The Best Travel Writing, Volume 11: True Stories from Around the World

Travelers' Tales Best Travel Writing #11

by James O'Reilly (Editor), Larry Habegger (Editor), Sean O'Reilly (Editor)

The Best Travel Writing, Volume 11 is the latest in the annual Travelers' Tales series launched in 2004 to celebrate the world's best travel writing — from Nobel Prize winners to emerging new writers. The points of view and perspectives are global, and themes encompass high adventure, spiritual growth, romance, hilarity and misadventure, service to humanity, and encounters with exotic cuisines and cultures. Includes winners from the annual Solas Awards for Best Travel Writing.

Introduction by Rolf Potts

In The Best Travel Writing, Volume 11, readers

Piece together the puzzle of life in rural Cambodia
Reawaken the joy of travel on a bus ride through Mexico
Reexamine war memories with former soldiers in Vietnam
Learn the ropes and the art of sailing with a "good captain" on the Pacific
Find a true soul sister in the highlands of Ecuador
Follow Vincent van Gogh's footsteps in France
Survive (or not) a home invasion in Brazil...and much more

Genres: Travel

312 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 11, 2016

About the author

James O'Reilly has been a traveler since infancy, and a storyteller almost as long. Born in Oxford, England, in 1953, he savors the early memory of walking as a five-year-old boy across the tarmac at Shannon Airport in Ireland and gazing up at the huge triple tails of the now-defunct Constellation aircraft. The smell of fuel and Irish fog and the amazing sight above him must have made a deep impression because he's been traveling willy-nilly ever since. After emigrating from Ireland to the United States, he grew up in San Francisco, where he was schooled by Jesuits, nuns and assorted yogis and eccentrics in the '60s. His eclectic education was formed as much by growing up in a large Roman Catholic family where he was the second of seven children as it was by being an omnivorous reader who was studying Eastern religion and meditation by his early teens. He traveled a great deal with his family - to Ireland, England, Scotland, and Canada - before heading off to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where, among other things, he spent a semester in Salamanca, Spain.

At Dartmouth, James met his good friend Larry Habegger, with whom he has collaborated since 1982 on projects ranging from radio shows to mystery serials, newspaper and magazine columns to world adventure travel. Since 1985, O'Reilly and Habegger have co-authored the nationally-syndicated travel column "World Travel Watch." In 1993, they co-founded the publishing company Travelers' Tales with James's brother Tim, and have since worked on more than 100 books together, winning many awards for excellence, including the prestigious Lowell Thomas award for outstanding travel book. James has been an active member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) since 1990, and is a former board member of the Tibet Information Network.

James has visited over forty countries and lived in four. Among his favorite travel memories are visiting headhunters in Borneo, rafting the legendary Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, enjoying a meal cooked by blowtorch in Tibet, and hanging out laundry with nuns in Florence. He has made traveling with his own family a priority, and together he and his wife and three daughters have roamed all over Europe. He lives in Palo Alto, California, where he is usually conspiring to be somewhere else.

Reviews

[Sarah Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

31/2 stars. Having read a number of compilations of travel related short stories over the years, I must admit that these offerings are certainly among those with the highest standard of writing. The stories cover a range of adventures, in a range of countries. An interesting read, but I've read books with more amusing, interesting and exciting tales.

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely lives up to its title.

Almost every article is an attempt to capture the essence of one's voyage. Some have crazy events, others steep in deep thoughts or processes after what they have seen, but all paint a wide picture of what travel writing is meant to be.

Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[LJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great.