PostSecret: Travelers Unload Their Baggage

by Kelly Amabile on

The anonymous aspect of travel lends itself well to secrets. This is what Frank Warren reminds us in this New York Times business article from a few days ago. Secrets set free on postcards — have you heard of the PostSecret project yet? We mentioned it here over two years ago. Now, several books and many more postcards later, the secrets continue to flow. Warren’s newest collection of postcard submissions, A Lifetime of Secrets, hit shelves this month. He is currently on tour promoting the book.

The postcards Warren has received and compiled into his books are not solely about travel. But in his short New York Times piece, he reflects on the ones that are inspired by airplanes, terminals, boarding passes and pilots.

What are your travel secrets?

I’ve got a few that involve long-distance relationships from years gone by, when frequent flights and expensive phone calls ruled the day. Warren’s piece inspires me to scribble something secret on a postcard and send it along (see submission address at bottom of page). Do you have some travel-related secrets – gripes, pains, jokes – that are yearning to break free? If so, find yourself a postcard and set your top-secret travel tales to the wind…

One for the Road: Great Escapes Around the World

by Kelly Amabile on

We’re featuring several heavyweight titles this week. First it was a 600-pager from Rough Guides, and now TASCHEN gets heftier with a 720-page look at Great Escapes Around the World. This new release from the stylish German publisher features a top-notch collection of accommodations hand-picked by design diva Angelika Taschen. Previous Great Escape Hotel guides from Taschen have each focused on a different continent, but this latest one combines them all.

From Kerala to Sorrento to the Napa Valley, Great Escapes takes readers on a visual tour of luxurious guesthouses, ecolodges, spas, ranches, houseboats and hotels of all kinds. Glossy photos of private beaches and lush hideaways whisper wanderlust nothings in our ears. It’s an eclectic mix that’s sure to leave folks daydreaming for beds far beyond their own.

One for the Road: Make the Most of Your Time on Earth

by Kelly Amabile on

There are books that suggest what you should see before you die. And others that offer up vacation ideas that will enrich your life. Rough Guides takes a different approach with their just released mega list of 1000 Ultimate Travel Experiences. Their challenge to each of us — Make the Most of Your Time on Earth. Simple, right? They label these 1,000 activities as must-do, but with an invitation than I find much more appealing than “Hurry up and visit all these touristy locations before you croak!”

This massive Rough Guide to the World includes all 625 experiences previously released in the 25 Ultimate Experience mini-guides (which we reviewed when we interviewed Rough Guide founder Mark Ellingham in May), plus an additional 375 new experiences. From punting on the river Cam in Cambridge to voyaging into the unknown of Antarctica, Rough Guides presents travelers with adventures that appeal to all types. The book is loaded with inspirational photographs and descriptions. It’s meant to be thumbed through again and again — for daydreaming sessions when stuck at home, or as a prompt to get going with actual travel planning. This fantastic collection is a must have for anyone who experiences frequent bouts of wanderlust. Just one flip through the 600-color pages will leave you motivated to get moving…somewhere! Do you need more proof that no shortage of possibilities exists!?!

One for the Road: Tribe – Adventures in a Changing World

by Kelly Amabile on

Last month in the UK, Penguin released Tribe: Adventures in a Changing World, by Bruce Parry, a companion to his documentary series of the same name. Tribe, the TV show, has been around for a few years now (known as Going Tribal on Discovery), documenting Parry’s courageous and sometimes controversial encounters with remote tribal groups around the world.

Some of the groups he lived with for a month at a time include the Anuta (Solomon Islands), Kombai (Indonesian Papua), Babongo (Gabon) and Adi (India). The book shares stories from his experiences, and also raises challenging questions about whether or not these tribal groups should be protected.

There are separate DVDs available for all three BBC seasons of the show, with a compilation DVD coming soon. But if you prefer to read firsthand about Parry’s experiences with these fifteen tribal groups, than hunt down a copy of this recently released hardcover book.

One for the Road: The Globetrotter’s LogBook Series

by Kelly Amabile on

Here’s an interesting travel book series from Belgian publisher Morton, Diaz & Cook that I stumbled upon yesterday. There are currently five titles in The Globetrotter’s LogBook series, with a 6th promised to be on the way soon. These stylish souvenir books are meant to be used as journals for recording specific trip information — details on countries of the world, or notes about vaccination and flight records.

But what makes these books special is that they are all a mixture of content and creative space — facts and figures for the traveler are interspersed with blank space to allow for stamps, stickers or personal journey jottings.

The publisher’s most recent title marks a new direction for the series. It is the first one to focus on a particular region of the world — Produced in collaboration with the Flemish Tourist Office, Flander’s Six Divine Cities is a guidebook and traveler notebook dedicated to Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Leuven and Mechelen. Peppered with maps and color photos, this latest book presents an “at a glance” perspective for 118 sites in the Flanders region. And one corner of each page is reserved for traveler scribbles – memories and moments can be captured and recorded with ease, creating an organically evolving guidebook experience.