Video: Rolf Potts Speaks at Authors@Google

by Justin Glow on


Our good friend Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel, was recently invited to speak at Google’s New York office as a part of the Authors@Google program. Fortunately for us non-Google employees (or is it open to the public? I can’t tell), each talk is filmed and posted to YouTube. What you have above this paragraph is nearly an hour’s worth of Rolf talking about his book and sharing various experiences on the road. He then fields questions from the audience. Here’s a few of those questions:

  • When your traveling in case you get hurt? What kind of documents do you carry with you?
  • What are attitudes have you experienced when you travel as an American post-9/11?
  • Is it possible to not be a tourist? How do you get off the tourist’s trail?
  • How do you deal with coming home after a long trip?

Check it out — well worth an hour of your time.

Rolf Potts on the Rick Steves Radio Show

by Justin Glow on

This past Saturday, Europe travel guru Rick Steves hosted an hour-long conversation with Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel, on his weekly radio show, Travel with Rick Steves. Here are some of the topics covered:

  • What is vagabonding?
  • Vagabonding as a “whole new ethic of travel.”
  • Time as your “truest form of wealth.”
  • Is it possible to vagabond with children?
  • What are the best places in the world for long-term, budget travel?
  • How do you budget for a vagabonding trip?
  • “Playing games with your day,” or jumping outside of an itinerary when on your travels and allowing your surroundings to shape your day.
  • Hosteling as a senior citizen — can it be done?
  • Can time shares or home exchanges fit into the vagabonding method of travel?
  • How can you get time off from work to travel long-term, or do you have to just quit your job?
  • Can you find Internet access everywhere in the world?
  • How do you deal with culture shock?
  • How to use vagabonding and travel in general as way to discover your “core values.”
  • Returning home after a long-term trip — how do you adjust and re-assimilate?

You can listen to the full interview here.

Rolf Potts + Travel Writing Classes + St. Petersburg, Russia = Fabulous June

by Willy Volk on

In addition to teaching creative nonfiction (a.k.a. travel writing) classes at the Paris American Academy this July, Rolf Potts will also be teaching a two-week course in travel writing at the Summer Literary Seminar in St. Petersburg, Russia. Russia?! Isn’t that, like, far? Well, yes…but the idea is that by visiting a totally foreign culture, a writer will experience a jolt of creative energy that will energize their writing and inspire greatness.

If you want to experience a jolt, maybe you should sign up for the course, which runs June 17-30. In it, participants take part in daily writing and literature-ish activities, like “Literary Walks” in St. Petersburg, introductory Russian language courses, and more. The 2-week course runs $1850 plus room and board, so it isn’t cheap. However, this is a great opportunity to get away, experience a foreign culture in a very visceral way, and write about it.

Who knows? If you get inspired, you might get published, and the trip would pay for itself.

[Photo: vetkaa]

Paris Writing Workshop, July 2-27

by Willy Volk on

Let’s see…live for a month in Paris, write, learn how to be a better writer from Rolf Potts, drink French wine, and generally enjoy the most beautiful city on earth. Sounds awesome. If, like me, you want to pretend you’re Hemingway during his Paris phase, you’ll be interested in the Paris Writing Workshop, to be held July 2-27 of this year.

In addition to building your writing portfolio and taking “nonfiction storytelling classes” (that’d be travel writing, to you and me), attendees will participate in one-on-one critiques with professional writers, give readings in Parisian bookshops, and receive “survival” French lessons. Mon Dieu!

However, much like college, it isn’t all about class time. Happily, there will be ample opportunity to experience the city, attend cultural events, visit museums, take day-trips to the countryside, read books, hang out in cafes, and even go on a chocolate tour — all of which you can write about during your free time.

Free time?

[Via Written Road]

Potts on Yahoo

by Erik Olsen on

One of our favorite travel writers and, well, sometime, bloggers Rolf Potts seems to have landed himself a great gig over at Yahoo. He’s got a new column called Traveling Light where he ruminates on the Art of Independent Travel. The most recent piece examines Pushkar, the Hindu holy town in India. It’s a nice little peice with real Pottsian flair. Of Pushkar, Potts writes: Pushkar didn’t seem much like a Tourist Zone: There were no glitzy hotels, no air-conditioned knickknack boutiques, no busloads of sunburned Germans and chubby Texans.

But he soon discovers that Pushkar is indeed a Tourist Zone, where monk-like sadhus approach to have their photos taken for money, and a New york City-like array of international foods are at one’s fingertips. We’ll keep checking in on Pott’s peices here, as we’re always eager to see what he has to say.