National Geographic: The National Parks: An Illustrated History

National Geographic: The National Parks: An Illustrated History by Kim Heacox

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An inspired tribute to the astonishing beauty and priceless cultural treasures of America’s National Parks, this volume is a lavish celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. “National Geographic The National Parks” collects the very best of National Geographic’s photographs, combined with an expertly told history: from the multi-hued layers of the Grand Canyon to the verdigris flame of the Statue of Liberty, this book presents a breathtaking panorama of the National Parks.
With the stories behind the first female park ranger, a decidedly amateur scuba expedition that unearthed a submerged Civil War treasure trove, and so much more, Heacox takes readers on a VIP tour of America’s rich natural and cultural heritage. The full sweep of wonders from pristine coral reefs to the Gettysburg battlefield to glaciers and all the glorious diversity in between offers a breathtaking tour of the very best of America’s national treasures.”

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Walking the Kiso Road: A Modern-Day Exploration of Old Japan

Walking the Kiso Road: A Modern-Day Exploration of Old Japan by William Scott Wilson

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Step back into old Japan in this fascinating travelogue of the famous Kiso Road, an ancient route used by samurai and warlords, which remains much the same today as it did hundreds of years ago.
Take a trip to old Japan with William Scott Wilson as he travels the ancient Kiso Road, a legendary route that remains much the same today as it was hundreds of years ago. The Kisoji, which runs through the Kiso Valley in the Japanese Alps, has been in use since at least 701 C.E. In the seventeenth century, it was the route that the daimyo (warlords) used for their biennial trips along with their samurai and porters to the new capital of Edo (now Tokyo). The natural beauty of the route is renowned and famously inspired the landscapes of Hiroshige, as well as the work of many other artists and writers. Wilson, esteemed translator of samurai philosophy, has walked the road several times and is a delightful and expert guide to this popular tourist destination; he shares its rich history and lore, literary and artistic significance, cuisine and architecture, as well as his own experiences.”

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The Heat and Dust Project: The Broke Couple’s Guide to Bharat

The Heat and Dust Project: The Broke Couple’s Guide to Bharat by Saurav Jha & Devapriya Roy

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Living in a sunny barsati in south Delhi, Saurav Jha and Devapriya Roy are your average DINK couple, about to acquire a few EMIs and come of age in the modern consumerist world. Only, they don’t. They junk the swivel chairs, gain a couple of backpacks and set out on a transformational journey across India. On a very, very tight budget: five hundred rupees a day for bed and board. And the Heat and Dust project begins. Joining the ranks of firang gap-year kids and Israelis fresh out of compulsory army service, they travel across a land in which five thousand years of Indian history seem to jostle side by side. It is, by turns, holy and hectic, thuggish and comic, amoral and endearing. In buses that hurtle through the darkness of the night and the heat of the day, across thousands of miles, in ever new places, the richness of this crowded palette spills over into their lives. From rooms by the hour to strange dinner invitations, from spectacular forts to raging tantrums, this is a youthful account of wanderlust and whimsy, of eccentric choices that unfold into the journey of a lifetime … and a supreme test of marriage.

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Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads by Paul Theroux

Deep South: Four Seasons on Back Roads by Paul Theroux

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One of the most acclaimed travel writers of our time turns his unflinching eye on an American South too often overlooked
Paul Theroux has spent fifty years crossing the globe, adventuring in the exotic, seeking the rich history and folklore of the far away. Now, for the first time, in his tenth travel book, Theroux explores a piece of America the Deep South. He finds there a paradoxical place, full of incomparable music, unparalleled cuisine, and yet also some of the nation’s worst schools, housing, and unemployment rates. It’s these parts of the South, so often ignored, that have caught Theroux’s keen traveler’s eye.On road trips spanning four seasons, wending along rural highways, Theroux visits gun shows and small-town churches, laborers in Arkansas, and parts of Mississippi where they still call the farm up the road the plantation. He talks to mayors and social workers, writers and reverends, the working poor and farming families the unsung heroes of the south, the people who, despite it all, never left, and also those who returned home to rebuild a place they could never live without.From the writer whose great mission has always been to transport us beyond that reading chair, to challenge himself and thus, to challenge us (“Boston Globe”), “Deep South “is an ode to a region, vivid and haunting, full of life and loss alike.

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How to get from Rome’s Airport to city center by train

Getting around Morocco by Taxi

Not My Job: Travel Guru Rick Steves Gets Quizzed

In 1976, he started his business, Rick Steves’ Europe, which has grown from a one-man operation to a company with a staff of 80 full-time, well-travelled employees at his headquarters in Washington state. There he produces more than 50 guidebooks on European travel, America’s most popular travel series on public television, a weekly hour-long national public radio show, a weekly syndicated column, and free travel information available through his travel center and website. Rick Steves’ Europe also runs a successful European tour program. Rick Steves lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington.

Listen to NPR’s Peter Segal of, ” wait, wait …don’t tell me!”,  as he host Rick Steves

 

Adventures In Vietnam — Street Food, Love And Taking Chances with Graham Holliday

Graham Holliday grew up in Rugby, England, and moved to Iksan, South Korea, in 1996 to teach English. He relocated to Việt Nam the following year. He started work as a journalist in Sài Gòn in 2001. He is the author of the blog noodlepie, about street food in Sài Gòn. He has written for the Guardian (UK), the New York Times Magazine, the South China Morning Post, Time, BBC, CNN, and many other media outlets. He went on to become a foreign correspondent for Reuters news agency in Rwanda, and now works as a journalism trainer for the BBC and other organizations. He is currently based in Dakar, Senegal, and is writing a novel.

Listen to NPR’s the Salt as Rachal Martin interviews Graham Holliday.