Travel Joy

Travel Joy – a concept for excellence in traveling in five volumes: 1 concept for success, 2 implementation, 3 insights, 4 role models, 5 training

Frank Grosse - The Best Traveled Man in the World

In 1957, young Frank set out to improve his English skills and traveled to England's Lake District. Sixty years later, the Lake District became a World Heritage Site, and Frank became the number one traveler on the World Heritage List.

Frank, whose full name is Wigand Frank Grosse-Oetringhaus, studied industrial engineering at TU Berlin and earned his doctorate at the University of Giessen. He worked as a management consultant for Siemens, rose to become a top-level management trainer, authored the Siemens leadership system, developed a new approach to strategy, and taught part time for 18 years at the University of St. Gallen. During these years, he traveled intermittently.

In 2006, he radically changed his style of travel. Together with Teo Murallon, he began traveling continuously, systematically, and intensively. Nearly 6,000 world highlights, recorded in 1,500 categories, became the structure of a new approach to travel. Quantity receded into the background. The unique and essential aspects of the world moved to the center.

These journeys became more than a record. They formed a travel philosophy that is well founded, carefully developed, and attainable. Guided by travel joy, the books turn decades of travel into structured insight and set benchmarks for travel excellence. They stand in clear contrast to checklist travel and social media tourism. They replace accumulation with understanding and speed with depth.

The books are complemented by a unique website with all places, all data, and all images. Yet only the books reveal the full scope of the project. This work is about more than places. It is about joy. About ethics. About meaning.

Teo, a specialist in anesthesiology, practiced in the Philippines, worked as a nurse in New York and Berlin, and cared for Frank's mother until her death. Out of this grew a close partnership on the road. Together they explored the world for 13 years. Teo passed away from COVID-19 in 2021 at the Charite Hospital in Berlin.

After Teo's death, Frank continued traveling with increased intensity and depth. His journeys culminated in the Humboldt memorial expeditions of 2023 to the Casiquiare and the upper Orinoco, and of 2024 to the tepuis, the middle Orinoco, and the Llanos.

He looks back on 26 years on the road: a life driven by the joy of travel