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….

Bike the Rim of the Volcano

“Bike Volcano” excursion.
Views into the crater

The forty-five minute drive from Hilo to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park leads you to one of the twenty World Heritage sites in North America and the only one in Hawaii.

The Visitors Center was a good place to get our bearings and hear the ranger’s talk before we joined an easy, three-hour, nine-mile “Bike Volcano” excursion. We pedaled along Crater Rim Drive, stopping to see various craters and steam vents and left our eco-friendly two-wheel vehicles to hike through Thurston Lava Tube. A few miles further we rested our bikes along the guard rail and watched volcanic emissions of ash and gas spewing from the Halema’umal’u Crater. We cruised through thick forests, along roads closed to traffic (sections had sunk into the crater) and amid volcanic rock fields. After a cool downhill ride the van met us with snacks, guava and passionfruit drinks and then zipped us back uphill to our cars.

An easy ten-minute drive from the park, Volcano Village offers a variety of lunch spots. We stopped to browse the art and gardens at Volcano Garden Art Center. After placing our order at the Café Ono for a locally-grown green salad, homemade tomato-vegetable soup and a crust-less cheese and spinach quiche, we wandered through the galleries and garden. Over 70 local contemporary artists display and sell their unique pieces of jewelry, pottery, photography, floral designs and fabric art. www.bigisland.org

Bike Company

Bike Volcano.com 808-934-9199

Volcano Garden Arts & Café Ono

www.volcanogardenarts.com/cafeono 808-985-8979

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Marybeth Bond