Travel Writing Podcast

By the time she was a teenager, Katherine Parker-Magyar had explored the Arctic Circle and visited every one of the United States. As time went by, her travels never slowed down. She has now traveled to over 100 countries, often on paid assignments, and has shared the resulting stories with publications as diverse as the Daily Beast and Architectural Digest to Forbes and National Geographic Travel...

Sports journalist Neil Squires was used to rubbing shoulders with athletes at the top of their game. He ghostwrote the memoir of England rugby legend Johnny Wilkinson (for our American listeners, that's like being the personal writer of Tom Brady) and covered sport for the national papers. Yet Neil never expected to be a famous athlete himself, and certainly did not imagine becoming one in middle...

Victoria Watts Kennedy's family travel blog, Bridges and Balloons, has twice won her prestigious awards. Last year, she picked up the Travel Blogger of the Year Trophy from the British Guild of Travel Writers, and just this week, she was named 2026 Travel Blogger of the Year at the TravMedia Awards in London. This success comes at a tumultuous time for bloggers as AI upends the playbook for how bl...

If you've heard or used phrases like 'lateral thinking' or referenced the six thinking hats, you have been influenced by the work of Edward de Bono. The philosopher died in 2021, but not before Sarah Tucker had the chance to get to know him. Sarah's book, Edward De Bono: Love Laterally, came out in late 2024 with a foreword from Baroness Kennedy This is just one chapter in Sarah's own exciting sto...

When Martin Hesp's father was working as a journalist in England's southwest, he would hand-deliver his copy every day to the local bus driver. Martin began his career as a travel writer and journalist in a world where colleagues would still have to wake before dawn to light coal fires in the offices. He is still writing today, 50 years on, and has embraced the worlds of blogging, podcasting, and...

Risk and travel have always kept close company, but what if even the most innocent-seeming meal could threaten you with mortal peril? Allie Bahn's childhood revolved around two themes: watching her charismatic uncle travel the globe as a TV presenter, and battling severe food allergies that threatened to reduce her freedom significantly. Allie was determined not to let this constraint prevent her...

Borders between countries may look so neat on a map, but when you're on the ground, the reality gets more interesting. Languages may shift long before your passport is stamped, and an ancient divide between cultures and worldviews may not even appear on a modern atlas. Richard Collett became fascinated by unusual borders early in his travel writing journey. When he came across a 'micronation' hidd...

As an expat in Hong Kong, James Durston was part of the team that helped launch the brand that would eventually become CNN Travel. Rising from copy editor to senior producer, he would eventually own the home page, a role that meant he was responsible for ensuring the travel pieces he published consistently found an audience. James shares how his experiences as an editor shaped his approach as a wr...

In 2003, Sue Watt walked away from a career in law to become a travel writer. Over the last two decades, she has won or been nominated for a staggering number of awards, many of which celebrate her coverage of the continent that has fascinated her from the start: Africa. In our conversation for the Travel Writing Podcast, Sue talks about luxury travel versus backpacking, why flight shaming may act...

In 2022, as the world creaked open after the COVID lockdown, Briana set out from her United States home and took a flight to Europe. Her destination was an unusual one. Instead of selfies in Italian cities or relaxing on Spanish beaches, her mission was to retrace the front lines of World War I (WWI). Completing the 500-mile hike in just 36 days, Briana Gervat became the first recorded woman to hi...

In today's episode of the Travel Writing Podcast, we try and stitch together the threads of Holly Budge's epic life. Not only is she the first woman to skydive from the top of Mt Everest, Holly is also the founder of How Many Elephants, a charity that supports female rangers on the frontlines. She has risen at dawn to walk alongside the brave women who guard Africa's most vulnerable elephant popul...

When Jen Ruiz was about to turn 30, she set herself an ambitious goal: She would visit 12 countries in 12 months. Working as a lawyer in the US with scant vacation days, she hustled to save money and take advantage of any opportunity to see the world. Once she started traveling, she realized she never wanted to stop. Pivoting to writing, she educated herself about the ins and outs of self-publishi...

When Amy Aed was still a teenager, she started a travel blog, Wandering Everywhere, that quickly got attention. This was in a different world, where blogs were exploding with popularity, and access to freebies soon made Amy realize she had more than just a hobby on her hands. Extensive travel followed, with one place capturing her heart: Taiwan. Amy studied Mandarin Chinese and became fascinated w...

Kassondra Cloos used to spend her days on the crime beat in Colorado Springs, filing as many as five stories per day, each more grim and grizzly than the last. Then, she pivoted. Using her love for the outdoors as a bridge, she transported her career from reporting to travel writing. Eventually, her path took her to London, where she fell in love with a quirky series of guides from independent pub...

It seems appropriate that we should be publishing this episode over the Easter break, a celebration that is associated with ideas of rebirth and renewal. Tanya Fraser didn't choose to walk away from her 'normal' life with a home, husband, and a career - but something happened that meant she could no longer stay. Instead of wallowing, Tanya chose adventure, self-discovery, and self-expression. On t...

We bring you another special episode where an Intrepid Times writer reads their travel story! Today, Riley Ringer reads here competition-winning piece "Taking My Sick Inner Child on an Impossible Machu Picchu Adventure." This story was selected as the WINNER of our “A Book Led Me There” competition. Following a sickness-stricken childhood, a traveler vows to discover the long-lost city of Machu Pi...

Tens of thousands of flights cancelled. Fuel costs are variously described as spiking, surging, or skyrocketing. Travelers still stranded, unable to complete their journeys or return home. Once again, the world has been plunged into chaos. What role does the travel writer play in times like this? How do travel writers guide travelers when the best laid plans all fall apart? For this special episod...

Like many travelers, I used to feel that the purpose was to collect as many passport stamps as possible. To race through cities and countries, seeing as much as I could. Only when I got a bit older did I realize that, as Caroline Mills also learned, the best travel experience often comes when you stay still. Staying still is not so simple. The environment around you changes, and these changes can...

Most conversations on the Travel Writing Podcast look, in one way or another, at the professional world of writing, travel, and publication. But not everything worth writing is meant to be read. And the value of your writing cannot be accurately determined by the fickle media ecosystem. Sometimes, you write for yourself. To explore an idea. To purge an emotion. To confront a truth. To document a t...

When Tom Sykes was rushed through the clogged streets of Manila in an ambulance, he knew it wasn't the exotic surroundings of the Philippines that had sent his system into panic mode. A seasoned expat, travel writer, journalist and author, he was accustomed to the physical and psychological challenges of travel. No, the root of his debilitating anxiety was looking much deeper. He set out to find i...

In his late thirties, burned out from 18 years in the corporate world, Phil Thomas was given a chance to walk away and start again. He had always dreamed of being a travel writer. Now, he was going to make it happen. Phil knew it would take time. He was methodical. He refined his pitching style. He carefully built up a portfolio before putting himself forward for major, well-paying publications. N...

Meera Dattani's family story is rich in voyages and the intermingling of cultures between India, Uganda, and the United Kingdom. It is perhaps no surprise then that, in a freelance travel writing career now entering its third decade, Meera is known for incisive cultural observation and a sense of moral purpose behind her writing. As the executive editor of Adventure.com, Meera has a potent platfor...

As a 20-something travel scrabbling together an existence in the youth hostels of Istanbul and Berlin, Charly Wilder began writing. A cold email led to a blogging role at the New York Times, which soon developed into dozens of features, including contributions to their highly successful '36 Hours In' series. Charly's stories resist the cliches of travel writing and challenge assumptions - about wh...

Welcome to a new series from the Travel Writing Podcast where we invite select authors from Intrepid Times to read their articles. This series will supplement our regular interviews, which will continue with gusto. Today, B.A Van Sise, internationally known writer, photographer and author, reads his story, "The Saints and All Their Bones," titled on Intrepid Times as "As the Pope Was Dying, I Brow...

Hilary Bradt MBE is one of the living legends of the travel writing world. In 1974, she co-founded Bradt Guides, which thrives today as one of the best-loved brands in travel writing and independent publishing with over 200 titles in print. An award-winning writer and an expert on Madagascar, Hilary has been appointed Officier de l’Ordre de Madagascar – the Malagasy equivalent of an OBE, in recogn...