My latest Yahoo! News travel column is entitled " Why We Buy Dumb Souvenirs ", and it examines the idiosyncrasies of souvenir-hunting. "The tourist quest for souvenirs has always been somewhat skewed," I write, In ancient Anatolia, locals hawked supposed Trojan War relics to credulous Greek travelers, and excavations in Italy have suggested that ancient...

Travelers' Tales' annual Best Travel Writing anthology is out in bookstores now, and -- as usual -- it's a fun read that's filled with great examples of quality travel writing for those interested in the craft (or a vicarious journey). Contributors this year include Alain de Botton, Patrick Symmes , Tony Perrottet , Jeff Greenwald,...

Tourism slogans aim to lure us in. But what really influences where we travel? This is the lighthearted question at the heart of my latest Traveling Light column at Yahoo! News. Entitled Searching for the Cave of Evil , this essay uses an experience on the Greek island of Naxos to ponder just how important...

Note : I realize I announced this last month -- but the initial announcement happened to coincide with my early March website crash. Hence, since none of the vital information was available at the time, I'm going to announce this again: Creative Writing Workshop at the Paris American Academy July 1 st through the 28...

My latest Yahoo! News travel column focuses on the idiosyncrasies of romance on the road. As I say in the opening paragraphs: When it comes to the ways of love and romance, no aphrodisiac is quite so potent as travel. On the road — freed from the dull routines and restrictions of home — you...

Above : Rolf helms the Assos off the Greek island of Sikinos. The current, Spring/Summer issue of Outside Traveler features a new story of mine, entitled "Cycladian Rhythm," which documents my sailing trip through the Greek Cyclades last fall. "To glimpse these islands from the seat of a plane or the deck of a commercial...

Above : The dubiously valuable Burmese kyat Travel has a way of shaking one's faith in the workings of paper currency, as I point out in the most recent installment of my Traveling Light column at Yahoo! News. As I say in the opening paragraph, One of the most startling travel epiphanies I've had in...

Since I frequently travel alone, I've gotten into the habit of capturing certain moments on the road by literally turning my camera on myself. The arm's length self-portraits that result are usually kind of interesting, and -- several years ago -- when I rehauled RolfPotts.com, I posted a number of these self-photos into a tongue-in-cheek...

Above : A sunset view from the Indian island of Diu. Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle travel section debuted India's Isle Of Ghosts , my travel story about the island of Diu in India. Originally researched and written for Islands a few years ago (and shelved when that magazine changed ownership), this travel tale uses...

Above : A view from the Lower Ninth Ward. My latest Yahoo! News travel column debuted this week -- and it tackles the issue of disaster tourism in the flood-damaged Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. "One year ago," I write, "before the devastation of the 2005 hurricane season, the Lower Ninth Ward wouldn't have...

Thanks to last week's RolfPotts.com server crash, World Hum and Written Road have already scooped me on this -- but I did want to officially announce that I've debuted a weekly column at Yahoo! News , called Traveling Light . My first column, entitled " A Bittersweet Farewell to 'Traveler's D' ", humorously examines the...

Creative Writing Workshop at the Paris American Academy July 1 st through the 28 th , 2006 I'll be teaching an intensive, month-long creative writing workshop this summer at the Paris American Academy . College credit is available for this hands-on English-language writing program, which includes courses in: Fiction Poetry Travel Writing Memoir Screenplays and...

Above : Rolf on magazine assignment in Crete. I have a brief story, entitled "An Olympian Paddle", in the current issue of Islands Magazine . Set in Greece, the story details a 75-mile kayaking journey I took along the southern coast of Crete last fall. Though the Islands website doesn't doesn't contain full-length stories, the...

Literary Feud : Patrick Symmes and Tim Cahill duke it out in Key West (see below) It's been a few weeks now since I attended the Key West Literary Seminar -- which featured a "travel and adventure" theme, and boasted a great slate of A-list travel writers, from Peter Matthiessen, to Gretel Ehrlich to Pico...

For the second time in under a month, I have an experimental-voice travel story appearing in an online travel magazine. A few weeks ago, it was " The Art of Writing a Story About Walking Across Andorra ", which appeared in World Hum (and was linked by venues such as Arts & Letters Daily ,...

Late last week, World Hum debuted my newest travel essay, The Art of Writing a Story About Walking Across Andorra . Written in imperative second-person voice, this meta travel narrative uses a real experience -- my hike across the tiny Pyrenean nation of Andorra -- to satirize the conventions and clichés of mainstream travel writing....

This month, I am the subject of an interview in the online travel magazine e-Marginalia . Reported by Nana Chen, the Q&A touches on such diverse topics as why I dedicated my book to two teachers, what I read growing up, why I kept my 1999-2001 vagabonding journey centered on Asia, how I balance reading...

My thanks to Tamara from San Francisco, who recently alerted me to the fact that someone might have cribbed my ideas for a Surfer Magazine story, entitled "The Art of Vagabonding: How to Put the Endless in Your Summer". Happily, I was able to tell Tamara that I wrote that article for Surfer myself (it's...

Update : I just got a call from Don George regarding today's NPR appearance, and it looks like I've been bumped from the "Talk of the Nation" lineup. The upside to this is that I was bumped because they were able to land best-selling author (and classic storyteller) Simon Winchester for the slot. So do...

[ Above : The latest release from the Blind Corn Liquor Pickers.] Last week I got an intriguing email from Kentucky bluegrass musician Travis Young. "I'm a longtime backpacker and fan of your site," he wrote. "I've been on a bit of a hiatus from the travel world, trying to make a go as a...