Rudy Maxa is one of America’s premier consumer travel experts whose writings and radio and television shows have helped save thousands of travelers both time and money. A former Washington Post investigative reporter and life-long traveler, Rudy began covering the travel industry 20 years ago for public radio’s evening business show, “Marketplace,” where his commentaries under his moniker, “The Savvy Traveler,” were heard by millions of listeners.
Today Rudy hosts the most widely syndicated, weekend travel/talk radio show in the United States. “Rudy Maxa’s World,” the radio show, and his Monday-Friday one-minute travel commentary are broadcast on more than 120 mostly news/talk radio stations in the US as well as on XM Radio.
Rudy also hosts an hour-long, call-in travel show Saturdays 7-8 p.m. Pacific time on the CBS news/talk station in Los Angeles, KFWB. Live streaming and podcasts of past shows are available at KFWB.com. He also contributes regular travel commentary to KNX, the CBS news station in Los Angeles and Southern California.
His “Marketplace” appearances led to the creation of a one-hour, weekend radio magazine show, “The Savvy Traveler,” that Rudy co-created and hosted from its inception in 1997 until the summer of 2001.
Rudy’s also hosts a series of public television shows, also called “Rudy Maxa’s World,” that are broadcast throughout North America on local PBS stations as well as in the United Kingdom, Russia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and India on Travel Channel International. The shows have garnered three regional Emmy awards as well as two CINE Golden Eagle Awards and two Silver Telly Awards. Episodes released in the winter of 2010 include shows on London, Edinburgh, Korea, the Silk Road cities of Uzbekistan, and three shows on South Africa (“Safari,” “The Garden Route & Wine Country,” and “Cape Town”).
Sixty-five earlier episodes of his public television series, “Smart Travels: Europe with Rudy Maxa” and “Smart Travels: Pacfic Rim with Rudy Maxa,” also garnered numerous awards and continue to air on PBS stations as well as the PBS lifestyle network, Create. To order any of Rudy’s DVDS on more than 70 destinations, visit Maxa.tv.
Rudy is a contributing editor to National Geographic Traveler where he’s received two, bronze Lowell Thomas Awards for Best Magazine Article on Foreign Travel from the Society of American Travel Writer’s Foundation. He is also a contributing editor with Delta Air Lines’ in-flight magazine, Sky, and he posts a weekly blog for the magazine.
His travel articles have also appeared in the Washington Post, Forbes, GQ, Travel & Leisure, the Los Angeles Times, Ocean Drive, Self, WORTH, and dozens of other major publications around the world. Rudy has written regular, weekly columns for ABCNews.com, American Express’ web site, and MSNBC.com. And he’s a frequent guest on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, CNNfn, Fox News Channel, “The View,” “The World,” and other radio and television shows.
A journalist by training, Rudy was a columnist and reporter for 13 years with the Washington Post, a senior writer and columnist for nine years with Washingtonian magazine, and Washington bureau chief of SPY for two years. He is the author of two non-fiction books and lectures frequently on travel. A member of the Writer’s Guild of America, Rudy has written dramatic scripts for the ABC-TV series “Capitol News.” And he hosted for several years a four-hour, Saturday morning talk show on the NBC owned-and-operated station in Washington, WRC-AM.
Rudy Maxa, 62, is a graduate of Ohio University’s School of Journalism, from whom he received the L.J. Hortin Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2002. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, and has a son and daughter.