The Vagabond's Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel

(Paperback)

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Thought-provoking, encouraging, and inspiring (Gretchen Rubin) reflections on the power of travel to transform our daily livesfrom the iconoclastic travel writer, scholar, and author of Vagabonding

For readers who dream of travel, yearn to get back out on the road, or want to enrich a journey theyre currently on, The Vagabonds Way explores and celebrates the life-altering essence of travel all year long. Each day of the year features a meditation on an aspect of the journey, anchored by words of wisdom from a variety of thinkersfrom Stoic philosopher Seneca and poet Maya Angelou to Trappist monk Thomas Merton and Grover from Sesame Street.

Iconoclastic travel writer and scholar Rolf Potts embraces the ragged-edged, harder-to-quantify aspects of travel that inevitably change travelers lives for the better in unexpected ways. The books various sections mirror the phases of a trip, including

dreaming and planning the journey: All life-affecting journeysand the unexpected wonders they promisebecome real the moment you decide they will happen.
embracing the rhythms of the journey: The most poignant experiences on the road occur in those quiet moments when we recognize beauty in the ordinary.
finding richer travel experiences: Developing an instinct to venture beyond the obvious on the road allows you to see places as mysteries to be investigated.
expanding your comfort zone: No moment of instant gratification can compare to savoring an experience that has been earned by enduring the adversity that comes with it.

The Vagabonds Way encourages you to sustain the mindset of a journey, even when you arent able to travel, and affirms that travel is as much a way of being as it is an act of movement.

Reviews

The book is set up as a series of meditationstravel quotes that Potts reflects on and reacts to. . . . The result of this formula is a book thats snackable, weighty, and fun all at once. The premier travel writer of a generation offering travel inspiration in short bursts and fun anecdotes Sign. Us. Up.Uproxx

Rolf Potts has long been a road warrior and a deep thinker about travel. In The Vagabonds Way, he distills decades of hard-won insight into bite-sized morsels, and the result is a wise, generous, and profound book. It is a gift for anyone engaged in the journey.Andrew McCarthy, New York Times bestselling author of Brat and The Longest Way Home

In an age of bucket lists, Instagram posts, and one-up travel, Rolf Potts is a breath of fresh air. This book reminds us that the essence of travel isnt necessarily linearits the moments of beauty and insight that happen spontaneously along the way, rather than the plans and the destination.Peter Hessler, New York Times bestselling author of River Town

Thought-provoking, encouraging, and inspiring, these one-page reflections on the power and pleasures of travel will make even a homebody yearn to hit the road.Gretchen Rubin, New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Project and host of the Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast

It is so refreshing to read Rolf Pottss new book, The Vagabonds Way: 366 Meditations on Wanderlust, Discovery, and the Art of Travel. Rolf captures the wisdom of the worlds most storied travelers, then builds on it based on his own life of vagabonding. Read one meditation per day (a bonus meditation for leap year) or read it all in one sitting. Either way, it will make you think, then inspire you to get up and go.Stephanie Pearson, contributing editor, Outside

In this wise, wonder-struck book, travel-writing legend Rolf Potts distills a lifetime of wandering and reading into a series of irresistible songs for the open road. An inspiring vade mecum for new travelers and experienced vagabonds both.Kate Harris, author of Lands of Lost Borders

The Vagabonds Way wont help you find the best deals on flights or hotels or take viralInstagram photos. It will inspire you, challenge you, and remind you why we travel in the first place: to see the world, and ourselves, just a bit differently. Dont read this book in one sitting. Dip into it, as I did, savoring each page as you would having a cup of coffee with a kind and wise friend.Eric Weiner, New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Bliss and The Socrates Express

Filled with his wisdom from decades of travel, Rolf Pottss The Vagabonds Way will inspire you to travel more deeply and think differently about the world.Matthew Kepnes, author of Ten Years a Nomad

Spot on and eminently readable, this is the book I wish Id had when I started my travel career many decades ago.Tim Cahill, founding editor of Outside

Author Bio

Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel. He has reported from more than sixty countries for National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker, Outside, The New York Times Magazine, and the Travel Channel.Manyof his essays have been selected as Notable Mentions in The Best American Essays, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, and The Best American Travel Writing. He is based in north-central Kansas, where he keeps a small farmhouse on thirty acres with his wife, Kansas-born actress Kristen Bush.