Patrick Symmes is the author of The Boys from Dolores and Chasing Che.
Travel is one long introduction to the broadest of humanity. We aren’t perfect, but most members of our species are worth knowing. Here are some simple rules for meeting the neighbors.
How to stay alive in a war zone—with the help of paper guidebooks, earplugs, and decoy wallets.
Help came right away. And then it stopped. A year after the earthquake that turned Nepal to rubble, the government has accomplished little. Patrick Symmes reports on the business-as-usual corruption...
With Airbnb and Yelp already operating in Cuba's capital, will hordes of American tourists sipping McDaiquiris ruin the very authenticity that draws us to the rebel island nation?
PTSD survivor Chad Brown put down a suicide weapon and picked up a fly-fishing rod. The Navy stevedore turned gear designer now wants kids and vets to heal each other on the Oregon waters that saved...
Today, Syria is known more for creating international unrest than its sweet shops and minarets. Journalist Patrick Symmes explored the cultural heritage of Damascus before the outside world...
Tuareg nomads have stormed out of the desert again, threatening a return to culture war in the Sahara’s legendary lost city. Patrick Symmes on the rebel alliance, and the fire next time.
The new country of South Sudan is blessed with oil, water, and a safari bonanza: one of the largest, most stunning animal migrations on earth. But without roads, laws, or infrastructure, can Africa’s...
Argentina's soccer fans may be the sports' most impassioned. So much so that the rowdiest among them have formed gangs that intimidate players and coaches, control stadium concessions, and murder...
When thieves stoles his beloved commuter bike on a busy street in broad daylight, Patrick Symmes snapped—and set out on a cross-country plunge into the heart of America's bike-crime underbelly. What...
With demonstrations sweeping Yemen, Patrick Symmes landed in the country for a long-planned excursion. The tourists were there, all right, but so were the riot police and pistol-flashing National...
What doesn't South America offer in the way of big adventure? Here are the 10 best ways to drop in on our amigos down south.
By the time George W. Bush created the Marianas Trench Marine National monument, he had shocked his detractors and quadrupled the size of the planet's fully protected waters. But if a preserve is...
ALLAH WAS INVOKED THAT DAY, after a wood-fired breakfast in an 18-degree dawn. The earth was cloaked anew; hoarfrost made the grass crunch under my boots. Wind ripped away the plume of Daniel Gonz...