Lonely Planet Bluelist 2008

by Kelly Amabile on

Travel book listmania continues this month with the release of Lonely Planet’s third edition of their popular Bluelist book. In addition to the usual collection of “best travel experiences” (like “Great River Trips” and “Food Wonderlands of the world”), the book prominently features a special selection of countries (like Armenia and Eritrea), cities (like Apia, Samoa and Chengdu, China) and regions (like Northwest Vietnam and Australia’s Tiwi Islands).

The real gem though, lies smack in the middle — a special section devoted to travel through the Islamic World. Travel Islam explores the culture of the religion and the countries where its tradition is strongest. Features include sections on sport, pop culture, art, holy cities, mosques, and a list of the top ten destinations of the Islamic world. It’s education, inspirational and beautifully designed.

If you snatch this book now at Lonely Planet’s online shop, you’ll also receive a copy of the 2007 book for free — twice as many lists to choose from!

One for the Road: Great Hostels USA

by Kelly Amabile on

I’ve only stayed at one hostel in the USA. But I plan to visit more in the years to come. Which is why I was happy to come across Colleen Norwine’s Great Hostels USA. Although it’s a bit dated now (published in 2005), it is still a good resource to consider if you plan to do hostel travel in the USA in the coming year.

When Colleen decided to quit her job and spend a year traveling around the country, she was unable to find a dedicated hostel guidebook that met her travel needs. So she wrote one herself! Although she did use hostel web resources to plan her travels, she wanted to have a lightweight reference guide that could travel with her as well. But since she could not find one that suited her, she created this one as she went, personally reviewing over 250 hostels from Seattle to Bar Harbor.

Only 100 hostels made it into the book — her selection includes a mix of Hostelling International locations and other lodging options. There are reviews for at least one hostel in each of 25 states, as well as nine Canadian accommodations. Multiple entries exist for states like California, Florida, Colorado, New York and Massachusetts, so the book may be especially useful for folks planning to visit those places. There are a few thematic lists too — including the best hostels for hiking, mountain biking, partying, meetings and romance. Colleen’s hard work paid off, and earned her book the 2006 Independent Publisher Award for best travel guide.

One for the Road: The Practical Nomad

by Kelly Amabile on

Ed Hasbrouck is a seasoned world traveler and expert on international airfares and travel technology. His Practical Nomad website and blog are loaded with resources about passports and the latest on RFID chips, making changes to airline flights or tickets, and important facts about travel insurance. He learned the business during his 15 years working full-time as a travel agent. But Hasbrouck eventually became quite dissatisfied with the limitations of his job — specifically, the lack of resources available for do-it-yourself travelers.

So, back in 1997, he took what he knew and created a guide for independent travelers — Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World. The just released fourth edition of this valuable guide is an expanded version of the previous three, with advice on choosing destinations and tips on travel documents, entry requirements and luggage restrictions.

Hasbrouck truly is an authority when it comes to practical travel matters. And he has a resume of travel experience that backs up his book of advice. He’s currently on his third round-the-world journey, traveling with his partner, Ruth. According to a recent post on her blog, the couple is in Argentina right now, with another seven months on the road before they return. I’m sure they’ll gather more travel tips to include in future editions of the guide!

One for the Road: Where to Go When

by Kelly Amabile on

Here’s yet another big bound book full of ideas about when and where to set off on an adventure. The key word here is When. DK’s Eyewitness Travel has compiled Where to Go When: The Best Destinations All Year Round. Consultant Editor Joseph Rosendo and a team of travel experts have gathered photos and narrative descriptions for over 130 global destinations. The guide is organized by month, to help travelers focus on the best destinations for each season of the year.

Rosendo, Travelscope TV creator, will be at Distant Lands on December 3 and will appear in New York at the NYT Travel show next February. As far as weather goes, I’m pretty sure that New York does not (and should not!) appear in the “February” chapter of the book. But it’s one of the best places to promote a travel book during the cold winter months!

But is it even going to get cold this year? I digress…

Travel book reviews transport readers farther and save time

by Kelly Amabile on

If you read One for the Road on a regular basis, you’ll note that it’s pretty obvious how much I enjoy reading and writing about travel literature, guidebooks and memoirs. One of the reasons I love tracking travel books so much is that you never quite know where an interesting book about a journey is going to appear. That’s why I regularly scan children’s books, academic press catalogs, translated works, self-published titles and subjects where you might not ordinarily expect to find a travel-themed book. Because stories about journeys are everywhere…

And so are excellent columns that review and discover more of these books! A new one appeared on the scene yesterday, penned by a man known well for his own travel writing. Don George is the new Trip Lit columnist at National Geographic Traveler. His inaugural piece includes an impressive list of novels set in Alaska, South Africa, India, Korea, Italy, China and Ireland, as well as a fun collection of moveable feast memoirs. (I look forward to seeing what he serves up next.) Today I also read the latest issue of Perceptive Traveler, and was reminded that they always include a smart roundup of book reviews in each issue: This month Susan Griffith reviews three books, including Dervla Murphy’s latest, Silverland. But what I most enjoyed was Susan’s refreshingly honest review of A Gap Year or Two. Evidently, it can sometimes be much more fun to read a review of a book than the book itself.

(I borrowed the above photo from National Geographic Traveler’s Ultimate Travel Library — another awesome resource for travel literature recommendations.)