Rolf Potts

Rolf Potts

Travel Writer, Essayist, Adventurer, Teacher

Rolf Potts

  • About
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  • Writing
    • Essays & Travel Stories
    • Dispatches
    • Travel Writer Profiles
    • No Baggage Challenge
    • Vagablogging
  • Books
    • The Vagabond’s Way
    • Vagabonding
    • Souvenir
    • Marco Polo Didn’t Go There
    • The Geto Boys (33 1/3)
    • The Misadventures of Wenamun
    • La déchirante histoire de l’homme qui inventa le livre de poche
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    • Anthologies
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Essays & Stories Dominican Republic

Begging the Question

August 14, 2006

As a traveler, what’s the best response when people ask you for money?

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Vagabonding Trip Planner

Books by Rolf

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  • Souvenir (Object Lessons) book cover
  • The Geto Boys cover

Podcast: Deviate with Rolf

  • Live from Bali: How tourists, influencers, and nomads transform destinations (for good and for bad) November 12, 2024
  • Vagabonding audio companion: Obnoxious travelers (and how to avoid being one) October 22, 2024
  • What you discover when you walk down every single street in New York City (encore) September 17, 2024
  • A history and future of digital and biological technology, with Jane Metcalfe August 8, 2024
  • Bicycling across the USA (with no money or food) looking for human connection July 16, 2024

Recent Blog Posts

  • Notes on my (never published) first travel book, part VII: Neurotic young-manhood November 21, 2024
  • On finding familiar things in some of the most isolated parts of the world November 14, 2024
  • A new film, shot in Kansas, aims to show what is possible for women’s artistic voices in rural America November 8, 2024
  • Notes on my (never published) first travel book, part VI: On depicting places November 7, 2024
  • Notes on my (never published) first travel book, part V: On veering from the truth October 24, 2024
  • On sharing a truck with 11 other people (plus chickens & yams) in Vanuatu October 17, 2024

Travel Writer Interviews

  • Travel Writer: Laura Kiniry November 1, 2024
  • Travel Writer: Rosie Bell October 1, 2024
  • Travel Writer: James Michael Dorsey September 1, 2024
  • Travel Writer: Shahnaz Habib August 1, 2024
  • Travel Writer: Megan Harlan July 1, 2024
  • Travel Writer: Oliver Smith June 1, 2024

Books

The Vagabond’s Way

The Vagabond’s Way

Lands of Lost Borders

Tools of Titans

The 33 1/3 B-sides

Vagabonding

Souvenir

Marco Polo Didn’t Go There

The Misadventures of Wenamun

The Geto Boys (33 1/3)

Recent Podcasts

Live from Bali: How tourists, influencers, and nomads transform destinations (for good and for bad)

Vagabonding audio companion: Obnoxious travelers (and how to avoid being one)

What you discover when you walk down every single street in New York City (encore)

A history and future of digital and biological technology, with Jane Metcalfe

Bicycling across the USA (with no money or food) looking for human connection

Wonder Year: The Art of Long-Term Family Travel and Worldschooling

How Rolf Ruined the 1990s: A personal history of my grunge-bandwagon band

Walk and Talk: Notes from a peripatetic salon across northern Thailand

Essential tips and strategies for telling travel stories, with Andrew McCarthy

What it’s like to spend a full year traveling within a day’s radius of your home

Travel Writers

Travel Writer: Laura Kiniry

Travel Writer: Rosie Bell

Travel Writer: James Michael Dorsey

Travel Writer: Shahnaz Habib

Travel Writer: Megan Harlan

Travel Writer: Oliver Smith

Travel Writer: Zoey Goto

Travel Writer: Jonathan DeHart

Travel Writer: Aaron Millar

Travel Writer: Bart Schaneman