John Vlahides is a professional travel journalist, creative producer, television host, and classical musician. Vlahides co-hosted and co-produced the travel TV series Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled, which aired internationally beginning in 2009 on National Geographic Adventure, and in 2012 on the Travel Channel. For this unscripted adventure travel series, Vlahides hosted the pilot in Morocco and the first season's closing episode in Madagascar, where he cracked a rib wrestling a bull for the camera. He also sings tenor with the Grammy-winning

San Francisco Symphony Chorus The San Francisco Symphony Chorus is the resident chorus of the San Francisco Symphony (SFS). Background Established in 1972 at the request of then-music director Seiji Ozawa, the chorus first performed in the 1973-74 Symphony season. The SFS Chor ...

Education and publications

John received a B.A. from

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...

and an advanced degree in Classic French Cooking fro
Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne
in Paris. He is a former member o
Les Clefs d’Or
the Paris-based union of the world's elite luxury-hotel concierges. As a member of the

, he has made three musical recordings, including a recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, “Symphony of a Thousand,” which won three Grammy Awards for

Best Classical Album The Grammy Award for Best Classical Album was awarded from 1962 to 2011. The award had several minor name changes: *From 1962 to 1963, 1965 to 1972 and 1974 to 1976 the award was known as Album of the Year – Classical *In 1964 and 1977 it wa ...

Best Choral Performance The Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance has been awarded since 1961. There have been several minor changes to the name of the award over this time: *In 1961 the award was known as Best Classical Performance - Choral (including oratorio) *Fro ...

, and Best Engineered Classical Album.

Travel writings

He has served as a travel expert on a variety of television shows in the San Francisco Bay Area, and his travel writing has been published i
Fodor's
and Lonely Planet travel guides as well as numerous magazines and newspapers, including '' The New York Times'', the '' San Francisco Chronicle'' and '' The Sydney Morning Herald''. He has also been the subject of a feature in ''

Outside Outside or Outsides may refer to: General * Wilderness * Outside (Alaska), any non-Alaska location, as referred to by Alaskans Books and magazines * ''Outside'', a book by Marguerite Duras * ''Outside'' (magazine), an outdoors magazine Film, th ...

''. Vlahides has contributed to 11 Fodor's travel guides and has authored 20 books for Lonely Planet travel publications, primarily focused on travel in the western United States, and guides to places as diverse as the

French Riviera The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...

, Morocco, and Dubai. A luxury travel expert, he has written for BBC Magazines,

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...

Condé Nast Traveler ''Condé Nast Traveler'' is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine published by Condé Nast. The magazine has won 25 National Magazine Awards. The Condé Nast unit of Advance Publications purchased ''Signature'', a magazine for Diners Club memb ...

Hotelier International
and San Francisco magazine. For television, he co-produced a quick vacations travel segment, “One Night Stands with John Vlahides,” on San Francisco's KRON4 News Weekend and appeared as a travel and food expert on television shows including ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, Food Rush ( Live Well Network), The View from the Bay ( KGO-TV/ABC7) and CNN Live Today ( CNN). He has been frequently interviewed as a travel expert on radio stations around the world, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He is co-founder of 71miles.com, a Northern California travel site, which became the foundation for Trazzler.com, a micro-blogging travel site.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vlahides, John 20th-century travel writers American travel writers American male non-fiction writers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Binghamton University alumni