Travel

My travel writing has appeared in newspaper, magazine and in-flight magazines, plus over 20 Lonely Planet travel guides and a travelogue.

Early Experience

My first travel feature (on Monemvasia, Greece) was published in the St. Petersburg Times of Florida in the summer of 2001. Back then, a freelance writer had to physically mail a letter of inquiry to the editor, along with the printed article and printed photographs, and pray that they would be safely returned when inevitably the rejection came.

Another thing happened during that summer of 2001 which would prove propitious. I attended the annual travel writer’s conference held at Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera, California. Among the illustrious speakers were famous authors and publishers such as Isabel Allende, Jan Morris, Don George and Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the founders of Lonely Planet. I appreciated it when Tony Wheeler signed my copy of LP’s guide to Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan; I never thought much more about the company until, five years later and in new Balkan environs, I impetuously responded to an advert on the LP website seeking new writers.

That inspired, if improbable decision would launch a great eight-year adventure during which I would co-author guides to Lonely Planet’s Greece, Greek Islands, Crete, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania, Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, Europe on a Shoestring, and various Best in Travel and specialty titles, while authoring articles for the company and its then-owner (BBC Worldwide).

While guidebook research allowed me to deepen my local and linguistic knowledge in the region, guidenooks were just one aspect of my overall travel writing achievements. These are sufficiently diverse and numerous that it is difficult to categorize them; the various drop-down menus under the main Travel menu are just one way of organizing the material.

By 2006 when I began writing for Lonely Planet, I had already been freelancing for a year for the former London travel consultancy Travel Intelligence, which provided advice for high-end tourists on luxury accommodation. In 2007, I also released the full-length travelogue, Hidden Macedonia: The Mystic Lakes of Ohrid and Prespa (Haus, London). And I also began to publish more newspaper and magazine features for Greek shipping owners, in-flight airline magazines of various airlines, and specialist publications doing innovative and exciting things, such as Hidden Europe magazine of Germany, which catered to the lesser-visited rural spots of the Continent.

A Love of Helping Travelers

Aside from interacting with the locals and learning new things about the traditions and singularities of different places, I have always been driven in travel writing by a genuine passion for helping future travelers have better experiences and make the most of their trips.

I amvery much aware that for many, a trip abroad may be a rare or even once-in-a-lifetime experience; and so, even for those who do not physically go anywhere, I seek in my writing to preserve something of the feeling of the experience and the place. This is infinitely more difficult to accomplish blurb-like reviews and list-type articles that one often encounters. yet the author remains ever optimistic.