directly solicited essays by travel writers-Barbara Sjoholm, Holly Morris, Lucy McCauley, Kate Chynoweth, to name a few. More than half of the essays came from writers we contacted and the rest we found through the submission process. It was important to us to have original writing, so we included only a few reprints in the book.

The process of working together with Faith and Christina was very similar to our last project – lots of fun. It’s always interesting to hear the perspective of your co-editors on different essays, although we never seem to have any major disagreements. And having three editors does lighten the load. We used the Internet quite a lot for the submission process, obviously. We did in the previous collection in 2001 as well, although this time, we were able to have a much shorter lead-time for the submission call and received even more essays than before. Writers are using the Internet much more avidly these days it seems. It really makes the work of getting the word out so much easier and it helps cast a wider net.


The solo travel experience can be transformative at any stage in a woman’s life. But the nature of how women travel alone also changes over time, as is mention in the book’s introduction. Can you point to examples of stories in Go Your Own Way that illustrate how a woman’s perspective on solo travel can shift over time?

Several of the stories in Go Your Own Way are written from the perspective of the traveler in her 20s – sometimes a humorous account of a naïve mishap, such as occurs in The Dis-Orient Express by Eileen Favorite – or a turning point, as in Trek to Thirty by Aarti Sawhney. Other stories are from the point of view of a woman who has more life experience – Gail Hudson traveling with her teenage daughter in Greece, for example, or consummate traveler Edith Pearlman’s forays in a small Japanese town. Marion Winik does a wonderful job in the final essay in the book discussing this very idea of perspective shift with age as she talks about how waiting alone at the airport can feel like a luxurious getaway for a busy mother of three.

What advice would you give to a woman traveling solo to Seattle – any tips or hints on what to do or see?

Oh, Seattle is a great city to travel to on your own. It is friendly, safe, and relatively easy to get around. Depending on your interests, there are a lot of hubs of activity and repositories of information. If you are into the outdoors, go by the flagship REI store and see what is happening on their program. They have all kinds of in-store events and out-of-store activities and trips. For literary interests, check out the Hugo House on Capitol Hill and Elliott Bay Books in Pioneer Square. For visual art, there is the stunning new Sculpture Park and the just reopened Seattle Art Museum. Wandering Pike Market is a must and kayaking on Lake Union is really wonderful. And depending on the season I’d also check out the Ballard Locks to see the salmon spawning or head out to the islands on one of the many state-run ferries. And it sounds cliché, but I would probably visit in the late spring, summer or early fall to assure the city is showing its finest face. Seattle really comes alive with the sun. A sort of hibernation tends to set in here in the drearier winter months. This isn’t necessarily bad for the inhabitants but can be a little disappointing for visitors.

What kind of workshops do you teach?

I teach a course on publishing and another on advanced non-fiction editing at the University of Washington Extension Program every year. I also do various editing and writing related workshops around town, including one this winter at the Hugo House on creating a great book proposal. My Adventure Diva’s workshop in New Zealand is my first specifically writing-related workshop and I think it will be really fun to work with writers as a group after all of these years of working with them individually as their editor and book coach.

Can you tell us more about the Adventure Diva’s workshop?

I’m leading an outdoor experience/ writing workshop for fourteen days on New Zealand’s South Island. This is an exciting prospect for me and I hope a fabulous trip for the Adventure Diva participants. We are trying to merge adventure with the writing component, creating a space for those interested in working on their writing while experiencing this amazing landscape. I want to stress that this trip is not solely for writers but for anyone who is interested in exploring New Zealand as well as making some time everyday to explore the creative side of themselves through the written word. We’ll be exploring all kids of amazing places on this trip including: hiking the limestone canyons and lush rainforest of the Inland Pack Track in Punakaiki; sea-kayaking in Okarito Lagoon with a backdrop of snow-capped mountains; trekking in Mount Aspiring National Park; enjoying the cultural offerings of Queenstown and Dunedin. We’ll also explore Milford Sound by bike and boat, and check out the penguin colony of Oamaru. I think the structure and focus provides a unique opportunity for those who have always wanted to go on an adventure travel trip and participate in a writing workshop at the same time. Plus, who doesn’t want to see New Zealand!

Are you working on any other projects or planning any other upcoming travel that you’d like to share with Gadling readers?

We have some events coming up around the Go Your Own Way release. July 1st we are doing a reading and publication party at Queen Anne Avenue Books in Seattle at 3pm. Then, on July 12th at 7:30 there is a reading at Powell’s in Portland, OR and on July 17th at 7:00pm another reading in Seattle at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park and on August 5th a reading at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA.

I just started a book development and editorial consulting business with my long-time friend and former colleague, Leslie Miller, called Girl Friday Productions (www.girlfridayproduction.com) so we are having fun launching that and being back in the publishing world working on a more day to day level with authors and publishers again.

Personal travel is consciously in the Northwest for the next few months. I love it here, especially in the summer and plan on doing a lot of camping and sailing with family and friends. We are starting to plan for a really big, around the world trip with the children, but that is still a ways off.

Sounds like another idea for a collection of stories — all in the family travel! Thanks for talking with us about travel, writing, Go Your Own Way and the other projects you are working on. Best of luck and happy travels!

Gadling readers: Want to win a copy of Go Your Own Way? All you need to do is comment below and our magical system will automatically select two lucky winners at random. Make sure you use a valid email address, as we’ll have to contact you to get your mailing address. For official rules, please click here. Comments and contest will close one week from today, July 5 at 8 PM.

Talking Travel with Harry Helms

by Justin Glow on

Today, Gadling got a chance to sit down and Talk Travel with Harry Helms, author of Top Secret Tourism: “Your Travel Guide to Germ Warfare Laboratories, Clandestine Aircraft Bases and Other Places in the United States You’re Not Supposed to Know About.”

Here is the unseen America of government facilities and installations protected by a wall of secrecy, deception, and misinformation. It includes huge, isolated areas (some larger than the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island), along with innocuous office buildings located in the middle of major cities. This “other America” has an enormous impact on your life, but you probably have little idea of its extent, scope, and power.

As per usual, we have a few copies of the book to give away, so stick around after the interview to find out how you can get your hands on one.


Hi Harry, thanks so much for chatting with us. How did you get started traveling? Was it something you grew up with?

I was fortunate to have parents who enjoyed traveling, especially my father. He was the sort of guy who was always curious about what was over the horizon and wanted to see it for himself. He also enjoyed visiting obscure, out-of-the-way places, and that rubbed off on me. While I would never turn down the opportunity to visit someplace like Paris, I most look forward to visiting places most people have never heard off.

In your book, you travel around the country and visit “top-secret America.” What kinds of places are these?
These are places that have come into being since World War II, and include government weapons testing and research facilities, bases used to test still-secret aircraft designs, relocation facilities for government VIPs and military officers in case of nuclear war, facilities used for espionage training and communications intercepts—in other words, the sort of places to government would rather you know nothing about!

How did you get interested investigating places you were told to avoid?

This started back when I got interested in visiting ghost towns and Native American rock art sites in southern California, Nevada, and Arizona and started finding these fenced-off areas, complete with warning signs and sometimes security patrols, in the middle of nowhere. I especially remember trying to locate a rock art site near China Lake in the southern California desert; I took an unmarked, poorly-graded dirt road I thought led to the site and instead came to a guardhouse manned by armed guards. Most of these places would not be marked on U.S. Geological Survey or Bureau of Land Management maps, and that got wondering what was going on inside those areas. To find out information about these sites, I had to do digging into such arcane documents as environmental impact statements, aeronautical maps and charts, lawsuit depositions, etc. It was like putting together a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, and I’m still trying to fit a lot of pieces!

Is there any sort of physical or legal danger involved in visiting any of the sites in your book?

Unless you do something really stupid like willfully trespass into a restricted area, you’re in no danger of being shot at or apprehended by security forces. However, visitors to some sites may be hassled by security forces and the local police, and they make ask you to turn off any video or photos you’ve made of the area. As I advise in my book, the best thing to do in such situations is to comply with their orders and then discuss things with an attorney when you get home.

Many of the sites I discuss in my book are located in very remote sections of the American west, and you may be over 100 miles from the nearest gas station or medical care. Your car should be in good working order with a spare tire, and a first aid kit, water, food, and other emergency supplies would be a good idea before visiting such isolated sites.

There’s a certain appeal to discovery, whether you’re plodding through a dense, untouched rain forest, or sneaking around secret government facilities — do you recommend the average Joe go out and discover their own “top-secret” locations? If so, what are some things to keep in mind to stay safe and out of jail?

One of the best tools I’ve found to discovering top secret locations is aeronautical maps and navigational guides. If you see an area that is off-limits to all air traffic, military and civilian, on a 24/7 basis, that’s a very good clue that something interesting and top secret is going on in that area. As always, the key to staying safe, both physically and legally, is to obey all warning signs and avoid trespassing into such areas. That can be hard to do; for example, the boundary at some facilities may be marked only by orange posts spaced 100 feet apart. If you’re not absolutely sure of where the boundary is, don’t push your luck!


Nevada Test Site seen from Google Maps

What’s your favorite top-secret location featured in the book?

Oh, that’s easy—the Nevada Test Site, located about 65 miles north of Las Vegas.

Why there?

One reason is that it’s such an outrageous place—-it’s where 126 aboveground and over 800 underground nuclear bomb tests were conducted between 1951 and 1992. It’s the most heavily nuked piece of real estate on the planet, and has huge blast craters resembling those on the moon, networks of underground tunnels, and replicas of suburban housing developments so the effects of atomic bomb blasts could be studied. While they no longer test nuclear weapons there, they do admit they conduct open-air tests of hazardous materials—-supposedly to study the effects on accidental spills and chemical weapons—and, according to a 2001 report in the New York Times, conduct germ warfare tests there. So the location of the Nevada Test Site isn’t a secret, but exactly what’s going on in there is still shrouded in deep secrecy.

The other crazy thing about the Nevada Test Site is that they offer monthly tours from Las Vegas. They bus you up there, you can’t take any photographs, video camera and binoculars are forbidden, and you’re not allowed to even make sketches of what you see. But you do get to see the inside of the facility and several of the buildings, nuclear test sites and craters, etc. It’s just wild to see such a combination of great secrecy and comparative openness.

The first place that comes to the reader’s mind, no doubt, is Area 51. What did you find there? What can someone expect to see if they follow your lead?

As I describe in my book, there are two access roads leading you to the Area 51 boundary, and they’re both located north and south on Rachel, NV, along Highway 375. If you go there hoping to see space aliens and crashed UFOs, you’re going to be disappointed—-all you can see are warning signs, security guards, and, from the north entrance to Area 51, a guardhouse. The security guards will be watching you from their vehicles parked just inside the Area 51 boundary. I’ve looked at their vehicles through binoculars and have seen them looking back at me through their binoculars, I’ve waved at them, and they’ve waved back. So the security guards there can be friendly so long as you stay outside the border.

At night you will see all sorts of moving lights in the airspace above Area 51. I don’t think these are UFOs, but instead are likely military aircraft, including some still classified secret.

Have you ever found yourself in hot water for accidentally crossing a line, or going where you weren’t supposed to?

Fortunately, I’ve never been arrested but did accidentally wander about a mile inside the Nevada Test Site back in the late 1990s. I came to a dirt road with an open gate, drove down the road, and it wasn’t until I had traveled about a mile that I noticed signs telling me I had entered the site. I turned around and got out, and then noticed “no trespassing” signs on the other side of the gate. However, security has been greatly increased at such sites since the 9/11 attacks and the chances of such accidental entries is much lower these days.

Have you ever been surprised by the lack of security at what is supposed to be a top-secret facility?

Not just shocked, but horrified! For example, there are some nuclear test sites which on public and which can be freely accessed by anyone—-they’re totally unguarded. Radioactive materials could be retrieved from such sites and used to make a “dirty bomb,” for example. But, as I said before, security at most sites has been greatly increased since 9/11.

Is there a top-secret location you tried and tried to gain access to — but just couldn’t? Or perhaps a place so top-secret you chose to avoid all together?

There’s never been a place I couldn’t get close to, but I have heard rumors about several places that I couldn’t confirm. If I couldn’t verify that a place existed, I left it out of my book. While I didn’t avoid any place, there are some sites, like Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, that gave me the creeps. You’re out in the middle of nowhere, so isolated your cell phone doesn’t work and you can only pick up a couple of radio stations, and me and a couple of security guards were the only people within 50 miles. It’s tough to keep your imagination from running away from you in such a situation!

Thanks so much for your time, Harry!

It was my pleasure, and be sure to obey all the warning signs if you visit any of the places I describe in my book!

As promised, we have copies of the book to give away to two lucky Gadling readers! Just leave a comment below and our magical system will automatically select three random winners — but make sure you use a valid email address, as we’ll have to contact you to get your mailing address. For official rules, please click here. Comments and contest will close one week from today, June 27 at 8:00 PM.

Talking Travel with Brook Silva-Braga

by Justin Glow on

Writer and director Brook Silva-Braga left his job as an Emmy award-winning producer with HBO’s Inside the NFL to do what many of us dream of, and a few actually go through with: he moved all of his belongings into his parents house and set out on a year long round-the-world trip. With less than five pounds of clothing, and over 30 pounds of video equipment stuffed into a backpack, Brook traveled around the globe, chronicling the entire solo adventure in an outstanding documentary called A MAP FOR SATURDAY (read my review of it here).

We got a chance to sit down with Brook and Talk Travel. What made him quit his cushy job at HBO to travel the world for a year? Does the movie appeal more to those of us who have already traveled a great deal, or those who have yet to catch the “bug”? Find out!

We’ve got three copies of the DVD to give away, so stay tuned after the interview to find out how you can get your hands on one! The contest has ended! Find out where you can purchase a copy of the movie at the end of the interview.

How much traveling had you done before you decided to take the leap and travel solo for a year?

I had traveled throughout the U.S. for work and vacationed in Europe, South America and the Caribbean but I’d never done the budget thing or traveled alone. I remember going to Peru with my family on a package tour — perish the thought — and one guy in the group was traveling by himself. We all looked at him like there was something a bit wrong with that.

What finally pushed you over the edge… that moment that made you decide to commit to spending a year on the road?

It’s kind of ironic how it came about. I was working for HBO and they sent me to the Philippines to produce a story. I figured while I was in Asia I’d head over to the Thai beaches for a few days. So naturally one night in Ko Samui I ended up Jell-o wrestling and that led me to meet Bill and Paul, who had quit their lives in Northern Ireland for an around-the-world year. I was blown away by what they were doing and tagged along for as long as I could. But after a couple weeks work beckoned and I headed back to the New York winter knowing I wanted more of that amazing thing I had felt in Thailand. I quit my job seven months later.

My boss took me to lunch just before I left and asked if I had gotten the idea for the trip during my time in Asia. When I told him “Yes,” he said, “From now on we’re only sending married producers overseas.”

How long had you been working for HBO before you left?

I started interning there when I was 19 and had been there full time for three years, so it wasn’t easy to leave but I knew it was the right decision.

Did you leave on the trip with any sort of agreement with them regarding a job when you returned?

I asked for a one-year leave and they couldn’t give me that. My boss suggested I could just take a few weeks each year and it would add up to the same thing. My co-workers were mostly supportive and a bit envious.

Was your job waiting for you when you got back?

I’m really lucky they didn’t give me the one-year leave because I needed another four months to finish the documentary when I got back. Afterwards I gave a copy of it to my old boss and he very generously offered me a better position than I had when I left. But I’m in a different place now professionally and personally and an office job just isn’t for me.

Did you plan on traveling with the intent of making the documentary from the beginning… or did you come up with the idea of documenting it when you started planning the details of the trip?

The idea to travel came first, but I was a little concerned about throwing away my career, so making a documentary was a way of lessening that concern. I had a million ideas for what kind of documentary to make but none of them were that good so I just started shooting my own preparations and by the time I left I knew it would be about the experience of traveling alone for a long time.


Some hardcore travelers scoff at the thought of bringing large amounts of technology along. What sort of reactions did you have from the travelers you met along the way when they saw you traveling with all of the video equipment?

The bag full of electronics made me a bit of a curiosity I think but it almost never drew a negative reaction. In a way I was an even more hardcore traveler because with all the electronic requirements for making the film my personal possessions were less than 10 pounds.

What about the people in the documentary? Were they excited about the project — or do you think they thought this footage wouldn’t actually see the light of day outside of your family and friends?

I learned that the word “documentary” is thrown around quite liberally these days. Anyone with a camera but without a script is “making a documentary.” So I think most people lumped me into that group. Also, because I didn’t have a crew with me and was mainly shooting people who I had become good friends with I was able to capture moments that a normal production crew wouldn’t.

Now that they’ve had the chance to see the final product, what are they saying?

The biggest rush from this project was watching it premiere in front of 500 people in Cleveland, but the second best moment was watching it in a Berlin hotel room with my friend Jens. I met him in Australia and he’s one of the main characters in the film. After his section played he got a little emotional and grabbed the DVD case. I was videoing his reaction so I know just what he said: “I will have this for the rest of my life…Like my children I tell them, ‘Here, this is a movie about what I have done,’ and they can see me.”

For some reason I was really, really happy to do that for him. I worked 18 months on the movie and it really has very little personal meaning to me because I’ve seen it so many hundreds of times but for him to have a record of his trip like that is really cool.

Do you think the documentary appeals more to people who have traveled in the past or people who plan to travel in the future?

The response from both groups has been really nice. At first I was concerned that hardcore travelers would have a ‘been there, done that,’ attitude but they haven’t. Travelers love travel I think. That’s something we all learn when we get home and the only people who want to hear our travel stories are other travelers.

Where has it shown so far?

So far it’s played festivals in Cleveland, Memphis, Paris and Wales. It will play at the Ischia Film Festival in Italy at the end of June and the Globians Film Festival in Potsdam, Germany this August where it will be the opening film.

Can you tell us anything about the MTV premiere?

A U.S. TV date will be announced soon and international TV details are being finalized as well. I feel very corporate saying all that.

What’s in store for the future? Any more traveling?

I’m hoping to visit some friends in Europe this summer and finally make it to Iceland. I’ve started drawing lines through a map of Africa with hopes for this winter. There will be more documentaries from far-flung places but I think ‘A Map for Saturday’ says what I have to say about the experience of travel. Now I’ll just enjoy it.

Thanks, Brook!

A Map For Saturday can be purchased online at AMapForSaturday.com.