Travel & Holiday Guides

Guidebook to 43 graded, mostly easy walks in Tuscany. Taking in the Renaissance splendour of Florence and Siena, the World Heritage scenery of Val d'Orcia and San Gimignano and the stunning island of Elba, the routes use historical pathways used by traders, pilgrims and armies, and include some brief, trouble-free climbs/descents.

Slumdog Millionaire - but for real!

The first book to cover in detail Europe's 50 greatest climbs, Mountain High is a book for cyclists of all interests and abilities - from experienced club racers to enthusiastic amateurs who might just want to take on a new challenge.

This dream-laden and spooked (Marina Warner, London Review of Books) story is to many one of the best-loved books of the twentieth century. Munthe spent many years working as a doctor in Southern Italy, labouring unstintingly during typhus, cholera and earthquake disasters. It was during this period that he came across the ruined Tiberian villa of San Michele, perched high above the glittering Bay of Naples on Capri. With the help of Mastro Nicola and his three sons, and with only a charcoal sketch roughly drawn on a garden wall to guide them, Munthe devoted himself to rebuilding the house and chapel. Over five long summers they toiled under a sapphire-blue sky, their mad-cap project leading them to buried skeletons and ancient coins, and to hilarious encounters with a rich cast of vividly-drawn villagers. The Story of San Michele reverberates with the mesmerising hum of a long, hot Italian summer. Peopled with unforgettable characters, it is as brilliantly enjoyable and readable today as it was upon first publication. The book quickly became an international bestseller and has now been translated into more than 30 languages; it is today an established classic, and sales number in the millions.

The acclaimed travel writer's youthful journey - as an 18-year-old - across 1930s Europe by foot began in A Time of Gifts, which covered the author's exacting journey from the Lowlands as far as Hungary. Picking up from the very spot on a bridge across the Danube where his readers last saw him, we travel on with him across the great Hungarian Plain on horseback, and over the Romanian border to Transylvania.The trip was an exploration of a continent which was already showing signs of the holocaust which was to come. Although frequently praised for his lyrical writing, Fermor's account also provides a coherent understanding of the dramatic events then unfolding in Middle Europe. But the delight remains in travelling with him in his picaresque journey past remote castles, mountain villages, monasteries and towering ranges.

A guidebook to 80 walking routes on Scotland's Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland. Routes are described on the islands of Orkney (Orkney Mainland, Hoy, South Ronaldsay, Burray, Rousay, Eday, Westray, Papa Westray, North Ronaldsay) and the islands of Shetland (Shetland Mainland, West Burra, East Burra, Foula, Fair Isle, Isle of Noss, Bressay, Whalsay, Papa Stour, Muckle Roe, Out Skerries, Esha Ness, Yell, Fetlar and Unst). Routes vary in length from 1 mile to 16 miles, with something to suit all abilities. Offering a variety of landscapes together with a wealth of remarkable archaeological sites such as Skara Brae and Jarlshof, Orkney and Shetland are a walker's dream. Step-by-step route descriptions are accompanied by clear OS mapping and a time estimate for completing each route. The book includes plenty of information on the region's wildlife, archaeology and history, as well as practical tips such as when to go, what to take and getting to and around Orkney and Shetland. Quiet, remote and abounding in rare plants and wildlife, together with some of the world's most fascinating archaeological sites, Orkney and Shetland offer a treasure trove of natural and historic wonders, and makes an ideal walking holiday destination.

This guidebook describes 50 circular walks and scrambles exploring the Costa Blanca mountains, around the resorts of Alicante, Benidorm and Calp. These routes range from gentle strolls to demanding days with steep climbs, and from 3-20km in distance. The Mediterranean coast is one of Europe's most popular winter sun adventure destinations. In general UK visitors are best suited to the heat from late autumn to early spring. Beyond the beaches and high rises lies a completely different world of accessible, rocky mountains and knife-edge ridges that stretch away in long chains of gleaming white limestone pinnacles, and the range of walks ensures that everyone can enjoy this spectacular Spanish landscape. Walking on Costa Blanca also includes background information on local geology, wildlife and history, and planning details on where to go, where to stay and what to take.

The first in a two-volume set, this guide describes cycling the first half of the 1269km Danube river from its source in the Black Forest to Budapest. The main route in this volume has been broken into 29 stages, averaging 44km per stage. A fit cyclist, cycling an average of 90km per day should be able to complete the route in a fortnight. Suitable for all levels of cyclist, on all types of bike, the route is on a gentle downhill gradient, is mostly off-road and uses well-surfaced and dedicated cycle tracks or quiet country roads. With guidance on the plentiful accommodation and places to stop for food and drink en route. The Danube Cycle Way has become the most popular holiday cycle touring route in mainland Europe. Leading through Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary, the route visits spectacular gorges, hilltop castles, vineyard-clad hillsides and medieval towns.

'A highly readable and spiritually uplifting book about a dream come true' Wanderlust 'Touching and memorable ... one for armchair travellers and bike freaks' Daily MailFrom London to New York, Ewan and Charley chased their shadows through Europe, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Russia, across the Pacific to Alaska, then down through Canada and America. But as the miles slipped beneath the tyres of their big BMWs, their troubles started. Exhaustion, injury and accidents tested their strength. Treacherous roads, unpredictable weather and turbulent politics challenged their stamina. They were chased by paparazzi in Kazakhstan, courted by men with very large guns in the Ukraine, hassled by the police, and given bulls' testicles for supper by Mongolian nomads. And yet despite all these obstacles they managed to ride more than twenty thousand miles in four months, changing their lives forever in the process. As they travelled they documented their trip, taking photographs, and writing diaries by the campfire. Long Way Round is the result of their adventures - a fascinating, frank and highly entertaining travel book about two friends riding round the world together and, against all the odds, realising their dream.

After their fantastic trip round the world in 2004, fellow actors and bike fanatics Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman couldn't shake the travel bug. And after an inspirational UNICEF visit to Africa, they knew they had to go back and experience this extraordinary continent in more depth. And so they set off on their 15,000-mile journey with two new BMWs loaded up for the trip. Joining up with producer/directors Russ Malkin and David Alexanian and the Long Way Round team, their route took them from John O'Groats at the northernmost tip of Scotland to Cape Agulhas on the southernmost tip of South Africa. Riding through spectacular scenery, often in extreme temperatures, Ewan and Charley faced their hardest challenges yet. With their trademark humour and honesty they tell their story - the drama, the dangers and the sheer exhilaration of riding together again, through a continent filled with magic and wonder.

In 922 AD, an Arab envoy from Baghdad named Ibn Fadlan encountered a party of Viking traders on the upper reaches of the Volga River. In his subsequent report on his mission he gave a meticulous and astonishingly objective description of Viking customs, dress, table manners, religion and sexual practices, as well as the only eyewitness account ever written of a Viking ship cremation.Between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, Arab travellers such as Ibn Fadlan journeyed widely and frequently into the far north, crossing territories that now include Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Their fascinating accounts describe how the numerous tribes and peoples they encountered traded furs, paid tribute and waged wars. This accessible new translation offers an illuminating insight into the world of the Arab geographers, and the medieval lands of the far north.

Just after the iron curtain fell on Eastern Europe John Steinbeck and acclaimed war photographer, Robert Capa ventured into the Soviet Union to report for the New York Herald Tribune. This rare opportunity took the famous travellers not only to Moscow and Stalingrad - now Volgograd - but through the countryside of the Ukraine and the Caucasus. A RUSSIAN JOURNAL is the distillation of their journey and remains a remarkable memoir and unique historical document. Steinbeck and Capa recorded the grim realities of factory workers, government clerks, and peasants, as they emerged from the rubble of World War II. This is an intimate glimpses of two artists at the height of their powers, answering their need to document human struggle

Archaeologist, spy, Arabist, linguist, author, poet, photographer, mountaineer and nation builder, Gertrude Bell was born in 1868 into a world of privilege and plenty, but she turned her back on all that for her passion for the Arab peoples, becoming the architect of the independent kingdom of Iraq and seeing its first king Faisal safely onto the throne in 1921. Queen of the Desert is her story, vividly told and impeccably researched, drawing on Gertrude's own writings, both published and unpublished. Previously published as Daughter of the Desert, this is a compelling portrait of a woman who transcended the restrictions of her class and age and in so doing created a remarkable and enduring legacy.'What a great Oscar-laden biopic this will make ...the combination of epic scenes and personal drama makes Georgina Howell's saga a winner' Daily Express'Howell sketches in the gradations of colour and emotion that have been lacking in hitherto monochrome accounts of Bell's life ... Exemplary' Sunday Times'Riveting ... few women have had a life more worth reading about.' Diana Athill, Literary Review

Award-winning food writer Fuchsia Dunlop went to live in China in 1994, and from the very beginning vowed to eat everything she was offered, no matter how alien and bizarre it seemed to her as a Westerner. In this extraordinary memoir, Fuchsia recalls her evolving relationship with China and its food, from her first rapturous encounter with the delicious cuisine of Sichuan Province, to brushes with corruption, environmental degradation and greed. In the course of her fascinating journey, Fuchsia undergoes an apprenticeship as a Sichuanese chef; attempts, hilariously, to persuade Chinese people that 'Western food' is neither 'simple' nor 'bland'; and samples a multitude of exotic ingredients, including dogmeat, civet cats, scorpions, rabbit heads and the ovarian fat of the snow frog. But is it possible for a Westerner to become a true convert to the Chinese way of eating? In an encounter with a caterpillar in an Oxfordshire kitchen, Fuchsia is forced to put this to the test.From the vibrant markets of Sichuan to the bleached landscape of northern Gansu Province, from the desert oases of Xinjiang to the enchanting old city of Yangzhou, this is an unforgettable account of the world's most amazing culinary culture.

First of all, let's get one thing straight. Your Italy and out Italia are not the same thing. Italy is a soft drug peddled in predictable packages such as hills in the sunset, olive groves, white wine and raven haired girls. Italia, on the other hand, is a maze. It's alluring but complicated. In Italia you can go round and round in circles for years. Which of course, is great fun.' Beppe Severgnini was The Economist's Italian correspondent for ten years. A huge Anglophile as well as an astute observer of his countrymen, he's the perfect companion for this hilarious tour of modern Italy that takes you behind the seductive face it puts on for visitors -- la bella figura -- and uncovers the far more complex, paradoxical true self. Alongside the historic cities and glorious countryside, there'll be stops at the places where the Italians reveal themselves in all their authentic, maddening glory: the airport, the motorway and the living room. Ten days, thirty places. From north to south, from food to politics, from saintliness to sexuality.This witty and beguiling examination will help you understand why Italy, as Beppe says, 'can have you fuming and then purring in the space of a hundred metres or ten minutes.

The Places In Between, Rory Stewart's moving account of his walk across Afghanistan in January 2002 was immediately hailed as a classic. Caught between hostile nations, warring factions and competing ideologies, at the time Afghanistan was in turmoil following the US invasion. Travelling entirely on foot and following the inaccessible mountainous route once taken by the Mogul Emperor, Babur the Great, Stewart was nearly defeated by the extreme, hostile conditions. Only with the help of an unexpected companion and the generosity of the people he met on the way did he survive to report back with unique insight on a region closed to the world by twenty-four years of war.Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Award and the Spirit of Scotland Award and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize and the Scottish Book of the Year Prize.

A guide to reaching the summit of every country in Europe - driving, walking and climbing routes to the tops of 50 countries in Europe. Detailed route descriptions, sketch maps - advice on transport, seasons, grading and gear. Heading to the highest point of any European country is an experience not to be missed. The continent has a wealth of adventure and a huge variety of dazzling scenery awaiting the walker and climber. And each of Europe's 50 countries celebrates its national high point in a different way. This guide brings together detailed route descriptions for those seeking to get to the highest peaks in countries from Liechtenstein to Latvia and Germany to Greece. Whether attempting to climb individual high points or complete all 50 ascents, these routes are crammed with some of the most stunning landscapes and exciting terrain that Europe has to offer. From the frozen tundra of the Arctic Circle to the arid plains of the Sierra Nevada, this book contains something for everyone with routes ranging from afternoon strolls in Malta and Moldova to three-day mountaineering ascents on classic Alpine routes such as Mont Blanc and Dufourspitze.

Istanbul is a shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world's great cities, by its foremost writer. Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in 2006, was born in Istanbul, in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy-or h,z,n- that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost Ottoman Empire. As he companionably guides us across the Bosphorus, through Istanbul's historical monuments and lost paradises, its dilapidated Ottoman villas, back streets and waterways, he also introduces us to the city's writers, artists and murderers. Like the Dublin of Joyce and Jan Morris' Venice, Pamuk's Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.

This guidebook is an ideal companion for motorists who want to tour Zakynthos by car, as well as those planning a holiday walking in Zakynthos. The book combines the best features of our ‘Landscapes’ walking and car touring guides with all the detail you would expect in a hefty general guide, but it is pocket size and in full colour. Coverage includes getting there and getting about; recommended accommodation and restaurants; practicalities A-Z; history; 22 main walks with many variations, all with both hand-drawn and GPS-compatible maps; copious notes on geology, flora and fauna (all illustrated).

Marooned off the coast of Gabon, the volcanic islands of Sao Tome & Principe are a largely undiscovered, uniquely rewarding and safe destination with an exciting blend of African, Portuguese and Caribbean cultures. You can explore secluded beaches and colonial plantation houses; spot endemic rainforest birds and learn about medicinal plants; scale the Pico and dive in toasty waters; taste the world´s best chocolate; and watch turtles hatching and get into the laid-back, ´leve-leve´ Santomean groove. This remains the only dedicated guide to this island paradise.

272 siders rejseguide til Europas bedst gemte hemmelighed, denne beroligende og smukke øgruppe midtvejs mellem New York og Lissabon. Azorerne består af 9 øer med charmerende byer, glitrende blå kystlinier og vulkanske landskaber. Guiden beskriver også valg af overnatningsform, vandreruter, Europas eneste teplantager, varme kilder, mudderbade samt den uspolerede rolige livsform på øerne.

Now into its seventh edition, and written by Philip Briggs, the world's leading writer of guidebooks to Africa, Bradt's Rwanda has been the go-to guide for visitors to this historical and resurgent `land of a thousand hills' for nearly two decades, and it continues to be in a class of its own when it comes to in-depth information on this emerald slice of Central Africa. With freshly researched and updated details on developments across the country, Bradt's Rwanda includes information on the ongoing revival and rhino repopulation of Akagera National Park, up-to-date maps of rapidly modernising Kigali, and a newly expanded chapter on excursions into the neighbouring DRC. In this new edition are extensive and recently updated maps and natural history information, details of kayak and canoe excursions on Lake Kivu and the Mukungwa River, all you need to know about tracking not only mountain gorillas in Rwanda in Volcanoes National Park but also lowland gorillas in Congo, and information about overnight stays on a tea plantation at Sorwathe or Gisovu. Also covered are Nyungwe Forest National Park, where a wealth of endemic birds and primates inhabit the largest surviving montane forest in East Africa; Nyanza, where the hilltop Rukari Palace Museum marks the site of the old Mwami's (King's) palace; and the National Museum of Rwanda, the top cultural site in Rwanda's second city, Huye. Coverage of nearby cities and national parks in the neighbouring DRC has been expanded since the last edition, providing all the necessary information to take a thrilling and increasingly popular excursion into Rwanda's enormous and poorly understood neighbour. Rwanda continues to change and develop at an unprecedented pace, and there's hardly a more accessible slice of Africa to be found anywhere on the continent. It's no less intriguing for the convenience, however, and Rwanda's superlative natural attractions seem to improve by the day.

296 sider inkl. 16 sider med farvefotos og 21 detailkort. Guiden er en uvurderlig følgesvend for dem, som ønsker at se et af verdens smukkeste lande. Guiden beskriver underholdende om landets historie, politiske situation og særlig problematiske områder. Tips om dyreliv, rafting, bjergvandring, trekking samt andre udendørs aktiviteter.

The legendary travel bible for two-wheeled adventurers, now in FULL COLOUR.

The guide to Morocco explores the Moroccan Atlantic coast: from Tangier in the north, to Dakhla in the south, and some bonus inland diversion-worthy routes along the way. Connecting travellers, surfers and locals by pointing out surf spots, places to sleep, hang out and do outdoor activities.

Sailing in cold waters is challenging, but hugely rewarding. And when you venture into the high latitudes you find yourself in some of the world''s last real wildernesses. In recent years climate change has made these regions more accessible to small boats, and it is now possible to venture further afield in search of adventure. With practical advice, stunning photography and first-hand accounts of voyages from world-renowned experts, this book offers hard-won wisdom on all aspects of sailing in cold waters:┬╖ Preparing yourself: good routines, assessing risk and preparing your crew┬╖ Preparing your boat: design, heating, engine, steering, anchors and electrics┬╖ Sailing in ice: instrumentation, charts, and what to do when you get stuck┬╖ Safety: MOB, polar bears, glaciers and dinghy procedure┬╖ Communication: VHF, satellite and SSB┬╖ Weather: interpreting GRIB files and reading ice charts ┬╖ Anchoring and mooring: types and numbers of anchors and mooring lines┬╖ Clothes: hiking and skiwear; the three-layer principle┬╖ Cruising areas: Svalbard, Antarctica, South Georgia and many moreWhether it''s tackling the North-West Passage aboard your own yacht or a more modest voyage, heading to Antarctica or keeping your boat in the water for the quieter and often more beautiful winter season, this book is essential reading for all sailors preparing for enjoyable and safe sailing in cold waters.

Discover the freedom of the open road with Lonely Planet's Galway & the West of Ireland's Best Trips. Featuring amazing road trips, plus up-to-date advice on the destinations you'll visit along the way, you can find traditional folk music, Connemara's wilderness and villages - all with your trusted travel companion.

HARDCOVER: quality sleek matte finishPage size: 8.5

Do you know what's the biggest obstacle preventing many from learning Italian to fluency?It's a lack of vocabulary!Reading in Italian is perhaps the most effective way to build up your vocabulary in Italian.With our book Italian Short Stories for Beginners and Intermediate Learners, you can practice reading Italian while working on your Italian vocabulary and grammar skills.The stories contained within this book were written with both beginner and intermediate Italian learners in mind, so you will find plenty of new vocabulary and Italian grammar to learn without having to worry about the level of the reading being too difficult.Our Italian short stories only use the real Italian language used by native speakers every day so that you can learn Italian the natural way. Grab your copy now and get started today!

Lonely Planet's Best of South America is your most up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Gaze down on Rio de Janeiro from Pao de Acucar, spot wildlife in the Galapagos Islands, and hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu- all with your trusted travel companion.