Travel & Holiday Guides

Captures the essence of Marrakesh: the crowds, the smells - of spices, camels and the souks - and the sounds of the city, from the cries of the blind beggars and the children's call for alms to the unearthly silence on the still roofs above the hordes.

This guidebook describes some of the best walking routes in the southwest of Ireland, with plenty of details about each hike, and full color photos and maps.

In order to penetrate Tibet and reach Lhasa, Madame Alexandra David-Neel used her fluency of Tibetan dialects and culture, and inked skin and tackled some of the roughest terrain and climate in the World. This title presntes her intensive study and daring adventure in mysterious territories of the East.

A celebration of the language and culture of Italy, La Bella Lingua is the story of how a language shaped a nation, told against the backdrop of one woman's personal quest to speak fluent Italian. For anyone who has been to Italy, the fantasy of living the Italian life is powerfully seductive. But to truly become Italian, one must learn the language. This is how Dianne Hales began her journey. In La Bella Lingua, she brings the story of her decades-long experience with the "the world's most loved and lovable language" together with explorations of Italy' s history, literature, art, music, movies, lifestyle and food in a true opera amorosa - a labor of her love of Italy.Over the course of twenty-five years, she has studied Italian through Berlitz, books, CDs, podcasts, private tutorials and conversation groups, and, most importantly, time spent in Italy. In the process the Italian language became not just a passion and a pleasure, but a passport into Italy's storia and its very soul. She invites readers to join her as she traces the evolution of Italian in the zesty graffiti on the walls of Pompeii, in Dante's incandescent cantos and in Boccaccio's bawdy Decameron. She portrays how social graces remain woven into the fabric of Italian: even the chipper "ciao," which does double duty as "hi" and "bye," reflects centuries of bella figura. And she exalts the glories of Italy's food and its rich and often uproarious gastronomic language: Italians deftly describe someone uptight as a baccala (dried cod), a busybody who noses into everything as a prezzemolo (parsley), a worthless or banal movie as a polpettone (large meatball). Like Dianne, readers of La Bella Lingua will find themselves innamorata, enchanted, by Italian, fascinated by its saga, tantalized by its adventures, addicted to its sound, and ever eager to spend more time in its company.

A memoir that takes us on a journey around Spain to track a typical season for the country's biggest bullfighter, Francisco Rivera Ordonez. It shows the routine of this top bullfighter - the rituals, the risks, and the stage fright - and assesses the significance of bullfighting in the context of Spanish identity.

After assignments as a Canadian diplomat in Mexico, Colombia, Sudan, and South Africa, Nicholas Coghlan and his wife Jenny unwind by sailing Bosun Bird, a 27-foot sailboat, from Cape Town across the South Atlantic and into the stormy winter waters of the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, and the Strait of Magellan. Coghlan recalls earlier adventures in Patagonia during the late seventies when he and his wife explored the region over three successive summers. Now, as they negotiate the labyrinth of channels and inlets around snow-covered Fireland, he reflects on the voyages of past explorers: Magellan, Cook, Darwin, Slocum, and others. Sailing enthusiasts and readers of true adventures will want to add Coghlan's world-wise narrative to their libraries.

Explores Great Britain's countryside and transport links. This title not only offers insights into the routes and uses of the canals themselves, but also commentary on rural features and social life in and around the canals that had had such an important industrial impact throughout the later Georgian and Victorian eras.

The author has travelled up the Indus to Lahore and to the Khanates of Afghanistan and Central Asia in the 1830s, spying on behalf of the British Government in what was to become known as the Great Game. This title provides an account his travels.

A brilliant political travelogue that uses Burma to explain Orwell and Orwell to explain what life is really like under the authoritarian rule of the Burmese generals.

American journalist Alice Steinbach took a year off to live in four cities - Paris, Venice, London and Oxford - when she realized she had entered a new phase of life.

Illustrated by world-renowned food photographer Jean Cazals, TeaTime takes you on a sumptuous journey round 50 of London's unique and brilliant tea-hotspots, capturing the ambience of world famous venues such as The Ritz and The Savoy, those that offer a modern twist on traditional afternoon tea such as the Primrose Bakery and The Berkeley.

This revised and updated edition features the tracks, scats, and signs of animals in the Great Lakes.

Offers an introduction to the life of a social anthropologist.

Beyond Belief is a book about one of the more important and unsettling issues of our time. But it is not a book of opinion. It is, in the Naipaul way, a very rich and human book, full of people and their stories: stories of family, both broken and whole; of religion and nation; and of the constant struggle to create a world of virtue and prosperity in equal measure. Islam is an Arab religion, and it makes imperial Arabizing demands on its converts. In this way it is more than a private faith; and it can become a neurosis. What has this Arab Islam done to the histories of the non-Arab Islamic states: Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, and Malaysia? How do the converted peoples view their past - and their future? In a follow-up to Among the Believers, his classic account of his travels through these countries, V. S. Naipaul returns, after a gap of seventeen years, to find out how and what the converted preach. 'Peerless . . . the human encounters are described minutely, superbly, picking up inconsistencies in people's tales, catching the uncertainties and the nuances . . . there is a candour to his writing, a constant precision at its heart' Sunday Times

Japan is the pre-eminent food nation on earth. The creativity of the Japanese, their dedication and ingenuity, not to mention courage in the face of dishes such as cod sperm and octopus ice cream, is only now beginning to be fully appreciated in the sushi-saturated West, as are the remarkable health benefits of the traditional Japanese diet.

"Kurdish Sorani-English, English-Kurdish Sorani"--Cover.

Mark Twain's voyage from New York City to Europe and the Holy Land in June 1867 produced The Innocents Abroad, a book so funny and provocative it made him an international star for the rest of his life.

Stunning photographs spin tales of family traditions and religious devotion, with a special section dedicated to jewellery worn by brides and grooms.

The Worst Journey in the World is an extraordinary book by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, a renowned author known for his captivating storytelling. This book, published by Vintage Publishing in 2010, is a unique blend of adventure, courage, and sheer determination. The genre of the book is non-fiction, and it provides a riveting insight into the most dangerous journey in the world. The author's vivid description and narrative style make the readers feel as if they are part of the journey. The book is a testament to Apsley Cherry-Garrard's writing prowess and his ability to weave a compelling narrative. Vintage Publishing is proud to present this masterpiece to the readers who love adventure and are curious to know about the most dangerous journey in the world.

'Here is art which conceals art, and intellect which conceals intellect, so that by the end of the book one feels that one understands something one had not understood before.

While climbing in the Peruvian Andes, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates came face to face with disaster. Simpson fell and broke his leg and then was lost. As his partner Yates was starting to break camp four days later, Simpson crawled in through a blizzard. How both men overcame those four harrowing days is an epic chronicle of fear and friendship.

Paul Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is a journey from London to Asia by train. Thirty years ago Paul Theroux left London and travelled across Asia and back again by train. His account of the journey - The Great Railway Bazaar - was a landmark book and made his name as the foremost travel writer of his generation. Now Theroux makes the trip all over again. Through Eastern Europe, India and Asia to discover the changes that have swept the continents, and also to learn what an old man will make of a young man's journey. Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is a brilliant chronicle of change and an exploration of how travel is 'the saddest of pleasures'.'A dazzler, giving us the highs and lows of his journey and tenderness and acerbic humour . . . fellow-travelling weirdoes, amateur taxi drivers, bar-girls and long-suffering locals are brought vividly to life' Spectator'Fans of Theroux are not likely to be disappointed. Theroux has great descriptive skill . . . the world is slightly less unknown by virtue of reading the book' Sunday Telegraph'Relaxed, curious, confident, surprisingly tender. Theroux's writing has an immediate, vivid and cursory quality that gives it a collective strength' Sunday Times'A brilliant eye, readable and vivid. Theroux has still got it' Observer'Fascinating, a joy to read' TatlerPaul Theroux's books include Dark Star Safari, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Elephanta Suite, A Dead Hand, The Tao of Travel and The Lower River. The Mosquito Coast and Dr Slaughter have both been made into successful films. Paul Theroux divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian islands.

Part of the "Fifty Places" series that returns to the author's most popular topic, golf, this book presents interviews of 50 luminaries in the golf world about their favourite courses and experiences. It also features old Country favourites like Royal Dornoch and Machrihanish in Scotland.

This guide covers the major cities of Tuscany as well as its capital Florence; the cradle of the Renaissance. Full-colour throughout with detailed mapping and diagrams.

From one of Germany’s most beloved celebrities, a cross between Bill Bryson and Paulo Coelho. It has sold over 3 million copies and been translated into eleven different languages. Pilgrims have increased along the Camino by 20 percent since the book was published. Hape Kerkeling’s spiritual epiphany has struck a nerve. Overweight, overworked, and physically unfit, Kerkeling was an unlikely candidate to make the arduous pilgrimage across the French Alps to the Spanish Shrine of St. James, a 1,200-year-old journey undertaken by nearly 100,000 people every year. But that didn’t stop him from getting off the couch and walking. Along the way, lonely and searching for meaning, he began the journal that turned into this utterly frank, engaging book. Simply by struggling with his physical limitations and the rigors of long-distance walking, he discovered a deep sense of peace that transformed his life and allowed him to forgive himself, and others, more readily. He learned something every day, and he took to finishing each entry with his daily lessons. Filled with quirky fellow pilgrims, historic landscapes, and Kerkeling’s self-deprecating sense of humor, I’m Off Then is an inspiring travelogue, a publishing phenomenon, and a spiritual journey unlike any other.

'Erudite, humbling and rhapsodic ... No thinking traveller interested in Poland should overlook this essential book' Guardian

In Tropic of Capricorn, bestselling author Simon Reeve embarks on a 23,000-mile trek around the southernmost border of the tropics - a place of both amazing beauty and overwhelming human suffering.

A detailed, accessible guide to the best on offer in Cambridge based around two circular walks with optional diversion. Contains histories of the city and of individual buildings such as the famous university colleges.

Two Persian travellers arrive in Paris and report on the European society of the Enlightenment in their letters home. With biting satire they compare East and West, while unsettling news from the harem provides a suspenseful plot of jealousy and passion. This is the first English translation based on the original text.

Includes dirty words and risque slang in French.