National Geographic Explorer Continues Epic Round-the-World Journey Without Flying
Author and adventurer Chip Walter embarks on the next overland leg, traveling from Dubai through India, Nepal, and Bhutan, experiencing the world at human speed
PITTSBURGH, PA, UNITED STATES, September 17, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- What happens when you try to see the world without ever boarding a plane? Award-winning author, journalist, and National Geographic Explorer Chip Walter is finding out one country, one train, one ship at a time.
Walter and his wife began The Vagabond Adventure in 2021 to challenge the way we think about travel. By avoiding air travel during each leg, he aims to bypass the blur of quick hops and layovers and, as a story-teller, share the kind of layered experiences that only surface when you give a place your time. “The rewards are well worth it,” he says.
This deliberate pace comes with challenges: long waits for ferries, intricate visa planning, language mishaps, unpredictable weather, canceled trains or buses or ships. But Walter sees those as part of the adventure.
“I always say the most difficult experiences make the best stories,” says Walter. “When plans change, you’re forced to improvise. And that’s often when the most unexpected, beautiful or funny moments happen.”
In September 2025 Walter and his wife, Cyndy, will set out on the latest chapter of The Vagabond Adventure. This next leg begins in Dubai, where the pair plan to immerse themselves in the city’s dramatic contrasts of futuristic skyscrapers and bustling souks surrounded by the sprawling Arabian desert. From there they will head to Mumbai, India and travel by train to New Delhi, Agra, Amritsar, and Jaipur, exploring iconic landmarks such as the Taj Mahal, the Golden Temple, and the ancient ghats of Varanasi.
“There will be so much new to see on this leg,” says Chip. “We’ve crossed through North America, the Caribbean, South America, Antarctica, Europe, the Baltic states, Crete, Egypt and the Nile, and seen some spectacular places and met remarkable people. But India, with its colorful street markets, Mughal architecture, long history, and vibrant regional cuisines – well, we’re looking forward to sharing it all.”
From Varanasi, their route will take them northeast toward the Himalayan foothills, crossing tea-growing regions and remote borderlands before reaching the wildlife-rich state of Assam. There, they will journey by river and car to Nepal and Bhutan to explore lush floodplains, traditional villages, tea plantations, and rare wildlife habitats, including the last stronghold of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros.
In Nepal, they expect to travel mostly by car, visiting sacred Buddhist and Hindu sites, navigating bustling Kathmandu, and take in sweeping vistas of the world’s highest mountains, the Himalayas. While in the Kathmandu Valley they will hike historic squares and several UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the small town of Lunbimi where Bhudda was born.
Once in Bhutan the couple will trade busy city streets for peaceful valleys and fortress-like monasteries. Highlights will include hiking the cliffside Taktsang Monastery (Tiger’s Nest), driving high-altitude mountain passes, and exploring unique cultural traditions that have remained largely unchanged in that country for centuries. Their route will wind through far-flung rural communities and pristine natural landscapes before returning to India to continue by ship down the Bramaputra River to Kolkata.
“When you’re not rushing from airport to airport, the world slows down,” Walter says. “You have time to marinate your mind and soul in the changing cultures that surround you, notice the smells of both city and countryside, hear the music and languages that surround you as you pass through a country. Above all you get to know fascinating strangers who become good friends. Those are the gifts of traveling at the speed of life.”
Their adventure has been followed by thousands of fans through Walter’s Vagabond Adventure website (vagabond-adventure.com) which logs regular updates of his stories, the good, bad, and hilarious. They've explored big cities like Lima, Prague, Budapest, London, Marrakesh and Copenhagen and watched sunrises and sunsets in remote locations like Antarctica, Longyearbyen (the world's northernmost habitation), a Viking settlement in Newfoundland, the last hold out of the Incas in the remote mountains of Peru, Chile's Atacama Desert, and Patagonia's rugged Torres del Paine. The Adventure can be tracked in real time on PolarSteps.
Looking ahead, the couple plans to continue their eastward journey in 2026, venturing south from the northern tip of Vietnam, through Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore where they plan to hop a ship to New Zealand and Australia, the seventh and final continent. From there, back to the United States and the final leg, though they aren’t quite certain yet how they’ll get there.
However they travel, Walter sees their Vagabond Adventure as an unfolding story with every leg revealing new places, people, and perspectives, proving that slow travel offers rewards no jet can match.
About Chip Walter
Chip Walter is a National Geographic Explorer, author, filmmaker, and former CNN bureau chief whose work blends science, storytelling, and exploration. He has written several documentaries, three screenplays and six books, including Last Ape Standing, Immortality, Inc., and his latest techno-thriller Doppelgänger - An Orphan, a Prodigy, a Murder. His books and documentaries have taken him to six continents in search of compelling stories about the human experience. More at chipwalter.com.
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