Regis grew up in a small town in the American Midwest, and first discovered the world beyond the Ohio River paging through old National Geographic magazines in the attic of his boyhood home. Encouraged by his parents - teachers both - he developed an unhealthy appetite for world literature and went on to major in Slavic Languages and Literature. Shortly after the collapse of communism, he traveled to Russia where he spent a year living and studying in Moscow; in his free time he explored the countryside, took inexpensive flights to the Middle East and learned the fine art of drinking vodka slowly around a warm kitchen table while winter winds howled outside.
After university, Regis bumped around the west coast, working for a Nobel Prize-winning scientist in San Francisco, editing copy for an advertising agency and doing assorted other odd jobs (bartending, hocking art at galleries, dressing up in animal costumes) to save money for trips abroad. After a memorable trek through the Andes in 1999, he returned home, sold all of his belongings and set off on an ambitious journey across Latin America. Inspired by the people and landscape, he began writing stories, which later turned into a novel, and led serendipitously into a career in travel writing.
Since 2003, he's been a full-time travel writer, which has fueled his love of foreign languages, world music and literature and perhaps most importantly good food and drink. Regis spends around four months a year on the road and he's written dozens of guides for Lonely Planet. His writing has led him across North and South America, to various corners of Eastern and Western Europe, and around Asia and Australia. His work has appeared in travel magazines, as well as in dailies like the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, and he is a regular contributor online ([Link Removed] and [Link Removed] among others).
When not out exploring the world, Regis splits his time between Brooklyn, New York and Sydney, Australia.