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Travel

New leaves for travel book publishers

By ROBERT N. JENKINS
Published March 5, 2006

Three names respected in travel book publishing are branching out from their comfort zones to reach new readers. The efforts are imaginative and, happily for both their established clientele and newbies, the quality is still obvious.

For three decades, Lonely Planet has been the source of common sense for treading uncommon paths. If you wanted to take off on your own into Paraguay or Papua New Guinea, you'd look for one of the paperbacks written by Lonely Planet's knowledgeable contributors, typically residents or frequent visitors to the destination.

On the theory that even the most cosmopolitan city may seem like a concrete jungle to a new arrival, the company has turned to the more civilized world, with destinations such as Paris, Boston, Madrid and Vancouver.

Lonely Planet has now summarized all of its reports in one best-of book. And Blue List. 618 Things to Do & Places to Go is not coy about naming names.

One section of the 328-page book has 40 categories in which the authors anoint the cheapest, the neatest, the most extreme, the kid-friendliest, even places most really like the way they appear in movies.

These lists tell the adventuresome - and the merely curious - where to take the best treks, get the best views of wildlife, find the most awe-inspiring panoramas, attend the neatest festivals. There are also recommendations for the best places to be naked outdoors, to get the best drinks, and the best things to say and not to say to the locals.

Another section names the best 10 or so nations on each inhabited continent. Professional writers and casual travelers are quoted on each country, and tips, practical details and resources for visitors are presented. Nations below the Top 10 get at least a few sentences.

And the one thing lacking in the original Lonely Planet guides receives its due: The color photography here is simply spectacular. The book includes maps and more than 250 photos.

Lonely Planet Blue List is $19.99, but you can find it for less online.

The British produced their own version of Lonely Planet's get-out-there books under the imprint Rough Guide. The first work was released in 1982; now there are about 200 titles created by, as the Web site puts it, writers who are "at the heart of it, explorers and inquirers."

This series also focused originally on the less-developed world, with a good deal more informed commentary and opinion than in any of the mass-market guides.

As did Lonely Planet, Rough Guide has turned to the so-called civilized world. For instance, this year it has released its Rough Guide to the Da Vinci Code, and guides to Dublin and

Disney World.

Purchased by the acclaimed British publishing house Penguin Books between 1996 and 2001, Rough Guide revamped its products in 2002, and it is doing so again this year. The books now have color photography and authors' recommendations.

The company also produces well-done laminated folding maps, CDs, its own world music CDs, dictionary phrasebooks and a Web site that also offers digests of the books. Rough Guide even had an eight-year series of travelogs broadcast first on the BBC, then on PBS, and now on the Travel Channel.

Realizing that for some readers, almost any foreign trip is a major undertaking, Rough Guide created a line of gentler, kinder works a few years ago, with titles such as First-Time Around the World and First-Time Europe.

Both of those were written by a witty Minnesotan who managed to earn a living for several years by traveling to places some of us have hardly heard of, then writing about his adventures. When he was still footloose, Doug Lansky sold such articles to several newspapers, including the St. Petersburg Times.

Older, and apparently wiser, Lansky settled a few years ago in Scandinavia with his wife, Signe, a doctor. He turned to writing books while working for an airline magazine. His latest product - not counting 27- day-old Belize Cecilia Lansky, is The Rough Guide to Travel Survival.

In a way, this slim paperback is a return to Rough Guide's roots. Assuming a traveler would be carrying the book, its inside front cover is an index to medical emergency solutions - from dehydration to removing leeches to dressing a wound. Chapters offer basic and emergency advice for survival in arctic and mountain, desert and jungle regions and at sea.

The list of experts consulted is staggering. In addition to U.S. and Royal Air Force trauma and medical survival experts and an emergency-care physician, Lansky consulted an Aboriginal living skills instructor, the founder of Kenya's safari guides association, a lightning safety instructor and a teacher at the Tornado Chasing School.

The tone is conversational but not flippant, and the book is lavishly illustrated with two-color diagrams, maps and charts.

Travel Survival is 224 pages and retails for $12.99.

About 85 years before Lonely Planet published its first book, the National Geographic Society published its first magazine. The magazine that came to be immediately recognizable by the bright yellow border around its cover has been a sales leader for decades. But even so, the Society sought to broaden its appeal. It now publishes two versions for children, plus its Adventure magazine for those seeking challenging experiences, and its Traveler magazine, which contains excellent writing on somewhat-tamer travels.

There have also been acclaimed reference books series by the Society, for instance on American's national parks. But this month the Society reaches for the superlatives with its The 10 Best of Everything: An Ultimate Guide for Travelers.

As with Lonely Planet's Blue List, this chubby, 480-page paperback wants to satisfy some quest in everyone who picks it up. Arnold Palmer's 10 requisites for a great golf course, followed by the authors' selection of 10 courses. Too tame? How about Sir Edmund Hillary's 10 great climbs? Here are the best flea and antique markets, the museums and galleries, the best writing instruments, wines, perfumes, watches, beers, etc.

Travelers have more than half the book devoted to their pastime. One chapter is the 10 best things to do on a Sunday afternoon, in cities ranging from Berlin to Sydney. And you can add to New York's offerings three of the world's best delicatessens.

The chapter on best literary and historical journeys includes Cuba, New Zealand, Africa, Norway - but nothing in North America. Not to worry: It is represented in lists of the best shopping avenues, vistas, U.S. National Parks, and hamburgers.

But that last item points out the pitfalls of doing a best-of book: Really, would you have claimed that the Fudd- rucker's chain produces some of the best hamburgers in the world?

The art design of The 10 Best of Everything ensures that no two pages look alike. The book closes with a list of best lodgings, country by country and city by city. The book is a bargain at $19.95, and authors Nathaniel Lande and Andrew Lande are donating their profits to the International Committee for the Red Cross.

Finally, my recommendations for two more-serious reference works:

n The Oxford University Press has enlarged its excellent Atlas of the World. The most-recent edition includes 278 geopolitical maps of the world plus 100 maps of major cities. The larger maps are so detailed that the index includes about 110,000 entries. Always interesting for us Earthbound types are the full-color satellite images of major areas, but this edition includes maps of the ocean floor and the surface of the moon.

The deluxe edition comes with a six-month subscription to the Oxford Reference Online Web site. The 560-page book is $150.

n The most-knowledgeable person about cruising I've met is a dapper fellow named Douglas Ward. I have sailed with him twice, but even if I hadn't had the opportunity to question him, just perusing his Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships 2006 would explain why he was chosen by Berlitz to write. Ward is the authority on the subject, having spent about 300 days a year for the past 21 years on these vessels.

His critical comments - he can rate a ship on the sort of oatmeal it serves, not just the quality of its cabins or entertainment - will give even the casual cruise customer all the information needed to choose which of 269 ships covered is worth booking.

The Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships 2006 is $24.95.

Robert N. Jenkins can be reached at 727 893-8496 or jenkins@sptimes.com.