By the time Tony co-founded Lonely Planet Publications in 1973, he already had the travel bug. And ever since, travel and discovery have been at the heart of his life and career.
I’ve recorded several podcasts, interviews, conversations recently.
At London Business School Maureen and I recorded Journeys, a conversation with Rajesh Chandy the Professor of Entrepreneurship in the Developing World at the Wheeler Institute. People seemed to enjoy it, someone suggested that we ‘looked like two teenagers our to start an exciting adventure,’ not business like at all.
With Tyrel Cameron Eskelson I talked on his Interlocutor podcast about my travel life, starting in Pakistan when I was a small child right up to travel in recent weeks and for the rest of 2025.
Anyone who follows this website will know I have an interest in electric (or Hybrid) cars. I owned a Toyota Prius for nearly six years – and sold it to my sister so it’s still in the family. With care and a light foot I managed to drive nearly 5km purely on battery po...
▲ Singapore by night – liveable, brightly lit, expensive Singapore topped a cost of living survey just released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). It’s the most expensive city in the world, pushed up to that pinnacle by factors like extraordinarily expensive...
I’ve posted my thoughts on ‘how many countries there are’ on a number of occasions. A year ago I reported on two friends, both down to their last eight countries – at the time. Me? I’m a non-starter, by my count I’ve only been to 155 countries and that’s by my definit...
Just got an email from Fitbit to say I’d walked 1000km. I’ve had a Fitbit Flex on my wrist most of the time since 23 October last year, so it’s taken me 128 days to walk that distance. An average of 7.81 km a day. ◄ my wrist, my Fitbit Flex A Fitbit Flex is an a...
Over the last 12 months I’ve flown with 18 different airlines on 9 different aircraft types. They included Boeing 737s, 747s, 767s and 777s, but I’ve still not flown on a 787. Some highlights and lowlights: ▲ The Most Heavily Loaded Flight – The last flight of ...
The Melbourne Ring Cycle has to be my cultural highlight of 2013, after all Maureen played a big part in getting it to the start line. But the Papermoon Puppet Theatre was a small delight. We caught a performance of these unusual puppets – and their unusual puppeteeri...
Every 26 January – Australia Day – I go somewhere in the state of Victoria as part of the Australia Day Ambassador Programme. This year it was Seymour, a country town about 100km (60miles) north of Melbourne. ▲ Seymour’s got lots Goulburn Valley countryside aro...
The National Library of Australia’s Mapping Our World exhibit in Canberra is a big hit and runs until 10 March. I spoke about my own mapping interest at the library in late November and admitted that despite my long involvement in map I’m not a collector and certainly...
Last month, January 2014, I was in Tonga and on Foa Island in the Ha’apai Group just before Cyclone Ian hit it with Category 5 violence causing huge damage. The Ha’apai Group featured in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2014 as one of the Top 10 Regions of the world. ...
In Iceland small world photographer Sigurgeir Sigurjónsson sets out to capture the drama of his small island home. Indeed most of the views are of dramatic landscapes: waterfalls, geysers, ice, snow, lava, storm-swept beaches, rocky pinnacles and almost all under blac...
© Tony Wheeler’s Travels 2013