Carl Hoffman is a contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and the author of The Lunatic Express: Discovering the World via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains, and Planes , which was named one of the ten best books of 2010 by the Wall Street Journal , and Hunting Warbirds: The Obsessive Quest for the Lost Aircraft of World War II . He has won four Lowell Thomas Awards from the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation and one North American Travel Journalists Association Award. A veteran journalist, Hoffman has traveled to more than seventy countries on assignment for Outside , Smithsonian , National Geographic Adventure , ESPN The Magazine , the Wall Street Journal… Magazine , Wired , and many other publications. He is a native of Washington, D.C., and the father of three children.