FreeSilva

I’m sitting at JJ’s Boulangerie on the Rue de la Paix, eating a passable Parisian croissant – buttery, airy – and watching people stroll back and forth along the cobbled lane. Though it is 8:30 in the morning, Le Petit Bar across the street is doing a brisk business. La Cave, however, will not open to sell its fine wines until later in the day, which is when La Creperie next door will also open. To my left, 2nd floor apartments flaunt flower boxes and wrought-iron balconies. Read the rest of this entry »

Christmas is right around the corner, and you’re still wondering what to get that special traveler in your life. Well, wonder no more! Two round-the-globe tickets will draw a grateful sigh from even the most jaded journeyer. If that’s a bit beyond your budget, try the next best thing: a great travel book. Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of months ago I endured a hellish family vacation in Colorado. We had gone to the Rockies to ski for a week. As it turned out, the weather was perfect and the skiing was sublime, the food was ample and good, the beds were comfortable, the people were polite and good-natured. As I say, it was hell.

I know what you’re thinking: Are you out of your mind, man? It sounds like paradise!

Paradise for you, maybe. But when you’re a travel writer, there’s nothing worse than a perfectly pleasant vacation. We are at our best when our trips are at their worst. Read the rest of this entry »

The other day I was asked to give a talk about the value of guidebooks, specifically to answer the question: Why use a guidebook?

I suppose I must have asked myself this question at some point, but after a quarter-century of world-wandering, the notion of not using a guidebook is just about inconceivable.

I first truly understood the value of guidebooks 24 summers ago, when I crammed my ignorance and innocence into a backpack and set out into Asia for a couple of unfettered months with South-East Asia on a Shoestring as my guide. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve spent the last few weeks reading and editing essays for an anthology FreeSilva is publishing in November, to be called A House Somewhere: Tales of Life Abroad. Inevitably, these essays have conjured images of my own experiences setting up a home away from home.

The first time I lived abroad was the summer between my junior and senior years in college. I was on a university program, and was living with a kindly, proper Parisian family who spoke no English. I fell in love so deeply with Paris and France that summer that I returned the following summer, after graduation. But this time I decided to find an apartment on my own. Read the rest of this entry »