One for the Road: Curious Shopper’s Guide to NYC

by Kelly Amabile on

The Little Bookworm is a small New York travel publisher that produces a variety of niche culture and art titles, including walking tours and literary guides to great cities around the world. Shopping guides are another specialty, packaged and designed in such a way that they are stylish, yet functional for on-the-go shoppers.

Last year Pamela Keech penned The Curious Shopper’s Guide to New York City: Inside Manhattan’s Shopping Districts. It’s a quaint and elegant guide, small enough to fit inside just about any shopper’s purse. Keech has compiled a wonderful collection of specialty shops that sell kitchenware, drapery, antiques, fabrics, jewelry and musical instruments. For each shopping district (garment, diamond, millinery), she also includes several restaurant suggestions where hungry shoppers can refuel between spending sessions that may include purchases of fresh flowers, custom stationary, buttons, ribbon, lingerie or lamps. Each guide entry includes a short historical background about the shop, as well as address and store hour information.

Different in style but also smart in design are two NYC Pratique Guides also published by The Little Bookworm. These “Shopping Block by Block” guides include business listings and a clearly marked map for the Soho/Nolita and Meatpacking/West Village neighborhoods. The sleek packaging and practical design of all three of this unique travel guides make them simply superb for NYC shopping excursions.

Oh hey, and since this One for the Road keeps multiplying, let’s just make it an official Four for the Road: The Little Bookworm just announced that the second edition of their Jazz Guide: New York City has been released. An updated comprehensive look at over sixty city venues, with additional listings for music festivals and specialty shops. Sounds like a cool jazz club might be the perfect place to unwind after a busy day of shopping, huh?

One for the Road: Pauline Frommer’s NYC

by Kelly Amabile on

Adrienne first mentioned Pauline Frommer’s travel books last August, when the new series had just hit the shelves. And as you can see from the comments, Pauline stopped by to add some personal perspective on her decision to jump into the book biz directly, following in the footsteps of her famous dad.

Both father and daughter are can claim celebrity status these days — familiar faces that will be forever linked to the stellar guidebook business founded 50 years ago this year. Since the initial three-book launch of her adult budget guidebook series, which included the award winning Pauline Frommer’s New York City, Pauline and her team are hard at work on additional titles, including upcoming guides to D.C., Orlando and Costa Rica.

But back to New York for a minute: Honored as the Best Guidebook of 2006 by the North American Travel Journalists Association, Pauline’s NYC guidebook is a refreshing and affordable look inside the Big Apple. You can tell she just loves this city and worked really hard to collect data on the best creative accommodations, venues and restaurants for visitors to enjoy. Besides the emphasis on affordability and alternative lodging, her “Other” New York chapter really sets this guide apart from the rest. It highlights cheap and free opportunities for travelers to experience NYC through a local’s eyes, including lists of prominent houses of worship, popular pub quiz nights and behind the scenes factory and museum tours.

Pauline will be appearing at an author event on May 7 at Denver’s Tattered Cover Bookstore. Stop by her Amazon blog to keep up with the latest whereabouts of this travel savvy guidebook gal.

One for the Road: NYC Lonely Planet Guide

by Kelly Amabile on

The I Love NY tourism slogan turns thirty in 2007, so to honor this great state, I’ll be highlighting a variety of travel books related to New York all week. Since I currently live in New York State and work in New York City, I’ve managed to accumulate a rather unique collection of guidebooks. But to kick things off, I’ll begin with a basic no-brainer suggestion:

Whether your visiting New York for the first or the fifth time, Lonely Planet’s 2006 NYC City Guide will come in handy at some point during your Gotham travels. When I started working in Manhattan again last fall (after almost ten years away from the city), I turned to LP’s guide, and have kept it safely stashed in my desk at work. It has helped reacquaint me with the city’s neighborhoods and grid layout, and the condensed, easy-to-read pull-out map has been a useful resource to keep tucked in my purse.

Brooklyn definitely gets special play in this guide that’s primarily Manhattan focused. “Brooklyn and the Outer Boroughs” are grouped together in an introductory overview. But there is substantial content on the sites and sounds of Brooklyn throughout the book, including two walking tours among the 11 suggested. There are also sleek, glossy, full-color photo chapters on NYC architecture and Central Park. You can’t go wrong with this book if you’re a guidebook traveler, but I’d also suggest it as a decent gift for recent transplants to NYC, or folks returning home to the Big Apple who may be in need of a refresher course on this city of constant change.

One for the Road (04/29/07)

by Kelly Amabile on

Here’s one for the foodies: Everybody Eats There: Inside the World’s Legendary Restaurants dishes up the scoop on 100 of the world’s most exclusive dining establishments. Veteran journalist Bill Staidem teamed up with Mara Gibbs, of the Morton’s Restaurant family, to gather the goods (and gossip) on the top restaurants around the globe.

The result is a collection of backstories about chefs, owners and menus about well known high-profile places like Elaine’s (NY), Spago (L.A.), Stresa (Paris) and the River Cafe (London). I’m no eatery expert, but my guess is that those in the know about these “it” establishments may not be so interested in reading this book. (In fact, they might be mentioned in it!) But travelers with a soft spot for Hollywood stars and their dining habits may find this a particularly enjoyable read. Bon Appetit!

One for the Road (04/28/07)

by Kelly Amabile on

Many travelers, myself included, love the perks of traveling by train. Slow travel, lazy afternoons and wide windows that often offer up fantastic views. But for me, those warm memories of riding by rail are all from my many months of trail travel in Europe. Stateside, my Amtrak trips, while relatively comfortable, don’t conjure up the same remembrances of stunning landscapes on the way to exciting locals. Nope, in the US, I’m strictly a Northeast Corridor gal who won’t splurge for Acela and rarely forks over the funds for regional travel between NY and DC.

But here’s a book that may help provide some memorable US train travel in the future. The Tourist Trains Guidebook offers up suggestions on unique North American train travel options, including over 150 train rides to try and museums to visit. This US and Canadian directory includes listings of dinner trains, steam excursions and trolley rides as well as must-see sights and destinations for rail enthusiasts.