Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel, by Rolf Potts
When I travel, I’m usually a pretty organized planner. Though, I been finding myself planning less and less on trips over the past several years. I usually don’t read travel essay type books. But doing some research for a trip at my local Barnes and Noble, I caught a book that took a more anti-planning approach. So, I picked up a copy.
I’d say the heart of the book is to just slow down when traveling and enjoy your surroundings. It’s really targeted to folks who want to do long term travel (3+ months at a time). I found it helpful for thinking about even shorter trips. The 10 day turbo trip across Europe? Ridiculous. How about 10 days in a single city? The other thing I liked about the book is the emphasis on traveling on the cheap. I remember the $10 dollar a night hotels I’ve stayed in. Not the $250. Finally, the author spends a lot of time making the point that there’s no need to wait to travel. Along those lines, this passage stood out the most for me:…we end up spending (as Thoreau put it) “the best part of one’s life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it.”
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