Travel & Holiday Guides

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.

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

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.

Guidebook to walking and trekking the high mountains of Crete. The largest of the Greek Islands, Crete's mountains provide breathtaking walking and wilderness on this popular island. The routes in this guidebook are graded for difficulty and range from short, easy strolls to challenging, multi-day treks, providing options for all walkers. In addition to a wide selection of walks and trekking routes in the White Mountains (Lefka Ori), this book covers Mount Ida in central Crete and the Lassithi Mountains to the east. The guide includes: Western Crete (53 walks in the White Mountains and on the south coast with 10 multi-day treks; Central Crete (17 walks and treks on Mount Ida and in the Psiloritis range); Eastern Crete (12 walks and treks in the Lassithi Mountains) and coverage of the E4 Trail as well as mapping for every route. The book is packed with practical information on walking in Crete, getting there and getting around and advice on making the most out of exploring the island's mountains. With its dramatic gorges and numerous peaks rising to over 2100m, high mountain plains, forested crags, massive cliffs and remote beaches, Crete offers a wide range of landscapes and challenges for walkers.

'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.

There are only three things a cat needs for a fine life - good food, a comfortable bed, and universal praise and love. Luckily - after converting his human, Peter, from cat hater to cat lover - Norton has plenty of all three.

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.

Every cliff, inlet and headland reveals layers of myth and historical memory, and Robinson makes beautifully crafted observations about the habits of birds, plants and the humans who lived there and endured, leaving records in stone - on the walls, cairns and ancient forts - in story and in oral tradition.

An invaluable guide to this popular and beautiful canal, providing cruising and background info on the canal, as well as distance maps for each stage, showing locks, bridges and yacht havens, all illustrated with enticing colour photos.

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.

Into Africa is the story of an amazing continent, its people and some very good reasons why not to fall off a motorcycle! Reviewers have stated that the word-pictures which bring a good travel book to life are all here.

Young and beautiful, Lois Pryce was a rising star at the BBC. Unbeknownst to her co-workers, Lois lived a parallel life as a biker babe with an overwhelming sense of wanderlust. So she packed in her career to ride her motorcycle on her own from the northernmost tip of Alaska to the southernmost tip of South America.

On the same day that his wife gave birth to twins, Anthony Doerr received the Rome Prize, an award that gave him a year-long stipend and studio in Rome...'Four Seasons in Rome' charts the repercussions of that day, describing Doerr's varied adventures in one of the most enchanting cities in the world, and the first year of parenthood. He reads Pliny, Dante, and Keats - the chroniclers of Rome who came before him - and visits the piazzas, temples, and ancient cisterns they describe. He attends the vigil of a dying Pope John Paul II and takes his twins to the Pantheon in December to wait for snow to fall through the oculus. He and his family are embraced by the butchers, grocers, and bakers of the neighbourhood, whose clamour of stories and idiosyncratic child-rearing advice is as compelling as the city itself.This intimate and revelatory book is a celebration of Rome, a wondrous look at new parenthood and a fascinating account of the alchemy of writers.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

This edition does not include illustrations.'Dry Store Room No. 1' is an intimate biography of the Natural History Museum, celebrating the eccentric personalities who have peopled it and capturing the wonders of scientific endeavour, academic rigour and imagination.Behind the public facade of any great museum there lies a secret domain: one of unseen galleries, locked doors, priceless specimens and hidden lives.Through the stories of the numerous eccentric individuals whose long careers have left their mark on the study of evolutionary science, Richard Fortey, former senior paleaontologist at London's Natural History Museum, celebrates the pioneering work of the Museum from its inception to the present day. He delves into the feuds, affairs, scandals and skulduggery that have punctuated its long history, and formed a backdrop to extraordinary scientific endeavour from Darwin to the present day. He explores the staying power and adaptability of the Museum as it responds to changes wrought by advances in technology and molecular biology - 'spare' bones from an extinct giant bird suddenly become cutting-edge science with the new knowledge that DNA can be extracted from them, and ancient fish are tested with the latest equipment that is able to measure rises in pollution.'Dry Store Room No.1' is a fascinating and affectionate account of a hidden world of untold treasures, where every fragment tells a story about time past, by a scientist who combines rigorous professional learning with a gift for prose that sparkles with wit and literary sensibility.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

Acts as a guide on how to get what you really want from the French. This title provides advice on useful phrases.