More Stories to Tell: Announcing New Book

I’m excited to officially announce my next book, Make Sure You Have a Map (And Other Bits of Travel Advice I’m Glad I Ignored)!

My second book will be a fun look at bad travel advice, and the stories that have come from ignoring this advice during my travels in twelve countries. Taking slightly sketchy public transportation? Yep, did that in Tanzania. Signing up for that too-good-to-be-true deal in Germany? It ended up (mostly) working out. Getting suckered into tourist traps? Yeah, that was most of my trip in Argentina. And you know what? My travels were all the better for ignoring the twenty bits of advice in the book.

The book is a collection of twenty stories from my travels, narratives sharing my own wonder, adventures, and sometimes hard-learned lessons as I traveled—especially as I learned which travel advice it turns out should not be followed. As I share my stories, the book also inevitably shares some of my own travel tips and advice for journeying through the world.

I have been lucky to travel extensively over last ten years and have learned a lot from my travels. I hope the stories in this collection will bring readers to the places I’ve spent time in as I wander (lost) through the narrow alleyways of Naples, as I pause on a beach in Costa Rica to decide what foods might be safe to eat, as I watch drought-stricken countryside roll by in Australia, as I taste both delicious and utterly undrinkable coffee in Colombia.

Some of advice I have found is just plain wrong, such as “don’t talk to strangers.” Really? Instead, I have found meeting locals and other travelers the best parts of any trip, and a three-day train trip across Tanzania taught me why.

Other advice, I have had to learn, just doesn’t apply to all situations, such as “stick to the trail.” Generally, I try to follow this advice (my day job is a park ranger), but if I want to cross a volcanic, pumice-filled valley in Katmai National Park, Alaska? There are no trails, which I learned can itself be part of the adventure.

Make Sure You Have a Map shares eighteen other bits of travel advice and stories like these over six continents, imparting some advice, and inviting the reader to think about their own travels. Head over to my “travel photography” pages to see some of the places I’ve traveled and that are in the book.

I am currently working with my editor on a final manuscript and expect to publish this summer. You can also “like” the book’s Facebook page to get updates there. Check back soon for a final publishing date, a list of the twenty bits of travel advice I was glad I ignored, a full list of which countries I explore in this book, and the cover reveal!

Make Sure You Have a Map (And Other Bits of Travel Advice I’m Glad I Ignored): out summer 2016!