Mark Orwoll has been a journalist since before you were born, probably. For 30 years he was on the editorial staff of Travel + Leisure magazine, where he was the longest tenured staffer in the magazine's history, held more editorial titles than anyone (six), wrote more than 2,000 articles and blog posts, was the magazine's first International Editor, and was the managing editor for 10 years, longer than any other m.e. at the magazine. He has traveled to 85 countries (and counting), and filed stories from many of them.

Since retiring from T+L in 2017, Orwoll has been a freelance travel writer and nonfiction book author ("Cross Purposes," Pleasant Villain Press, 2023; "John Wayne Speaks," St. Martin's Press, 2021; "e-Travel," Macmillan, 2000). His magazine and online articles have appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, the Travel Channel, Town & Country, Departures, Robb Report, Travel + Leisure, the Saturday Evening Post, Travel Weekly, Matador Network, AARP, the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald, Hemispheres, and many other print and digital outlets. Among his creative accolades are a 2021 NATJA Gold Award for adventure writing and a Silver Award for volunteer travel, a 2020 NATJA Silver Award for cruise writing, an Aegis Award of Excellence and a Telly Award for co-producing "The Next Destination" (a travel documentary for NBC News), and others.

He has appeared as a travel expert more than 500 times on television, including NBC's Today Show (more than 70 appearances), the CBS Morning Show, ABC's Good Morning America, and the PBS NewsHour, as well as programs on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, and local broadcast stations around the United States.

He's also a pretty good mandolin player.

Well, average.