Don George is the Adventure Collection’s Web Editor in Chief. A highly respected and pioneering travel journalist for more than two decades, Don was most recently the Global Travel Editor for Lonely Planet Publications. Prior to that, Don was Travel Editor at the San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle and then edited Salon.com’s travel site, Wanderlust. Don has published seven books, including “Travel Writing,” “The Kindness of Strangers,” “By the Seat of My Pants,” and “Tales from Nowhere.” He has written more than 600 articles for magazines and newspapers around the globe, and has received dozens of awards for his writing and editing.
A popular and trusted travel expert and commentator, Don appears regularly on CNN and NPR as well as other TV and radio outlets, and is frequently quoted in major newspapers and online news sites. He also speaks frequently on travel issues at venues around the world; recent appearances include the Commonwealth Club, the World Affairs Council, the Chicago Humanities Center, the Educational Travel Conference, the Japan Society, the Australian Society of Travel Writers, and the Pacific Asia Travel Association. Don has also hosted a lively series of on-stage conversations with such acclaimed writers as Jan Morris, Simon Winchester, Pico Iyer, Isabel Allende and Amy Tan. He has taught travel writing at the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism, and is co-founder and chairman of the annual Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference.
In a quarter-century of wandering, Don has visited more than 65 countries. He has worked as a teacher in Athens, a translator in Paris, and a TV talk show host in Tokyo. He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife.
Don can be contacted at don@adventurecollection.com.
May 14, 2013
Four summers ago, Don George joined an exhilarating whitewater adventure with O.A.R.S. on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. Here’s the account he penned in his journal at the time, written in the form of a conversation.
May 06, 2013
Suddenly it’s May and summer vacation is on the horizon! You know you want to take an organized adventure, but you don’t know where to go or what to do? Let us help! Here are seven simple tips to maximize your trip.
April 12, 2013
MAASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE – I was awakened at 4:45 by a soft rap on the door. “Jambo, sir! May I come in with your breakfast? A Maasai staffer placed a tray with tea, heated milk, and shortbread biscuits on my desk. “Enjoy your day, sir!” he called out and quickly left.
April 10, 2013
MAASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE – Nighttime at Bateleur Tented Camp, just outside Maasai Mara National Reserve in western Kenya, near the Tanzanian border.
April 04, 2013
MOUNT KENYA SAFARI CLUB – It’s 10:40 pm on our second night at the Mount Kenya Safari Club. I’m sitting on my verandah, staring into the light-less night and up at the star-spattered sky, more full of stars – in this high-altitude African blackness — than I have ever seen before.
April 02, 2013
AMBOSELI NATIONAL RESERVE — On our second bay in the bush, as dawn is just beginning to light the world outside my tented room, I hear a shuffle of feet and then “Jambo! Your tea, sir.” One of the Maasai staffers at Tortillis Camp places a tray with a pitcher of tea, heated milk, sugar, a china cup and saucer, a spoon and two biscuits on my verandah. I throw on my clothes, down a quick cup of tea, and hustle up to the main lodge, where our safari van awaits.
March 28, 2013
AMBOSELI NATIONAL RESERVE — We’ve just stepped off an 18-seat Air Kenya propeller plane onto the airstrip at Amboseli National Reserve. Vast brown savannah surrounds us. A nearby herd of ungainly, big-horned wildebeest stares at the noisy, propeller-beaked bird that just disrupted their grazing. Beyond them sleek-striped zebra munch, flanks twitching, on the grass. To their distant left a trio of Thompsen’s gazelles leap toward the green foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, whose flanks disappear into masses of gray clouds.
March 26, 2013
NAIROBI — My introduction to the wildlife of East Africa was a kiss from a giraffe. No, this isn’t a metaphor. We’re talking about a real wet lip-smacker here, a come-here-big-boy-and-let-me-give-you-a-taste-of-my-long-black-tongue kiss.
March 15, 2013
Candace Rose Rardon is an American writer, photographer and artist who sketches as she travels. These sketches, combined with the stories behind them, poignantly portray those moments of encounter and illumination that become the stepping stones of adventure, inner and outer. We are extremely pleased to present her on-the-road sketches-and-stories here.
March 06, 2013
Suddenly it’s March! Summer is fast approaching. For kids, that’s the time to kick back and savor long, school-free days. For parents, it’s the time to embark on one of the year’s scariest roller-coaster rides: the family vacation.
