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Tags: Adventure Travel / Africa Travel / Lonely Planet / Bicycling / → All Tags

Cycling Through Africa: Not So Lonely

We don't mind pedaling around town or even between wineries, but there are crazier cyclists out there who want to ride the entire length of Africa. So many, in fact, that the annual Tour d’Afrique race is attracting more entrants every year, along with a bunch of riders who know they're not going to win but want to make the expedition at their own (slower) pace.

The 2009 race kicks off in Cairo on January 10 and the plan says cyclists should arrive in Cape Town--ten countries, 7,375 miles and four months later--on May 9. It includes sections along the Nile, crossing Ethiopia's Simian Mountains and skirting the Kalahari and Namib Deserts. Presumably there will be time for giraffe and zebra spotting.

This time around, the Lonely Planet publishers are entering a team which even includes one of its original founders, Tony Wheeler. We hope they're lugging a few of their increasingly-heavy guidebooks along to give them a thorough road test.

Related Stories:
· Tour d’Afrique [Official Site]
· Lonely Planet coverage [Jaunted]
· Africa Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: birzer]

Tags: Lonely Planet / Australia Travel / Tasmania / Lists / → All Tags

Blue List Travel: #1 Attraction Says Please Go Away

Lonely Planet's Blue List for 2009--their now annual list of the must-visits in the travel world--is due for release on November 1, but is slowly being leaked around the world. But the number one pick is a tiny part of Australia that doesn't want to be famous.

This weekend the UK Times published the top ten destination list and Ko Tao in Thailand, the Basque country in France and Spain and the Big Island of Hawaii all feature. The Bay of Fires in north-eastern Tasmania is glad to be recognized as beautiful, but the local mayor says they don't need all the tourists.

With just a 10-room eco-lodge in the area, which is a national park, Blue List-level fame is really not what the Bay of Fires is ready for. Locals would prefer we check out everything else on this top ten list first and if we've still got time and money to spare, then the Bay of Fires might welcome us. Or not.

Related Stories:
· The 10 Best Destinations for 2009 [UK Times]
· Bay of Fires Doesn't Want To Be A Hot Destination [The Australian]
· Lonely Planet Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: seychelles88]

Tags: Virtual Travel / Lonely Planet / Antarctica Travel / Guidebooks / Video / → All Tags

Virtual Travel: Lonely Planet on the YouTube Train

Maybe Lonely Planet has been feeling a little isolated lately. The travel guide publisher just launched its own video site, Lonelyplanet.tv, and is looking for your videos of excursions far and near.

Of course, to be featured on the Lonely Planet YouTube channel you'll have to compete with a bikini'd man swimming in Antarctica, a "Hills"-worthy tour of Paris and (above) a belly-dancing, ghost-riding cabdriver who confidently declares, "I am not normal."

One bit of advice: Videos of you guzzling cachaça and popping pills in a Brazilian hostel while on assignment, we'd imagine, won't earn you a five-star YouTube rating from LP.

Related Stories:
· Travel Videos coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Thomas Kohnstamm / Lonely Planet / Travel Books / Books / → All Tags

Book Review: Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?

After all the sniping, faux shock and criticism, Thomas Kohnstamm's book Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? is out today. Instead of rehashing old interviews and getting up on our high horse about ethics, we decided to, you know, actually read it.

We didn't get very far before stumbling across something we wish were included in that now-notorious "embassy chick" interview that upset so many people:

Author's note: For better or for worse, this book recounts true experiences. In order to distill the chaos of life down to a clear narrative, it was necessary to omit certain events, rearrange and compress chronology and combine a few of the characters.

So, yes, what you're about to read is true. Sort of.

more ›

Tags: Lonely Planet / Guidebooks / Travel Guides / Bars / → All Tags

Lonely Planet Not Exactly Inspiring Sympathy

In the wake of Thomas Kohnstamm abusing them for publicity, Lonely Planet has decided to show how classy an outfit it is with... a recipe for world-class pub crawls?!

We know most of the people who are dumb enough to tote an LP guidebook--besides those nice new National Parks guides of course--will probably rate getting wasted in a foreign pub as the greatest thing ever. But do lager louts really deserve a play-by-play?

For a great pub crawl, you need a few ingredients:
· a city with pubs in profound proximity
· a forgiving transport environment (you don't want cars bearing down on you as you stumble towards your goal)
· good weather (try crawling on ice--not fun!)
· an established drinking culture (you don't want to be the boorish outsider who's annoying the locals)

There you have it, Lonely Planet-carrying tourists: No boorish outsiders, please!

Related Stories:
· World's Greatest Pub/Bar Crawls? [LP]
· One Travel Writer, at Least, Might Just Go to Hell [Jaunted]
· Lonely Planet coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Kirstysplodge]

Tags: Lonely Planet / Guidebooks / Travel Guides / Colombia Travel / → All Tags

One Travel Writer, at Least, Might Just Go to Hell

Uh-oh. Guide book writers tell lies. Not a big surprise to us, but poor Lonely Planet must be decidedly unimpressed by what former author Thomas Kohnstamm has said in his soon-to-be-released book Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?

LP must surely be wishing that Kohnstamm would go to hell, because he's claiming, among other things, that he wrote a guide book to Colombia without ever setting foot in the country. He claims he wrote the guide in question from his base in San Francisco, getting info from a girl he was dating who happened to be interning at the Colombian consulate.

The story goes that Lonely Planet--and probably a whole heap of other guide book companies--don't pay their writers enough to actually research everything that needs to go into a book, and their policy is not to accept any freebies. Whether this news goes down as a "we can't trust Lonely Planet" or a "Kohnstamm's a big cheat with a newly released book to sell" story remains to be seen, but if you're heading to Colombia, perhaps some other guide book might be a better choice?

Related Stories:
· Lonely Planet Reeling After Author's Fraud [news.com.au]
· Lonely Planet Writer Doesn't Bother Going to Colombia [Lost Weekend]
· Lonely Planet Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Blacknell]

Tags: National Parks / Guidebooks / Lonely Planet / Hiking / Outdoor Travel / Active Travel / → All Tags

Snap Guidebook Review: Lonely Planet's New National Parks Series

Lonely Planet has just relaunched its series of national parks guides and the publisher sent over a couple for us to check out. We're not the biggest fans of LP books in general, but the sheer number of titles can certainly be helpful. (Who else sells chapters on Eritrea?)

There are four new guides to the national parks, and you'll get info on multiple parks in all but one of them. The books are designed specifically for the parks, with itineraries and activities based around what's inside the gates rather than in surrounding towns--though some of that info is there too.

What stood out to us is the cool "Hiking" section. Each book has a couple dozen different trails listed. After a header with the basics (distance, elevation change, etc.), a long description of the walk and what you might see follows. Totally handy, and given the fact that the new books are compact and light, you'll actually want to tote 'em along on the trail.

Related Stories:
· Lonely Planet A La Carte [Jaunted]
· National Parks coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Lonely Planet / Guidebooks / Travel Tech / → All Tags

Lonely Planet A La Carte

Now here's a groovy little move by the guidebook giants at Lonely Planet. A new "Pick & Mix" feature on their website allows customers to buy PDF downloads of only the guidebook chapters they want most.

Options include Montreal - Dining ($2), Cayman Brac Dive Sites ($3.50), Eritrea (part of a larger book on Eritrea and Ethiopia; $9.50) and so forth, from an extensive selection of books. A soft-cover country guide (such as Lonely Planet's Germany or Argentina) costs about $18 on Amazon.com.

Much like the 100-calorie pack phenomenon in the snack industry, there's a premium to be paid for smaller portions here. But the possible bonuses are ample: downloads weigh no more than the technology on which you view them (laptop, PDA, on paper as a printout), they're there for you when you're unexpectedly caught in a foreign internet cafe with nary an English bookstore in sight...and, of course, they're easier to conceal so you don't have to feel so touristy when you whip them out.

Related Stories:
· Buy by chapter [Lonely Planet]

[Photo: bibicall]

Tags: Ireland / Green Travel / Lonely Planet / → All Tags

Leprechauns Becoming A Bit Less Green

This is probably not what the Irish wanted to read in the newest Lonely Planet guide to their fine country:

Ireland's 40 shades of green don't, it seems, include the all-important eco-green.

These days, that hurts. The guidebook worries that Ireland's carbon footprint is apparently more than twice the global average--although statistics, as we know, can say nearly anything one wants them to.

The guide does mention that the recent introduction of a tax on plastic bags has helped Ireland's green credentials. The country's infrastructure and size make it popular for cycling and walking holidays, which are obviously pretty eco-friendly, too. So maybe Lonely Planet's being too tough on the Emerald Isle. Then again, when you're a country whose national color is green, it makes sense to play up that fact.

Related Stories:
· Lonely Planet Challenges Ireland's Green Image [Belfast Telegraph]
· Green Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Ireland Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: bass_nroll]

Tags: Lonely Planet / Second Life / Tourism Boards / Tourism Marketing / Tourism Board Travel / → All Tags

Irish Are Friendly in Both Worlds

Ireland might have a reputation for bleak weather but it seems to have everything else going its way at the moment. The Lonely Planet Bluelist 2008 just decided that Ireland is the world's friendliest vacation destination, with its "deliciously dark sense of humor."

Not only are the Irish welcoming to tourists stepping upon their shores, but they're also virtually welcoming. Tourism Ireland claims to be the first such organization to have launched a marketing campaign in that other world, Second Life. (That'd put the Irish at odds with the Dutch, who claim to be the first in cyberspace.) First or not, there's a great replica of the city of Dublin in-game and the tourist board is holding a virtual festival there, leading up to a big St. Patrick's Day celebration in February 2008.

There's only one thing that worries us about this latest idea: If the virtual Ireland in Second Life becomes interesting enough, won't people stop visiting the real Ireland? Or does the full extent of friendliness only become apparent when you're face-to-(real)-face with those jovial Irish?

Related Stories:
· Discover Ireland in Second Life [Yahoo]
· Ireland Top of Friendly Nations List [Belfast Telegraph]
· Second Life Travel: Holland Tourism Board [Jaunted]
· Ireland Travel coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Dangerous Travel / Lonely Planet / → All Tags

War on Terrorism Travel: Lonely Planet Cracks Afghanistan

Did someone forget to tell us it's dangerous travel week? A day after taking a look at Burma, we hear about the new Lonely Planet guidebook to Afghanistan. (Out now in paperback!)

In a review in the San Francisco Chronicle, John Flinn picks out some of his favorite parts of the guide:

Turn to the "Dangers & Annoyances" section, and instead of the usual cautions about bedbugs and pickpockets you find a warning about "the danger of an insurgency in the south, plus warlordism and terrorist violence in some other parts of the country."

Which isn't to say you won't find tips about hotels and write-ups of the country's history. And while the US State Department says, "The security threat to all American citizens in Afghanistan remains critical," Lonely Planet's North American publisher sees a bigger picture:

We're not expecting a lot of travelers to buy this book and immediately jump on a plane to Kabul. But part of our job is to take a look at where travel patterns might change in a few years. We do think that once the country stabilizes there is going to be a lot of interest.

Related Stories:
· Lonely Planet Guide Jumps the Terrorist Gun [SFGate]
· Lonely Planet Publishes Afghanistan Guidebook [WorldHum]
· Dangerous Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Lonely Planet]

Tags: Forum Ferreting / Lonely Planet / Blogs / → All Tags

Best Snippets of the Thorn Tree

The Lonely Planet Thorn Tree forum has long been a good place to hang out for some serious forum ferreting, but there's always been one problem: too many threads, so little time. That's why LP's newest innovation seems like a good idea, even if it does have an overly serious name.

We're talking about the Lonely Planet Community News blog. It's been floating around in cyberspace a little while now but recently seems to have found its purpose, and now tends to feature conclusions from the most interesting threads on the Thorn Tree, saving us from digging around ourselves.

Recent highlights were the ever tricky to visit Myanmar or not question, on-the-ground tips from Mexico after the recent hurricane and the consensus that Scandinavian languages can be easy for English-speakers to learn. Sounds hard to believe but we never said this new site tells the truth: It just passes on what other travelers say, making our ferreting life easier.

Related Stories:
· Community News Blog [Lonely Planet]
· Forum Ferreting: Thorntree Speaking in Tongues [Jaunted]
· Forum Ferreting coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Plymography]