Travel Guides With a Twist

If you are more than an Accidental Tourist, and want to really understand the culture behind the glossy travel photos of the place you are going to visit, then try one of these guides from Whereabouts Press.

DailyCandy Travel - Read the World

TRAVEL | December 24, 2008

Read the World
Traveler Literary Companion Books

Choose your own adventure:
1. Pay $1,000, wait in line, whack surly security worker in the face.
2. Curl up in front of the fire with cocoa, go around the world for less than $20.

Whereabouts Press's Traveler Literary Companions are insightful insider takes on a culture's way of thinking and being. In other words, what guidebooks should be but never are.

From Chile to China, Ireland to Israel, Vienna to Vietnam, the single-subject books are filled with the literature of native writers: Colette on the grape harvest in France, Laura Esquivel on the Yucatán, Gustav Meyrink on Prague's Old Jewish Quarter.

The tomes make excellent travel partners (get inspired on the plane, soak up the local vibe in a cafe) but are also an awesome way to revisit a place you've been or envision a place you want to go.

Feel free to send yourself a postcard.

Available online at whereaboutspress.com.