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Matthew Lightfoot

Goodreads Author

Born

in Leeds, The United Kingdom

Twitter

2WeekTraveller

Genre

Travel, Biography, Humor and Comedy

Member Since

September 2019

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Born with an insatiable wanderlust and inspired by an addiction to travel writing, but restricted by the demands of a full time job, Matthew Lightfoot set out to explore the world using his annual work holiday allowance.His first book,The Two Week Traveller, tells the tales of his adventures in almost 150 countries.Often described as ‘one of those people that things just happen to’, he lives up to his reputation with a collection of humorous, hair-raising and thought-provoking travel tales that span the entire globe over a period of 30 years.Being chased by rogue elephants and robbed at gunpoint by a stoned policeman; accidentally cycling down an airport runway and getting trapped in a voodoo ceremony are the sort of tales Lightfoot vividly Born with an insatiable wanderlust and inspired by an addiction to travel writing, but restricted by the demands of a full time job, Matthew Lightfoot set out to explore the world using his annual work holiday allowance.His first book,The Two Week Traveller, tells the tales of his adventures in almost 150 countries.Often described as ‘one of those people that things just happen to’, he lives up to his reputation with a collection of humorous, hair-raising and thought-provoking travel tales that span the entire globe over a period of 30 years.Being chased by rogue elephants and robbed at gunpoint by a stoned policeman; accidentally cycling down an airport runway and getting trapped in a voodoo ceremony are the sort of tales Lightfoot vividly recounts in the Two Week Traveller.

Matthew's second book, Snapshots, describes the round-the-world journey during which he wrote his first book, using thirty years of travel snapshots to jog his memory. His present day adventures take us on a campervan journey across New Zealand, to being castaway on a Fijian Island, then from the mysterious nation of Paraguay, across the countries of the high Andes by bus to South America's Pacific coast. Along the way, a series of long forgotten images lead us on a photographic exploration of the author's past adventures around the world. Lightfoot attracts incidents and his tales embark on a fast-paced tour of the people, history, cultures and eccentricities of cities around the globe, as memories are rekindled through photos appearing randomly on a laptop screen.From Kathmandu to Marrakech and Lapland to Mumbai, Snapshots introduces us to an entertaining cast of Transylvanian wolfmen, child goddesses, murderous street urchins and hairless dogs, as the author dodges international terrorists and Sunday morning rioters, gets slapped by a ghost, drinks narcotic mud from a bucket, and is caught up in a bar brawl between the US Navy and an assembly of dwarves.

Matthew's third book 'Out of the Cage' was published in 2024. After 38 years of employment, the author escaped the confines of corporate life with the intention of travelling the world. Instead of adding to his adventures in 150 countries, he found his movements restricted by the lockdowns imposed in response to the Covid pandemic.Nearly three years after leaving work he finally set forth again to discover whether it's still possible to travel independently and unplanned in a post-Covid world.
Whether travelling through Europe in a motorhome, or South East Asia and India by dilapidated buses, overnight trains and slow-boats, Matthew continues to attract the incidents and adventures featured in his first books. This time though, the travel style is slow, long term, unplanned and on a budget...what could possibly go wrong?

The author's fourth book is a departure from the format of his earlier work. The Art of Part Time Travel is a guide to making the most of your annual holiday. It's not so much what he did, as how he did it! Matthew utilised every possible trick and hack to maximise use of his precious holiday days and now he shares the knowledge gleaned over 30+ years of travelling the world. Master the Art of Part Time Travel and start planning the trip you always dreamed of taking but thought that you just didn't have time!

Matthew Lightfoot's books aim to inform as well as to entertain, and combine richly detailed story telling with evocative descriptions which transport the reader to off-the-beaten-track locations around the globe. His books are for anyone who loves to travel, whether on a two week work break or a round-the-world odyssey, and, most of all, for everyone who knows that the journey is as important as the destination.

Facebook page -The Two Week Traveller Book features videos and photos from Matthew's adventures.
You can also follow him on Twitter and Instagram @2WeekTraveller. ...more

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Matthew Lightfoot’s books

Average rating: 4.17 · 139 ratings · 20 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Two Week Traveller 4.04 avg rating — 102 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Snapshots (Matthew Lightfoot Travel Books) 4.57 avg rating — 21 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Out of the Cage (Matthew Lightfoot Travel Books) 4.40 avg rating — 10 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Art of Part Time Travel (Matthew Lightfoot Travel Books) 4.67 avg rating — 6 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

5 posts
Matthew Lightfoot's Blog

Lockdown or On-Location- What's your Ideal Writers Retreat?

What's your perfect environment for writing? Do you prefer to lock yourself away in a silent room, away from any distractions, in order to focus fully and immerse yourself in the story? Or do you prefer some external stimulation? Does noise, colour and movement stimulate your senses and creativity?

It wasn't a question I'd really considered until I completed my second book, Snapshots, in February 2 Read more of this blog post »

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Published on March 15, 2021 08:48 • Tags: covid, creative-writing, lockdown, matthew-lightfoot, snapshots, travel, travel-writer, travel-writing, two-week-traveller, writers-retreat, writing-a-book, writing-location

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Matthew Lightfoot is now following Matthew Lightfoot Author of The Two Week Traveller
Dec 01, 2025 01:34PM · like

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Quotes by Matthew Lightfoot (?)

“the journey can be more important, and enjoyable than the actual destination.”
― Matthew Lightfoot, The Two Week Traveller

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“shirt,”
― Matthew Lightfoot, The Two Week Traveller

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