Rudy Maxa
TV Show Host, Travel Journalist
Owner, MaxaTours
Rudy Maxa is a former Washington Post investigative reporter and columnist who began writing about travel while freelancing for a variety of national publications. He eventually turned to travel journalism full time, serving as a senior editor with National Geographic Traveler for 17 years.
He became a consumer travel commentator under the moniker "the Savvy Traveler" for the evening business show on public radio called "Marketplace," a short feature that grew into a nationwide, one-hour weekend show on public radio under the same name. After four years of hosting that show, he turned to television and has hosted and produced 98, half-hour episodes on the world's great destinations for public television.
He currently co-hosts a two-hour weekend travel radio show that airs on more than 420 commercial, news/talk stations. He also writes a free weekly newsletter on travel, hosts a one-hour, every-Thursday webcast featuring extended interviews with travel personalities and co-owns a small-group, European luxury tour company called MaxaTours.
He's written two non-fiction books (not on travel topics) and written for a variety of publications, including GQ, Vogue, Playboy, People, Forbes, Worth, the LA Times and the London Evening Standard. He's won numerous SATW awards for his magazine articles and radio shows, as well as several Emmys for his television work.
He has two children who live in London and San Francisco and two grandchildren. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.