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Find out moreFeeling the desire to explore closer to home or travel to far flung places? We have a selection of titles to satisfy your wanderlust. Whether you’re planning a great adventure or reading about your favourite parts of the world, have a browse of our Travel selection.
With almost 300 pages of insider knowledge, this great-looking guidebook will serve you well for several trips. This thoroughly revised edition covers vibrant Seville, gorgeous Granada, magnificent mountaintop city Ronda, Cordoba, Las Alpujarras, the Costa del Sol, and more, with interesting articles on the likes of flamenco, sherry and Andalusian food peppering the practical information. The cultural contextualisation of the region is excellent, and travellers are sure to find the free app and Travel Tips chapter (which includes a concise dictionary section) invaluable. Included in the guide is a free app with travel tips and practical information which is regularly updated - find out more. Further Reading Recommendations: Rose for Winter by Laurie Lee The Barefoot Queen by Ildefonso Falcones For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom
It’s quite a feat to cover this country in one book, but this vibrant book manages to do just that across almost 400 pages. There are dozens of in-depth articles on culture and politics - Zulus, traditional religion, historical greats, emerging artists and musicians, to mention a few - and the coverage of wildlife is excellent, with features on everything from elephants and birds, to amphibians and arachnids. In terms of areas, the book offers excellent overviews of Cape Town, the Garden Route, the Eastern Cape, Zululand, Durban and the Kwazulu-Natal Coast, and Swaziland and Lesotho, with detailed maps of many key locations, among them Johannesburg, Pretoria and Kruger National Park. Included in the guide is a free app with travel tips and practical information which is regularly updated - find out more. Further Reading Recommendations: Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee No Time Like the Present by Nadine Gordimer Welcome to Our Hillbrow by Phaswane Mpe
Whether you’re visiting Thailand’s awe-inspiring islands as a honeymooner, family or intrepid backpacker, this gorgeous guidebook will guide you around the region, from your stop-over in Bangkok, to your exploration of ancient temples, and all the way to your chosen paradise island. This new edition contains over 240 pages of updated in-depth insider information about the region, from fresh features on history, food, culture, nature and underwater exploration, to top tips on must-see sights and untouched idylls. Oh, and the free app is an excellent way of accessing up-to-date info on nightlife options and local events. Included in the guide is a free app with travel tips and practical information which is regularly updated - find out more. Further Reading Recommendations: The Beach by Alex Garland Bangkok 8/Bangkok Tattoo/Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap
This great guide to Norfolk and Suffolk is simply perfect for exploring the areas on foot. It features twelve walking routes, including Norwich, the Norfolk Broads, Great Yarmouth, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge and Colchester. Each of these terrific tours comes with clear directions and key landmarks highlighted, making it easy to spot local gems and really enhance your walks. The eating out suggestions are excellent, with a focus on restaurants and pubs serving delicious locally sourced produce and dishes. Tech-savvy travellers will also find the free accompanying eBook handy - it contains the same content as the book so if you’re looking to travel light, you can leave the print edition at home.
This great little guidebook truly enhanced a first visit to this glorious city, with the handy Top Ten Attractions section proving to be a great way of making sure all the main gems were seen, including Parliament, the Royal Palace, Széchenyi Baths and the National Gallery. The pull-out map comes as an added bonus, covering a big enough area in enough detail to meet the needs of city-walkers, and the transport map is also great for checking which stations serve the main sights.
With this new edition of The Rough Guide to South Africa Lesotho and Swaziland to hand you’ll feel like you’re taking a trip with your savvy best friend and ultra-informed local guide rolled into one, with every area comprehensively covered. This feat of meticulous research and mapping will help you find perfect places to stay, whether you’re looking to splash out or working to a budget and, since this is a Rough Guide, you can truly trust the recommendations. The wildlife field guide is fabulous, with top quality photographs and notes on where to spot a host of amazing beasts, big and small, in the many reserves. The guidance on getting around will be invaluable to independent travellers, while the extensive Contexts chapter is excellent on history, music, books and language, with truly absorbing background information that will spur you to explore even further. Further Fiction Recommendations; Whiplash by Tracey Farren In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut July’s People by Nadine Gordimer Dance with a Poor Man’s Daughter by Pamela Jooste
Now in its ninth edition, the informative, entertaining Rough Guide to Nepal delivers everything you’d hope for from this outstanding range of travel guides. The introduction includes a handy suggested itineraries section, plus the editor’s top tips for maximising your exploration of Nepal, while the main bulk of the book explores every corner of this fascinating country in detail, with reliable recommendations for places to stay, eat, drink and explore. It seems that no stone has been left unturned! The cultural and historical contexts come as a great addition to the practical advice - not too dense, but providing plenty of food for thought. And the comprehensive coverage of hiking, biking, rafting and kayaking is especially excellent, with clear maps that will serve you well when you’re trekking and travelling off the beaten track. Further Fiction Recommendations; The Tutor of History by Manjushree Thapa Arresting God in Kathmandu by Samrat Upadhyay
This meticulously updated Rough Guide to Bolivia is astoundingly exhaustive - every area is prefaced by regional highlights, while the level of detail in each ensuing chapter is tremendous, featuring reliable recommendations for the likes of accommodation (for every budget), getting around, eating and drinking, shopping, and all the local contacts you’ll need. As well as providing such detailed practical information, the book is peppered with highlights that will really enhance your experiences, including sampling street food in La Paz, learning about Lake Titicaca’s Lady of the Lake, dancing with the devil at Oruro Carnaval, following in Che Guevara’s footsteps, and forest ecology, to name but a few. Special mention must be made of the maps – they appear every few pages and are easy to follow, whether you’re looking for an area overview, or trying to find your way around a village, national park or ancient site. Further Fiction Recommendations;FICTION The Fat Man from La Paz - Rosario Santos (ed) NON FICTONErnesto “Che” Guevara The Motorcycle Diaries
With over 900 pages of detailed practical guidance, this fully updated 16th edition will serve you trip after trip after trip. With a generous sprinkling of colour photography and many maps throughout, you’ll feel fully armed to explore independently. The chapters covering Madrid and Barcelona brim with inspired information about cool cultural highlights you won’t want to miss, and those travelling with a young family will really appreciate the recommended child-friendly activities and sights around the entire country, and beyond - the holiday hotspots of the Balearic Islands are covered here too, with information on what to do and see in Ibiza, Formentera, Mallorca and Menorca. Exhaustively informative, invaluable practical and written with real panache, this is a veritable bible to discovering Spain. Further Fiction Recommendations;Various books by Carlos Ruiz Zafon Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee
With fascinating features on everything from yaks and the yeti to World Heritage Sites, this 300+ page book offers excellent insight into all Nepal has to offer both intrepid explorers and culture-minded travellers. The in-depth regional coverage is extensive, providing insider guidance around Kathmandu, Patan, the road to Tibet, the Everest region, and more, including the remote west. Throughout, the photography is absolutely stunning, with fabulous images of evocative street scenes and awe-inspiring natural landscapes. And, if you’re planning to climb Everest or to embark on similarly adventurous exploits, the free eBook provides the same invaluable content digitally, so you can leave the print book back at base camp! Included in the guide is a free app with travel tips and practical information which is regularly updated - find out more. Further Reading Recommendations: Mountains Painted with Turmeric by Lil Bahadur Chettri Nothing to Declare by Rabi Thapa
This fabulous full-colour guidebook is perfect for short breaks in beautiful Bruges and Ghent. It covers the top attractions of both cities, including Gravensteen, Stadhuis and Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, and also has some really handy Perfect Day itinerary suggestions, which are invaluable for first-time visitors, especially when time is tight and you want to pack in as much as you can! Tech-savvy travellers wishing to travel light can download the free eBook and leave the book at home, though being such a handbag-friendly size, it’s really no hassle to carry around. As well as providing pertinent information about un-missable attractions, this also offers some insight into historical and cultural contexts, and suggests several great galleries and museums to pop into.
At once an invaluable planning tool and a provider of practical travel tips, this gorgeous book (it features full-colour photography throughout) will guide you through what might seem like a daunting range of options. The Top Attractions and Editor’s Choice chapters will help you focus on what you want to get from your trip, while the travel tips and maps provide practical support. Of special note are the detailed features on politics, cuisine, art and the area’s volcanoes. Places covered in detail include Manila, Luzob’s islands, Palawan, Mount Apo, and Zamboanga and the Sulu Islands. And, if you’re planning to travel around, the accompanying free eBook and app will come in very handy. Included in the guide is a free app with travel tips and practical information which is regularly updated - find out more. Further Reading Recommendations: Dusk: A Novel by F. Sionil José Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
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We all love to travel. We all love escape. Granted, some are more adventurous than others, hankering to cross vast plains of unchartered territory, while the rest of us just want to find a nice hotel somewhere by a crystal blue sea. Whatever your level of wanderlust, there’s something here to inspire, inform and invade your senses. Follow in the footsteps of pioneers, heroes or trusted raconteurs; visit the real settings of favourite works of fiction (See our Reading on Location guide and read great novels set in the place you’re sitting in!); discover off the beaten track getaways; ponder the history of travel itself, laugh at anecdotes of the hapless. In short, by using our Book of the Month recommendations and taking a little stroll around the section, you can discover the world without leaving your fireside chair. Free your mind, they say, and the rest will follow.
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” T.S. Elliot