Going Local: Experiences and Encounters on the Road

Today’s traveler seeks authentic experiences, not just viewing awesome sites, and taking must-see photo opportunities while checking an item off of a bucket list. Experiential travel, also known as immersion travel is about travel experiences that resonate on a deeper emotional level. A focus on experiencing a country, city or particular place by connecting to its history, people and culture. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is an experience worth? Travel is life changing. We all become better world citizens when we learn from other cultures. Through the use of peer-to-peer travel apps and websites, it’s never been so easy to share living spaces, share a meal or a ride, or to have a local inhabitant show you around. Real life experiences are compelling people to travel and bridge cultures together. Travel opens us up to the wonders of the world, and to the serendipitous occurrences when different cultures merge. At the forefront of any journey, travel begins with people and protecting local society and wilderness. It’s a powerful lesson that cannot be learned staying home viewing travel shows on television. Going Local Experiences and Encounters on the Road will guide you to travel like a local and become a better traveler. You will learn: Ways to become part of the peer to peer, sharing economy and join the experiential travel movement. Case studies in living overseas. Seeking out culture through local cuisine and meal sharing. Taking time out of your trip to volunteer. How an around the world trip is a life-changing experience. Learning what it means to practice responsible travel and choosing operators who protect and give back to local societies. Understanding that a good traveler brings back only memories and leaves no tracks. Keynote interviews with world-renowned travel icons: Tony Wheeler, Richard Bangs, Rick Steves, Don George, James Dorsey, Judith Fein, David Noyes, Tim Leffel. Many people – Mark Twain included – have noted how travel is a certain cure for bigotry and narrow-mindedness. Take the plunge – Go and create your own travel tales.

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 traveling 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 Ticket Planet, (Nick's travel company at the time) to go around the world in 80 days." He is also a contributing writer for USA Today and the 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.” His website is www.nicholaskontis.com Follow Nick Twitter & Instagram @nicholaskontis Facebook – World Travel List , Nicholas Kontis Linkedin – Nicholas Kontis