As we began 2019, Perceptive Travel entered its 14th year of publishing great travel stories from book authors. So if nothing else, I’m persistent. For another 12 months we put out the best travel writing of 2019.
Maybe I’m a little stubborn too, because if I wanted to just gets lots of traffic and pump up ad revenue, I’d publish the listicles and shallow clickbait that you see all over the internet every day. I haven’t joined that race to the bottom because somebody needs to publish narratives with depth, whether they are super-popular or not.
I know there are some well-traveled readers who appreciate that. Thanks if you are one of them and you have checked out our long-form travel stories over the years. Here’s what we ran:
In January, we got tales from the road in the USA, Italy, and Africa.
We started in the small Italian hill town of Montlone, where Debi Goodwin found the sleepy streets transformed into a full-on festival. See Days of Celebration in Small-town Umbria.
James Dorsey returned with another story from Africa, this one on a hard-learned lesson in what happens when you try to bring “progress” to rural villagers in Benin. See Getting Schooled on the Consequences of Cultural Interference.
Sherry Shahan made her Perceptive Travel debut with an attempt to climb to the top of a 4,400-meter Rocky Mountain peak and back the same day, a 22-mile hike in California. See Mount Whitney or Die.
For the sake of research, I had to drink my way across Upstate New York. I checked out the farm-to-glass movement there, where wine, cider, beer, and spirits makers are using farm-fresh ingredients to produce beverages with a sense of place. See From Farm to Glass in the Finger Lakes of New York. (This story eventually won a “best travel writing” award from the North American Travel Journalists Association!)
William Caverlee handled the January travel book reviews, checking out three new and noteworthy releases to consider for your nightstand or coffee table, with a strong explorers theme this time.
In February, we tackled a wide range of topics, from international barber shops to finding Gandhi.
Bruce Northam covered an activity that many do, but few write about: getting haircuts in barbershops around the world. This is a subject I’ve touched on before, but he took it way further with selfies from the barber’s chair in a multitude of places and a reminder that these gathering centers can be one of the best places to dive into local culture. See his Barbershop Postcards story here.
Michael Shapiro returned with a story about visiting Vienna, Austria in winter—on purpose. It’s a bonding trip with his mother over art, a chance to see the majority of an artist’s work in one place, perhaps for the only time ever. See Once in a Lifetime: Visiting Bruegel in Vienna.
Kelsey Timmerman made his Perceptive Travel debut with a story about visiting a reluctant guru in Mumbai, India: the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. “Please don’t kiss my feet,” Tushar begs in Finding Gandhi.
Last, I had a story on an aptly named “Uncruise” along the Pacific coast of Central America, going to uninhabited places only reached by boat. On this kind of trip, workouts and wildlife are the main goals, along with finding stretches of sand we can have all to ourselves. See Finding the Secret Beaches of Panama and Costa Rica.
In March, we had four features on four continents from returning writers.
James Dorsey was back with another story from Africa, this time looking at the world’s largest mud structure, the four-story Djerbinger Mosque of Mali. See Dreaming of Djenné.
Guidebook writer David Nikel braved gale-force winds on Norway’s coastal ferry voyage in the depths of winter for a set of dazzling rewards from the Northern Lights and moonscapes. See Stormy Seas, Spectacular Skies on Norway’s Hurtigruten Cruise.
Cladia Flisi went looking for a more authentic part of Saigon, Vietnam. When she hired a local guide to get into a true locals’ section of the city, she ended up getting lost in the back alleys of a neighborhood where few foreigners tread. Check out Not the Usual Tour of HCMC: Medicines, Markets, and Floating Temples.
If winter has you down and you want to daydream about a warmer place, see my story on St. Augustine, Florida, where centuries of battles have given way to a craft distillery and chocolate shops. Check out America’s Longest Stretch of History in St. Augustine, Florida.
April brought a batch of returning authors checking in from multiple continents.
Our associate editor Lydia Carey headed out to a spot where migrating monarch butterflies gather in Estado de Mexico, getting the road trip she never had in her younger days, in a VW combi van. See the full story here.
Stephen Bland visited a Black Sea area once known as the “Soviet Florida” and found a decrepit nation-state in limbo as he mixes with Russian tourists who still come and the faded hotels they stay in. See Abkhazia: Party Amidst the Ruins.
Rome is one of the world’s most popular cities, thronged with tourists all year, so Debi Goodwin set out to find a corner of the city that’s not filled with trinket shops. She found what she’s seeking in Testaccio, a True Roman Neighborhood.
Michael Shapiro visited Naples, Italy on a walking tour that visited the places where two fictional characters come of age in the rubble-strewn city after World War II. See the story of Rione Luzzatti and My Brilliant Friend here.
In May, we took you to four continents through four traveling tales, long-form narratives that dig deeper and ask some bigger questions than your typical vacation fluff.
Long-time contributor Beebe Bahrami had just published the Moon Camino de Santiago guidebook and she had written before about the famous well-trodden Spanish pilgrimage trail. For this article she brought us a story from the French Pyrenees part, but with unfortunate timing as it’s hunting season. See Quiet for Pigeon, Loud for Boar, Shoulder-high for Rabbit.
When traveling independently in Tanzania, it’s good to have someone savvy as your guide, like a former hustler (“flycatcher”) who has gone legit. The one employed by Claudia Flisi made problems disappear and found the locals’ path for a waterfall hike. See Touring Arusha With the Flycatchers in Tanzania.
What happens to our body when we stop focusing on what’s ailing us and go move around in a different place, with a change of scenery? One traveler on an Indonesian sailing ship found daily walks and snorkeling around island reefs to be the best post-surgery therapy. See Healed by Adventure Travel on the Way to Raja Ampat.
photo (c) Jeni Kardinal
I added a story on the Montreal International Festival of Jazz during a heat wave, with a side visit to a museum devoted to the inventor of the gramophone. See Days of Musical Bliss at the Montreal Jazz Festival.
Marco Ferrarese brought us Traveling With the Moroccan Chameleon That Didn’t Want to Die
about a travel writer who helps a quirky North African gris-gris go back to Mother Nature near Chefchaouen.
The Cradle of Russia: Frozen in the Golden Ring by Antonia Malchik told the story of a writer who occasionally visited her parents’ native home of Russia as a child and set off on an independent trip from the capital to the land of her father in Suzdal…in the dead of winter.
Tony Robinson-Smith wrote A Warriors’ Welcome in Maikmol, PNG about trekking the road less traveled in Papua New Guinea, bringing two Canadians to a village more connected than it first appears.
Last, I put together Booms, Busts, and Rebirths on the Erie Canal about braving wintry weather (in May!) to explore Rochester and Syracuse, and a writer digging up info on the great dig itself, a waterway that had a huge impact on the economic rise of the United States.
July brought two tales from Africa, one from rural Iceland, and one from New Zealand.
Claudia Flisi’s guide told her she had a 95% chance of seeing geladas when she visits Simien National Park in Ethiopia. These long-maned, mostly vegetarian monkeys aren’t found anywhere else but the highlands of one of Africa’s most populous countries. See Chillin’ with the Geladas in Ethiopia.
James Michael Dorsey was back with the story of a man practicing a dying tradition: wandering the streets five times a day and singing out the call to prayer in Mali. Read The Last Muezzin of Timbuktu.
Julia Hubbel found out what her guide was made of on an adventure travel trip when the leader fell off her horse into an icy stream, her foot caught in the stirrup. See Lessons in Leadership While Horseback Riding in Iceland.
Debi Goodwin found the tramping trails of New Zealand to be a bit tame, over-groomed, and with nanny-like instruction signs. That all ended when she joined an all-day trek around Nguaruhoe, which appeared as Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings. See A Trek to the Mountain of Fire in New Zealand.
In August we covered four tales from three continents.
The Last Village in North Borneo is about Kampung Maruap, a motley collection of stilt houses connected by elevated wood bridges, founded by one man and now housing 40 families. It’s about this isolated place at the top of Sabah, yes, but also a rumination on the pros and cons of attracting tourism to a remote area.
My story was on a whale watching camp on Magdalena Bay, Baja Sur. We stayed in tents at night and ate in a big white dome or on the beach, sometimes seeing whales swim by in the distance. These are the mating and birthing grounds of the migrating gray whales, so out in the boats, mamas and babies are swimming together and are not shy.
Susan Van Allen has written three books about Italy, but she never got excited in cold and gray fashion-obsessed Milan. She found a way to turn around her mood though by taking a cooking class and learning to make the city’s famous version of Risotto. See Milan: My Gray Dame Turns Golden.
Gillian Kendall booked a multi-day train journey across the USA to California, but she had to do some transit time in bus and train stations in the American Midwest before boarding. What she found when she wandered and needed some help turned out to be surprising. See Too Cool for Normal in Illinois.
After taking a break from new material in September and doing a Dark Tourism issue, in October we had four new narrative travel stories from wandering book authors.
Julia Hubbel took the power of nature to the most extreme by spending a whole month riding through the wilderness on a horse—or often leading it along a rough passage she had to traverse on foot. She joined a tour exploring one of the most remote forested sections of North America, that would be the the Muskwa-Kechika Wilderness of British Colombia. No cell signal, no internet connection, but no artificial noise or multitasking either. See A Digital Detox While Connecting With Nature: Four Weeks Unplugged in Remote Canada.
Lonely Planet guidebook editor and author Megan Eaves wrote about teaching in China long ago in Perceptive Travel, but this time she got contemplative while walking in the fields and forests where poets walked long ago. See Footsteps of Frost: The Poet’s Path in England.
Joining us for the first time was Heidi Siefkas, an author who has been to Cuba dozens of times. This time she headed to a certain area to go hiking but ended up finding unplanned adventures along the way and behind the wheel of a classic car motoring through the countryside. See Shifting Gears in Baracoa, Cuba.
James Michael Dorsey only saw a little bit of nature in Jordan on a trip he looked back on from decades ago. Instead, he spent part of his time on a quest to find some pillows that the Jordanians think he’s got terrible taste to pursue. His local guide was packing heat and had an ear turned to potential trouble. He may or may not have been connected to the Palestine Liberation Organization. See My Palestinian Pillows.
In the November issue, we tackled some lesser-known destinations around the world.
Camille Cusumano headed to Varanasi in India, but while the huge Kumbh Mela pilgrimage is going on nearby, the city is filled with sadhus. While hanging out and talking with them, she straddled the line between pilgrim and tourist, insider and outsider. See A Reluctant Pilgrimage to Varanasi.
James Dorsey traveled to Kanas, in the mountains of western China, where the boundaries of Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan collide on a map. Large monoliths on a mountain near here are some of the few remaining artifacts from the great Mongol empire. See The Stones of Genghis Khan.
Stephen M. Bland headed to a remote corner of the country of Georgia where few travelers go, and the population has dwindled. It’s an area near the Russian border where tensions still run high. See A Gun for Bears and Russians on Georgia’s Ossetian Military Road.
The last story was mine, on a recent adventure that went from the teeming capital city of Mexico to forests, a volcano lake, and a hang-gliding zone just a few hours away. See Finding Nature in Mexico Near the Mega Metropolis.
Closing out the year we have the December travels.
Heidi Siefkas returned with a story about hiking in a picturesque part of Japan, on the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage route between shrines and big entrance gates. See Living in the Moment Along the Kumano Kodo of Japan.
Julia Hubbel signed up for a homestay with a hardscrabble farming family on her tour of Mongolia and dealt with freezing night temperatures, an eagle with big talons guarding the outhouse, and the family’s pet camel.
Sherry Shahan visited a ranch in Sasabe, Arizona, a fixture that’s been there since 1720. It’s a short horse ride from a giant metal wall—but with places where you can just walk around it. Then she headed to El Paso, where the border crossing on a footbridge for 25 cents going, 35 coming back. See her story on the borders of Sasabe and El Paso.
Mark Aspelin, a graduate of my travel writing success course, made his Perceptive Travel debut with a look back at when he was a young man working on development projects in Africa. He tagged along on a visit to a cave near the Kenya/Uganda border and found out it played a part in the book and miniseries The Hot Zone. See his Kitum Cave story here.
