those with money prefer to look at Frommers guides .........
And there's an irony. Frommers Europe on $5 Dollars a Day was my first travel book. His Mexico guide was my second, both books pitched solidly at the backpacker, but when he moved upmarket and lost that market something new, Lonely Planet, appeared.
What's next? It probably won't be in print form.
This is a "Bloody Shame". What ever happened to budget travel. Now it seems to be resorts, expensive motels and mass tours. Out with the old and in with the new but is it better? Sad Indeed!
Lor, i was doing the same thing...using old books, or using rough guide, or some other book. Its now all about pretty pictures and osh places! they are quickly losing their traditional basic travellers, and those with money prefer to look at Frommers guides, or stuff like that
I just counted 18 LP guidebooks on the bookshelf but have not bought one for about 6 years now and doubt I will in the future. The writing was on the wall when the BBC took a controlling interest and their bean counters began justifying their existence by cutting expenditures. With so much info now available on the net the future looks bleak indeed.
Over the years, something that started as offbeat travel became mainstream tourism. Hippie trail was replaced by Banana pancake trail. LP guide books became backpackers' bilble.
Backacking itself, formerly looked upon with disregard by more affluent travellers, became a trendy way of travelling, often associated with LP guidebooks. So cool (or un-cool, depending on how you look at it).
At least Tony Wheeler knew when to sell with profit.
Our first LP guidebook was on Burma, maybe 1978? It was a breakthrough. The other books at the time were sketchy and very sparse, like Student Guide to Asia and Traveler's Guide Book. The LP book really transformed the trip for us.
I'm glad I have a copy of almost every one that's of interest to me: Cambodia, VN, Myanmar, and so on. Some of the best souvenirs ever.
Just over two years ago I bought a KINDLE from amazon.com. I'm Canadian and at that time the Kindle wasn't available in Canada, so it came as an international order shipped up to Canada. One of the features of the Kindle that I like is the large number of ebooks that are in the public domain already and amazon will send it to your Kindle as a free ebook.
Over time I've become proficient at using amazon's search function to find free ebooks and then down load them. One of my recent finds was Tony and Maureen Wheeler's....Äcross Asia on the Cheap", and is free.
This was written two years before their first edition of South-East asia on a Shoestring.
The guide lists the route as starting in Darwin Australia to Bali, southeast Asia onto Istanbul. As well as Chapter's on Money and Food, there's also a Chapter just called 'Dope'.
We should get together and buy LP. Then we can edit ourselves.
Send money to my PayPal account and I will transfer it to a shoe box hidden in my closet until we have sufficient funds for the purchase.
Trust me
Thanks for the tip, grant. I'll download it. There's also plenty of interesting and well written vintage travel material among the free Kindle downloads, including Mark Twain, Joshua Slocum and Charles Dickens.
It is true that hostels and the backpackers in general seem be a but more upmarket these days. "Flashpackers" However, I think we would still rather spend the money on experiences than fancy $100 a night hotels. I take a peek in the Lonely Planet magazine at the book store and it is way too upmarket for me........even though a lovely magazine.