Robert Nilsen was born and raised in Minnesota. His first major excursion from the insular Midwest was a two-year stint in South Korea with the Peace Corps. Following that eye-opening service, he stayed on in Korea independently, teaching and traveling, and soaking up as much of its history and culture as he could. Setting his sights on other lands and cultures, he made a two-year trek through Asia before returning home to the United States, and since then has had the good fortune to return to Asia and the Pacific on numerous occasions. Robert is the author of Moon Handbooks South Korea and contributed to Moon Handbooks Indonesia.
Since the passing of his good friend J.D. Bisignani, he has also shouldered full responsibility for the revision of Moon’s Hawaii titles, including Moon Hawaii, Moon Kaua‘i, Moon O‘ahu, and Moon Big Island of Hawai‘i.
It is the many wonderful aspects of the Hawaiian Islands — slack key guitars, palm-fringed beaches, tropical mountains hikes, the re-emergent culture of the Hawaiian people, and their friendly aloha spirit — that keep Robert heading back each year.