Meet our Presenters Rudy Maxa

Rudy Maxa

Rudy Maxa, host and executive producer of Travel Channel Internationals series, Rudy Maxas World, is a veteran journalist and broadcaster whose articles and television shows have won numerous awards.

A contributing editor with the US edition of National Geographic Traveler and host of 78 travel shows on public television in the US, Maxa is regarded as one of the worlds premier consumer travel experts. His National Geographic Traveler articles have earned him two Lowell Thomas Bronze Awards for excellence in travel writing from the Society of American Travel Writers. In 2008, his television series, Rudy Maxas World, won an Emmy, two CINE Golden Eagle awards, and two Telly Awards.

Prior to hosting and producing Rudy Maxas World, Maxa hosted and co-executive produced 65 episodes featuring destinations as far afield as Shanghai and Istanbul under the Smart Travels title. He also co-created (and hosted) a one-hour radio show, The Savvy Traveler, that was broadcast for six years coast-to-coast in the US on public radio. And he is the voice on National Geographic Travelers Walks of a Lifetime podcasts that have guided hundreds of thousands of travellers visiting many of the worlds great cities.

His travel articles have appeared in GQ, Worth, Forbes, The New Yorker, Modern Maturity, USA Today, the Washington Post, Travel & Leisure, Town & Country Travel, the Los Angeles Times as well as USAToday.com, MSNBC.com and ABC.com. Hes a frequent guest on national television networks and shows, including CNN, MSNBC and CNBC.

Prior to turning his attention toward travel, Maxa worked 13 years as an investigative reporter and magazine writer at the Washington Post, where his reporting on political scandal was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Thereafter, he joined the city magazine, Washingtonian, as a senior writer and columnist for nine years before becoming Washington bureau chief for SPY, the satirical magazine, for two years.

He is 59 and is a graduate of Ohio University and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.