The Road Less Traveled by E mma M illon
Amy Balfour in the Bahamas doing research for her next travel guide on the Caribbean. She explained, “I’m standing on, or very close to, the Tropic of Cancer, which runs across this beach. This is also the spot where the cast and crew of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies would load gear onto boats before sailing south to film on an isolated cay.”
Amy Balfour’s pocket‑sized guidebook highlights the best experiences, sights and neighborhoods in LA. Balfour will have you sitting under the Hogwarts Sorting Hat on the Warner Brothers Studio tour or eating pumpkin‑spice pancakes on the sunny patio at Uncle Bill’s, while enjoying the ocean view. “I want visitors to have as much fun using the book as I had writing it,” said Balfour. “During one particularly memorable day of research, I pondered dead mice on toast at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, got spooked wandering gothic patios at Greystone Mansion, then capped it off with cocktails at the Polo Lounge, where a still‑tanned George Hamilton held court in a booth just behind me. All in all, a good day.”
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Amy Balfour ’89A, ’93 , author of The Lonely Planet Los Angeles Encounter, is accustomed to paving the way. A member of the first female undergraduate class at W&L (her father is The Hon. Dan Balfour ’63A,’65 ), she described one of her first stories as a freelance writer. “I did [a solo hike] to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite. The last 600 feet you have to pull yourself up the side of the dome while clutching steel chains. It’s the scariest thing ever, and I totally recommend it.” Balfour’s start as a freelancer began after her law career was well underway. “I practiced law for a few years and then took a screenwriting class at the University of Richmond, and really fell in love with writing,” she said. As a trans‑ plant to Southern California, Balfour found her life often intersecting with Hollywood, a place where “everyone is there working their angle. They want to direct, they want to write, and you’re not always sure of their motives.” The constant presence of A‑listers and sort‑of familiar faces can create confusion as well. “The reality stars were all over my neighborhood. You think, ‘Oh, did I know that person from high school?’ But then you realize that he’s the runner‑up from ‘Survivor’.” She worked as a writer’s assistant on “Law and Order,” but found her niche as a travel writ‑ W & L
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er. After her Yosemite trip, her successive assign‑ ments included documenting a triathlon relay in Malibu and researching and writing the Bahamas chapter of the Lonely Planet Caribbean guide‑ book. Her task of narrowing down the 700 Bahamian Islands to six in five weeks, despite the bronzed glow she acquired, was anything but a daiquiri‑drinking vacation. “I tried to get from Grand Bahama to the Abacos, and when I got to the very end of the island, a bunch of us were lined up for the return ferry. It turned out to be one guy’s boat that only held 20 people, and it looked like it was going to sink. You know how you get into a situation and can’t get back? Let’s just say I was the last person on board and one of the first ones off.” She cites Bill Bryson, Elizabeth Gilbert and David Sedaris among the writers she admires. “A lot of it has to do with the author’s voice. Bill Bryson just walks down the Appalachian Trail, but he makes it hilarious and informative. Sedaris finds problems that everyone can identi‑ fy with and makes himself the brunt of the joke, so readers identify with the author.” When asked where she sees herself in a few years, she mused, “I’d like to do some sort of humorous travel book. Maybe a twisted Eat, Pray, Love. Drink, Curse, Puke? Something a little more indicative of life on the road.” A l u m n i
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