Dave Fox is an award-winning humor and travel writer, and a Scandinavian tour guide for Rick Steves' Europe. Based in Seattle, he offers informative classes and presentations, infused with his lively humor. A member of Rick Steves' Speakers' Bureau, Dave lectures frequently in the Pacific Northwest. He is available to speak to clubs and organizations throughout North America. For more information, select one of the following links, or simply scroll down the page.

• Calendar of Upcoming Presentations
• Class Descriptions
• Credentials and Past Clients
• Contact Dave
• Mailing List

Dave is available to speak on a variety of topics. In addition to his public classes, he also speaks often at private functions and is also available for one-on-one writing consultations. To inquire about booking him for your event, please e-mail him.

Thursday, May 14, from 7 to 8 p.m. in Seattle, Washington
How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals
(And Still Have Time to Enjoy Your Trip)
Sponsored by REI, this is a free one-hour version of Dave's popular travel journaling class. Location: REI's flagship store at 222 Yale Avenue North in Seattle. Full Details...

Saturday, June 13, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. in Edmonds, Washington
New Class: Writing the Personal Travel Essay
Turn your travel adventures into stories you can publish! Dave Fox helps you take your travel diaries to the next level and polish your journal entries into personal essays. Explore sub-genres such as adventure travel, self-discovery, and Dave's specialty: travel humor. Learn how to identify great topics, shine up your rough drafts, and work within an editor's requested word count. Dave will also talk about places where you can publish your work, from personal travel blogs to paying markets such as books and magazines. Location: Rick Steves' Travel Center at 130 Fourth Avenue North in Edmonds, 30 minutes north of downtown Seattle. This class is free, but advance registration is strongly recommended. To sign up, call 425-771-8303, or register online.

January 19-31, 2010
New Tour: Botswana Travel Journaling Safari!
Dave Fox teams up with African wildlife specialist Bill Given for a unique adventure in rural Botswana! Bill, who owns the African safari company, The Wild Source, will take us on game drives in search of local wildlife, and introduce us to the culture of the Kalahari Bushman. During down time in our luxury camps, Dave will teach journaling and travel essay workshops to help you capture your experiences in writing. We'll visit the Okavango Delta and Kalahari regions, staying at three camps with spectacular wildlife viewing. Flying or driviing from camp to camp, you'll experience Botswana's wildlife in its natural environment, sharing it only with other members of our small group in private consession areas. This sampling of camps will provide diverse activities, habitats, and animals. Space is limited to 12 participants. The anticipated price will be $4,295 per person plus airfare. Full details are coming very soon. If you would like to be notified as soon as this information is online, please subscribe to Dave's E-mail List.

A member of Rick Steves' Speakers Bureau, Dave offers a variety of lectures and classes on European travel and history, travel writing and journaling, humor writing, and his brand new humor keynote, "Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad," based on his award winning book.

Here are descriptions of his most popular talks. He also offers custom-designed keynotes. Feel free to suggest your own topic.

Getting Lost
Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad
“When you travel, things go wrong.” That might not sound like uplifting advice, but Dave proves otherwise as he shares stories from his award-winning book of travel humor essays, Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad. A veteran tour guide for PBS travel guru Rick Steves, Dave has spent much of his life traveling overseas and trying not to make a mess of things. At age eight, he nearly started a riot in Northern Africa. In college, he discovered that two words of a foreign language can be enough to convince the police to stop pointing machine guns at you. As a pseudo-adult, he has rescued tour groups from drunken rodents, helped prevent a knife fight in the Vatican, and discovered that quacking like a duck can cure traveler's burnout. This talk is full of laughs, along with spoonfuls of history, language, and culture, and a message that will inspire you to embrace the moments in your own travels when things don't go as planned.
Length: 30 to 90 minutes

How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals
And Still Have Time to Enjoy Your Trip
Recommended in the Wall Street Journal
Every journey has two parallel experiences — the external, in which we observe the world around us, and the internal, in which we visit new places within ourselves. With foreign surroundings as a backdrop, you'll learn to tap your deeper emotions and create vivid travelogues for yourself and others. Simple but powerful exercises will help you discover your unique voice as a travel writer. You'll explore different journaling techniques to find the style that's right for you, and learn ways to overcome one of the biggest challenges in travel journaling — simply finding time to write when there is so much else to do! Whether you're writing for yourself or publication, whether your explorations take you around the block or around the world, this class will help you tune in to your inner journey. You'll travel and write with exciting new insight. For related articles and exercises, please see the online version.
Length: Varies. This class can be taught in a single session from one to three hours, or as a hands-on seminar of up to five two-hour sessions.

Writing the Personal Travel Essay
Turn your travel adventures into stories you can publish! Dave Fox helps you take your travel diaries to the next level and polish your journal entries into personal essays. Explore sub-genres such as adventure travel, self-discovery, and Dave's specialty: travel humor. Learn how to identify great topics, shine up your rough drafts, and work within an editor's requested word count. Dave will also talk about places where you can publish your work, from personal travel blogs to paying markets such as books and magazines.
Length: One to two hours

Scampering through Scandinavia
A Slideshow Journey through Europe's Nordic Countries
Explore the diversity of Europe's Nordic countries — from agricultural Denmark, to industrial Sweden, to fjord-splintered Norway. Discover why the Vikings were such great travelers as we meander through the Land of the Midnight Sun. Learn what the Danes call a Danish pastry and why Finland isn't really part of Scandinavia. We'll visit a salty fishing island, frolic in fjord country, and compare capitals in Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, and Helsinki.
Length: One to two hours

The Vikings
For centuries, the Vikings have been known as ruthless plunderers who rampaged through Europe in the Middle Ages. While there is some accuracy to this stereotype, they were more civilized than their reputation suggests. Master shipbuilders, navigators, and craftsmen, many Vikings led peaceful lives. Pagans in their early days, they later brought Scandinavia in line with the rest of Christian Europe. The Vikings were the force that would ultimately unite Northwestern Europe's minor chiefdoms into the nations that make up Scandinavia today. In this lecture, Dave explains who the Vikings really were, and why they have such a merciless reputation. From the first documented Viking raid in 793 AD to their eventual absorbtion into the rest of Europe 300 years later, learn about the Vikings' history, society, and the truths and fallacies behind the Viking stereotypes.
Length: One hour

Humor Writing
The Art of Making People Laugh
Humor is a powerful communication tool. It creates instant rapport and puts people at ease. A well-honed sense of humor can liven up your personal life and help you make important business connections. Having a great sense of humor isn't necessarily something people are born with though. You can train your mind to think funny. We'll look at examples from professional humorists such as Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Barry, and Garrison Keilor, and learn their techniques. Discover how to find comedy in unlikely situations, and develop those situations into jokes, sketches, and essays. Whether you're a writer looking to inject more laughs into your words, a speaker wanting to captivate an audience, a business person with deals to seal, or just a funny person who wants to be funnier, this lighthearted but serious look at the art of making people laugh will give you the tools you need to sharpen your comedic mind.
Length: One to three hours

Europe Through the Back Door
Budget European Travel Skills
Everything you need to know for a successful romp in the European playground. Dave teaches you how to plan an itinerary that will maximize your time without wearing you out. Find out when to use a travel agent and when not to, how to get the best deals on flights, and how to find cozy, family-run hotels for a fraction of what mainstream tourists pay. Dave untangles the confusing web of European railpass options, and discusses when renting a car is an asset and when it's a headache. Get tips on the formidable task of how to pack light, plus travel safety, hurdling language barriers, changing money, and more — with plenty of time for questions and answers. This class is based on Rick Steves' best-selling travel skills book, "Europe Through the Back Door." Dave has worked with Rick Steves since 1996, and shares his tips as a professional traveler with a lifetime of experience.
Length: One to two hours.

Hurdling the Language Barrier
Do foreign languages leave you tongue-tied? For many Americans, the language barrier is one of the most stressful parts of foreign travel — but it doesn't have to be. This class teaches you how to communicate in places where English isn't spoken, and have fun doing it. Learn creative ways to communicate using simple phrases, body language, and visual aids. Make your English easier to understand. Cure your phone phobia. Find out how to decipher signs, even in countries with different alphabets. This class will also teach you a new approach to language learning to help you absorb foreign words and phrases quickly and easily. Whether you're trying to order food, get directions, ask for help, or make new friends, once you've learned to hurdle the language barrier, you'll melt comfortably into foreign cultures and enjoy a richer journey.
Length: One hour.

Absorb Languages Effortlessly While You Travel
Are you one of those people who "just doesn't have a capacity for learning foreign languages?" Then you've fallen victim to an American myth. Learning languages can be fun and practically effortless. This class will help you free your mind from its adult clutter and learn languages naturally — just like you learned to talk as a young child. Once painful vocabulary and grammar will flow easily off your tongue, and you'll connect with foreign cultures more deeply and intimately.
Length: One to two hours.

Safe Travel in a Changing World
Recent terrorism threats have many Americans wondering if it's safe to leave the country right now. If you travel with an open mind and the right information, international travel is as safe as it's always been. This class teaches you how to not only be safe, but to feel safe so you can relax and enjoy yourself.
Length: One hour. This lecture can also be combined with Dave's "Europe Through the Back Door" class, described above.

Dave Fox is available to speak to groups of five or 500. Here are some of the organizations he has spoken for in the past:

• Rick Steves' Travel Seminars
• Holland America Cruises
• Barnes & Noble Bookstores
• Wisconsin Book Festival
• University of Wisconsin-Madison Travel Center
• Seattle University
• Portland Community College
• Discover U
• Pierce County Dental Association
• Westcott Bay Institute of San Juan Island, Washington
• Deaf-Blind Club of Seattle
• King County Libraries
• Kitsap Regional Library Staff In-Service Day
• Key Center Library of Lake Bay, Washington
• Rotary International
• Sons of Norway
• Tyee High School Academy of Travel and Tourism
• Mercer Island Probus Club

Whether he is in the United States or leading tours in Europe, you can reach Dave by e-mail at dave@davethefox.com.

Join Dave's mailing list to receive e-mail about upcoming classes when they are announced. For more information, please visit the Mailing List page.