Dave Seminara: Freelance Travel Writer and Book Author

Dave Seminara is a writer and former diplomat based in Florida. He is the author of the books Footsteps of Federer: A Fan’s Pilgrimage Across 7 Swiss Cantons in 10 Acts and Mad Travelers: A Tale of Wanderlust, Greed & the Quest to Reach the Ends of the Earth. His writing credits include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC Travel, AFAR, and many more.

What was your path to getting started as a travel writer and what was your first big writing credit for a story?

My path to writing about travel came through tennis, which is my other great life’s passion. In 2009, I wrote a story about the longest tennis rally of all time (643 shots) that made it into the New York Times sports section. After that, I became a regular contributor to the sports section.

One of my editors there then became an editor of the travel section. He gave me an opportunity to start contributing to the NYT travel section, which opened a lot of doors for me. Prior to that, I was blindly pitching travel editors and was roundly ignored.

Now you’ve written for some major publications over the years and as you say on your about page, “some that are still in business.” What are the pros and cons of writing for the biggest, best-paying outlets?

The pros are that some of them pay well and your work gets noticed. When I write a “36 Hours” column for NYT, for example, oftentimes other publications will then offer me additional opportunities to write about that destination. I think one of the major cons is that there are so many writers eager to work for these publications, so they don’t have to treat you well. (Though some still do.)

To be clear, most of the editors I’ve worked with over the years have been very good to me. But I’ve also had publications hold my stories (and the pay) for a year or more, kill assignments, alter my work beyond recognition, and so on. Also, big physical publications are always short on space, so your 2,000-word story often becomes an 800-word abortion in print.

You’ve put out a few books over the years. How has that helped your career and what doors has that opened?

Here’s one example. A few months after my book about traveling in Roger Federer’s footsteps in Switzerland, Footsteps of Federer, came out, I got a call from someone at Swiss Tourism. They said that Roger was about to become an unpaid spokesperson for Swiss tourism. Someone there read my book and asked me if I’d like to interview him via Zoom. I had 30 minutes with Roger—one of my heroes—and he was amazing. I had his full and undivided attention for a half-hour and he didn’t look down at his phone once.

The only bummer was that the opportunity came too late to include in my book, though I wrote about it for NYT and my blog.

Tell us about your latest book release, Mad Travelers, and what motivated you to write it.

Seven or eight years ago, I read a cover story in National Geographic about the so-called nomadic gene, DRD4-7R. It had me thinking about the origins of wanderlust. Is it something we’re born with or do we pick it up based on our life experiences? I’ve never been able to sit still and remain content and wanted to know why. And so, I started my research by trying to identify and interview the world’s most traveled people. I got to know these travelers over a period of several years, and, during this time, as they sought to reach the world’s most remote places, many of them were swindled by another mad traveler who wasn’t the aristocratic young billionaire everyone thought he was.

It seemed like the ultimate example of wanderlust and so that story forms the spine of the book. I also explored all the available research on wanderlust and took a DNA test to see if I have the nomadic gene. (See a current review of Mad Travelers here.)

What destination that you have spent time in surprised you the most? Why?

I fell in love with Ecuador this summer, so I’ll count that as my best surprise. I suspected I’d like it because I always enjoy being in South America but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. It’s one of those countries that has nearly every type of climate and every geographic feature imaginable but it’s small enough to explore without much hassle.

I loved the people in Ecuador. Once they realize your Spanish isn’t the best, they speak slowly and clearly for you without slang and jargon. I loved that. I contacted a random young woman from Quito who appeared in a Drew Binsky video before we arrived and she insisted on picking my family up at the airport at nearly midnight on a work night. She had a small car so she also brought her mother with her in a separate car.

Quito, Cuenca and both of the islands we visited in the Galapagos (Santa Cruz and Isabella) were spectacular. The food was a delightful surprise too. I already miss the humitas and the bolones con seco de pollo!

Dave Seminara grew up in Buffalo and was a member of the U.S. Foreign Service before he became a writer. He served in Macedonia, Trinidad, Hungary, and in the Bureau of African Affairs in Washington, D.C. 

He is the author of four books. His work has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC Travel, The Los Angeles Times, City Journal, The New York Post, Chicago Magazine, AFAR, Outside, Espn.com, Boston Globe, Boston Globe Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Perceptive Travel, and many others. See more at his portfolio site here.