Here's a little secret that those of us in travel media know: You have deeper, richer travel experiences when you hit the road with a goal.
Just knowing that I need to come back from a trip with a story and great photographs gives me license to snoop, asking deeper questions and dipping into places where visitors usually don't go. I walk around suffused with wonder and notice how the new environment differs from the sites I'm familiar with—and how it's the same. I talk with people I'd normally be too shy to approach, take notes like an overcaffeinated stenographer, and find that I'm grinning from morning to night.
Knowing I also have to capture pics that pop, I'm less self-conscious about climbing onto things, squatting in the middle of crowds, and bringing out a camera whenever the light is right. I've got a job to do—and doing that job is a great joy. It might sound like a stressful way to travel, but in point of fact it's having a purpose that makes the experience so meaningful and so much fun.
That's why I recommend that you, dear reader, join me at the Book Passage Travel Writers & Photographers Conference in Corte Madera, California, located just outside San Francisco. The 2025 edition of this annual event is scheduled for Thursday, August 14, through Sunday, August 17.
It is, without hyperbole, the finest conference on planet Earth for building skills in both travel writing and photography, and for getting your foot in the door as a fledgling photographer or author.
But what's less talked about is that attending the conference will also make you a better traveler, introducing you to a community of people who are enthralled by the wandering life. Yes, many attendees are looking for ways to enhance their media careers, but the conference is equally useful for anyone simply seeking ways to build more meaningful vacations.
This year's conference promises to be particularly enlightening as well as enjoyable. I'll be on the faculty again, along with founders Don George and Robert Holmes. Plus these travel-writing pros:
- Tim Cahill, a founding editor of Outside magazine and bestselling author
- Phil Cousineau, PBS host and author of The Art of Pilgrimage
- Brittany Sneller of Bucketlist Bri, a travel blog with 2 million readers
- Eliot Stein, editor of BBC Travel and author of the superb Custodians of Wonder
- Ernest White II, host of the award-winning PBS docuseries Fly Brother
You can download the full schedule here. In addition to teaching, I'll be delivering a special remembrance of my father, Arthur Frommer, on Friday evening (Aug. 15).
I hope you can join me and the rest of the gang for what has become my favorite weekend of the year. And I'm not the only one who feels that way: Numerous attendees say the same.
For more information or to register, go to BookPassage.com/travel.