Category Archives: books

It’s November 2nd. Start Shopping for, or Making, Travel Gifts.

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As a traveler there are always things you want and need, and now’s the time to figure out what’s going on your own list this year and what you might buy for fellow travellers.

For a one-size-fits-all gift, consider travel books (guide books or books about other people’s travels), subscriptions to travel magazines or maybe even an iTunes gift card that can be used to buy travel apps or new music for the journey.

If you want to receive monthly travel inspiration I would especially recommend National Geographic Traveler magazine. It will make you want to go everywhere, right now.

If you’re interested in travel supplies, how about something artsy? Etsy is all over it with creative luggage tags, jewelry organizers, passport covers, small accessory bags (perfect for camera cords, extra batteries or first-aid supplies), and travel journals. For example:

If you know someone who has a particular love of airports, Pilot & Captain have the shirts for you. They cover 13 different airports around the world, including Toronto.

Or better yet, get creative and make your own gifts this year. Fabric, paints, glue, old maps, pictures cut out of magazines – use whatever is handy to decorate cheap, second-hand picture frames to make them perfect for travel photos, or get fancier and decorate photo albums, iPhone or iPod cases, or plain, blank journals.

Create your own iron-on decorations for shirts, make earrings and pendants from photos and maps, or use a site like Zazzle or Cafepress to design mugs, tote bags, calendars, clocks, pins, stickers and other travel goodies.

Who knows? Come up with something clever enough and along with creating your gifts, you might have a new side business to help earn you some extra travel dollars.

Have you made something you’re really proud of? Share it here!

Get a Reading List for Your Destination

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A perfect read for Peru.

When I start planning a trip one of the first things I do is collect information about my destination.

I bookmark websites about things I want to see and do there, I go through my stack of National Geographic Traveller magazines and look for relevant articles, and I try to find a book or two that will help me learn about the culture and history of this new place.

(Ok, I don’t go that far if I’m spending a weekend in Vancouver or a few days in Vegas, but for my first trip to South America you better believe I want to be prepared.)

If you aren’t thrilled about doing time in the library to find the right reading material, no worries. Lonely Planet has done the work for you and put together reading lists for about 100 different countries.

Whether you’re going to Botswana, Brazil or Bhutan, they have recommendations for great travel reading, so I’m off to do some book shopping.

What travel books did you love reading before a trip?

Make Friends With Bill Bryson and CPRE

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I super love Bill Bryson. He’s a wonderful author, a charming man, and probably one of the most good-hearted people on Earth. If more people showed his consideration for the planet, curiosity for other cultures, and appreciation for the life experiences that travel can give you, we’d be a much happier, healthier, friendly group of humans.

Now, through the power of Facebook, you can join Bill Bryson’s “Let’s be kind and do good things that help our countrysides and landscapes rather than crap on them, shall we?” team.

Oh, and that’s my slogan, not his. I don’t know that he would use the word “crap” in a team motto, although when I saw him at a reading in Boston a few years back, he did begin his talk with a more powerful four-letter word. Ah, how I enjoy his witty blended English-American sense of humor. 

Bill Bryson's African Diary

Bill Bryson's African Diary

Anyway, Mr. Bryson is currently working with the Campaign to Protect Rural England. It’s the kind of thing that locals usually get involved with, but just because you live in Toledo or Calgary or Perth doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care. What if you want to go visit rural England some day only to find it’s all been torn up and paved over? I imagine it’s the same way non-Americans feel when they visit U.S. National Parks and find them to be more smoggy and full of litter than the brochures make them look.

Which reminds me, you should read Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods. Also, Down Under. Also, Notes From a Small Island. And of course, Bill Bryson’s African Diary, which benefits the non-profit CARE organization.

All other Bryson books are excellent as well, so read them too. Then loan them to your friends. Viva la Bryson revolution!

CARE for Myanmar

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Bill Bryson's African DiaryIf you’re looking for a way to help the people of Myanmar, consider buying a book.

Bill Bryson is one of my favorite writers, travel or otherwise, and you can’t go wrong with any of his books. I chuckled my way around Australia reading about deadly creatures and ridiculous cricket games in Down Under (also called In a Sunburnt Country depending on where you are), and I was nearly driven to buy a backpack and some hiking boots after reading A Walk in the Woods.

His mini-book, Bill Bryson’s African Diary is slightly more serious than some of his other work, but all proceeds go to CARE International, one of the groups currently in Myanmar distributing food and water.

For about $10, you get a wonderful read, CARE gets a donation, and Bill Bryson gets a new admirer. All in all, a pretty good deal.

Travel ‘Til Your Eyes Blur and Your Fingers Blister

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Are you desperate to leave your humdrum life behind and set off for lands with names you can’t even pronounce? Or maybe you prefer dreaming up the kind of expensive, fancy vacations that celebrities enjoy, but that you can’t afford on your student budget. To anyone suffering from a case of insatiable wanderlust, I recommend that you begin your travels the old fashioned way: through books. And yeah, “as an au pair to the rich and famous” would be another good option there.

National Geographic put together a list of 80+ titles to form their Ultimate Travel Library. Using their suggestions, start your next adventure at your local bibliothèque. You’ll be able to hit all seven continents in a matter of weeks without spending a penny, and your chances of getting malaria are next to zero.

Bill Bryson A Walk in the WoodsThe Ultimate Travel Library includes classics by Mark Twain, Hemingway, and Henry Miller as well as modern tales from writers like Tim Cahill and Peter Carey (who almost caused me to get a less-than-good grade in a Post-Colonial Writers course a couple of years ago).

I was especially pleased to see that Bill Bryson, the coolest middle-aged man with the loveliest American-British accent you will ever hear, has made the list more than once. His description of cricket in Down Under (titled In a Sunburnt Country for American audiences) helped me to completely forget how exhausted and carsick I was while taking the bus from Sydney to Canberra, and A Walk in the Woods was so enchanting, I actually took one.

Read, plan, go.
Lisa