About
Travel Tales by Afar is a podcast about transformative travel. Each week, we hear from a different person about a trip that changed their life.
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Episodes
When you take the time to listen, the country speaks through the buzz of bees, the hubbub of the market, the desert wind.
A former child prodigy travels to Spain to revisit the instrument of her youth—and to learn flamenco guitar from the tocaoras playing to the top of the male-dominated world.
New York comedian Negin Farsad headed into the heartland of her country, and fell head over heels for a two-state city in the middle of America.
In Portugal, novelist Charmaine Craig searches for the ghost of her hero, goes on a high-speed chase for delicious pork, and ponders the mystery of a writer’s trunk.
How a nature-phobic city girl opened her eyes to the wild side of India that seethes beyond the tea plantations and languid rivers.
Photo by Peter Bohler
On an epic bike trip through the Atlas Mountains and the Sahara Desert, a pair of travelers learns when to say yes to adventure.
No crowds. No cosplay. Just temples, trees, and a warm bath at the end of the day on the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage route.
A visually impaired traveler journeys through the wilds of Zimbabwe and discovers a side of the safari experience that very few know.
Writer Francis Lam discovers the island’s multicultural flavors when he joins a Malaysia-born San Francisco chef for a bittersweet homecoming.
Drummer Adam Levin of the X Ambassadors on life on the road and early morning cheeseburgers
Michael Evans went to Argentina to clear his head. Twelve years and a booming business later, he has no intention of leaving.
From Afghanistan to Sierra Leone, photographer Maria de la Guardia finds beauty and purpose in the most misunderstood corners of the world. Here, she shares the complicated realities of documenting stories during war.
Onetime royals in Rajasthan are holding onto their family estates the best way they can: by inviting us in.
Shots from Behind the Scenes of AFAR’s October Cover Story
What Author Paul Theroux Loves (and Hates) the Most About Travel
7 Stories That Prove Spontaneous Travel Is Truly Amazing
Threads of beauty, history, and memory make a Turkish carpet much more than a souvenir.
14 Times Travel Went Really, Really Wrong for AFAR Staffers
AFAR chose a destination at random and sent CNN political commentator Sally Kohn on 24 hours’ notice to a city renowned for its “coffee shops” but where tolerance has its limits.
A bluegrass fiddler travels to Vienna to learn how to sing—and how to embrace the city’s most famous art: opera.
From the mountains of Iran and the backstreets of Yogyakarta to war-torn Addis Ababa and a hillside roost in Taiwan, this is the riveting story of a wanderer whose thirst for travel was never-ending.
An arctic voyage is a sensory experience unlike any other. At the southernmost tip of the world, everything feels ephemeral—but that’s the magic of it.
In a square mile of West Texas, Chris Colin finds family and traces his roots back to a wilder America.
On a trip with a young traveler in tow, a writer reflects on her first Venice adventure—and how it changed her life.
Get to Know Some Birkebeiner Enthusiasts
Behind the Masks of Photographers Iris Brooks and Jon Davis
Fly With Us: Talking to Cliff Muskiet, Uniform Freak
Sita with a Voice: Graphic Novel Takes on Indian Myth
Like Locals Do: Explore a City With a Greeter Guide
Through Traveling Eyes: Kataneh Vahdani and “Avocados”