What would the world be without fantastic stories? Every person, every culture, every location has something to tell. Fantastic Stories brings you some of our favorite adventure tales throughout history, from real life to the cinema.
Our 2024 travels took us through Greece, Egypt, Jordan, and the broader Aegean and Mediterranean, capturing moments of history, culture, and breathtaking landscapes. From the ruins of Knossos and the timeless charm of Ikaria to the towering pyramids of Egypt and the vast desert of Wadi Rum, each destination left a lasting impression. Along the way, I explored Montenegro, Albania, and Italy, discovering hidden coastal gems and ancient wonders. This collection of ten photos isn’t just about places—it’s about stories, emotions, and the unforgettable experiences that define travel. Join me in revisiting these incredible moments through my lens.
The explorations of women have never gotten their proper due. It’s time that changed. Women have partaken in some of the most spectacular exploratory feats in history. I realized I failed to make that point in my earlier article “The 10 Greatest Travel Adventure Books of All Time,” terrific as those books are. This is a small attempt to remedy that shortcoming.
On our drive to find Butch Cassidy’s ranch we head South. The Pre-cordillera mountains at sunset are fierce and fiery. The sky feels like passion and love. We have finally made it to the charming tourist town of Bariloche. It sits along the glacial, alpine lake Nahuel Huapi. It is immense and absolutely pristine. It reminds me of Tahoe but prettier, deeper and bigger. We pick up our car to begin the search for the ranch of Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Etta Place in Cholila, 3.5 hours south. They bought the property with the money they made robbing banks in Montana and Utah. That was when The Union Pacific hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to bring them in dead or alive. The bounty was over $10,000 for the two bank robbers.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was a breakout hit when it was released in 1969. Over a half century later, it remains an enduring, beloved revisionist western.
The classic Western captured the exploits of the two iconic outlaws in the early 1900s. Butch Cassidy, the clever and charismatic leader of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, teams up with his sharpshooting partner, the Sundance Kid. As law enforcement closes in on their criminal activities, the duo embarks on a daring escape to Bolivia in search of a new life. Blending action, humor, and a deep sense of camaraderie, the film explores friendship and the inevitable clash between romance and reality in the changing American frontier.
Traveling is wonderful, but there are some places you simply can’t explore because time has left them behind. Luckily we have writers, adventurers and books. Over the years I’ve read a few. These are my 10 favorites. Each one changed the way I looked at the world. My guess is they’ll change your life too.
If you have a favorite travel book you’d like to add to our Vagabond list of classics, drop us a comment or send us an email and we’ll happily share them!
45 years later, Close Encounters of the Third Kind still entertains and thrills audiences. It’s a sci-fi classic with an epic, landmark location that audiences never forget. Steven Spielberg’s choice of Devils Tower for the finale of Close Encounters of the Third Kind remains one of modern cinema’s biggest, mind-blowing final reel moments.
They crashed in the Sahara desert without food, water, a radio or anything but their wit and stamina to save them. The last night they began to freeze in the night wind, unable to move enough blood through their coagulating blood streams to summon up warmth. In the cold their throats closed, their saliva retreated, their tongues turned to cloth and they waited for death. But it did not come … This is rates as one of the great adventures ever.
(Photos by Chip Walter)
Sometimes adventure exacts a steep price.
Is is difficult to imagine a tougher, or luckier, man than British adventurer Apsley Cherry-Garrard. At the tender age of 23 he finagled his way onto Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition hoping to become among the first humans to reach the South Pole. Scott and several members of the team died. But this story is about an even more harrowing expedition — what Cherry-Garrard called the Winter Journey to retrieve the eggs of Emperor Penguins in the dead of the Antarctic Winter. It is one of the most astounding adventure stories I have ever read. I think you’ll agree.
“The first ultra-intelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.”
— I.J. Good, Computer Scientist, 1960