If you love travel you're sure to love Going Local: Experiences and Encounters on the Road
Nicholas Kontis
USA Today Travel Journalist, Author of Going Local Experiences and Encounters on the Road, Award-Winning Photojournalist, Speaker, Pilgrim, Global Explorer with over 100 countries visited
As I'm fond of mentioning to travelers on my various speaking, television and radio gigs.....
There is no greater education than travel, and how appalling I find it that barley a little over one third of Americans hold a valid passport.
After a lifetime in the field of travel, I wrote my first book that you can find on Amazon. As many travel icons have pointed out, hopefully I can change a few perceptions on travel, and encourage people to get off the couch and see the world.
When we travel the world, our focus should be on people, sharing and blending cultures. You'll find out that your host care to learn as much about you, as you do about the new society in which your visiting.
Read more about Going Local: Experiences and Encounters on the Road
As I'm now in Istanbul, where I just did an interview on Peter Greenberg's radio show.
I report that Istanbul as safe as ever, and fear should never rule our world.
Peter and other travel industry icons have taken a liking to Going Local: Experiences and Encounters on the Road
Found here on Amazon…
After having visited 85 countries and combined with a successful career as an entrepreneur in the field of travel, I have a ton of travel knowledge. Going Local is about becoming better travelers and taking advantage of all of today’s resources to live experientially, living like a local, immersing into local society, being present in the sharing economy.
Would you take a look. I need marketing help. My book fits perfectly with your clientele or style of travel.
Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m career long travel industry pro and insider Nick Kontis from San Francisco. As I was told as a young age that I would never make a dime in the field of travel, I far exceeded expectations and made a very nice life for myself in the field of travel.
Now as a travel journalist, I wrote a book on the true meaning of travel, that being immersing into local society from learning from people.
See my subject matter. From what I’m told my book is timely and my mantra bodes well with….
Solely female travelers who perhaps need a bit of an inspiration that it is possible and relatively safe to travel the world.
Younger travelers who might be on their first travel overseas or on their first around the world trip
Baby boomers who perhaps waited to travel until their kids went off to college before they became world travelers.
Guys, I’m the most humble guy on the planet, but as good fortune would have it, I have mingled with and I’m known by Arthur and Pauline Frommer, Tony Wheeler, Joe Cummings, Richard Bangs, and more. Many are still close friends and see the see the accolades that my style of travel is mentioned by…
David Noyes * Rick Steves, * Judith Fein * James Dorsey * Don George * Richard Bangs * Tony Wheeler
I cherish a review from you guys, and as stated my book once known, will be a best seller.
See my book on the experiential travel movement and how I remind travelers to become better travelers through immersing into local society.
Stellar 5 Star Reviews are coming out on Amazon for travel agency owner and industry professional, Nicholas Kontis' new book titled Going Local -Experiences and Encounters on the Road.
Nick's book covers:
The Rise in Peer to Peer Travel * Immersing into local society though its cuisine * Food & Travel * Volunteering on your travels * Learning about people and places by taking an extended trip around the world * Moving overseas * Responsible Travel * Interviews with industry icons, case studies, travel apps, web sites and more to become a better travel.
At a time when so many people are just checking things off a bucket list, other travelers are finding that they want more. Going Local explores the whys and how to’s of really experiencing an area and its culture through the people who live there. Includes a plethora of real life travel stories from experts and everyday people alike.
Nicholas Kontis
Here is the link to review the book on Amazon
About - Going Local Experiences and Encounters on the Road
“Going Local – Experiences and Encounters on the Road” is the first travel book by industry veteran Nicholas Kontis. “Going Local“ details how to implement a focal point for travel we should all have– that of learning from the local cultures. With the assistance of technology, never before has it been so easy to stay in someone’s home, share a meal, hitch a ride, and be guided by and learn from local society. “Going Local” delves into the rise in peer-to-peer travel and shows how to meal share, use apps to mingle with local society, take a trip around the world, move out of your comfort zone overseas, or to volunteer. You’ll learn why responsible travel matters and enjoy case studies along with keynote talks with travel visionaries, icons and explorers in the field of travel such as Tony Wheeler, Rick Steves, Richard Bangs, Don George, Judith Fein, David Noyes, and James Dorsey. The great Lonely Planet founder, Tony Wheeler, gives the cover endorsement stating: “Many people – Mark Twain included - have noted how travel is a certain cure for bigotry and narrow-mindedness. I hope Nick’s book may help persuade people to take the treatment.”
Review from travel journalist John Gottberg Anderson.
If you’ve ever considered what it might be like to travel free of resorts and hotels, perhaps for months on end, and experience exotic destinations from the perspective of the citizen of that country, Nicholas Kontis has prepared your road map.
A travel agent-turned-author, Kontis has written a book that combines a lifetime of knowledge with a contagious enthusiasm that just might convince you to plan your next overseas trip before you finish reading. He introduces you to "peer-to-peer" travel, and how to get launched into their world through AirBnB, Couch Surfing, Home Exchange and other hotel alternatives. He provides websites that connect travelers with others who may share their interests -- from beer to bikes to battlefields -- and tells you where to go for travel advice, from GoGoBot to Skout to Virtual Tourist.
Food is a catalyst for many travelers' shared experiences, and he offers long sections on food-focused tourism around the world. He discusses the how-tos of sustainable tourism for responsible travelers, and provides information on volunteer opportunities around the world, from cultural and economic to ecologically oriented.
Finally, he talks about living overseas for long periods of time, and features interviews with such icons of modern American travel as Rick Steves ("Europe Through the Back Door"). I'm only disappointed he didn't corner Anthony Bourdain.
I'm already putting in my application for a volunteer position overseas. Kontis is very convincing.
About The Author
Nicholas Kontis was born on one of the most breathtaking islands in the world, Santorini, Greece, and brought up in America's culture capital of San Francisco. Nick developed a passion for travel at a very young age, going back and forth between San Francisco and Athens, Greece during summer vacation. At age 12 he learned the meaning of travel immersion by staying in various relatives homes, sleeping on couches, and learn to bake bread.
At age 19, Nick did his first Europe stomp, renting a car with two friends in Nice, France and later participating in the annual “Running of the Bulls” in Pamplona, Spain, during the San Fermin Festival, where he came out unscathed.
It would be an exploring trip around the world at age 24 that would end up being a life changing experience. Subsequent to travelling by car, train, plane, bike, boat and hitchhiking all through the globe, even saving a baby in Bangladesh. It was this trip of a lifetime that drove Nick to a long-lasting affection for travel as well as to a career in the travel industry.
After returning to his native San Francisco with no job in sight, Nick proceeded to start the first successful travel agency in the United States specializing in discount around the world airfares.
Nick has been featured as a guest speaker on both radio and television. He has been mentioned by Lonely Planet's Tony Wheeler as an airfare master, and often alluded to as the "father of around the world airfares." Arthur Frommer once said, "If Jules Verne were alive today he would use Nick Kontis to go around the world in 80 days." He is also a guest writer for USA Today and Huffington Post Travel, as well as numerous other travel publications. Maybe the greatest point of distinction for Nick is that numerous fellow travel writers and specialists in the field have referred to him as the inspiration for their decision to embark on careers in the industry. Nick's first book is titled, “Going Local – Experiences and Encounters on the Road.”
Nicholas Kontis still calls San Francisco home, and spends the dominant part of his year travelling between his four home bases of San Francisco, The Napa Valley, Los Angeles and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
His web site is www.nicholaskontis.com
Follow Nick
Twitter & Instagram @nicholaskontis
Facebook – World Travel List , Nicholas Kontis
Linkedin – Nicholas Kontis
Praise for Nick
“Nick Kontis fully showcases a better way to travel by fully immersing into local society” Richard Bangs – Author, television personality, and regarded as the father of modern adventure travel
“Nick Kontis writes about the way we should be traveling. It’s not about package tours and brief stops, but deep immersion into getting to know locals and finding out about why they – and now you – love the places they call home.” Michael Luongo – Award winning New York based novelist, freelance writer and photographer
“Nick Kontis is committed to the kind of travel that brings peace, communication and joy.” Judith Fein – Award winning travel writer, speaker and videographer
“Nick Kontis is championing a travel concept that I have held for decades, “Immersion” in local culture. I believe this is the path to international understanding and I applaud him for his work.” James Michael Dorsey – Explorer; award winning author, photographer and lecturer
"With more and more people traveling into remote corners of our increasingly accessible and complicated world, it is incredibly valuable to have voices like Nick Kontis to guide us towards a more memorable and enlightening travel experience.” David Noyes – Award-winning travel writer and photojournalist
“With more Nick Kontises on the road, we'd have a much more peaceful world. Support his kind of ‘going local’." John Lamkin – Award-winning journalist and photographer
“The single biggest impact on my children's education is the experiences they share, with locals, around the world. Nick Kontis opens up a world many don't realize is accessible to them.” Jim Pickell – President of HomeExchange.com
“If Jules Verne were alive today he would use Nick to go “Around the World in 80 days” Arthur Frommer – Founder of the Frommer’s series of travel guides and Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine
“Many people – Mark Twain included - have noted how travel is a certain cure for bigotry and narrow-mindedness. I hope Nick’s book may help persuade people to take the treatment.” Tony Wheeler – Co-founder of Lonely Planet Guidebooks
CLICK THE LINK FOR THE FREE E-BOOK AND PLEASE WRITE A REVIEW
Going Local – Experiences and Encounters on the Road makes the perfect Christmas or birthday gift for any travel fan.
Financial Accountant at Schroders
8 年Deborah Adigun
Founder of Eco & Wildlife Tour Operator Natural Greece
8 年Nice to get to know you and your work! Χ?ρικα πολ?. The team of Natural Greece are all based in Greece. Our travellers not only appreciate the nature of Greece, they also value the total trip immersion. Local and off-the-beaten path. Check us out and hope to meet you one day.