| Intro | Travel Writer, TV Host |
| Is | Journalist |
| From | South Africa |
| Type | Journalism |
| Gender | male |
Robin Esrock (born 1974, Johannesburg, South Africa) is an adventure travel writer, author and international television personality. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Esrock has written articles for major international publications, including the Chicago Tribune, the Guardian, Gulf News, South China Morning Post, Cape Town Argus, Sydney Morning Herald, Vancouver Sun, Dallas Morning News, and the Toronto Star.
Esrock was a regular columnist for The Globe and Mail, MSN Sympatico, the Vancouver Sun and Outpost Magazine. Other publication credits include Mental Floss, Red Bull’s The Red Bulletin and National Geographic.
Esrock is co-host of the 40-part TV series Word Travels. Filmed in 36 countries, Word Travels follows the lives of two working travel writers. Word Travels is broadcast on Travel Channel International, National Geographic Adventure in Asia, Oceania, the Middle East and Europe, OutsideTV and HalogenTV in the USA, and on OLN, F/X and City in Canada. Word Travels was filmed between 2007 and 2009. Esrock met his co-host and fellow travel writer Julia Dimon while backpacking in Koycegiz, Turkey. Esrock is also the co-creator, co-developer, associate producer and co-writer of Word Travels. In 2012, production commenced on the OLN TV series Get Stuffed, based on an original idea by Esrock.
Prior to his career as a travel writer, Esrock worked in the music industry for SL Feldman & Associates. His career shift was the result of a bike accident that left him with a broken kneecap and a $20,000 insurance settlement. Using this money, he backpacked around the world, writing a column for the Vancouver Sun and maintaining his website.
Esrock has reportedly travelled to over 100 countries. He is also a public speaker, has hosted various online magazine shows and appears as a regular travel expert on Vancouver’s Breakfast Television. Esrock has also been featured as a travel expert in Forbes Travel, Travel + Leisure, and interviewed in several Canadian and Australian media outlets. In 2013, he won the Canadian Tourism Commission award for Best Online Video at the Go Media Awards in Winnipeg.
In March 2012, Esrock was master of ceremonies at the 108th Annual Explorer’s Club Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. Esrock presented awards to Explorer’s Club members including palaeontologist Philip J. Currie, marine toxicologist Susan Shaw, and biologist Richard Ellis. Esrock also spoke about the lessons of travel at TEDx Vancouver.
In 2013, Esrock released his book The Great Canadian Bucket List: One-of-a-Kind Travel Experiences through Dundurn Press. The book became the number one selling Canadian travel and Canadian history title on Amazon.ca. In 2015, he published three follow-up books in the Bucket List series, one for western Canada ([British Columbia]] and Alberta), central Canada (Ontario and Quebec), and Atlantic Canada (Maritimes). Esrock has cited Hunter S. Thompson and Gonzo journalism as major influences in his writing, and sports the gonzo fist tattoo on left leg.
In 2015. Esrock was named one of Gear Junkie’s Outdoor Ambassadors, a list of adventurers, inventors and athletes from the past 110 years who made a difference. The list also includes Ernest Shackleton, Eddie Bauer, Robert Baden-Powell, GoPro inventor Nick Woodman and Steve Irwin.
He currently lives in Burnaby, British Columbia.