About Marybeth, National Geographic Author, Writer

Curious Explorer. Award-winning author.

Gutsy Traveler: A woman, like travel expert Marybeth Bond, stands among purple flowers, raising her arms and smiling in front of a wooden building in bright sunlight.
Polar bear tracking and snorkeling with beluga whales in the northern Canadian Arctic.

Marybeth knows travel. She has hiked, biked, dived, danced and trekked across all seven continents – from the depths of the Flores Sea near Komodo Island to the summit of Kilimanjaro.

More recently, she tracked polar bears and snorkeled with beluga whales in the Canadian Arctic, then kayaked among icebergs in Antarctica.

Somewhere in between, four years of studying in Paris earned her two degrees – and a taste for good wine and strong cheeses.

Twelve books (three with National Geographic), countless travel articles, and numerous TV and radio appearances have built her devoted fanbase. She won the esteemed Lowell Thomas, Gold Award for the Best Travel Book of the Year from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation.

Woman on cliff in front of a monastery in Bhutan
Yesterday’s Video below. A decade or more later. Is Marybeth still GUTSY? Here in Bhutan.
Marybeth in Antarctica with penguins, snowy mountains, and water—just the kind of moment travel expert Marybeth Bond would capture in a travel video.
Kayaking and camping near penguins in Antarctica.

Yesterday….

My first impression of Switzerland was the clean, invigorating Alpine air and incredible mountain scenery. But I was looking for high-adrenoline adventure.

Pure terror
Thrill and terror cliff jumping in a snow storm.

After our 8-hour bus ride from Florence with lots of other students, we checked into a spotless student hostel and bundled up for snow fun.

The modern network of cog railways and cable cars whisked us up the mountain for a thrilling  sled ride down. We wore necklaces of lights in the pitch-black night so the only thing we could see where the black silhouettes of the mountain giants around us and the twinkling of our necklaces.

Cliff jumping in Switzerland
Free-falling before the rope stops me.

Then we were towed up the mountain to a Heidi-like wood chalet for cheese fondu and Swiss wine or beer.

Interlaken is an adventurers paradise; bungee jump, cliff jump, ski, paraglide, or take a zip wire over glacier crevasses, or glide along the ski runs above Grundelwalk at up to 50 mph.

Snow fun in Interlaken, Switzerland
On the platform moments before we jumped.
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Marybeth Bond