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Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel
 
 
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Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel [Paperback]

Rolf Potts
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Villard Books; 1 edition (1 Jan 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0812992180
  • ISBN-13: 978-0812992182
  • Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 1.3 x 20.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 36,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Rolf Potts
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Product Description

Product Description

Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. Veteran shoestring traveler Rolf Potts shows how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. Potts gives the necessary information on:

• financing your travel time
• determining your destination
• adjusting to life on the road
• working and volunteering overseas
• handling travel adversity
• re-assimilating back into ordinary life

Not just a plan of action, vagabonding is an outlook on life that emphasizes creativity, discovery, and the growth of the spirit.

From the Back Cover

“Potts wants us to wander, to explore, to embrace the unknown, and, finally, to take our own damn
time about it. I think this is the most sensible book of travel-related advice ever written.”
—Tim Cahill, author of Hold the Enlightenment

“Rolf Potts has produced an engaging book that does what few, if any, other travel guides do: make readers aware of how many possibilities vagabonding offers them to enhance their lives, and how accessible the experience of long-term travel really is.”
—Jeffrey Tayler, author of Glory in the Camel’s Eye, Facing the Congo, and Siberian Dawn

“Vagabonding brings to inspiring life both the hows and the whys of life on the road.”
—Don George, global travel editor, Lonely Planet Publications

“Digging into Rolf Potts, one encounters real issues about travel, issues that most other travel writers overlook, while still having a good time.”
—Joe Cummings, author of Lonely Planet Thailand, Lonely Planet Bangkok,
Moon Handbooks: Mexico, and Moon Handbooks: Texas

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
59 of 59 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Though there are many books out there to help you plan long-term and "gap-year" travel, Vagabonding stands out in its unique blend of philosophical inspiration and straightforward planning advice. If you've ever harbored a desire to take a few months or years off to travel, Potts' book will stoke your wanderlust and fill you with newfound confidence to hit the road.

The philosophical core of Vagabonding revolves around the idea that time -- not money -- is the truest form of wealth. How you spend your time is more important to true living than accumulating "things" -- and travel is a deep resource for acquiring rich life experience. A flexible and open-minded attitude, Potts insists, is the best travel tool you can acquire -- and this attitude starts before you ever leave on your journey. In other words, be prepared to take your travels slow. Don't over-plan your travels in advance. Learn as you go and be open to new experiences. Don't obsess about how others travel; just find your own way.

Beyond inspirational matters, however, Vagabonding is a great resource for the practical issues of travel planning -- offering a nice mix of print and online resources without being laborious or redundant. The book is not encyclopedic or exhaustive in this regard, but in the age of the Internet and Lonely Planet-style guidebooks, it doesn't need to be. Potts' resources point you in the right direction, advising and informing your online and guidebook research without presuming to do it for you -- a nice, intuitive information-age touch that (unlike other travel-planning guides) keeps the book from bogging down in superfluous and outdated information.

On a final note, I'll confess I probably wouldn't have written this review had it not been for the misleading two-star review below. With all due respect to the reader from Kent, Vagabonding is in absolutely no way philosophically rigid or closed-minded ("Research your own experiences for the truth," says Potts in the introduction, quoting Bruce Lee. "The creating individual is more than any style or system."). Moreover, having read the book several times, I've found that Potts' evenhanded approach "ridicules" nothing (save perhaps the idea of spending too much money on your travels, or of micromanaging your itinerary in advance) and his quotes from other thinkers dovetail seamlessly with his own ideas.

In short: If you choose only one book to plan a year abroad, this is the one to get. (It's worth a re-read when you get home, too.)

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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful
By Eirey
Format:Paperback
I read this book before I set off travelling through Europe with my husband and 7 year old daughter, at the time I was concerned that I had not organised enough of our itinerary and we were walking into a disaster. What I find now, looking back, was that this book gave me the confidence to take the journey as it came rather than intensively plan it. That doing that gave us a lot of the highlights of our travels, although in all honesty we walked into a few problems because of it also. That said - had it just been adults travelling the problems would have been adventures but with a child we had less freedom to be flexible on some things. But it can be done and it doesnt have to cost the earth. This book inspires you to live with a different attitude to life, one that I have willingly integrated into, and that at times has nothing to do with travel. Potts is non-consumerist to the point of being almost anti-consumerist, and that attitude is like a relief in comparison with the market messages that we in the west inevitably live in the middle of. As others have said, this is not just a travel book it is a philosophy of travel book. If you want to travel freely without being tied down in your mind to the obligations of a 'gap year' or your 'OE' then this book encourages that freedom. You should read it!
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57 of 60 people found the following review helpful
The Bible 29 Aug 2003
Format:Paperback
Anyone who has ever thought about travelling, this book will make you go! Anyone who has ever been travelling, this book will make you want to go again and anyone who is travelling whilst reading this, this book will make you that bit more adventurous when ordering food in a cafe where a squat toilet is another eating area! It's definitely a case of, if he can do it then so can I!

Of course if your not a travelling type then the book will mean as much to you as a tin of baked beans to a kipper, but for those who yearn for life as one of the wandering nomads of this world, this book will seem like the travel bible in as much as it suggests a life less ordinary!

This book is about working to live and not living to work!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Vagabonding: a little common sense will get you far
Having travelled quite a bit, I never really had travelled for longer than 3 months, nor had I travelled alone. I stumbled upon this book and considering the price, just bought it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jan Waeben
Loving it
This book is truly amazing. First of all, I love the flow of the text - it's very much his own thoughts, mixed with quotes and thoughts for travellers and vagabonders all over the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Anders
Bought as a gift Wife loves it
I bought this book as a gift for my wife. She's fond of travelling and this book suited her. She really liked the book. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Anky
very poor and packed out with rubbish
I have travelled a little, and alone. I bought this following all the good reviews and expected a great deal from the book. I was very disappointed. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Patchdog50
Less inspirational than expected
This book was a quick read and certainly initially enjoyable, but by the time I got half way through it it was beginning to grate. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Mrs C E Bryant
Start packing, get moving...
Even if you are only remotely thinking about 'going travelling one day', then reading this book will inspire you to make those vague dreams a reality. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Dartriver
really made me...
...think. it starts as a 'normal' travel book - practical advice - but evolves into a much deeper exploration of why we travel and what you can expect to get out of it. Read more
Published 14 months ago by MJ
excellent
This book is simply inspiring. It is magical. As I was reading it as if someone had organised my thoughts into sentences! I love it!
Published 16 months ago by Miss E. A. Kurdi
VERY GOOD + VERY REAL BOOK
IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY DELIBERATING WHETHER YOU SHOULD JACK IT ALL IN TO GO AND DISCOVER THE WORLD BUT YOU'RE STILL UNSURE, BUY THIS BOOK. Read more
Published 21 months ago by FIBEEHALL
A great read for anyone who has the travel bug!
I purchased this book based on the reviews on here already and they all lived up to the expectations for the book! Read more
Published on 26 April 2010 by S. Chohan
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