Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel /]crolf Potts

I LOVED this book. It truly captures everything I love about other travel and experiences cultures. Potts packs the book with practical travel tips for transportation, eating, sleeping and survival. He steers clear of politics completely and just gives the reader a no-nonsense guide to long-term travel from earning money to avoiding cultural misconceptions and wrong attitudes to interacting with locals to a guidebook or riding taxis. Other guides give you hundreds of unnecessary pages of crap and unwanted detail that you'll never need. Potts doesn't. There is no fluff or advertising to be found. He makes it clear that the learning experience itself is invaluable. Above all, Potts shows the reader how financially feasible long-term world travel really is. I read few books more than once, but this one will be read again and again until be becomes deeply creased, tattered and scribbled in unmercifully.

It's clear that Potts' agenda is to convince you to travel more. While he does largely dispel many of the imaginary barriers that prevent us from traveling more (primarily, the myth that you need a lot of money to travel), he's able to do this so well in part because he doesn't need societal acceptance or nurture long-term relationships as much as most people do. He admits that he generally likes to travel alone, and when he has social needs he finds short-term connections with fellow travelers will suffice. All the same, he does a fabulous job of conveying how the American consumerist value system gives us an unhealthy preoccupation with material investment vs. personal investment, where "travel becomes just another accessory- a smooth-edged, encapsulated experience that we purchase the same way we buy clothing and furniture"- something we package into a two-week escape. Giving up this complicated and materialistic lifestyle can be as difficult as enduring coffee withdrawal, but the rewards of travel and self-discovery are worth it. His philosophy is well-supported by inspirational travel quotes from Thoreau, Twain, Pico Iyer, Ibn Batutta, and many others. Perhaps most inspirational of all, he calls up the Buddhist idea that we live in an eggshell and have few clues about what's in the world around us, then points out that vagabonding can help us get out of this shell and discover a broader view of the world. I'd recommend this book to anyone, and while it's possible that you may not be the pure vagabond that Potts seems to be, this will definitely encourage you to travel more and help you make it happen. Whether you decide to quit your job and hit the road for the long haul, or just ask for a three-month sabbatical, this book will point you in the right direction and supply you with references to websites and books that will help make it a reality.

"Vagabonding" is a rarity: a how-to book that also happens to be captivating and compelling. Potts offers a practical plan for taking time off to travel and learn; he mixes useful advice with a survey of travel philosophy and big-picture thoughts on why removing ourselves from our familiar surroundings encourages personal growth (and is simply a lot of fun, to boot). As a "vagabonder" who's been living abroad for 2 years, I can tell you that Potts's proscriptive plan in right on the money; long-term traveling is truly transformative, and I couldn't imagine a better guide to taking the leap than "Vagabonding."

This book is essentially about the thought process behind taking time off from your regular life to discover and experience the world on your own terms. If you've been around the world a few times, you'll find it puts many of your fuzzy warm thoughts and ideals into words. If you haven't, it'll probably make you wonder why you haven't taken off already.People who like to plan and be prepared should treat this as a companion to more nuts-and-bolts guides. Others may find this plenty since travel is all an adventure anyway. It depends on your personality and comfort with the unknown. The rarely expressed aspect of Potts' book, however, is the acknowledgement that both work and travel are admirable and that one complements the other. To travel, you must also be productive sometimes. But to be productive, you also have to continually learn and see other points of view. Traveling abroad on more than a one-week vacation makes this possible. An entertaining and inspiring read.Tim Leffel, author of THE WORLD'S CHEAPEST DESTINATIONS

The hardest part of world travel is acquiring the mindset that nothing else matters as much as the journey. Getting to a place where you reduce your consumption of unnecessary stuff, commit your time, and leave your daily routine behind takes a fair amount of work, and it also takes a major shift in priorities. Vagabonding serves as the kick-start that gets you to that mental place --the "I can do it, and I can do it soon" reply to the siren call of world travel.This book is inspiring, clear, and helpful. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to roam, but thinks they don't have enough money or time. I also recommend it for those, like me, who have gone vagabonding before, know what it takes, and just need a nudge of renewal in order to get back out there again. Great book!