I was in Haiti in 2007, less than two years before the disastrous earthquake hit the Caribbean Island. Back in 1998 I was on another island that’s recently suffered earthquake damage, Chile’s Robinson Crusoe Island. Eight people on the island are known to have lost their lives when the tsunami resulting from the...
Read more »
I was in Bali from 15 to 20 February, Maureen was having an important birthday and we’d convened a family get together in Ubud to celebrate. We were paying for it so during our visit there were assorted ATM withdrawals, nine charges to my Visa credit card and two to my Diners Club...
Read more »
Public transport smartcard systems are all the go. All over the world cities are rolling out computerised transport tickets which allow commuters to use one card to access multiple forms of public transport.
Read more »
Travelling around Libya it struck me that Muammar al-Gaddafi
Read more »
Flights that get diverted and end up somewhere unintended are always a pain in the neck.
Read more »
At the Jaipur Literary Festival in India last month I heard John Kampfner speak about his book Freedom for Sale , subtitled ‘how we made money and lost our liberty.’ The book takes eight countries – Singapore, China, Russia, the UAE, India, Italy, Britain and the USA – and examines how people in...
Read more »
It’s one of the most interesting books I’ve read recently, the impact of the ‘beauty and terror’ of science on the romantic age, from the late 1700s through the early 1800s. I’ve always been fascinated by Joseph Banks, the young, rich and endlessly inquisitive gentleman scientist on Captain Cook’s first great voyage of...
Read more »
All travel guide books are not created equal! Ever get your hands on a shiny new guide book to find out that it might be more tailored to singles when you’re traveling with your family? Or maybe you’re tired of spending hours in the travel section of Barnes and Noble when all you...
Read more »
Maureen and I went back to school in London this week.
Read more »
Maureen and I are in Mumbai for the launch of the Indian edition of the Lonely Planet magazine. The UK edition launched 12 months ago and our partners BBC-Worldwide are launching more editions around the world including – on Friday 29 January – in India. So
Read more »
Way back in 1973 Maureen and I published the first Lonely Planet guidebook. We were living in a basement flat in the Paddington, a
Read more »
I visited the country in 2008 and despite the many problems the Caribbean nation faced I had an extraordinarily interesting time there and never felt unsafe.
Read more »
My laptop on the table at the place we stayed, the view out the window The year’s travels for Maureen and I kicked off with a trip with some friends to Bruny Island. Go to Hobart, the capital city of Australia’s island state Tasmania
Read more »
In 1983 New York City’s Hudson River got a ‘Riverkeeper,’ someone to keep an eye on the health of the river. They make sure companies don’t dump stuff into it, builders don’t shove up ugly and inappropriate buildings beside it and that the river is looked after for everybody who uses it.
Read more »
I've been posting some 'end of 2009' lists in an assortment of categories, starting with Aerial Views , then Hotels , Other Transport , Music , Cars & Drives , Galleries & Museums , Books ,
Read more »
It will be years before the millions of Bajaj scooters on the roads of India all disappear, but in March 2010 the last scooter will roll off the Bajaj production line. The company intends to concentrate on motorcycle manufacture with the aim of overtaking Honda as India’s most popular motorcycle
Read more »
I've been posting some 'end of 2009' lists in an assortment of categories, starting with Aerial Views , then Hotels , Other Transport , Music , Cars & Drives , Galleries & Museums , Books ,
Read more »
I've been posting some 'end of 2009' lists in an assortment of categories, starting with Aerial Views , then Hotels , Other Transport , Music , Cars & Drives , Galleries & Museums , Books
Read more »
I've been posting some 'end of 2009' lists in an assortment of categories, starting with Aerial Views , then Hotels , Other Transport , Music , Cars & Drives , Galleries & Museums
Read more »
If there’s a new year’s resolution I make every year, and then fail to keep, it’s to read more books. Too many other things come in the way. The bedside pile of books which I buy, intending to get around to one day, simply gets taller.
Read more »
I've been posting some 'end of 2009' lists in an assortment of categories, starting with Aerial Views , then Hotels , Other Transport , Music , Cars & Drives and today it's Galleries & Museums. One of the pleasures of life in any big city is the museums, galleries and exhibitions we can...
Read more »
The year’s two most interesting cars? The ones I would happily find a space for in my garage?
Read more »
There’s been a lot of good music during 2009 including some of the best rock concerts ever, starting with Neil Young and Leonard Cohen in Melbourne, moving on to Van Morrison at the Albert Hall in London and finally catching Al Stewart in Newcastle , also in England.
Read more »
During the year I flew lots of places and drove lots of places, but I also used a wide variety of other forms of transport. In my Fun & Fare Evasion blog I tell the story of being caught travelling without a ticket on the Budapest subway. I also ponder – in Sydney...
Read more »
During the year I flew lots of places and drove lots of places, but I also used a wide variety of other forms of transport.
Read more »
The worst hotel of the year?
Read more »
I love the ‘view out the window’
Read more »
I love the ‘view out the window’
Read more »
Made a little pilgrimage during my recent New England visit – to Lowell, Massachusetts, birthplace of On the Road author Jack Kerouac. He’s buried there as well. To make it a proper writers’ trip I went along with Rolf Potts ( Vagabonding ) and Jeff Greenwald ( Size of the World, Shopping for...
Read more »
Muang Khua, Laos - 2009 When Maureen and I arrived in Sydney the day after Christmas 1972, after a six month Asia overland trip from Europe, we had 27 cents left between us. In late 1973 we started Lonely Planet Publications ... read more Muang Khua, Laos - 2009 When Maureen and I...
Read more »