Bio

Richard Varr is a well-rounded freelance writer, photographer and videographer with more than 40-years writing experience. A member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW), he specializes in travel and feature writing, and is the author (main contributor) of the Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Travel Guide to Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Dutch Country.  His first novel, Warming Up to Murder, is available online through Amazon.com, Xlibris.com or BarnesandNoble.com. He has traveled to six continents; extensively throughout North America, the Caribbean and Europe, while also visiting and writing about destinations in Africa, South America, Australia and Asia.

His work and photography have also been published in many travel magazines and online publications. His most recent outlets have included MSN, AAA Via, Porthole Cruise and Travel, GoWorldTravel.com, AllThingsCruise.com, EastWestNewsServvice.com, the Good Sam RV Club’s Coast to Coast and Houston Woman Magazine.

Newspapers, both print and online, have included USA Today, Toronto Star, London Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald, Miami Herald, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Morning News, Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Star, Sacramento Bee, New Orleans Times-Picayune, InsideOttawaValley.com, Hamilton Spectator, Lowell Sun, Arizona Daily Star Main Line Life (Philadelphia) Worcester Sunday Telegram and others. 

Magazine outlets have included TravelWeekly.com, Islands, AAA Home & Away, AAA Arizona Highroads, AAA Journeys, AOL Travel, GoNomad.com, the Good Sam Club’s Highways and Trailer Life, The Rotarian, New Jersey Monthly, German Life, French Magazine (UK), Portugal Magazine (UK), Smart Meetings Magazine, Grit, Long Weekends, Camping Today, International Railway Traveler, and Galveston.com, for which he wrote two blog posts monthly for six years. Richard was published in the magazines found onboard cruise ships of many cruise lines including Carnival, Holland America, Radisson Seven Seas, Princess, Disney, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Cunard, Seabourn, P&O, Costa, MSC, NCL and others.

Richard’s other specialties have included video production, business writing and copywriting. His clients have included Kelsey-Seybold Clinic (Houston) where he produced marketing videos, Methodist Hospital (Houston), GlaxoSmithKline, Mercy Health System, Pep boys Auto (Philadelphia), as well as advertising and public relations agencies. He has been published in The Philadelphia Business Journal. He has researched and ghostwritten corporate history books on two prominent Philadelphia-area companies – Commerce Bancorp, Inc. and Day & Zimmermann, Inc.

Before that, Richard worked for 15 years as a television reporter and anchor in Upstate New York, and Austin and Houston, Texas. He started his journalism career as a reporter at a suburban Boston daily newspaper for three years after earning a Masters in Journalism from Boston University.