Travel Literature

What's the #1 travel experience in Australia? For the first time, the team at Lonely Planet and its panel of industry experts have ranked the top 500 unmissable experiences and hidden gems across the land – to create this definitive travel wishlist. Lonely Planet's Ultimate Australia Travel List is the regional follow-up to the bestselling Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travel List and a must-own coffee table book for both travellers to Australia and residents who want to discover their...

From Arabic and Japanese to Hebrew, Javanese and Cherokee, explore 26 unique scripts and alphabets with Lonely Planet – and learn to write local proverbs with our calligraphy tutorials. For each script you’ll discover its history and roots, how and where it flourished, and gain insight into other people, places, cultures and traditions throughout the world. We’ll then tell you how to use the script and the easiest handwriting techniques to make it look authentic. Accompanying each script is...

Delve inside the myriad landscapes of Japan with this stunning collection of photographs and discover the nation’s extraordinary diversity of places, people and experiences – from moments in awe-inspiring cities to quiet escapes in remote, exotic corners. Beautiful World Japan is the perfect way to lose yourself in the country. Striking photos fill each page, while special gatefolds open to reveal magnificent panoramas. If you've been, retrace your steps and relive the time you spent there. If...

Immerse yourself in Australia with this stunning collection of photographs and discover the nation’s extraordinary range of landscapes and environments, cultures, creatures and people – from world-famous wineries and white-sand beaches to buzzing cities and ancient rainforests. Beautiful World Australia is the perfect way to lose yourself in the country. Striking photos fill each page, while special gatefolds open to reveal magnificent panoramas. If you've been, retrace your steps and relive...

Journey back in time with this collection of classic travel writing from great authors and adventurers. These extraordinary odysseys over land and sea captivated audiences and gave them a glimpse into countries, cities and cultures like never before. Tales include Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed Antarctic expedition of 1910-13; Robert Byron’s ten-month journey through Persia to Afghanistan in the early 30s; Jack London’s 1907 sailing adventure across the south Pacific; and Teddy Roosevelt’s...

Unexpected stories from unexpected places.Many places can feel like nowhere: a desert, an isolated village, even themiddle of a bustling, impersonal city. And then something happens: an adventure, a revelation, an experience that changes the whole landscape. The discovery that every place is the centre of the world to somebody and has its own riches and wonders. The authors of these 30 real-life tales fi nd passion, surprise and illumination in the middle of Borneo orBeijing, in a Mayan...

Life-changing food adventures around the world.From bat on the island of Fais to chicken on a Russian train to barbecue in the American heartland, from mutton in Mongolia to couscous in Morocco to tacos in Tijuana - on the road, food nourishes us not only physically, but intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually too. It can be a gift that enables a traveller to survive, a doorway into the heart of a tribe, or a thread that weaves an indelible tie; it can be awful or ambrosial - and...

A timely collection of 26 inspiring tales, The Kindness of Strangers explores the unexpected human connections that so often transfigure and transform the experience of travel, and celebrates the gift of kindness around the world. Featuring stories by Jan Morris, Tim Cahill, Simon Winchester and Dave Eggers. I greatly appreciate the theme of this book that gathers stories of kindness received when it was most needed and perhaps least expected. I am sure they will inspire everyone who reads...

Humorous tales of travel and misadventureLonely Planet knows that some of lifes funniest experiences happen on the road. Whether they take the form of unexpected detours, unintended adventures, unidentifiable dinners or unforgettable encounters, they can give birth to our most found travel lessons, and our most memorable and hilarious travel stories.This 31 globe girdling tales that run the gamut from close-encounter safaris to loss-of-face follies, hair-raising rides to culture-leaping...

You Only Live Once is not just another collection of bucketlist of big-ticket items. Weve all heard about Venice and, yes, it is probably worth going to Italy to see its waterways. Instead, hopefully youll take away something more from this book: a resolve to live life to the fullest, to add a dash of joie de vivre to every day.What all the ideas contained within have in common is that theyre starting points. They will reignite long-forgotten desires to learn an instrument or a language or...

From Lonely Planet, the worlds leading travel guide publisher, Better Than Fiction 2, the follow-up to 2012s Better Than Fiction, is a second serving of true travel stories told by some of the worlds best fiction writers including Dave Eggers, Jane Smiley and Karen Joy Fowler. Varied in place, plot and voice, these are stirring and evocative pieces that all share one common characteristicthey manifest a passion for the precious gift of travel, from its unexpected but inevitably enriching...

Stories of life-changing trips from 35 great writers including Dave Eggars, Cheryl Strayed, Tim Cahill, Mary Karr, Richard Ford, Fiona Kidman, Simon Winchester Sloane Crosley, Kerre McIvor, David Baldacci, Pico Iyer, John Berendt, Ann Patchett, Jane Smily, Alexander McCall Smith and Stanlet Stewart.A misunderstanding in Morocco. A Cuban con. A family reunion in Italy. An epiphany in the Czech Republic.Some of the worlds best-loved writers share the travel experiences that made them the people...

365 things to do, and the perfect day to do them. Perhaps you want to know when to pack your picnic for the prettiest Japanese cherry blossom party (26 March, in case youre wondering). Or when best to raft the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon (try 16 September, the day after motorboats are prohibited for the year). Maybe you want to spend your Christmas break with baby warthogs rather than baby Jesus (try Kenya, 27 December), ride a bobsled in summer rather than winter (Austria, 2 July)...

Greedy Lords, dubious heroes, wicked relations and innocents in peril Todays world sounds like a grim fairytale!Travelling along the infamous Axis of Evil led to Tony Wheelers Bad Lands now hes going deeper into the worlds darkest corners to explore a rogues gallery of troubled nations.Every country has its problems, but some problems seem so vexed, so intractable, so absurd, you can only shake your head. Tony Wheeler trains his well-travelled eyes on some of these places and attempts to...

Lonely Planet knows that some of lifes funniest experiences happen on the road. Whether they take the form of unexpected detours, unintended adventures, unidentifiable dinners or unforgettable encounters, they can give birth to our most found travel lessons, and our most memorable and hilarious travel stories. This 31 globegirdling tales that run the gamut from close-encounter safaris to loss-of-face follies, hair-raising rides to culture-leaping brides, eccentric expats to mind-boggling...

Founders of the phenomenally successful publishing company Lonely Planet, Tony and Maureen Wheeler have produced travel guides to just about every country across the globe.Lonely Planet Publications was born in 1973 when the Wheelers self-published a quirky travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. This was quickly followed by what soon became the backpackers bible, South-East Asia on a Shoestring. Going boldly where no other travel publisher had ventured, they catered for a new generation of...

In an age of plastic knives on planes, Tony Wheeler can make the extraordinary claim of having visited all the rogue countries currently on new readers' lips. Badlands is a witty first-hand account of his travels through some of the most repressive and dangerous regimes in the world: Afghanistan, Albania, Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea and Saudi Arabia. Taking into account each country's attitude to human rights, terrorism and foreign policy, he asks 'what makes a...

Sean and his friend David explore Australia in a 1966 Ford. Over 8,500 death-defying miles, they check out the re-runs on TV, get fabulously drunk (again), listen to Neil Young (again) and wonder why they ever left home...

From Ecuador to London, from Morocco to Brazil, from California to Indonesia, bad things can strike a traveller anytime. Illness, imprisonment, mistaken identities, riots, close encounters with bears, foreign toilet ettiquette and stewed rat, it's all in this collection of travel disasters.

David Monagan is a restless, middle-aged father of three who for years has dreamed of relocating from the USA to Ireland, the land of his forebears. In his elegantly written, often hilarious narrative, Monagan describes his family's evolving struggle to come to terms with life in a strange land. The result is an honest, heartfelt and penetrating portrait of a contemporary Ireland that is so often portrayed through the wistful lens of clichs that no longer apply. Jaywalking with the Irish is a...