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Celebrity Travel: Go Away With Ransom Riggs

By Jae-Ha Kim, Tribune Content Agency on

Filmmaker and New York Times bestselling author Ransom Riggs is best known for his "Miss Peregrine" books ("Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and "Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine's Children"). An avid traveler, Riggs, 35, says his ideal vacation is to "somewhere I've never been before, and preferably, someplace I can't pronounce. Madagascar has been on my list for a long, long time. While I can pronounce the name of the country, just give its capital city, Antananarivo, a try." Riggs resides in Santa Monica, Calif. Fans may follow Riggs on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ransomriggs.

Q. What is your favorite vacation destination?

A. Iceland in the summer.

Q. To someone who was going there for the first time, what would you recommend that they do during their visit?

A. Rent a car and drive. It's like driving on the moon. Specifically, drive to a national park in the north of Iceland called Jokulsargljufur, which was formed after a subterranean volcano exploded beneath a glacier and caused massive, sudden flooding, carving out a beautiful, river-crossed canyon where, today, one of Iceland's rarest resources grows: trees. You won't find many of them anywhere else in the country. The Vikings cut them down for firewood, but there's a whole forest of ash and birch trees here, and they're startlingly beautiful.

Q. What untapped destination should people know about?

 

A. Vanuatu is one of my favorite countries in the world. It's a south pacific archipelago and its many islands are blessed with beautiful reefs, friendly people and fascinating culture. For instance, the people of Pentecost Island invented bungee jumping long ago, by building giant land towers, tying stretchy vines around the ankles of young initiates and shoving them off. I can't wait to go back and discover more.

Q. What was the first trip you took as a child?

A. The first one I remember was a visit to Baltimore, where we stopped off to see Edgar Allan Poe's grave. My mom told me all about how every year on Poe's birthday a mysterious stranger leaves a bottle of liquor by the stone. I was four.

Q. What's the most important thing you've learned from your travels?

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