About Pamela Barrus
I have always been a traveler, and like so many of you, the passion lies inexplicably in the DNA. I've always loved history and in particular accounts of other travelers across the centuries. Faded glory fires up my imagination like nothing else.
Years ago the idea of preserving historical properties such as palaces and castles by converting them into hotels really began to take off, although a number of castle hotels had existed since the turn of the 20th century. I had always loved the old maharaja palaces of India, and an article in Los Angeles Times about the Rambagh Palace Hotel in Jaipur left a bug in me. Researching the palace hotels of India led to castle and palace hotels of Europe and a few years later to the challenge of writing a book about them.
Six books, a scattering of feature articles for magazines such as Modern Bride and Endless Vacations, and countless pages of Web content later, I still get excited to hear of a glorious new (old!) hotel with a story to tell.
Here's the bio stuff: I graduated with a BS in Social Science from Colorado State University, worked a few years on a master's degree in Arabic and Middle East Studies at UCLA, and earned a teaching credential from University of California, Irvine.
Still the travel always comes first. I have traveled solo in just about every country on earth, starting in the days before the Lonely Planet guides, and have never stopped. My masochistic side relishes the travail in travel by crossing continents by public transportation: public buses from California to Argentina, back and forth across Asia through Iran, Afghanistan, and India by bus and train, months on the Silk Road, around northern and southern Africa, Cairo to Cape Town by local bus and bush taxis—and if you're wondering, I don't buy furniture and I wear out clothes and cars.
In 2012, I received the honor of becoming president of the Travelers' Century Club.