Whenever people ask me what my favorite destinations are, I have to fudge the answer. The truth is I'd rather go somewhere new than revisit a place, and every destination is as unique as a fingerprint, with its own pleasures and disappointments.
But even though I go to many travel conferences in the course of a year, there's only one I look forward to all year: the Book Passage Travel Writers and Photographers Conference in Corte Madera, California, just outside San Francisco.
What makes it special? Cliché as this may sound, it's the people, from the luminaries who have taught here over the years (Isabel Allende, Susan Orlean, Tony Wheeler) to in-the-trenches travel legends like Don George (formerly of Lonely Planet), Christopher Reynolds (of the L.A. Times) and Tim Cahill (a founder of Outside magazine), to the whip-smart students who attend.
Somehow, over the course of 3 short days, we all learn a full semester's worth of techniques and strategies from one another, we learn how to travel better, and just as importantly, we become a community.
What I hear most from first-timers at Book Passage is that they feel like they've finally found their "tribe."
This year, Andrew McCarthy, 80's-movie-star-turned-author (Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero) will be on the roster discussing his new travel memoir "Who Needs Friends?". Also teaching this year: travel writing icon Pico Iyer (in a pre-conference special session, the day before), Sierra magazine's Jonathan Hahn, and travel photographers Robert Holmes and Sej Saraiya, among many others.
Oh yeah, and I'll be there, too, giving a behind-the-scenes look of what it takes to put out guidebooks, podcasts, and savvy travel writing.
Won't you join us?
The conference takes place August 7–9, 2026. To learn more, click here.
Please note that this year, two scholarships will be given. One is for travel writing, the other for travel photography, and they're available to anyone who has less than 2 years experience in the field. To learn how to apply, click here.