MTP14: Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel with Rolf Potts

Rolf Potts is a legendary travel writer, who’s book Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel has been a classic piece of travel writing for many years.  Rolf’s writing has appeared in National Geographic, The Guardian, Outside, The New Yorker, and Sports Illustrated.  Potts has been part of creative writing workshops and/or taught classes at places like Paris American University, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University.

In addition to travel writing and his Vagabonding success, Rolf Potts’ adventures have taken him across six continents, and include piloting a fishing boat 900 miles down the Laotian Mekong, hitchhiking across Eastern Europe, traversing Israel on foot, bicycling across Burma, driving a Land Rover across South America, and traveling around the world for six weeks with no luggage or bags of any kind.

Potts is also the author of Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations From One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer and the new edition of Vagabonding includes a foreword from Tim Ferriss.  Most recently Rolf has launched his own podcast called “Deviate”.

Rolf leaves the listeners with some final advice encouraging them to travel and reminding them that its not as difficult or as dangerous as they might think.

In this episode of The Millennial Travel Podcast we discuss: 

• What does it mean to be “time rich” versus most people travel in such a hurry? 
• • Rolf Potts explains how he taught English in Korea
• What does Rolf Potts think about the digital nomad movement?
• Why do people want to go back in time for nostalgic reasons when they travel? 
• A quick story of when Rolf Potts got lost getting off the beaten path.
• How people can cut the cord on their smartphone while traveling.
• How can people truly disconnect, so they don’t get burned out? 
• How to make your “vacation your vocation”.
• What can we learn from the “slow food movement” or “slow travel movement”? 
• How can people afford to travel more often and travel for longer?
• • Travel to cheaper places
  • He lives in Kansas because of the low cost of living, so he can afford to travel more often   
• What is Rolf Potts’ life like in Kansas and what does he appreciate about it? 
• • Rolf is from Kansas and learned to appreciate what he has at home.
• How does an old school traveler like Rolf Potts feel about Instagram culture in travel?
  
  

The Millennial Travel Podcast Rapid Fire Questions: 

• If Rolf Potts could go to one bar tomorrow what would it be? 
• • McGlinchey’s in Philadelphia or a Korean soju tent
• If Rolf Potts could take six months to travel anywhere where would he go? 
• • The United States because it’s such a large, diverse country
• What is Rolf Potts favorite US National Park? 
• • Olympic National Park in Washington
• Rolf Potts favorite piece of travel gear? 
• • You don’t need any luggage to have a good time, so he said good shoes or a smartphone. 

Resources: 

• Rolf Potts’ best seller: Vagabonding
• Rolf Potts’ book Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer (Travelers' Tales Guides)
• Rolf Potts’ book Souvenir (Object Lessons)
• Rolf Potts podcast Deviate
• @RolfPotts on Instagram
• @RolfPotts on Twitter
• His website rolfpotts.com 

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or Spotify.

You can find all the links and past show notes on millennialtravelpodcast.com

Direct support for The Millennial Travel Podcast comes from The Millennial Travel Guidebook: Escape More, Spend Less, & Make Travel a Priority in Your Life... and from our new USA hiking and camping trips at Under30Experiences!