Inspiring Travel Writing from Ann Banks
Ann Banks is a journalist and travel writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in Conde Nast Traveler, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, the Washington Post, The Nation, the Columbia Journalism Review, Vogue, USA Today and teebeedee.com.
She edited two anthologies of oral histories from the Federal Writers Project, First-Person America and Harlem Document, and co-produced a radio series for National Public Radio on the same subject. She also has published eight books for children. Her work has received support from the Rockefeller, Ford and Alicia Patterson Foundations, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities.
She has taught journalism at Boston College, the New School for Social Research, and the School of Visual Arts and was on the faculty of the New Orleans and Nashville writers conferences. She is past president of the Writers Room, a writers colony in New York City and has served on the membership committee of PEN USA.
She edited two anthologies of oral histories from the Federal Writers Project, First-Person America and Harlem Document, and co-produced a radio series for National Public Radio on the same subject. She also has published eight books for children. Her work has received support from the Rockefeller, Ford and Alicia Patterson Foundations, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities.
She has taught journalism at Boston College, the New School for Social Research, and the School of Visual Arts and was on the faculty of the New Orleans and Nashville writers conferences. She is past president of the Writers Room, a writers colony in New York City and has served on the membership committee of PEN USA.
Articles by Ann Banks
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Kythira: Aphrodite’s Island
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Ann Banks
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Greece
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Ionian (corfu/west)
The blight of overdevelopment and mass tourism that has afflicted so many Greek islands somehow missed this wild and astonishing jewel, off the tip of the Peleponnesus peninsula. For its natural splendor alone, Kythira seems to be the island that...
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A Storybook Paris
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Ann Banks
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France
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Ile-de-France
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Paris
When I was a child, my most vivid and enduring daydream was this: I'd open a favorite storybook to the liveliest page and jump in. Once inside, I'd still be me, but I'd get to roam the setting at will - conversing with the characters, petting their...
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Heidi, Toad and the Life Adventurous
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Ann Banks
oad and the Life Adventurous It is the nature of armchair travelers to stay put, reading, not wandering. But sometimes, when the wind is right, a book can send us on our way. On a winter's night some years ago in Oxford, England, Christina Hardyment...
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Notes From the Eagle's Nest
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Ann Banks
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Germany
On a glorious spring day in the Bavarian Alps, only a few snow-capped mountains over from where Julie Andrews sang, our party assembled for a six-hour ''health walk.'' The plan was to ascend the stunning Wimbach gorge and the valley above it,...
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Snorkeling in St. John
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Ann Banks
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US Virgin Islands
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St John Region
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St John
Kate and I are holding hands and floating in a bright blue, tropical sea. Through our face masks, we discover a world of wonders: the white sand of the ocean floor blooms up in a coral garden that teems with fantastic plants and creatures—life...
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Sledding in Switzerland
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Ann Banks
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Switzerland
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Swiss Alps
Some people want their kids to gaze upon the Sphinx before it flakes into sand. Or ride in a gondola before Venice sinks beneath the Adriatic. Or go to a drive-in movie while there are still some left. Me, I wanted to show Kate snow. So far, she'd...
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Snorkeling in Fiji
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Ann Banks
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Fiji
It’s a long haul from New York City to the South Pacific island of Beqa in Fiji - go much farther and you’re on your way back. After the transcontinental leg to Los Angeles, you take a ten-hour flight across the Pacific to Nadi airport...
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Sightseeing with the Stasi
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Ann Banks
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Germany
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Berlin Region
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Berlin
Why did we go to Berlin for vacation? Because we had a friend temporarily in residence. Because my husband spent a year in school there decades ago and wanted to see it how it had changed. And because we could afford it, unlike the rest of Europe....
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Must See Morocco: A Trip to Chefchaouen
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Ann Banks
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Morocco
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Northern Morocco
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Chefchaouen
It’s hard to pinpoint how a place ends up on my 'Must See' list – I hear about it from a traveling friend, I read a novel set there, I come across a rhapsodic account on the Internet. But once a place is lodged on the list, it stays there until I...
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Morocco's Bougmez Valley: An Unspoiled Shangri-La
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Ann Banks
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Morocco
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Atlas Mountains
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Telouet
True or false: the harder it is to get to a place, the more worthwhile it’s likely to be once you arrive.I tend to be convinced of this proposition when I’m in the planning stages of a trip – but less so when I’m actually en route via, say, an...