Beautifully evocative of the music, people, and culture of one of the most fascinating countries in the world, this book is essential reading for Cuba's growing band of supporters and visitors. A travelogue detailing two separate missions for musician and writer Rupert Mould, this explores some of the biggest names in Cuban music while seeking out an increased personal understanding of two of Cuba's most influential revolutionaries, Ernesto Che Guevara and Jose Marti. In the course of this book much of the essential character of Cuba, her people, her music, and history are sensitively portrayed.

Christine Louw is die dogter van Christine van Wyk, die bekende stigter van Christine van Wyk Toere. Die skrywer neem die leser saam op reis na onbekende, avontuurlike plekke. Reisgogga gaan oor die mens se begeerte om die vreemde te verken. En oor die lewenslesse en avvontuur wat met die uitdagings van reis gepaardgaan. Reis is 'n ontdekking en ontdekking is 'n reis.

Oliver Sacks, the bestselling author of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, is most famous for his studies of the human mind: insightful and beautifully characterized portraits of those experiencing complex neurological conditions. However, he has another scientific passion: the fern . . . Since childhood Oliver has been fascinated by the ability of these primitive plants to survive and adapt in many climates. Oaxaca Journal is the enthralling account of his trip, alongside a group of fellow fern enthusiasts, to the beautiful province of Oaxaca, Mexico. Bringing together Oliver's endless curiosity about natural history and the richness of human culture with his sharp eye for detail, this book is a captivating evocation of a place, its plants, its people, and its myriad wonders. 'Light and fast-moving, unburdened by library research but filled with erudition' - New Yorker

Wyl Menmuir’s The Draw of the Sea is a beautifully written and deeply moving portrait of the sea and the people whose livelihoods revolve around it, examining the ephemeral but universal pull the sea holds over the human imagination. Since the earliest stages of human development, the sea has fascinated and entranced us. It feeds us, sustaining communities and providing livelihood, but it also holds immense destructive power that threatens to destroy all we have created.   It connects us to faraway places, offering the promise of new lands and voyages of discovery, but also shapes our borders, carving divisions between landmasses and eroding the very ground beneath our feet. In this lyrical meditation on what it is that draws us to the waters' edge, author Wyl Menmuir tells the stories of the people whose lives revolve around the coastline and all it has to offer. In twelve interlinked chapters, Menmuir explores the lives of local fishermen steeped in the rich traditions of a fishing community, the beachcombers who wander the shores in search of the varied objects that wash ashore and the stories they tell, and all number of others who have made their lives around the sea. In the specifics of these livelihoods and their rich histories and traditions, Wyl Menmuir captures the universal human connection to the ocean’s edge. Into this seductive tapestry Wyl weaves the story of how the sea has beckoned, consoled and restored him. The Draw of the Sea is a meaningful and moving work into how we interact with the environment around us and how it comes to shape the course of our lives. As unmissable as it is compelling, as profound as it is personal, this must-read book will delight anyone familiar with the intimate and powerful pull which the sea holds over us.

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

..".I know the risks, and moderate them when I can, but still I press on, even into adversity. There are very few things I fear, and even this situation was not one of them.

But still...every now and then...just once and a while...

I wonder...I question...I seek to understand why...

Beaten to the edge of rationality, stunned beyond the capability of comprehension, between racking sobs and painful gasps for breath I screamed into the chaos,

'What in the bloody hell am I doing out here?'

I was not really expecting an answer..."

Through a series of adventures told with humor and passion, "Life is a Road, Get on it and Ride" captures the essence of the motorcycling experience and carries the reader where few have ventured before. Take a wild ride into the magical worlds along the highways of America and a passionate tour through the mysterious soul of an avid motorcycle rider. Experience what one reader calls, "A little bit of Jung, a little bit of Freud, and a little bit of rock and roll." (Doc D)

This is the tale of an epic three-month adventure through unexplored jungle terrain - and it might even change your life Fuelled by a zest for life and the desire to explore the world around her, Pip Stewart took on a world-first challenge: following Guyana's Essequibo River from source to sea. With the help of guides from the Wai Wai indigenous community, Pip and her teammates journeyed through the rainforest, facing peril every day as they kayaked rapids, traversed waterfalls and hacked their way through the mountainous jungle of the Guiana Shield, before finally reaching the Atlantic Ocean. Survival skills and a flesh-eating parasite weren't the only things Pip took home from the rainforest. From contending with snakes to learning about the value of community, forgiveness and self-belief, in Life Lessons from the Amazon Pip shares many pearls of wisdom that we can all apply to our own lives. Her hard-won insights invite us to embrace the wildness within ourselves and live more every day.

Approaching the Cosmos Hotel is a compendium of travels, an odyssey through much of the world over many years, a memoir that explores events, cultures, gastronomy, architecture and art through the critical lens of a man who doesn't take himself too seriously. Robert Champ's experiences humorously expose the fools, hypocrites and outre characters he encounters: out-of-their-element expats in Mexico and Spain, tourists in Russia or China who might better have stayed home, rigid officialdom everywhere. Fascinating landscapes and personalities limn these pages, and the armchair adventurer seeking an unconventional narrative will have no trouble finding it here. New Author Bio: Robert Champ has traveled widely in the Americas and Europe, navigated the upper Amazon and the Yangtze, survived narrow, precipitous roads in the Caucasus. Add to this a humorless dominatrix of an Intourist guide, plus true-believing, leering comrades at intimidating customs checkpoints (was I bringing in a Bible? a Playboy?), and we recognize we're in the dark old Soviet Union. The author was born in the Midwest on the eve of WWII. After some Pacific excursions courtesy of the US Navy, he eventually settled in California. He lives in San Francisco.

Frederik Paulsen's first great adventure involved taking the reins, at age thirty, of the Ferring pharmaceutical firm founded by his father. After he had transformed the company into a multinational corporation, Paulsen began to recall his childhood dream of discovering unknown lands, sparked by the Viking tales of his native Sweden. He therefore set off to explore realms of ice and snow.In the spring of 2000, he stood at the North Pole - only to discover that the planet had several other extreme poles: the wandering magnetic pole, to which every compass points; the somewhat more stable geomagnetic pole; and the 'pole of inaccessibility'. Since the earth has two hemispheres, these four northern poles have their southern counterparts in the Antarctic. Paulsen therefore set himself the challenge of being the first person to reach all eight poles.Charlie Buffet and Thierry Meyer recount Paulsen's thirteen-year adventure in freezing, hostile regions that were once the site of historic exploits and are now a laboratory for scientists trying to decipher our planet's future. The foreword is by Ellen MacArthur

Istanbul, through the mind of its most celebrated writer. ** PRE-ORDER NIGHTS OF PLAGUE, THE NEW NOVEL FROM ORHAN PAMUK ** Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 'A declaration of love.' Sunday Times 'A fascinating read for anyone who has even the slightest acquaintance with this fabled bridge between east and west.' The Economist 'An irresistibly seductive book' Jan Morris, Guardian In a surprising and original blend of personal memoir and cultural history, Turkey's most celebrated novelist, Orhan Pamuk, explores his home of more than fifty years. What begins as a portrait of the artist as a young man becomes a shimmering evocation, by turns intimate and panoramic, of one of the world's greatest cities. Beginning in the family apartment building where he was born, and still lives, Pamuk uses his family secrets to show how they were typical of their time and place. He then guides us through Istanbul's monuments and lost paradises, dilapidated Ottoman villas, back streets and waterways, and introduces us to the city's writers, artists and murderers. Like Joyce's Dublin and Borges' Buenos Aires, Pamuk's Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.

Capture the details of your unique and remarkable experiences with this illustrated guide to drawing your travels and adventures, whether close to home or around the world.

In Draw Your Adventures, artist and illustrator Samantha Dion Baker invites you to savour moments and capture memories using your eyes, creativity, and a few art-making tools.

With as little as a sketchbook and some pens, begin a new art practice or enliven an existing one with inspiration from the prompts, challenges, examples, and scavenger hunts that populate these pages.

Your adventures are worth recording, whether they take you as close as your own kitchen or across the globe. Baker encourages you to see the world through an explorer's lens and provides ideas to guide you through adventures you can have during the every day, on staycations, and over grand trips.

• Paint your own postcards to send when abroad.
• Add pockets to your sketchbook for storing mementoes.
• Create abstract pieces featuring the colours of the clothes you dug up in a closet cleanout.
• Make a series of paintings of family and friends' front doors.
• Document what you see around you on plane, train, boat, and road trips.

An illustrated, behind-the-scenes travel journal of Anthony Bourdain's global adventures.
More than just a companion to the hugely popular show, "No Reservations" is Bourdain's fully illustrated journal of his far-flung travels. The book traces his trips from New Zealand to New Jersey and everywhere in between, mixing beautiful, never-before-seen photos and mementos with Bourdain's outrageous commentary on what really happens when you give a bad-boy chef an open ticket to the world. Want to know where to get good fatty crab in Rangoon? How to order your reindeer medium rare? How to tell a Frenchman that his baguette is invading your personal space? This is your book. For any Bourdain fan, this is an indispensable opportunity to hit the road with the man himself.

When Richard Collins was diagnosed with a progressive incurable disease in 2006 he decided to see as much of the world as he could while his condition allowed. The result is The Road to Zagora, a singular travel book which takes in India and Nepal, some of South America, the Middle East and Wales. 'Mr Parkinson', as Collins refers to his condition, informs the narrative. As inveterate walkers Collins and his partner Flic Eden decided to continue to travel 'close to the land' post diagnosis, leaving the tourist trails and visiting places of extremes: the Himalayas, forests, deserts. The difficulties of rough terrain, altitude, extremes of climate for a person with Collins' condition are an ongoing strand of his narrative; occasionally they cannot be overcome and Collins is forced to consider the frailties of the human body in passages of moving contemplation. The Road to Zagora also includes an element of memoir, as Parkinson's Disease also causes Collins to reflect on his life, and in particular on his relationship with Flic. There are moments of great charm as their relationship evolves, and also the drama of a previous serious illness. These recollections of pre-diagnosis life have the wistfulness of hindsight as Collins considers what constitutes a life well lived. Yet any sentiment or self-pity is denied through Collins's resolute and independent-mindedness and the quality of writing. In the travel passages the readers experiences the sheer physicality of Collins' expeditions, along with his novelist's eye for telling local detail. In the sequences of memoir the writing is humane, compassionate and quite often comic. The Road to Zagora is a memorable journey around the world, and the self.

The world's top 500 food experiences - ranked! We asked the planet's top chefs, food writers and our food-obsessed authors to name their favourite, most authentic gastronomic encounters. The result is a journey to Mozambique for piri-piri chicken, Japan for bullet train bento boxes, San Sebastian pintxos bars, and a further 497 of the most exciting eateries anywhere on Earth. Ultimate Eatlist is the follow-up to our bestselling Ultimate Travelist and is a must-own bucket list for foodies and those who love to travel. You'll discover the planet's most thrilling and famous culinary experiences, the culture behind each one, what makes them so special, and why the experience is so much more than what's in the plate, bowl or glass in front of you. How many have you tried and what's your number one? With contributions from Monica Galetti, Curtis Stone, Mark Hix, Ben Shewry, Dan Hunter, Ping Coombes, Gail Simmons, Tony Singh, Elena Arzak, and many more. Entries include: Laksa, Malaysia Grilled octopus, Greece Smorrebrod, Denmark Ceviche, Peru Po boy, USA Steak tartare, France Bibimbap, Korea Dim Sum, Hong Kong Reindeer Stew, Finland Jerked chicken, Jamaica Asado, Argentina Shakshuka, Israel Pho, Vietnam Wildfoods Festival, New Zealand The Fat Duck restaurant, UK Tokyo sushi counters, Japan Bistecca alla Fiorentina, Italy Adelaide Central Market, Australia Grilled fish, Seychelles Irish stew New York Reuben delis, USA About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, on mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more.

I can move only with the aid of barrels of anti-inflammatory gel, sticking plasters and real ale anaesthetic. Martin and I descend from hours of walking to the small town of Middleton-in-Teesdale. I walk, stiff legged, into the campsite office and a plump, middle-aged woman looks up from her desk and can see the old timer is in trouble. "Oh, what a shame you weren't here last week," she says, pity radiating from behind her horn-rimmed specs. "You've missed him." I look at her, puzzled. "Elvis!" she explains. "You missed Elvis." Oh God, now I'm hallucinating... In Bothy Tales, the follow-up to The Last Hillwalker from bestselling mountain writer John D. Burns, travel with the author to secret places hidden amongst the British hills and share his passion for the wonderful wilderness of our uplands. From remote glens deep in the Scottish Highlands, Burns brings a new volume of tales - some dramatic, some moving, some hilarious - from the isolated mountain shelters called bothies. Meet the vivid cast of characters who play their games there, from climbers with more confidence than sense to a young man who doesn't have the slightest idea what he's letting himself in for...

"Sometimes there were only two and sometimes there were four, but usually there were three of us..." During his years as a schoolboy, a student and then a young dentist in the 1960s, John Furniss and his friends took every opportunity to escape from their work and studies and go climbing together, first in England, Wales and Scotland and later tackling the more challenging peaks of the Austrian and German Alps. Adding the vertical metres together, during that fondly remembered decade they scaled more than 13 times the height of Mount Everest. They were years of adventure and daring, featuring occasional narrow squeaks and some amusing brushes with the local language and culture. Most of all they were years of comradeship, which John still remembers with great fondness more than forty years on.

"Voices of the Old Sea" is Lewis' masterly description of the Costa Brava on the cusp of tourist development in the 1950s, a place where men regulated their lives by the sardine shoals of spring and autumn and the tuna fishing of summer, and where women kept goats and gardens, arranged marriages and made ends meet.

It's surprising what you can find by simply stepping out to look. Kathleen Jamie, award winning poet, has an eye and an ease with the nature and landscapes of Scotland as well as an incisive sense of our domestic realities. In Findings she draws together these themes to describe travels like no other contemporary writer. Whether she is following the call of a peregrine in the hills above her home in Fife, sailing into a dark winter solstice on the Orkney islands, or pacing around the carcass of a whale on a rain-swept Hebridean beach, she creates a subtle and modern narrative, peculiarly alive to her connections and surroundings.

"If you're looking for ideas, or planning a bucket-list adventure, you'll find page after page of sepia-tinted inspiration in the revised edition of teNeues' Nostalgic Journeys." - Irish Independent The seaside or the mountains? Today's most important vacation planning question never came up in days long past. Both seemed unappealing and nearly inaccessible. It wasn't until the invention of the railroad that previously sparsely visited and overlooked areas opened up, and Thomas Cook, the tour operator and founder of modern tourism, was born. Fishing villages became sophisticated seaside resorts, remote mountain areas became destinations for hiking and skiing enthusiasts, and inns became grand hotels. Nostalgic Journeys takes you on a journey back in time, through the last two centuries: Ride the Orient Express to the East, cross the Atlantic on huge ocean liners, travel Route 66 through the United States, and break the sound barrier aboard the Concorde. As you browse through the pages of this book, you will get the idea that travelling was, and can be, more than just being stuck in a traffic jam or passing through numerous security checks. It can be a stylish and sometimes adventurous way to explore the world and return home feeling transformed by your many and varied experiences. Bon Voyage! Text in English and German.

Brent Bittner, an attorney from Canada, travels to South India with his best friend Kavi for his friend's Indian wedding. He quickly learns how to adapt to an amazing culture that he finds interesting yet often challenging. Later, he is invited to visit the Indian court system by one of his new friends, an Indian attorney. He recounts fascinating stories from before and during the wedding and his time spent with his friend and his friend's family.

Following the wedding, Brent takes three weeks to explore the magic of India. While on a train to Cape Comorin, he meets up with a father and son from Bombay. They nickname him "Swami," the Hindu name for a spiritual guru. While on his trip, Brent learns that his father has died. Later, a visit from his father in spirit becomes a wonderful gift from the grave, confirming and enriching Brent's own spirituality.

This warm, funny, and insightful memoir was created for Brent's son, Keenan, as a present to him on his thirteenth birthday, to encourage him and others to take their own spiritual paths, wherever they may lead.

At a time when that 1960s notion of air travel as decadent and exceptional is experiencing an unexpected revival, this book ... could be the G&T in a plastic glass you need.' The Spectator Travel writer Julia Cooke's exhilarating portrait of Pan Am stewardesses in the Mad Men era. Come Fly the World tells the story of the stewardesses who served on the iconic Pan American Airways between 1966 and 1975 - and of the unseen diplomatic role they played on the world stage. Alongside the glamour was real danger, as they flew soldiers to and from Vietnam and staffed Operation Babylift - the dramatic evacuation of 2,000 children during the fall of Saigon. Cooke's storytelling weaves together the true stories of women like Lynne Totten, a science major who decided life in a lab was not for her, to Hazel Bowie, one of the relatively few African American stewardesses of the era, as they embraced the liberation of a jet-set life. In the process, Cooke shows how the sexualized coffee-tea-or-me stereotype was at odds with the importance of what they did, and with the freedom, power and sisterhood they achieved.

In Heavy Time psychogeographer Sonia Overall takes to the old pilgrim roads, navigating a route from Canterbury to Walsingham via London and her home town of Ely. Vivid in her evocation of a landscape of ancient chapels, ruined farms and suburban follies, Overall's secular pilgrimage elevates the ordinary, collecting roadside objects - feathers, a bingo card, a worn penny - as relics. Facing injury and interruption, she takes the path of the lone woman walker, seeking out 'thin places' where past and present collide, and where new ways of living might begin. 'It is a talisman of a book. Heavy Time doesn't just describe a pilgrimage, it becomes one, for both writer and reader. It is an invitation to resist 'busyness', to think of ourselves as explorers, to seek out 'the everyday divine'. It has sent me out looking for 'thin places: pockets in the landscape where the membrane is so tightly stretched that other worlds might shine through.' Beautiful and essential.' - Helen Mort