If we are lucky, our expectations are scrambled. We are reminded that there are larger forces at play. DeepTravel demands even more. Our tools? What did it mean?
"The passage of the mythological hero may be overground, incidentally; fundamentally it is inward—into the depths where obscure resistances are overcome, and long lost powers are revivified …"
—-Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces
In its simplest form, travel is physical movement from one place to another: a flight from Seattle to South Africa, the long drive through Nebraska, or came
l trek across the Sahara. Along the way we encounter new sights and smells, sounds and sensations: the taste of curry, the notes of a sitar, snow-peaked Andes, fresh mint mingling with dyed leather in the souks of Marrakech. Most travelogues stay safely on the surface, tracking like mile markers our horizontal movement through space. When infused with carefully collected details and vivid action, these stories can transport the reader. It asks us not just to recount what we saw, but to elicit that sensation we often have on return from our journeys that we are changed. Deep Travel is a three-session workshop that invites you to write about your vertical travels--the downward venture into the deepest strata of your experience and psyche. Like prospectors searching for a vein, we’ll dig through layers, starting with surface impressions and tracing them to their primal sources. Sharpened intuitive skills, an openness to risk, and creative revisioning techniques that pinpoint focus. Where a travelogue only requires us to write “Last summer I went to the Eiffel tower,” Deep Travel asks Why did I want to go there? Perhaps my expectations got shattered the moment I was ripped off by a con-artist who handed me a rose. Who was this rose seller? What is his story? Where does my romantic fantasy of Paris come from, and how does it collide with his reality? Deep Travel draws us into the molten core of our experience. Join award-winning writers Christina Ammon and Erin Byrne as we forge connections between our personal journeys—and the political, cultural, and mythical contexts in which they unfold—and the essence of our own selves.
08/19/2024
The transition from working as a footloose travel guide (and freelancer-on-the-road) to staying in place as a tourism coordinator hasn’t been 100-percent easy, but many rich lessons…
Building community is more than hosting block parties and managing emergency phone trees. It’s about working on yourself. by Christina Ammon Some time ago, I assembled a little altar...
08/16/2024
Here we go again! This time with Lavinia AND Colette!
Deep Travel Writing Workshops, multiple global destinations guided by an experienced team of travel writers.
08/16/2024
For those of you who have traveled with Dot….
What gives you a sense of awe? You might imagine standing on a wide-open plain with a storm approaching, or holding the tiny finger of a newborn baby. That w...
08/10/2024
A visit from beautiful Azahara from Deep Travel Spain. !!!
07/29/2024
This is a great place to submit your travel stories!!
“In story after story,” Andrew McCarthy wrote about volume 11 of The Best Women’s Travel Writing, “the refreshing absence of bluster and bravado, coupled with the optimism necessary for bold travel, create a unifying narrative that testifies to the personal value and
07/24/2024
“In story after story,” Andrew McCarthy wrote about volume 11 of The Best Women’s Travel Writing, “the refreshing absence of bluster and bravado, coupled with the optimism necessary for bold travel, create a unifying narrative that testifies to the personal value and
Maud Macrory Powell writes about a violent event, a secret kept for fifty years, and how we react to traumatic experiences
04/26/2024
By Deep Traveler Lisa Boice!
04/07/2024
All kinds of people come on our trips! I'm glad Nikki Bartley was one of them...
"I almost didn’t go to Yelapa on the writing retreat. The workshop is for travel writers and I am not a travel writer. I am a flower farmer with a blog..."
Read her entry about our Deep Travel Mexico workshop here:
by Nikki Bartley Today is March 24th and I just returned home from a week-long writing retreat with 18 other wild and wonderful women in Yelapa, Mexico. My husband and boys are skiing in NH enjoying the best powder day of an otherwise lackluster ski season on the East Coast. This gives me a day to s...
03/29/2024
Lavinia Spalding in the New York Times Modern Love column today (second time!). So proud !!!
When an Italian stranger approached me, I listened to my intuition, and it changed my life forever.
03/24/2024
Words and images by Sherri Harvey. Proud to have had her on our Mexico trip!
addressing water scarcity in a changing climate WORDS AND IMAGES BY SHERRI HARVEY AND NANCY ROACH EDITED BY TAMARA BLAZQUEZ HAIK Water—the most crucial element for the existence of life—is often taken for granted when it is abundant. However as the climate warms, droughts—caused by both nat
03/23/2024
Happy Birthday Lavinia!!
03/23/2024
Great group! Still processing it all! The insights start to come in the days following the trip…
03/18/2024
Deep Travel Mexico opening night dinner. Photo by the amazing Sherri Harvey!
03/13/2024
Sailed through passport and customs! On to the beach!
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Sometimes it’s plain luck. You stop for lunch at a truckstop in France and your ideas about food are transformed. Or you’re hiking the Granada hills and come across a band of flamenco dancers. But, very often, finding what Richard Halliburton calls the “blood and thunder” of a place takes time.
The problem is, we don’t always have this kind of time. We have to water gardens, walk pets, support families.
This is the dilemma that inspired Deep Travel. How can we short-cut deeply into a place and yet keep our travels rich? We’ve concluded that the ideal sojourn is an elixir of camaraderie with independence, effort and relaxation, the exotic with the familiar, structure with serendipity—all accompanied with friendships forged over great food and wine.
We’ve placed those friendships and connections are at the center of our trips. Tim Cahill rightly observed that “trips are best measured in friends, not in miles.” Places speak best through the people who live in them, and so we link up with the photographers, winemakers, innkeepers, writers, chefs and residents that bridge us into the heart of a place. We’ve shared traditional Himalayan meals with Nepalese families, wandered medinas with local photographers, and embarked on roadtrips with the last master storytellers of Morocco.
And, of course, our trips are enriched by your perspective. What can we teach each other about a place? Daily sessions feature simple writing prompts and assignments to help hone your observations. On the last night of each workshop, we often have readings and a celebration where you have an option to share you work (Don’t worry: Although professional writers often join our journeys, experience is not required. Just have a ready-pen and an open mind).
By journey’s-end, you might agree that the best souvenir you bring home is not always a pashmina shawl or a cactus silk scarf, but some new insight, gleaned from moments of self-reflection and discussion.
Deep Travel isn’t a sightseeing tour. We figure you can grab a guidebook and find the “top ten” sights on your own. The goal of Deep Travel is to experience a place as fully as we can.
