Travel & Travel Writing

This selection of writings from local author Dan Haifley’s Sentinel column “Our Ocean Backyard” charts the history of the Santa Cruz harbor from its roots in Woods Lagoon through the Army Corps construction, the tsumani devastation, and beyond—highlighting the people who have shaped it and the problems it has faced. Haifley’s passion for this sheltered port is contagious as he champions its crucial role in our community.

Slow is Fast chronicles a unique 700-mile bicycle journey down the California coast by a group of surfers and filmmakers. Along the way they document their travels, repair flat tires, surf remote breaks, visit friends and fellow journeymen and pitch in to help out artisans and organic farmers—including some in Santa Cruz—all in an effort to tell a simple story of livelihoods crafted in tune with our oceans and fields.

“A train is a train is a train, isn’t it?” Tim Parks may have thought that when he began his journey of traveling Italy by rail, but he soon came to realize that train travel not only gave him incredible views of the cities, towns, and countryside, but of the people of Italy as well. His encounters with conductors and ticket collectors, ordinary Italians and scholars, gave him a unique insight into Italian life. “This is the best book I’ve ever read about Italy. Never have I encountered a more insightful and hilarious insider/outsider portrait of the country at the center of Western civilization.” —Sean Wilsey, author of Oh the Glory of It All

John Waters is putting his life on the line. Armed with wit, a pencil-thin mustache, and a cardboard sign that reads, “I’m Not Psycho,” he hitchhikes across America from Baltimore to San Francisco, braving lonely roads and treacherous drivers. Before he leaves, Waters fantasizes about the best- and worst-case scenarios, but what really happens when he sticks out his thumb and hits the open road? His real-life rides include a gentle 81-year-old farmer who is convinced Waters is a hobo, an indie band on tour, and the perverse filmmaker’s unexpected hero: a young, sandy-haired Republican in a Corvette.

This chronicle of a cross-country bike trip that Brian Benson undertook in a whirlwind of new love—and his subsequent search for personal direction—is the perfect summer read. “Benson’s memoir about riding from the hinterlands of Wisconsin to Portland, Oregon, on his bicycle is as poignant as it is gripping, as hilarious as it is wise. Going Somewhere is a tender, sexy, take-it-with-you-everywhere-you-go-until-you’ve-read-the-last-page beauty of a book.” —Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

When Adventures on the Wine Route was first published, Victor Hazan said, “In Kermit Lynch’s small, true, delightful book there is more understanding about what wine really is than in everything else I have read.” A quarter century later, this remarkable journey of wine, travel, and taste remains an essential volume for wine lovers. This 25th-anniversary edition features a new afterword by the author.

The images in this book will take you to places far and wide, the kinds of places that you might never visit but that you can perhaps put on that “if” list we all have tucked away. These places are surprising, remarkable, remote, familiar—from fiery volcanic eruptions to Antarctic wind-sculpted icebergs; from the natural wonders of Belize’s Great Blue Hole to Yellowstone in Wyoming. Dive in and marvel over this beautiful world.

There are so many things that make New York unique, vibrant, and exciting, but perhaps nothing does so more than its people. In 2010, Brandon Stanton set out to construct a photographic census of New York City, but he soon broke down the wall between street photographer and subject, and began collecting quotes and short stories from the people he met. The result is the completely addictive blog (and now book) Humans of New York, which provides glimpses into the lives of strangers in New York City. Both are absolutely compelling portraits of the residents of a city—and of humanity.

Tourists know Amsterdam as a picturesque city of low-slung brick houses lining tidy canals; student travelers know it for its legal brothels and hash bars; art lovers know it for Rembrandt’s glorious portraits. “Most urban histories focus on bricks and mortar; not this one. Russell Shorto writes engagingly about how a city can engender ideas—order, tolerance, comfort, egalitarianism, entrepreneurship—and in turn be shaped by them. Amsterdam argues convincingly that Western liberalism has been greatly influenced by this small, modest, crazy-yet-conventional place.” —Witold Rybczynski