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

Thought-provoking reflections on the power of travel to transform our daily lives—from the iconoclastic travel writer, scholar, and author of Vagabonding

For readers who dream of travel—or long to get back out on the road—The Vagabond's Way explores and celebrates the life-altering essence of travel. Each day of the year features a one-page meditation on a certain aspect of the journey, anchored by words of wisdom from a variety of thinkers—from Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger and poet Maya Angelou, to Trappist monk Thomas Merton and Grover from Sesame Street.

Throughout the year, Rolf Potts embraces the ragged-edged, harder-to-quantify aspects of travel that inevitably change travelers' lives for the better, in unexpected ways. Daily topics include reinventing "bucket lists" and saving money before the journey, improvising itineraries and navigating technology on the road, and keeping the spirit of the journey alive when you get home. The book's various sections mirror the phases of a trip, including: 
  • Dreaming and planning the journey: "All life-affecting journeys—and the unexpected wonders they promise—become real the moment you decide they will happen."
  • Embracing the rhythms of the journey: "The most poignant experiences on the road don't occur in the presence of some grand monument, but 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 not merely as checklists of sights to be visited—but as mysteries to be investigated."

The Vagabond's Way is meant to sustain the mindset of a journey, even when one isn’t able to travel. This unique philosophical guide will compel readers to see travel as an ongoing metaphor for life itself, and to bring the lessons of travel back into the context of their home lives.

Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel. His adventures have taken him to six continents, and he has reported from more than sixty countries for National Geographic Traveler, The New Yorker, Slate, Outside, The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, Sports Illustrated, and the Travel Channel. Rolf’s stories have appeared in numerous literary anthologies, and more than twenty of his essays have been selected as “Notable Mentions” in The Best American Essays, The Best American Non-Required 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.