Michael Palin Quotes

In the Sixties, there were no guidebooks to Asia, at least none that suited young shoestring travelers. No one on the hippie highway carried a copy of Fodor's 'Islamic Asia.' The route to spiritual enlightenment wasn't revealed in the pages of the latest Baedeker. Intrepids were on a journey of spontaneity and reinvention.

Every time I come to India - where I have grown up - if I spent 20 years in this country, I will never be able to uncover all of the hidden jewels.

I love traveling and seeing new things, learning the histories of different cultures. But I've always wanted to go to the Galapagos to see the giant turtles.

Just ask the local people for the best food. Don't rely on a guidebook.

I always want off-the-beaten-path, Anthony Bourdain-inspired travel.

I really enjoy travelling around the world. I get to meet some extraordinary people.

I really love travelling to places where I get to learn something new about a new group of people or a new place. Learn some history, contemplate some business ideas, and sort of get off the beaten track a little bit.

We're not just making 'Marco Polo,' we're living it. Because we traveled to Venice... Kazakhstan... into the jungles of Malaysia.

It's easy to set a story anywhere if you get a good guidebook and get some basic street names, and some descriptions, but, for me, yes, I am indebted to my travels to India for several of the stories.

Adventure travel existed before I started, I just didn't know it.

When you go visiting countries, you start reading the history of the place and you start getting into the culture, and then you have to leave. In my experience, all countries have hidden treasures.

A place that doesn't welcome tourists, that's really difficult and off the map, is a place I want to see.

I always spend time exploring the customs and attitudes of the countries I'm using for locations, and interviewing the people who live there. I've visited over 90 countries thus far.

On the whole, when I travel to different countries, I like to find the hidden places, so I tend to avoid the cities - but in terms of the ease of getting about, finding what you need, the excitement, that undercurrent of whatever you want it to be, it's got to be London.

There are places that I've always wanted to go. First I went to Africa, and when I was there I realized there were places in Africa I really to wanted to visit: The Congo, West Africa, Mombassa. I wanted to see the deep, dark, outlandish places.

In the '50s, I was traveling alone all over Mindanao, Basilan, all the way to Tawi-Tawi with just a camera and a notebook. I always stayed in the houses of Moros.

I wanted to know what it would be like to get on a horse and ride all the way west to Europe and take a look back at my own culture through the eyes of a nomad.

I'm the person friends come to when they want to find the perfect restaurant or boutique hotel on the outskirts of Paris. As opposed to scouring the Internet for a travel guide, wouldn't you rather ask the people who are really cool who go there? That's what I do.

Get off the beaten path... If you want to find those mom-and-pop joints, those funky little places, just ask around.

It seems like the world's major cities are getting more and more homogenized, so I think it's important to go off-road and find treasures in offbeat destinations.

When I left the country to study in the U.K., I suddenly realized, and I'm still realizing, how much other stuff is out there - like My Bloody Valentine, who millions of people are passionate about, but they're still considered an 'underground' band.

Professionally, my first book came out at the age of 29, where I wrote about my experiences of backpacking in U.S. on a frugal budget.

What we've demonstrated is there's an immense appetite to travel more authentically and immerse yourself in culture... as opposed to having a commoditised experience.

I want to go to a country where I don't speak the language. I want to be lost in translation.

The shores of the Black Sea lend themselves to the literary genre that may be classified as 'cultural pilgrimage,' which is not just a higher form of travel writing but which has the further mission of reporting on present conditions and supplying neglected knowledge.