My first New York Times story was a piece about Wine Country real estate: Destination Guide | Napa and Sonoma Vineyards With Vistas By MICHAEL P. SHAPIRO Published: July 26, 2006 An hour to 90 minutes north of San Francisco, the Napa and Sonoma Valleys...
En route to Thailand last year, I saw a short video about the Moken, a Polynesian who traditionally have drifted among the islands and coasts of Thailand and Burma. Inspired to see them, we found a group that arranged visits and provided a translator, which led to...
Michael Shapiro will appear as part of a panel of writers whose work is featured in The Best Travel Writing, Vol. 10, published by Travelers’ Tales. Among the other authors speaking are Jeff Greenwald, Lavinia Spalding and Don George. The executive editor of...
Exactly 10 years ago today my mother, brother and I sat with my father as he drew his last breath. He’d been battling pancreatic cancer for eight months; I’d been on assignment in England, interviewing travel writers for my book, A Sense of Place when he...
Every June, I mark the anniversary of leaving my last full-time job, at CNET in SF. It’s been 15 years with lots of highs and lows, but I’ve never regretted the decision to walk away from the rigidity of full-time work and hang my virtual shingle. Here are...
In the fall of 2009, Mariner magazine asked if I’d go to Mazatlan to write about the cliff divers there. I’d watched cliff divers in Acapulco during the ’70s on ABC’s Wide World of Sports but didn’t know they were still plunging into the...
