Marco Polo Didn't Go There: Stories and Revelations from One Decade as a Postmodern Travel Writer (Travelers' Tales Guides) Paperback – September 1, 2008

The media could not be loaded.  “Exotic postcard-panoramas that might once have passed for travel reportage soon become secondary to a more subjective & interactive attempt to draw connections, intuit meanings, & interpret the landscape.”Travel writing is a sliver of narrative non-fiction. Travel writing strives to incorporate & translate the experience of travel to non-travel audiences. If you need a textbook starting you in this direction, this is it.I’ll admit—I spent two weeks learning from the author about the craft of travel & memoir writing. But as a business nonfiction author myself, I want to bridge from business to other venues. This is my way. This is a great textbook to frame that transition.Rolf wrote this book when traveling was beginning to be upended by the Internet. Now, in the post-social landscape, travel has a different & unique allure. You can approximate traveling with research & open-source intelligence alone.But it's not the same. And for those us who must navigate the world, we also feel a compulsion to share it with those who don't.There’s the classic quote attributed to Saint Augustine: “The world is a book, & those who do not travel read only one page.”For me—that means I must travel.That means I must use my pen to understand not just why I travel, but how, & how that travel has transformed me. And as my travel shifts from military oriented to personal, my pen helps me navigate how to travel as a civilian.Trust me, it’s different.This is a comfortable, detailed textbook that brings back the energy & uniqueness of travel. This book is not obfuscated through the social media / internet lens. Travel post-Facebook & post-COVID, is different than the millennia before it. But some elements remain the same. The intimacy of people you meet, the uniqueness & smallness you feel at the edge of the world. Wherever that world is for you.If you intend to use the pen to navigate traveling, whether the large world or small, this is the book you need.

I actually really loved this collection of Potts’ narratives. I appreciate the he travels like no other travel writer I’ve read. It is quirky in spots and always unpredictable.It is a different way of learning about his experiences and then to find a narrative behind the real story makes it appear as if you get two stories for the price of one.

I can't recall enjoying a book more in a long time. Detractors could point out that this book is just a bunch of his short stories, previously published in travel magazines, thrown together with a few comments. My response would be that this makes it a great book. The original stories were very good, and the commentary pulls away the veil to reveal how things really worked out, the rest of the story, if you will. The short story format makes this a great travel companion, because you can read a chapter during a flight, and put the book down for a day or two without losing a plot thread. When you put all the stories together, you realize that the book is actually about the art of travel and finding joy in life, making it much more than a group of unrelated travel tales.There's been a rash of so-called memoirs lately being revealed as partially if not fully fiction. One of the hallmarks of the genre is that the author writes himself in as a hero. Rolf, however, exposes himself as just an ordinary guy who likes to travel and see the world. He tells us how the facts would get mangled or trimmed down in order to fit the travel magazine format. He admits to being the victim of thieves, or that several versions of Shangri-La were not as nice in reality as they were in anticipation.People don't get halos and places don't get gold-plated in this book. Rolf hates to write negatives, but if he didn't enjoy a country or a place, he is straight up about it and explains why. Whether writing about the good, bad, or ugly, it's all told with a dry sense of humor and self-deprecation.You can't go wrong with this book or his other titles.

I discovered Rolf Potts who will be conducting a travel writing workshop in San Miguel de Allende this fall from the workshop description. I ordered two of his books. This one arrived first, so I dove into it. I find is a good read for the those of us who are armchair travelers and those of us who travel and write about our adventures-often turned misadventures. Rolf is an intentional traveler which I find appealing. He is also a writer who travels making his living from telling his stories.This book is a treasure trove for writers and travel writers specifically to mine. In the end notes of each chapter, he tells the story behind the story, as well as how he chose to craft the story. What he left out and why he left in what he did. I'm finding the end notes instructive as a writer. So I'm learning more about the craft of writing and how to contain stories to make them more manageable and saleable. I look forward to the workshop this fall in Mexico with him on the topic of travel writing.

Rolf writes a travel story well and has a gift for telling the parts that matter. I liked the notes at the end of each story that showed what he left out and sometimes how he "massaged" the facts a little to make a better story but never really strayed from telling the truth. He also has a gift for taking sometimes mundane details and making them interesting simply because it is a mundane detail in a far-off place most people will never visit. A cup of coffee might be a cup of coffee , but if you are drinking it in a place most English speaking people have never been to, or maybe even heard of it can seem very exotic. Potts also has a gift for self deprecation and showing his failures in a positive way that never sounds like pandering. He also seems to be a nice guy. I exchanged a couple of emails with him about travel writing several years ago and he gave good advice and actually responded to my mail. My only complaint about the book is that he left out some of his best stories that are on his web site.

quite, quite good, really enjoyed this book

If you’re looking for a behind-the-curtain view of the world of travel and of travel writing, this is it. Rolf is honest and candid about both his experiences on the road and about how he goes about recounting the tales. A fun and insightful read!

I would recommend this book to ANY aspiring traveller or writer. Rolf shows that not all real life experience has to be an anchored in fact and that artistic licensing can lead to a better tale while not compromising credibility.

I am loving this book so much because the author was able to blend together a story telling of cultures, his honest thoughts, his intentions as a writer, and the technic he's using, all of it expressed fluently and with a rich and sophisticated and yet simple language. You just don't want to stop reading. It is one of the few books where I read the notes with the same interest and eagerness that i have for the main text because are necessary to understand the whole mission. I appreciate the fact that he speaks out with honesty and fearlessness about his points of view. He is a model for me and a reference point for my own writings. it is a book that you need to read over and over if you are following the travel writing path. A great teacher.

After reading Rolf First book, I thought I'd give this a go.Totally different kettle of fish, but a rollicking good read

I am a big fan of Rolf Potts ever since he introduced me the world of Vagabonding. His second book didn't disappoint either!