Interview with Travel Writer Rolf Potts - Travel Like Anna

If you care about interview travel writer rolf, this guide gets straight to the point. We break down what actually matters, skip the fluff, and show you how to put it to work today.

Key Takeaways

• In this week’s Travel Tuesday Interview, I chat with travel writer Rolf Potts, a legend in the travel world.
• He discusses traveling with no luggage, advice for aspiring travel writers and why travel is cheaper than you think.
• Website: RolfPotts.com 1) How did you begin traveling?
• Growing up in Kansas, summer vacation trips were the highlight of my year.

What to Know About Interview Travel Writer Rolf

His book Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel is a travel classic and has inspired numerous people like Tim Ferriss (and myself) to shun the conventional to travel for long periods of time. In between driving a Land Rover throughout South America and biking throughout Burma, he still finds time to write for National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker, Slate.com and the New York Times Magazine.

• Worth noting: travel writer Rolf Potts (Photo courtesy of Rolf Potts) Name: Rolf Potts Age: 47 Hometown: Wichita, Kansas Country Count: I don’t count countries, though I’d reckon I’m up to 80-90 by now.
• I pretty much thought that’s what everyone in the world lived for: Annual summer vacations.
• More importantly, when I was young I went to places like Kansas City and Chicago and Colorado; I didn’t see the ocean until I was 15.
• Later, when I was in college and working blue-collar summer jobs in Kansas I began to worry that life wasn’t going to provide me with the multi-month travel adventures I dreamed out.

How Interview Travel Writer Rolf Really Works

After college I got a job as a landscaper, saved my money, and spent eight months traveling throughout North America in a Volkswagen Vanagon. At the time I hoped that trip would scratch my travel itch, but in the end it just taught me how straightforward and accessible and delightful travel could be if you allowed yourself to go slowly and inexpensively.

• Remember that a couple years later I got my first-ever passport, moved to Korea to teach English for a couple of years, and used that money to transition into full-time travel and travel writing.
• I haven’t looked back since.
• Potts grew up in Kanas and didn’t see the ocean until he was 15. (Photo courtesy of Rolf Potts) 2) What does the average work day look like for you?
• I don’t know that I have an average work day.

Getting the Most From Interview Travel Writer Rolf

As a rule, i like the concept of schedules and routines, but I’ve at no point been solid at implementing them long-term. I guess I’m a project-oriented person, in that I can work in a focused method from early in the morning to late in the day if I have a specific, deadline-driven book or longform essay to complete.

• Whereas my focus is more fragmented when I have a grab-bag of smaller tasks to knock out.
• I’m not consistently the most efficient person in the world.
• In short, writing-wise I tend to work best in the morning, once I’ve caffeinated and locked in on the task at hand.
• 3) What are three of your favorite travel books and/or travel writers?

Tips That Make a Difference

I think I was a more impressionable reader when I was younger, so my favorite travel books tend to stay the same over the years. I mean there’s been some terrific travel books in recent years, I’m thinking Robert Moor’s On Trails or Kate Harris’s Lands of Lost Borders, but newer books don’t affect me the method that, say, Pico Iyer’s Video Night in Kathmandu or Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek affected me when I was younger.

• Worth noting: tim Cahill, Paul Theroux, Eddy Harris, Jan Morris, there’s a whole generation of late-twentieth-century travel writers who were key to me at a certain time in my career.
• And Walt Whitman, of course.
• He isn’t genuinely seen as a travel writer, but his “Song of the Open Road” is essential reading.
• In May 2001, Potts took a “slow, decrepit old mail steamer” down the Irrawaddy River in Burma.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

More importantly, this adventure later became the opening line of his book, Vagabonding. (Photo courtesy of Rolf Potts) 4) Share one of your travel highlights.  I’ve been traveling for so long now that I don’t think I could narrow my highlights down to a 100-point list, let alone a single representative experience. Taking a wooden Laotian fishing boat 800 miles down the Mekong River in 1999 was an unforgettable adventure for me.

• But then so was laying out in a meadow at Yellowstone’s Wolf Lake at the end of my highly first vagabonding trip, just soaking in the sun and feeling so grateful at having made the decision to travel long-term.
• There have been countless moments in my travel career since then that have reminded me of how grateful I am to have experienced so numerous parts of the world.
• Remember that 5) What is the biggest myth about travel?
• I think the biggest myth about travel, or at least the most damaging myth, is that it’s too pricey for most people to do over the long term.

Is Interview Travel Writer Rolf Worth It?

There’s is concept that travel is something you purchase like a commodity, when in fact it works better if you simply provide it to yourself, if you slow down and apply what money you have to travel in tandem with local economies. The travel industry is designed to make vacations comfortable and efficient for vacationers, and that’s fine.

• As a rule, but if you sidestep those expenses and take your life on the road, intermingling with the lives of your host cultures, you can actually travel for the same amount of money (or less) than what you spend from month to month at home.  Potts takes a selfie with penguins in the Malvinas (Falkland Islands).
• He doesn’t count countries but estimates he’s probably been to 80-90. (Photo courtesy of Rolf Potts) 6) How do you balance work and travel?  At best I blend the two in such a method that they feed into each other.
• This doesn’t consistently work, of course.
• Back in my earliest days of international travel writing, when I was writing a biweekly column for Salon Travel, I was traveling and writing full-time, frequently reporting my adventures a few days after they happened.

Where the Real Savings Hide

In short, these days I have a stronger travel/work separation, and I do most of my writing back home in the United States. Sometimes, while on the road, I’ll rent a flat in, say, Cape Town or Buenos Aires with the specific intention of being still and writing, but for the most part the bulk of my writing now gets done when I’m stateside.

• 7) You frequently ask writers you interveiw for their advice or warnings for someone interested in going into travel writing.
• What is your advice and/or warnings?
• Worth noting: do it since you love to write.
• Seriously: There are better methods to fund long-term travel, and the perceived “romance” of travel writing is going to lose its romance pretty fast if you resent sitting indoors writing articles and books and blog posts when you’d rather be outside exploring.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I save money on interview travel writer rolf?

Compare prices across a few retailers, look for active coupon codes, and time bigger buys around sales events. In between driving a Land Rover throughout South America and biking throughout Burma, he still finds time to write for National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker, Slate.com and the New York Times Magazine.

Is it worth shopping around for interview travel writer rolf?

Usually yes. Worth noting: travel writer Rolf Potts (Photo courtesy of Rolf Potts) Name: Rolf Potts Age: 47 Hometown: Wichita, Kansas Country Count: I don’t count countries, though I’d reckon I’m up to 80-90 by now.

Smart Ways to Save More on Interview Travel Writer Rolf

• Check for student, military, or first order offers you may qualify for.
• Time non urgent purchases around major sale events for the deepest cuts.
• Leave items in your cart for a day; some stores send a follow up discount.
• Pair cashback with a coupon so you save twice on the same order.
• Stack a coupon code with an existing sale whenever the store allows it.

Final Thoughts

Before you check out, line up interview travel writer rolf against current promotions and any codes you can stack. Small habits like these add up to real savings over a year.

Originally published at savingswitch.com.