"There is an almost Orientalist presumption [on the part of travel guidebooks] that the citizens of places like Cuba or Afghanistan have made a choice in rejecting globalization and consumerism. From the perspective of the disaffected Westerner, poverty is seen as enviable, a pure existence unsullied by capitalism. [ Lonely Planet: Cuba co-author Brendan] Sainsbury...

Lonely Planet has compiled his Top 10 Countries list for 2013 : I always find amusing to check whether or not I have picked a “Top destination” for my next travel plans... In 2013, Asia wins the golden medal with Sri Lanka: a country that, according to Lonely Planet, has finally healed the scars of...

The Atlantic had an article titled Welcome to America, Please Be On Time: What Guide Books Tell Foreign Visitors to the U.S. It was a little disorienting to read about your own country from the perspective of a foreigner. When you live in a place where you grow up, it doesn't occur to you to...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvz9BLjhexw Here's a story: a university student posts up funny videos of her random observations on life. She builds up a huge audience with a million subscribers on YouTube. Now she's a popular vlogger. She's about to graduate and unsure of what to do next. So she calls up Lonely Planet and asks if they...

If you like to travel and have your own blog, you may have entertained the idea of being a travel writer. Imagine getting paid to go and do the same fun stuff you're already doing, going all over the world. The reality can be quite different, however. Lonely Planet guidebook writer Leif Pettersen wrote this...

Perusing the Lonely Planet website recently, I was drawn to this April article of Top 10 Cities for Artistic Inspiration. Travel can inspire us on a multitude of levels. It can inspire us to move somewhere new, embark on a new career or educational path, to write a novel or memoir, or even to produce...

Lonely Planet has been releasing a free roadtrip itinerary each week, from its new title USA’s Best Trips: 99 Themed Itineraries Across America , due out in September. The itineraries are available in .PDF form until the end of August (Labor Day to Americans). If you're in the States and want to test their road...

"One plausible distinction between travel and tourism is that the traveler makes his or her own way, whereas tourists' paths have been beaten into submission long before they go, whether singly or as a group. The elision between the two types has often been a consequence of pocket guides. In the nineteenth century the Thorough...

It's hard to believe the Lonely Planet guide to Thailand is in its 13th edition; having first graced the shelves of alternative bookstores and organic co-ops in 1982, a full month before the guidebook that started it all, Southeast Asia on a Shoestring (or the 'Yellow Bible'), hit the stands. Lonely Planet was a little...

Back in September I traveled to rural Wales for the excellent DO Lectures series, which features talks and presentations by cutting-edge experts from a wide variety of disciplines -- from mountaineers to sustainable architects to graphic designers. I spoke on vagabonding and the ethic of long-term travel, and video from that lecture is now available...