John Gottberg Anderson

John Gottberg Anderson is a widely published American travel journalist. A former news editor for The Los Angeles Times and a senior editor for the Michelin Guides, he has written or co-authored 23 books, and hundreds of feature articles for magazines and newspapers around the world, mostly writing as “John Gottberg.”

Anderson studied journalism at the University of Oregon and did graduate work in Asian culture and history in Seattle and Honolulu. Then, as John Lennon famously noted, life happened. Still, through decades of family and professional drama, life has been a global adventure. Anderson worked not only as a journalist, but also as a cook, a musician, a ski instructor, a university professor, a carpenter, a salesman, a bartender, even a sheep shearer. He rode the Hawaiian surf, paraglided from the heights of Wyoming’s Grand Tetons, rafted the whitewater of Arizona’s Grand Canyon, backpacked large portions of the Pacific Crest Trail, and bicycled the length of New Zealand. He played ice hockey in Sweden, mushed sled dogs in Alaska, studied tango dancing in Buenos Aires, created batik art in Java, and fished for tuna from a weathered dugout canoe in the Solomon Islands.

Anderson rode out the Covid pandemic in Vietnam, where he has lived since 2019. His work is frequently honored by the North American Travel Journalists Association, twice including “self-illustrated story of the year.” In 2022, his popular blog “Travels in Vietnam” (www.travelsinvietnam.com), was chosen as one of the top five independent travel blogs in America.