Bradt Travel-writing Seminar
The Art and Craft of Travel Writing

Come and hear experts in the field, including published authors and editors, give advice on how to write successful articles and guidebooks. The morning will cover travel-writing technique as well as how to get your work published. The afternoon will focus on how to write a Bradt guidebook, with a competition to find the best potential guidebook writer. He or she will be offered a commission to write for Bradt Travel Guides.

Hilary Bradt is the founder/managing director of Bradt Travel Guides, established in 1974. She has been on the panel of judges for the BBC Wildlife travel-writing competition since it began in 1999, as well as all those run by Bradt. She lectures on guidebooks and travel-writing competitions for Travellers’ Tales in Cornwall, and organised and chaired the 2006 Travel-writing seminar at the Smithsonian Institution. Her articles on a wide range of subjects have appeared in numerous publications both at home and abroad, and she has won three travel-writing awards including the Travel Writer of the Year competition at Africa Geographic. Her team comprises the Bradt editors and guest speakers including Jonathan Lorie, former editor of WEXAS Traveller magazine and managing director of Travellers’ Tales travel-writing courses.

When: Saturday 16th September 2006.

Where: Amersham Community Centre, Chiltern Avenue, Amersham, Bucks HP6 5AH. The Community Centre is a ten-minute walk from the station, which is on the Metropolitan Underground line, and main line from Baker Street. Journey time: 30-45 minutes. Parking is available.

Cost: £125 to include lunch. Places are limited and an early-bird discount rate is offered: £110 if booked before July 30.

Further details: www.bradtguides.com; email info@bradtguides.com or from Bradt Travel Guides office on 01753 893444.

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Posted 10/07/06

NEW EDITIONS UPDATE

The Gambia – Edition 2 – By Craig Emms & Linda Barnett

The Gambia has been marketed with varying degrees of success by package holiday operators and has been a long-time draw for birdwatchers, with over 540 species recorded, many of them far more colourful than Europe’s reticent ‘little brown jobs’. However, as Bradt’s guide emphasises, there is much more inland: away from the hotels and air-conditioning lies Africa – the real Africa. The Gambia has an excellent tourist infrastructure, allowing all areas of the country to be explored. Information is provided on the country’s ecology and wildlife, especially the superb birdwatching opportunities. As well as coastal hotels and golden beaches, Gambian culture, customs, music and dance are explored in depth. Away from the coast, journeys up-country by river and road are featured together with short excursions to neighbouring Senegal. For those who want to head off the beaten track, places such as the Makasutu Cultural Forest, Wassu stone circles and Berending Sacred Crocodile Pool are described.

Cost £13.99 ISBN 1 84162 137 4 Publication – Out Now!

Zanzibar – Pemba - Mafia - Edition 6 – By Chris McIntyre & Susan Shand

The Bradt guide was the first travel guide on the market to concentrate exclusively on Zanzibar and Pemba. This sixth edition now includes Mafia and brings every aspect of travel on the islands bang up to date, from booking hotels to creating an individual itinerary from the selection of landmarks, markets and activities detailed in the guide. Fascinating background on the history and culture of the islands, a thorough section on the land and marine wildlife, and a guide to the architectural treasures of Stone Town will help travellers discover many aspects of Zanzibar.

Cost £12.99 ISBN 1 84162 157 9 Publication – Out Now!

Armenia – with Nagorno Karabagh - Edition 2 – By Nicholas Holding

This guide is still the only one in English to offer comprehensive information on travel in Armenia, a destination well worth visiting in its own right, and extends to the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabagh. Armenia enjoys an astonishingly well-preserved legacy of monastic buildings, often set in magnificent locations. Nicholas Holding covers a wide spectrum of activities that gives Armenia a huge potential for visitors, including birding, hiking, the arts, architectural tours, botanical trips, angling, horseriding and caving.

Cost £13.99 ISBN 1 84162 163 3 Publication – 29th July 2006

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Posted 10/07/06

EXTREME PUBLISHER
EXTREME MAKEOVER

Following recent incremental updates, pioneering publisher Bradt Travel Guides has instituted a complete re-design across their list of nearly 100 titles, commencing with the just-published fifth edition of Philip Briggs’s Tanzania.

Consultations with reader panels have seen the adoption of a number of changes. Externally, the application of a consistent colour and style on the spine allows easy identification on the shelf, the introduction of a globe symbol picks out the broad geographical focus and an edition number succinctly highlights the latest guide. Concise cover text emphasises specific coverage and, in new editions, underlines where particular updates have been made or extra information added.

On opening ‘new-design’ Bradt Travel Guides, an initial eight pages of full colour give an exciting flavour of the destination, and in relevant guides such as Tanzania, a further eight full-colour pages of wildlife photographs support natural history content. In all guides, a double-page full-colour environmental relief map is immediately and conveniently to hand, showing mountains, deserts, rivers and settlements etc, as well as highlighting major attractions, thus adding context and perspective and aiding in trip planning.

Elsewhere, the style of text has been changed, differentiating between ‘prose’ that describes history, economy, politics, climate etc and double-column ‘reference’ where listings of accommodation, restaurants etc are made. Intuitive symbols, linked to those used on Bradt maps, allow further easy identification of reference information. Special attention has been paid to making maps and town plans clearer, whilst page-edge text markers make navigation of guides themselves easier, particularly when on the move.

Other areas of improvement, not so immediately obvious, include where relevant, new content on buying property, disability, giving something back and improvements to already good language sections.

Bradt Travel Guides’ refreshed design continues to reach parts other guides cannot reach. Through the quality of their authors and the enlightened flexibility of an innovative editorial team they transcend bland formulaic platitudes and remind us all that travel remains a passionate subject.

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Posted 03/07/06

Great Wall of China
BEIJING & NORTHERN CHINA
FIRST EDITION

To borrow warily from the poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, China as an entity remains for most a known unknown, encompassing within its immense borders an unknown number of unknown unknowns… Obviously then, a slippery noodle to grasp in its entirety. Bradt’s new First Edition, Great Wall of China, takes firm hold of the iconic 6,700 km landmark as a theme for exploration and encourages visitors on the long march from China’s Pacific coast to the Tien Shan mountains of Central Asia.

Anglo-Chinese author Thammy Evans builds a firm foundation of historical perspective for the construction of China’s 50,000 km of defensive walls – more than enough to encircle the Earth. A few myths are dispelled along the way – the Great Wall is not visible from outer space, the mortar is not made from ground human bones and there is no evidence to suggest that one million men were entombed within its ramparts ‘to make it strong’. However, aspects of Emperor Ming’s project management style, including the merciless exploitation of forced labour and the execution of chief architect General Qi Jiguang for ‘wasting time and resources’ may yet be observed on TV’s 'Grand Designs'.
The last battle fought at the Great Wall was in 1938 when the Imperial Japanese Army broke through to march on Beijing, though the destructive chaos and nihilist brutality of the Cultural Revolution added its own toll the wall’s structural decay. Today however, the Badaling section nearest to Beijing attracts over 10 million visitors each year and major concerns centre on footfall erosion and freelance souvenir hunting combined with over enthusiastic reconstruction. Beyond the wall, Bradt’s new guide provides succinct and user-friendly coverage of Beijing and chapters dedicated to individual provinces and main cities that act as a base for exploration, incorporating the history and legends related to the wall in that area. A particular strength is the inclusion of 38 painstakingly bilingual maps, many having never been published before. Elsewhere, Chinese food, delighted in at home but distrusted by many foreigners in China, is covered in depth, allowing true appreciation of one of the world’s greatest and most dynamic cuisines. Further sections on customs, history, politics and economy provide an essential tool to gain an insight into the local way of life. Bradt’s new guide has northern China covered, wall to wall.

Thammy Evans was born of Welsh and Malay Chinese parents and has travelled, lived and worked in China and southeast Europe. Her professional career has ranged from travel-guide author (Bradt’s Macedonia) to business development and political analyst in Macedonia. In addition she has served in the Territorial Army in Bosnia and Iraq.



For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Great Wall of China

Author: Thammy Evans

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £13.99

ISBN: 1 84162 158 7

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Niger
FIRST EDITION

Author, Jolijn Geels is the first to admit that Niger doesn’t feature amongst Africa’s top ten tourism destinations, indeed the country’s severe 2005 famine is likely to be the strongest association for most. Throughout the first dedicated English-language guide to Niger, Geels aims to put the country in proper perspective and restore the balance of knowledge: ‘there is plenty of good news to be told about Niger, too’.

Niger advises readers on the etiquette surrounding an animist fetishist ceremony, the polite way for a woman to wear a turban and why burping and spitting in public are fine but farting is a real no no! Beyond cultural mores, the guide explores practicalities surrounding travel that have remained remarkably unchanged for centuries despite the dawn of the jet age. There’s practical information on how to join a camel caravan - you’ll need to pay for at least three of the beasts, one to carry you, one for your gear and provisions and one to haul feed for the camels… Elsewhere, there’s advice on setting up pirogue explorations of the Niger river together with planning visits to nature reserves, the Tuareg Festival de L’Air and the epic 23-day Bianou religious celebrations.
Chapters describe striking landscapes of the country’s immense northern region, from Agadez, seat of the Aïr Sultanate, to the rocky massifs of the Aïr Mountains and the ochre sands of the Ténéré Desert. Here, amongst the Woodabe, Peul and Tuareg tribes, long caravans still embark for Bilma to return laden with salt and dates. In the southwest, the capital Niamey is within striking distance of ‘W’ National Park, without doubt West Africa’s best. Nearby, herds of Giraffe have found a viable refuge, and following the Niger upstream guarantees Hippo encounters and exceptional birdwatching. Towards the Nigerian border, Hausa culture is prevalent but soon, beyond the buzzing trade centres, this gives way to that of the nomadic Peul and little-known Toubou and Kanouri people. Along the dry and sparsely populated southern edge of the Sahara is found, one of the region’s largest camel markets. Further still, the ancient riverbed of the Dilia Valley leads to the beautiful and remote Termit Massif.
If travel through the extremes of a wild and beautiful country, with all the inherent discomforts and rewards, ignites the smouldering embers of your wanderlust then Bradt’s new Niger guide will certainly fan the flames…

Jolijn Geels has frequently travelled to Africa as an independent traveller, tour leader and travel writer. After months of research for this guide she has decided to go back and live in Niger and work with the people. She previously contributed to Bradt’s Madagascar and updated the 2005 edition of Mali.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Niger

Author: Jolijn Geels

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £14.99

ISBN: 1 84162 152 8

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Burkina Faso
FIRST EDITION

West Africa is fast becoming Bradt territory with another intriguing destination having received the fullest attentions of co-authors Katrina Manson and James Knight in Burkina Faso – the country’s first and only dedicated English-language guide.

Renamed from the colonial Haute-Volta (Upper Volta) by its own Guevara-like charismatic former leader, Thomas Sankara, Burkina Faso’s name translates to ‘land of honourable men’. The remarkable coexistence of more than 60 ethnic groups, living side by side in religious and social harmony, is manifest proof that the country is worthy of the title. A childhood fascination for its ‘vowel-tastic’ capital Ouagadougou, has led Katrina Manson on a ‘journey’ to Burkina Faso, arriving with an overwhelming enthusiasm for a country that allows an independent traveller to be just that. ‘There is no tourist trail, no tyranny of “must see”… The infancy of the tourist industry means there is a remarkable absence of barriers between you and anything you come across. The hypnotic, breathtaking dances and frantic contortions of a mask festival, for instance, are not put on for the benefit of visitors – they exist for the village, and the ancestors.’
From a first heady taste of freshly-brewed millet beer to checking out the night-life of Ouaga’ and Bobo-Dioulasso (Bobo’ to its friends!), Bradt’s new guide doesn’t go in for hand holding, rather suggesting to travellers - ‘get hold of a moped’, go’! Outside the cities the country’s wildlife is increasing. Elephant populations are the largest in West Africa, and viewing opportunities are the best in the region. The guide suggests lion tracking in Arly, close encounters with sacred crocodiles in Bazolé – though no mention of mopeds here! Heading north to the Sahel, chapters offer up the serene romance of secret Tuareg tented encampments and then contrast this with descriptions of furious trading at nearby cattle and camel markets. Elsewhere, several of Burkina Faso’s cultural superlatives receive thorough coverage, notably the magnificent biennial film festival of Fespaco, the Cannes of Africa, and the SIAO craft fair – both events the largest on the continent. However, facilitating spontaneous exploration is a consistent theme throughout Burkina Faso, exactly suited to West Africa, whether travelling for work, research or simply for its own sake. Follow this approach and BF, suggests the guide, may indeed end up standing for Bloody Fantastic…

Katrina Manson and James Knight are freelance journalists, writers and photographers, both with extensive experience of living, working and travelling in Africa. They work for Reuters, the BBC, The Sunday Times, The Economist and Business in Africa magazine, amongst other publications, and also run an African picture agency.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Burkina Faso

Author: Katrina Manson & James Knight

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £14.99

ISBN: 1 84162 154 4

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Vilnius
FIRST EDITION

Remarkably, until 1990 the only way to visit Lithuania’s capital city was by air, via Moscow, and stays were limited to three days lest foreigners contaminate the local population with counter-revolutionary thoughts. Since independence in 1991, introduction to the EU and availability of competitive airfares has seen Vilnius become a popular destination for short-stay business and leisure travellers. Remaining post-Soviet spectres will be further driven out in 2009 when Vilnius becomes European Capital of Culture.

Known as a Baltic capital but in fact around 200 miles from the sea, historically Vilnius had imposed links with the north and east but in its heart looked to the west. The city centre has been fortunate to escape the worst excesses of a brutal Soviet architectural legacy, and on a sunny summer’s day seems more like southern Europe than the north. Since the independence struggles of 1990/91 when unarmed civilians guarding the Television Tower were killed by Soviet troops, a generation has now grown-up with no recollection of queues, censorship or military service in distant parts of the USSR. These days there are four flights a day to London and only one to Moscow and Lithuanian has become the dominant spoken and written language. Russian goods are virtually impossible to find in the shops and, though dozens of coaches ply the border to Germany and Poland, hardly anyone heads 100km south to Minsk. Bradt’s new guide details practical travel information in the context of the city’s place in Lithuania’s history and culture, ensuring that visitors make best use of their stay, whether travelling independently or as part of a tour group. The authors, Howard Jarvis and Neil Taylor, are both specialists and acknowledged authorities in their field. Typically, Bradt has allowed the writers’ remit to extend beyond a formulaic template offered by some publishers, into informed opinions and personal insights regarding a complex and beautiful city.

Howard Jarvis lives in Vilnius and has been the chief editor on a number of publications in the Baltic countries, including the region’s only English-language newspaper, the Baltic Times. Currently he edits several local magazines including VilniusNOW!

Neil Taylor writes and lectures and was until 2005 a director of Regent Holidays, a tour company specialising in travel to the Baltic States since their independence was regained in 1991. In 2000, he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Guild of Travel Writers for his work in opening up the former communist world to tourism. He is also the author of Bradt’s Estonia, Tallinn and co-author of Baltic Capitals.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Vilnius

Author: Howard Jarvis & Neil Taylor

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £6.99

ISBN: 1 84162 112 9

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Czech
Republic
FIRST EDITION

Bradt’s new dedicated title to the Czech Republic acknowledges the popularity of Prague and provides full coverage, but importantly also escapes the thronging crowds of Wenceslas Square and breaks out from the city of a thousand spires into the remarkable Czech countryside beyond.

1989’s Velvet Revolution set in motion a series of events ultimately leading to a new country appearing on the map of central Europe in January 1993, the Czech Republic. NATO membership followed in 1999 and in 2004 the country joined the EU. Author of Bradt’s new travel guide, Marc Di Duca, describes how his own relationship with the Czech Republic grew from transient youthful curiosity, fuelled by the discovery of real beer and fire-roasted sausages, to a ten-year fascination, fluency in the Czech language and bearing witness to a cultural and political renaissance.
Following Bradt’s recent re-design the guide immediately provides seven pages of colourful images from across the country and then divides into sections on background, practical information, geographical coverage and Czech language. Chapters cover West Bohemia’s elegant spa towns, pre-dating the current vogue for pampering treatments by generations, having attracted visitors from Goethe, Beethoven and Marx to Tsar Peter the Great, Bismark and Chopin, all in search of ‘wellness’. For a rather better-tasting liquid refreshment, head for sections on South Moravia and its fine wines or the brewing towns of Plzen (Pilsen) and Ceské Budejovice, home to the original, and best (!) Budweiser beer. Considering the superior quality and efficacious claims attached by Czechs to their amber nectar, it’s hardly surprising they maintain the world’s highest annual consumption, some 160 litres per person. Elsewhere, descriptions of South Bohemia’s Šumava National Park include hiking trails amongst the vast pine forests and alpine meadows of one of Europe’s last true wildernesses.
Throughout, the guide is a source of information suitable for all budgets, whether travelling independently or with a group, and offers insights from an enthusiastic author who knows and loves his subject.

Marc Di Duca is a freelance travel writer and translator who lived and worked in the Czech Republic for ten years. He plans a return to Bohemia to study the Czech language and literature at Prague’s university.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Czech Republic

Author: Marc Di Duca

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £13.99

ISBN: 1 84162 150 1

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

NEW EDITIONS UPDATE

Albania – Edition 2 – By Gillian Gloyer

Though ‘doors to manual’ has only just been called on BA’s inaugural flights from London to Tirana, Bradt Travel Guides is awaiting arrival into the warehouse of the second edition of Albania by Gillian Gloyer. A reclusive former Stalinist redoubt, Albania has now opened its frontiers to travellers and a last hidden corner of Europe is revealed. Travellers will discover a country with a Mediterranean climate, rugged coastline, mountainous interior and a history marked by 2000 years of occupation. However, remarkably, Albania offers an enduringly hospitable welcome. This new edition provides fuller information on several towns and cities plus descriptions of the historical sites Byllis, Ardenica and Labova church. Strong on the history and culture, this update also provides new material including guidance for hikers, suggested mountain-biking routes and activities such as skiing and rafting.

Cost £13.99 ISBN 1 84162 149 8 Publication - May 2006

North Cyprus – Edition 5 – By Diana Darke

No one denies that when Cyprus was divided in 1974, the Turks took the more beautiful and fertile region. No guidebook would presume to analyse the rights and wrongs of Cypriot politics. However, since 1974 descriptions of the North have generally been relegated to the back few pages of most guides. Here Diana Darke’s book offers the comprehensive coverage it deserves. As development of North Cyprus’s resorts is growing rapidly, this new edition of Bradt’s guide to the quieter, Turkish side of the divided island, will be appreciated by travellers. A background is provided in the guide to the ancient and modern culture of Cyprus, including the history behind the estrangement between the Turkish North and the Greek South. Elsewhere, discovery of classical ruins, monasteries, churches and castles is made easy and there is special coverage of the Karpas Peninsula, renowned for its turtle population and often referred to as the nature reserve of Cyprus.

Cost £12.99 ISBN 1 84162 147 1 Publication – Out Now!

Cape Verde – Edition 3 – By Aisling Irwin & Column Wilson

The 10 islands, 5 islets and various rocks and stacks of the Cape Verde Island archipelago are located in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 1,000km southwest of the Canary Islands and 460km from the Senegalese coast. Authors, Aisling Irwin and Colum Wilson explore these far-flung islands from their Portuguese colonial past to their latter-day importance as an enlightened holiday island alternative and an awesome venue for high adrenaline surfing and windsurfing competitions. Through descriptions of spontaneous musical jam sessions featuring melancholy mornas and lively funanas, and a personal appreciation of the island’s Creole culture, Irwin and Wilson provide not only a practical, fully updated travel guide, but also a celebration of Caboverdeanidade, the essence of Cape Verde.

Cost £13.99 ISBN 1 84162 102 1 Publication – Out Now!


‘Bradt Guides are expertly written and longer on local detail than any others’, Michael Palin. So there!

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Posted 03/04/06

MAINSTREAM GUIDEBOOK SALES DOWN 11%
BRADT SALES UP 26%

Industry publication The Bookseller reports sales of traditional guidebooks had a tough year in 2005 with revenue down 5.6% overall and sales of one well-known backpacker brand down over 11%. Bucking the industry downturn, Bradt Travel Guides’ sales increased by over 26% in the same period. Caroline Mardall, Marketing Director at Bradt, suggests ‘the courage of our convictions, in publishing guides to emerging or even unknown destinations has stood us in good stead. The current market has grown up with readers looking beyond bland and formulaic copy, to guides that are not afraid to allow authors’ voices to be heard.’
Across the Atlantic Bradt’s figures are even more startling, with sales up 48%, perhaps dispelling the notion of an insular US psyche. Covering new ground may not be Bradt’s only advantage.

Tricia Barnett, Director of Tourism Concern, confirms ‘a huge shift among consumers to looking at ethical products and fair trade’. Tom Savage, MD of upmarket ethical tour operator Travelroots, is quoted in The Bookseller citing Bradt Travel Guides as a good source of responsible travel information. ‘Hilary Bradt is at the grassroots. She has a natural finger on the pulse and has been preaching this for years and years’, he says. It’s estimated that 41.2 million journeys abroad were made by UK residents in 2005, representing total spending in excess of £27bn. Of the world’s 49 poorest countries, 46 count tourism as their main foreign exchange earner, according to Tourism Concern. Bradt’s very positive figures may indeed reflect growth in responsible tourism and an increasing awareness amongst independent, educated travellers of the potential impact of mainstream tourism.

Bradt Travel Guides continue to explore the road less travelled, taking the occasional turn towards the realms of extreme publishing and constantly surprising readers with new and intriguing titles: soon to be published Burkina Faso, Niger and The Czech Republic

‘Bradt Guides are expertly written and longer on local detail than any others’, Michael Palin. So there!

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Posted 13/03/06

Northern
Tanzania
The Bradt Safari Guide
with Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar
FIRST EDITION

As a country, Tanzania encompasses many African superlatives: the highest mountain, arguably the greatest national park, the largest intact volcanic caldera, the lion’s share of the largest lake and East Africa’s most active volcano.

Tanzania’s vocabulary of place names conjures an Africa of dreams: Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Olduvai, Lake Victoria, Zanzibar, Great Rift Valley and Maasai Steppes. With the exception of Zanzibar, all these evocative areas lie concentrated to the country’s north and it is this remarkable 10% of landmass that Bradt’s new Northern Tanzania safari guide focuses upon. In the text, author Philip Briggs expands on relevant detail found in his full Bradt guide to Tanzania, incorporating specific coverage of wildlife and natural history in a full colour section, together with additional environmental information, making Northern Tanzania the indispensable companion to a safari in the region’s renowned national parks. Elsewhere, the physical challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is juxtaposed with relaxation on the Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar. Details of rarely visited sites such as Ol Doinyo L’Engai (Mountain of God), a brooding volcano due for a major eruption sometime soon (!) are included. The guide also explores mankind’s most ancient lifestyle found in microcosm at Lake Eyasi, on the border of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Here, the nomadic ‘hunter gatherer’ Hadza people maintain a remarkable foothold in a manner that reflects the lives of the first humans to walk the plains of Africa. The guide concludes with a language section covering KiSwahili, and the Maasai dialect of Maa, which allows visitors to greet grandmothers and warriors correctly, haggle over the price of fish, find out which bus they should have been on and most importantly, buy cold beers anywhere on their travels.

Philip Briggs is a travel writer and tour leader specialising in Africa. He is the author of many acclaimed Bradt guidebooks: Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda and is co-author of Rwanda. His articles have been published in numerous well-known journals and newspapers, including Travel Africa and Africa Geographic.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Northern Tanzania

Author: Philip Briggs

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £13.99

ISBN: 1 84162 146 3

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

WANDERLUST
TRAVEL AWARD WINNERS

At the end of 2005, top travel magazine Wanderlust asked readers to share their experiences in all areas of travel. At Destinations travel show, Bradt Travel Guides received their award from Wanderlust editor Lyn Hughes

Bradt Travel Guides – Bronze Award for Top Guidebook Series 2005


In presenting the ‘people’s award’, Lyn Hughes confirmed Bradt as, ‘True pioneers’ in the field of travel publishing. Founder Hilary Bradt commented, ‘It’s great for a small publisher like Bradt to receive an award like this for the second year running, particularly when our guides focus on lesser-known destinations. I’d like to thank our authors, for it is only through their knowledge, enthusiasm and dedication that our guides are so successful.’ The award demonstrates that travellers continue to be increasingly adventurous, and that for these individuals Bradt Travel Guides remain the guidebooks of choice.

Despite being denied shelf space by certain retailers, and in an increasingly competitive travel-guide market, Bradt’s sales for last season are nevertheless likely to exceed those of the previous year by over 25%. This compares with reports of 5 to 10% decrease in sales experienced by other larger and more mainstream publishers.

New Bradt Travel Guides just published or soon to be published include: Belgrade, Bratislava, Benin, The Czech Republic and Northern Tanzania. For full details see www.bradtguides.com

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Posted 06/02/06

Benin
FIRST EDITION

ECLIPSE
Benin will be the best place to observe the 29th March 2006 Total Solar Eclipse
totality will last for three minutes 39 seconds – see page 37

UK-based travellers have long dismissed Francophone West Africa with an ‘Anglo-Saxon shrug’, and even adventurous travellers have tended to follow historical and linguistic ties when exploring the continent. However, with three new first editions about to hit the shelves, Benin being the first this week, Bradt Travel Guides are at the forefront of a new enthusiasm for West Africa.

Inhabiting the green dappled shadows of West Africa’s inner folds, Benin, formerly Dahomey, was once ‘a name whispered only in fearful awe by the citizens of the surrounding kingdoms, had enough chill to send a shiver down the spine of anyone who crossed its path’, as described by author and mystical surfer Stuart Butler. Indeed the country’s past links with European slavers are overshadowed by an all-pervasive culture of Voodoo. During his research for the guide Butler describes, ‘spiralling through a world that became ever more strange; I ran from a god with horns sprouting from his back whose single touch would result in certain death, and took shelter in a room where sacred pythons crawled from every wooden beam. I sat in the shade as a witch battled her personal demons and a sorcerer slit the throats of puppies. I found myself surrounded by walking haystacks and dancing 8ft-tall chickens and was witness to a male circumcision ceremony. I surprised myself by kissing the ground at the foot of a Voodoo priestess and shyly asking a beautiful princess if I could sit beside her. I became an assistant in a magical duel between my travelling companion and a wizard, and I waited hours for a royal audience with a king who could become a bird and fly away above the clouds.’ In the safe and scientific Western world magic only happens in fairy tales but visiting Benin, or even reading a few chapters of the guide, might change your mind.
Benin includes necessary tips for avoiding malevolent Egungun (sorcerers) and correct etiquette to be followed upon meeting royalty. However, this ‘field guide to gods, ghosts and dead people’ is also a thorough and practical travel companion. History from Benin’s origins in the sacred forest, through the era of slavery to the present day establishes an important context for any visitor. In-depth coverage of the country’s capital Cotonou combines with travel through the interior, including the wildlife of Parc National du W and de la Pendjari, the surf beaches (!), and stilt villages of the coast.

Stuart Butler is an English-born freelance journalist and photographer who has spent considerable time in West Africa. He has travelled extensively as a professional surfer and has interests in African history, cultures and wildlife which have provided a background to his research for this guide.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Benin

Author: Stuart Butler

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £14.99

ISBN: 1 84162 148 X

Bradt Travel Guides
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Bratislava
FIRST EDITION

Another first from Bradt Travel Guides, and indeed who else would dare to publish a guide to Bratislava? Czechoslovakia’s tumultuous ‘velvet revolution’ preceded an amicable ‘velvet divorce’ and the re-emergence of Slovakia as an independent state in 1993. The then-somnambulant provincial town of Bratislava became overnight the latest capital city in the re-drawn map of post-Soviet Central Europe. Lucy Mallows’s new guide, the first dedicated solely to Bratislava, describes a city that since independence has awoken to become the go-getting cosmopolitan gateway to the ‘Tatra Tiger’ of Slovakia. In common with many divorcees, the ‘little big’ city of Bratislava blends some history with some hedonism. For more than 300 years the capital of Hungary, the city defies its diminutive size, drawing visitors in to shop till they drop, stroll museums and galleries, unwind on a Danube cruise, visit the opera and, finally, wrap themselves around great bistro food and surprisingly fine Slovak wine. Bratislava’s character is reflected in its population, neither dour nor grim like the enduring Eastern Bloc stereotype, but relaxed and positive. As Mallows says, ‘It doesn’t bellow its beauty like Prague but states it quietly and insistently… Bratislava is not the elusive “new Prague” and is probably quite happy being itself’.
The handy pocket-size volume is packed with practical travel information, including accommodation in boats on the Danube or villas in the hills, full-colour city and tram maps, self-guided city walking tours and excursions to nearby romantic castles. Restaurants (from budget to fine dining) are covered, together with wine and tip-top Slovak beers. Slovak, we are told, is not as tricky to pronounce as Czech… great! However, attempts at the selection of words and phrases in the language section will, at the very least, amuse Bratislavans.

Lucy Mallows is a freelance travel writer and translator. She contributes regularly to many international dailies and magazines and has written for all the top travel publishers. She is an expert on Central Europe and speaks six foreign languages. Her passions are travel, soul music and Chelsea FC.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Bratislava

Author: Lucy Mallows

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £6.99

ISBN: 1 84162 142 0

Bradt Travel Guides
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Bucks SL9 9QE
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Belgrade
FIRST EDITION

Visitors to Belgrade will immediately become aware that the city lies at an unmarked boundary, a point where, historically, civilisations have collided. Cultures and religions have clashed for over a millennium, Christianity and Islam, Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, communism and free-market economies. Indeed, Belgrade has the dubious distinction of being the only European city to be bombed five times in the same century. However, those travellers expecting to find a damaged, war-ravaged city will be disappointed, as little physical evidence of the extensive 1999 NATO bombings endures. Belgrade’s mood on the street is upbeat and post Miloševic, with the return of democracy, the city does not need to reinvent itself, rather just re-market what it already has. Laurence Mitchell’s new guide describes a capital that’s emerging from a turbulent past to stake a claim as a European hot spot. From ‘underground’ bars, Bohemian enclaves, floating Danube restaurants and secret tunnels, Belgrade is culturally rich and warmly welcoming. Mitchell shows how to get the most from a city that is more rough diamond than polished jewel. Practical travel information combines with full-colour maps, self-guided walking tours and an insider’s guide to city nightlife. Beyond Belgrade, but within easy reach, excursions to Novi Sad and Mount Avala are detailed. As ever, Bradt include a foreign-language primer covering a choice selection of handy Serbian words and phrases.

Laurence Mitchell has sandwiched long periods of travel abroad between various jobs that included English teaching in Sudan and surveying historic farm buildings in Norfolk. After teaching geography for a dozen or so years he gave it up for the uncertain rewards of travel writing and photography. He is also author of Serbia: The Bradt Travel Guide (2005).

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Belgrade

Author: Laurence Mitchell

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £6.99

ISBN: 1 84162 145 5

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
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email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Christmas Market Cities
Budapest and Lille City Guides
Buy two get one free!

Including Postage and Packing

In case you hadn’t noticed, Christmas is coming… However, if the thought of High Street gift shopping in the UK doesn’t fill you with festive spirit, unless restricted to Oddbins, maybe it’s time for a change. The cities of Budapest and Lille both host fine examples of traditional Christmas Markets and make excellent short break destinations for those seeking to avoid the increasingly desperate and pre-Christmas hype in Britain. Here you’re bound to find that extra special tissued frippery of life for the significant other or indeed others in your life whilst enjoying a refreshingly continental reappraisal of the holiday period. Bradt Travel Guides are, up to Christmas, offering the chance to ‘pocket an expert’ and pick up two of their handy-size city guides and get a third one free including postage and packing.

Budapest
Parisian-style boulevards, faded art-nouveau palaces, hidden courtyards and illuminated bridges over the Danube soon conjure up Budapest’s collective romantic ambience. Historic Buda is characterised by the cobbled streets of the Castle District, its caves, Roman ruins and thermal spas, with a cog-wheel railway running into its leafy hills. Cosmopolitan Pest is home to vibrant shops and restaurants, the City Park with its boating lake, evening opera performances and the striking architecture of the Parliament building.

Title: Budapest

Author: Adrian Phillips and Jo Scotchmer

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Normal Price: £7.95

ISBN: 1 84162 110 2

Lille
It’s a popular aspiration on the continent to be at ‘the crossroads of Europe’ but for Lille the routing of Eurostar’s rail link has indisputably affected this position and returned a twinkle to the city’s eye with a viagra-like surge of investment in culture and commerce. Art, theatre, opera, films, rock happenings or gourmet food and drink, Lille’s secrets are revealed in an informed manner through text penned by an experienced and charismatic bon vivant – allez à Lille!

Title: Lille

Author: Laurence Phillips

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Normal Price: £6.99

ISBN: 1 84162 133 1

Bradt Travel Guides
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Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
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Posted 13/12/05

Turkmenistan
FIRST EDITION

Ever keen to get there first, Bradt is launching the first dedicated English-language guide to that least-known of all the former Soviet 'Stans' – Turkmenistan. Why visit a central Asian country full of sand? Because, as author Paul Brummell stresses, it is a remarkable place.

Here is a land where you can follow the footprints of dinosaurs, unearth traces of a Bronze Age civilisation of fire-worshippers and visit the Silk Road city of Ancient Merv. While there are some reminders of Turkmenistan's Soviet past – from the odd rusting MiG to flaming craters formed during cavalier searches for natural gas – since independence in 1991 these have fast been fading. The previously drab capital of Ashgabat has been transformed into a fantasy of white-marble palaces, modern apartment blocks and large fountain complexes. And alongside the archaeological heritage and the vibrant re-building is an endearing dash of eccentricity. Where else would you find a president brazen enough to commission a golden statue of himself that revolves to follow the sun? Or one who insists that the month of January should hereafter take his own name? And where else are melons honoured with a national holiday?
Brummell laces his considerable knowledge with a genuine pleasure in sharing it. Alongside information on history, culture, accommodation and food is advice on circumventing the exasperating tangle of red tape. The book concludes with an essential section on the Turkmen language, allowing you to raise a glass with a toast 'to world peace!' (bütin dünýäde parahatçylyk üçin!). Turkmenistan is for the pioneering tourist; as Brummell remarks, it 'may not be an easy destination, but for those who come here the rewards are great’.

Paul Brummell joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1987. He has served in Islamabad and Rome, and as British Ambassador to Turkmenistan (2002-2005). From December 2005 he will be Ambassador to the Republic of Kazakhstan and non-resident Ambassador to the Krygyz Republic. He was shortlisted for the 1999 Shiva Naipal Memorial Prize for an article on the San Remo Song Festival. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Real Audio Clip Author, Paul Brummell, tells Alastair McKenzie about his first impressions on being posted to Turkmenistan. (4.5 Meg)

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Turkmenistan

Author: Paul Brummell

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £14.99

ISBN: 1 84162 144 7

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

NEW EDITIONS
JUST OUT!

Sri Lanka – Edition 2 – By Royston Ellis

Sri Lanka is historically a favourite destination for British travellers, and post-tsunami visitor levels are anticipated to return to normal with visitors wishing to support the island’s rebuilding work. A complete range of coastal resorts is covered for the tourist looking to unwind, whilst a variety of activities and attractions will tempt visitors to explore the interior of the island. Suggestions on places to visit include temples and shrines, the elephant orphanage at Pinnawela, botanical and zoological gardens and a pilgrimage to the top of Adam’s Peak by night to watch the sunrise.

Cost £13.99 ISBN 1 84162 129 3


Ethiopia – Edition 4 – By Philip Briggs

Now into its fourth edition, for over a decade Ethiopia: The Bradt Travel Guide has become the definitive source of information on a country rich in culture, history and dramatic scenery. The particular strength of the guide lies in African-expert Philip Briggs’s personal writing style with plenty of down-to-earth advice on etiquette and safe travelling and his enthusiasm for this little-understood country is an inspiration for those planning a trip. Already considerably longer and more detailed than the major competitor, though priced the same, a recent research trip has expanded the number of areas covered countrywide. Among these are new ‘off the beaten track’ destinations such as the highlands of the Guassa Plateau.

Cost £15.99 ISBN 1 84162 128 5


Maldives – Edition 3 – By Royston Ellis

This new post-tsunami edition of the guide has been completely restructured. Increased coverage is provided on resorts, plus new hotspots, together with expanded information on diving and travel around the atolls. There’s also a new section on how to get around as an independent traveller. The guide recognises the traveller’s need for more information on how to choose your ideal Maldives getaway, so expanded resort descriptions and charts of the facilities and activities are provided. Enlarged and updated maps of Male’, the capital; plus updates on atolls, diving sites, protected marine areas and the colourful underworld of the coral reefs are just some of the new features in this third edition.

Cost £13.99 ISBN 1 84162 143 9

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk

Bradt Travel Guides
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A TRAVEL HEALTH GUIDE
Your Child Abroad
SECOND EDITION

OK, so you’re a grown-up traveller with a baby in a backpack, a baby-boomer with a baby, a child of the 60s with a child. However you may be described it’s likely that if you haven’t yet submitted to the crushing inevitability of Center Parcs, then a copy of Bradt’s Your Child Abroad may be the panacea for stress-free independent family travel. Whether little Johnny has been scalded by hot buffalo milk, bitten by a bad-tempered monkey or bedevilled by Bot Fly, a suitable course of common sense action is indicated. Prophylactic advice is also generously offered, from hygiene tips on how to avoid the Kathmandu Quick Step to clothing styles to protect against biting insects, skin irritations and sunstroke. Real travellers will be reassured that although the guide’s authors are concerned for their well-being, the responsibility remains individual – there is no current ‘remedy’ for those who have ignored advice not to approach Grizzly Bears on foot…

Your Child Abroad is a down-to-earth guide for anyone travelling overseas with children, whether on a two-week family vacation or a long-stay posting in the developing world. Through a reassuring and practical approach the text describes how to deal with situations ranging from the relatively minor to the life-threatening. A check-list of symptoms for common complaints and a range of useful contacts and further sources of information will prove invaluable for parents who are far from on-the-ground medical attention. This new edition provides a thorough update on the latest medical advice, including information on anti-malarial drugs, insect repellents and immunisations.

Dr Jane Wilson-Howarth is a general practitioner who has worked in England, Asia, South America and Africa, and presently lives in Oxford.
Dr Matthew Ellis is a paediatrician and father who has practised in Sudan, Ethiopia and Nepal, and is now working in London.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Your Child Abroad

Author: Dr Jane Wilson-Howarth and Dr Matthew Ellis

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £10.95

ISBN: 1 84162 120 X

Bradt Travel Guides
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Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
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email info@bradtguides.com
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Big Fat Bustards, Anxious Cockerels… More Eeyore than Tigger
Hungary
FIRST EDITION

The brutal crushing of the 1956 Revolution preceded vicious reprisals and years of subservience to the Soviets. Through subsequent incremental reforms, Hungary’s uniquely liberal brand of ‘Goulash Communism’ earned the country the tag of ‘happiest barracks in the bloc’. By 1989 the open border policy towards East Germany was key in the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1990 elections finally saw the communists removed from power, the last Russian soldier leaving for good a year later.

Authors Adrian Phillips and Jo Scotchmer spent six months researching this first edition of Hungary, initially braving vestigial Cold War waiters, inadvertent repasts of cockerel’s testicles, kamikaze taxi drivers and severe cases of ‘Rubik’s Wrist’. They exhaustively detail their subject, offering an engaging catalogue of discovery and laying bare a country and people they obviously love. The guide’s history section puts modern-day Hungary in context and given the catalogue of conflict, conquest and occupation it’s no surprise that Phillips characterises Hungarians as ‘a rare and intriguing breed of proud pessimists… more Eeyore than Tigger.’ Hungary’s capital city certainly deserves its place on Europe’s ‘A list’ but leaving Budapest’s romantic café-lined boulevards, faded Art-Nouveau palaces and illuminated bridges over the Danube behind, the guide explores far beyond. Chapters cover Balaton, central Europe’s largest lake, the forested slopes of the Mátra Hills and the rolling ‘puszta’ plains of Hortobágy, home to the world’s heaviest flying bird and site of Europe’s most spectacular avian migration. Intimate details of 200 wine cellars in Eger’s Valley of the Beautiful Woman are complemented by expert appreciation of the Tokaj Hegyalja winelands, just don’t keep clinking your glasses when drinking beer later or you’ll be offending the memory of 13 executed generals... There’s also comprehensive information on travel, accommodation, eating out (how NOT to order chicken testicles), thermal baths and bathing etiquette (no extra bubbles please!), together with a Hungarian-language primer and 60 detailed maps and town plans. Bradt’s new goulash guide will put an edge on any Hungary appetite whether travelling on business, for pleasure, in high style or in financial circumstances that are frankly ‘a béka segge alat’ (‘lower than a frog’s arse’).

Adrian Phillips is a PhD in English Literature and senior editor at Bradt Travel Guides, first visiting Hungary in the 1990s. He is also co-author of Singapore: The Bradt Travel Guide. Jo Scotchmer has contributed to a number of national magazines in her capacity as a freelance journalist. The couple also jointly authored Bradt’s guide to Budapest

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Hungary

Author: Adrian Phillips and Jo Scotchmer

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £14.99

ISBN: 1 84162 091 2

Bradt Travel Guides
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Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
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email info@bradtguides.com
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Bradt Travel Guides
Second in the Guardian/Observer Travel Awards 2005

Bradt Travel Guides has been voted second in the Best Guidebook Section of the annual Guardian, Observer and Guardian Unlimited Travel Awards 2005. The longest-running independent survey of its kind, with 27,000 people voting for their travel favourites using questionnaires published in the Guardian, Observer and Guardian Unlimited.

Bradt Travel Guides received an 89.1% satisfaction rating, beating all but Dorling Kindersley’s mainstream Eye-Witness Guides (who received 90.3%). Since the 1970s Bradt Travel Guides has been informing, enlightening, advising - and even occasionally astounding - travellers who want to explore new places, from Antarctica to Zanzibar. From the seriously offbeat to popular tourist locations Bradt Travel Guides now publishes guides to over 100 destinations written with knowledge, sensitivity and understanding. Recent groundbreaking titles include Bosnia Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Cameroon, Montenegro, Nigeria, Serbia, Sudan and Ukraine.

Through 30 years of publishing, Bradt has kept its focus on the needs of the end-user: the adventurous traveller who seeks out off-beat places and the dreamer who would like to travel there but perhaps never will. The books provide accurate and up-to-date facts on such essentials as hotels and transport while enhancing the visitor's experience through insights into the local culture and natural history. To this end authors are chosen with care, not just for their writing ability but for their enthusiasm and love for the countries they are describing.

Since winning The Sunday Times Small Publisher of the Year Award in 1997, Bradt Travel Guides has continued to fill the demand for detailed, well-written guides to unusual destinations, while maintaining the company's original ethos: that adventurous travel is more enjoyable if the wishes of the local people are taken into consideration.

Bradt Travel Guides
23 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Posted 27/09/05

NEW EDITION
Africa Overland
4x4 – Motorbike – Bicycle – Truck

The incredibly rapid development of travel technology is manifest by the fact that Orville Wright could have met with Neil Armstrong. Indeed, the dawn of the jet-age has proved the most revolutionary advance in transport to overtake the planet. However, though arguably it’s now a small world, overland travel remains the adventurous choice and Africa is the continent where many test their mettle and their metal!

This fourth edition Africa Overland has been thoroughly updated by Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons, both inveterate overlanders. The authors’ wealth of experience is evident throughout the guide, from the chapters detailing vehicle choice to route descriptions and occasionally alarming anecdotes. Advice specific to motorcyclists and cyclists is encompassed within separate, expertly-written sections and there’s even information for those choosing an organised overland tour. Chapters cover the African continent's most memorable landscapes on a country-by-country basis, from Morocco to South Africa, with route and regional maps. Comprehensive planning and preparation tips, including check-lists, maintenance tips and troubleshooting are combined with personal health and security advice. Driving techniques for the varied terrain likely to be encountered are highly pertinent together with suggested routes and border crossings for each country. All these points, plus accommodation, food, music and cultural considerations, including ‘giving something back’, make this a practical bible for independent, overland travellers. Upon reading it’s even possible that those normally content to be armchair travellers may be drawn by the open road… and head out on the highway, looking for adventure, and whatever comes their way… Born to be Wild?

Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons have travelled extensively in Africa, running several expeditions en-route. Their combined travel experience spans all corners of the globe and has included working as guides and drivers on tours, leading mountain treks and operating cycle trips and desert expeditions.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Africa Overland

Author: Siân Pritchard-Jones & Bob Gibbons

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £15.99

ISBN: 1 84162 135 8

Bradt Travel Guides
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Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

FIRST EDITION
Eccentric California

As the Irish are to the English and the Belgians to the French, so Californians are to the rest of the USA – wonderfully weird! West has historically been the direction to travel in search of opportunity, a fresh start and a new life, and so it remains. California continues to attract a never-ending self-selecting flow of dreamers and achievers. In a refreshingly non-British appreciation of its unique collective appeal, author Jan Friedman explains, ‘In order for eccentricity to flourish, people need the right set of circumstances, most importantly, freedom of speech and a culture that encourages individual expression without fear of negative consequences – California is such a place.’

The enormity of the guide’s chosen subject is daunting. Normal is only a relative term and in a state encompassing one in eight Americans, where so many exhibit odd characteristics, eccentricity can often pass unnoticed. However, for visitors, Eccentric California provides a passport to 475 surreally funny, in some cases alarming, possibly illegal and occasionally life-changing West Coast experiences.
Highlights feature events, people, places to stay, art and even shopping. Why not grandstand the World Championship Kinetic Sculpture Race where artistic contraptions compete over a 38 mile course of land, mud and water in the triathlon of the art world. Elsewhere the Bushman of Fisherman’s Wharf uses back-to-basics scare tactics to make him one of San Fran’s most well-known street performers. Hit the sack at Red Vic Bed & Breakfast Art, hippie accommodation in the style of the 60s with Summer of Love rooms, lava lamps and live fish in the lav cistern. And finally, the Beach Boys probably never imagined the exhibits at Good Vibrations’ Antique Vibrator Museum…

Jan Friedman has spent most of her life in the San Francisco Bay Area where, she says, ‘they take their eccentricity very seriously’. A travel writer, photographer and former tour guide, she ahs explored 56 countries before discovering her own could offer as much adventure as most exotic foreign locale. She is the author of Eccentric America, and winner of three book awards including the prestigious Lowell Thomas Award for travel journalism.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Eccentric California

Author: Jan Friedman

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £13.99

ISBN: 1 84162 126 9

Bradt Travel Guides
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Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
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FIRST EDITION
Slovenia
THE BRADT TRAVEL GUIDE

Slovenia’s ‘undiscovered’ status, as highly prized by some as a World Heritage Status, is maintained in part perhaps by the country’s name. An observation manifest in US President George Bush’s inability to differentiate between Slovenia and Slovakia. Presidents aside, in just over a decade Slovenia has transformed itself from an unwilling appendage of Yugoslavia into a modern and successful European democracy.

Slovenia joined the EU and NATO in 2004, something no other member of the old federation has achieved. Visitor numbers from Britain alone had increased by 48% by early 2004, no doubt fuelled by new low-cost flight routes. However, prospective visitors should not think that Slovenia has become another homogenised tenant of the global high street. In the capital Ljubljana, the outdoor market right at the heart of the city is characterised by old ladies selling their home-made honey and other citizens peddling vegetables plucked straight from their gardens. Authors of Bradt’s new guide, Robin and Jenny McKelvie, go further in their introduction saying, ‘The Slovenes themselves hate being labelled or categorised – they see themselves as independent citizens of their country, not as eastern Europeans, nor central Europeans and certainly not as belonging to the Balkans.’
Bradt’s comprehensive new title checks all the boxes for a practical travel guide and goes beyond to cover in-depth information on natural history and the environment, hiking in the Julian Alps, the caves of the Karst region, white-water rafting and skiing, together with sojourns in the country’s winelands. Present day Slovenia is given context by strong historical and cultural sections and the book signs off with Bradt’s usual useful language primer offering choice Slavic phrases from zdravo (hello) to nasvidenje (goodbye). Whether your style of travel involves sipping chilled Slovenian Chardonnay at a waterfront restaurant on the coast or hauling straining limbs up a summit in the Julian Alps, Bradt’s Slovenia is the only guide to pack.

Robin McKelvie is a full-time travel writer and photographer. As well as guidebooks he writes for over 40 newspapers and magazines around the world. Robin is also easyJet’s ‘Man in Ljubljana’, writing monthly reports for their in-flight magazine.

Jenny McKelvie is a travel writer with specialist knowledge of central and eastern Europe contributing to numerous publications worldwide. As well as helping with Rob’s easyJet reports, she wrote the Mintel Emerging Destination Report to Slovenia.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Slovenia: The Bradt Travel Guide

Author: Robin & Jenny McKelvie

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £12.99

ISBN: 1 84162 119 6

Bradt Travel Guides
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Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

FIRST EDITION

Nigeria
THE BRADT TRAVEL GUIDE

Nigeria: chaotic, corrupt, impoverished, awful, an environmental nightmare and run by a government that is largely incapable of controlling the largest population in Africa.

Nigeria: fascinating, appealing, vibrant, warm-hearted, the world’s fourth largest democracy (140 million) and sixth largest provider of crude oil, home to the world’s second largest city – Lagos – and 250 ethnic groups.

Half empty or half full - the choice is yours. Whatever preconceptions you may have regarding Nigeria, Bradt’s new guide will shed light on a West African super-state that is still largely unknown by westerners. Author Lizzie Williams offers a succinct insight, saying, “By the same token that Philip Briggs, my colleague at Bradt, describes Ghana as ‘Africa for beginners’ I would call Nigeria ‘Africa for the very experienced.’” Certainly Nigeria is extreme - in one instant you’ll see the highest concentration of people using modern picture-phones anywhere in the world - and then in the next women sweeping up termites to fry after a rainstorm. Surmounting the creaking infrastructure is only the beginning, there is no equivocation about the fact that Nigeria is simply one of the world’s most difficult places to travel within. However, for an adventurous spirit with an open mind and a friendly demeanour the highlight is the overwhelming experience of meeting its culturally rich people. Williams reports, “Practically any person in any corner of Nigeria will offer a moment of their time to say ‘welcome’ - they are colourful, intelligent, curious, creative, imaginative, and generous.” Bradt’s Nigeria is the first complete travel guide to the country and will be a useful companion for both adventure travellers and those arriving in the country to work. History and geography sections provide context whilst transport, from bush taxi to rail and car, is complimented by a choice of accommodation. The sometimes baffling sights and sounds of Ibo art, music and culture in general are presented against a wealth of background information. A liberal sprinkling of reassuring wisdom from an experienced Africa-hand suffuses the text, particularly evident in the chapter on planning and preparation for overland entry. A final language primer offering handy words, in three languages (Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo), together with some choice Nigerian English phrases will surely be enough to make most local people smile. Williams signs off her introduction saying, “Nigeria’s a destination that’s not about Eiffel Towers or Serengeti Plains, but about a conversation or a unique moment… I hope this book will greatly assist any travel to Nigeria and help to quell its awful reputation as a travel destination. It’s a unique and compelling country with enormous personality.”

Lizzie Williams is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Travel Africa magazine. She has travelled extensively in Africa, both independently and in her role as overland expedition leader.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Nigeria: The Bradt Travel Guide

Author: Lizzie Williams

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £15.99

ISBN: 1 84162 124 2

Bradt Travel Guides
19 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

FIRST EDITION

NOT THE NEW PRAGUE

Ljubljana
THE BRADT CITY GUIDE

Fancy bijou city-centre accommodation in a converted prison cell, followed by a rather more liberating beer with one’s breakfast or even a potentially controversial horse burger for supper? Authors of Bradt’s latest new city guide, Robin and Jenny McKelvie, share their favourite haunts in Slovenia’s ‘green’ capital with the caveat, ‘Ljubljana is not the new Prague, nor the new anywhere else for that matter: it is simply one of Europe’s most appealing escapes, a compact capital that we sincerely hope you will end up falling in love with as deeply as we have.’ Intrigued?

Since its unilateral declaration of independence in 1991, and a brief skirmish with the Yugoslav army, Slovenia has transformed itself into one of the ‘new’ Europe’s hot destinations. The country has joined NATO and the EU, something no other former Yugoslav republic has thus far achieved. Ljubljana offers well-preserved Baroque architecture, refreshing green space in Tivoli Park and bountiful pavement cafes and restaurants where organic fresh produce and excellent Slovenian wine are the norm. A young, student-centric population drives a vibrant nightlife and supports a culture that feels more Mediterranean than eastern European, certainly not Balkan. In the most comprehensive English-language guide to the city the authors share the experience of numerous visits to write with genuine affection about a city that has beguiled them both. Easy-to-read maps, innovative accommodation, self-guided walks and a good background of history, culture, language and people combine in a volume compact enough to encumber only those on a naturist holiday…

Robin McKelvie is a full-time travel writer and photographer. As well as guidebooks he writes for over 40 newspapers and magazines around the world. Robin is also easyJet’s ‘Man in Ljubljana’, writing monthly reports for their in-flight magazine.
Jenny McKelvie is a travel writer with specialist knowledge of central and eastern Europe contributing to numerous publications worldwide. As well as helping with Rob’s easyJet reports, she wrote the Mintel Emerging Destination Report to Slovenia.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Ljubljana: The Bradt City Guide

Author: Robin & Jenny McKelvie

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £6.99

ISBN: 1 84162 116 1

Bradt Travel Guides
19 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

FIRST EDITION

Panama
THE BRADT TRAVEL GUIDE

Panama for most will conjure images of early-20th-century engineering triumph and the 1989 US military operation to remove Washington’s wayward ‘son-of-a-bitch’ dictator General ‘Old Pineapple Face’ Noriega. However, historically Panama attracted even more interesting ‘visitors’ than the US military, from the obligatory land-fall by Christopher Columbus, invasive exploitation by buccaneer Sir Henry Morgan and ultimate fatal attraction for privateer Sir Francis Drake, who still lies in a lead casket somewhere in the waters off Puerto Bello. Post-impressionist Gauguin worked on the canal project, earning enough to set out on his Polynesian odyssey, and Hollywood cowboy John Wayne was a contemporary drinking and fishing buddy with the mostly benign dictator General Ornar Torrijos. Most recently the original Survivor reality TV show cast away its contestants in the Bocas del Toro Archipelago. However, Panama’s future seems more closely linked with its permanent residents, an ethnically diverse and youthful population, born out of the influx of migrant canal workers, and a great natural biodiversity of 10,000 plant species, 350 birds species and 200 mammals amongst a staggering array of wildlife. The handover of the canal to Panamanian control in 1999 combined with ascendant eco-tourism revenues has led to Panama being referred to as a ‘new Costa Rica’. The protection of 33% of the country’s landmass, more than any of its neighbours, means Panama is poised to join the upsurge in Latin American travel. Sarah Woods, author of Bradt’s new guide, says tourism is in its infancy, ‘Panama is awe-inspiring, humbling and maddening all in one day.’ The new guide is strong on Panama’s fascinating mix of cultures, from the traditional Kuna in the San Blas Islands to the fusion of Latino, Caribbean and Indian influences in Bocas region. The role of the canal, past and present, together with natural history, national parks and marine conservation are key features of the guide together with in-depth coverage of the eco-tourism hotspot of Bocas del Toro. For those still not convinced to visit, look no further than The Sun whose exhaustive research summed up Panama as ‘where the worst of North America and Central America meet’, this alone should be enough to recommend it.

Sarah Woods is a travel writer who discovered Panama in the wake of the canal handover. She now has a second home in the country and has worked on volunteer projects in Bocas del Toro and Panama City.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Panama: The Bradt Travel Guide

Author: Sarah Woods

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £13.95

ISBN: 1 84162 117 X

Bradt Travel Guides
19 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

FIRST EDITION

CHILE
THE BRADT TRAVEL GUIDE

It seems oddly appropriate for such a long thin country, squeezed between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, to be described by a very fat book. In the first edition of Bradt’s Chile by South American specialist Tim Burford, readers will find the most comprehensive guide yet to a country whose 40° of latitude stretch over 4,300kms encompassing more climates, habitats and cultures than any other on the continent.

Chile’s superlative topography varies from towering snow-capped Andean peaks and rainy Patagonian pampas to dense coastal forests and near-perfect winelands of the Central Valley and Lake District. In contrast further north from Santiago, the arid landscapes of the Atacama Desert can claim to be the world’s driest with no rainfall in over 500 years. Politically too, Chile has experienced extremes, including its own infamous September 11th (1973) when a violent CIA-backed army coup, involving jet-fighters firing rockets at La Moneda (Parliament building), deposed the elected, though flawed, government of Salvador Allende…the rest is history. These days, post Pinochet Chile has entered its own truth and reconciliation process and is one of Latin America’s more prosperous nations. An excellent transport system, great range of accommodation and little crime, together with an effective 20% devaluation of the Peso and the rise in profile of South American travel, make Chile an increasingly attractive destination. Chile contains unsurpassed up-to-date detail on domestic travel, in-depth coverage of wildlife and environment. Adventure activities from skiing and hiking to surfing and sailing vie for space with Chilean culture from art and architecture to festivals and fiestas. The guide is completed by a handy Chilean Spanish primer covering basic vocabulary together with a selection of Chilenismos (slang).

CASTAWAY! For those needing an extreme dose of adventure, the guide details Isla Robinson Crusoe in the Juan Fernández Archipelago. Here spiky Scotsman Alexander Selkirk was marooned, spending four years with a knife, a gun, 14 bullets and the comfort of goats, inspiring Defoe’s fictional castaway.

Tim Burford studied languages at Oxford before a brief career as a publisher. He began writing for Bradt in 1991, firstly covering hiking in east-central Europe and then backpacking and ecotourism, to date penning seven Bradt titles. He now divides his time between writing and leading hiking tours.

For review copies or interviews, call Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk


Title: Chile: The Bradt Travel Guide

Author: Tim Burford

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £16.95

ISBN: 1 84162 076 9

Bradt Travel Guides
19 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

GORDON, KITCHENER, CHURCHILL, IDI AMIN, OSAMA BIN LADEN AND TONY BLAIR

HAVE ALL EXPERIENCED SUDANESE HOSPITALITY.

NOW IT'S YOUR CHANCE...

YALLA SUDAN

First Edition

The largest country in Africa, with more pyramids than Egypt and, until recently, the continent’s longest running civil war, Sudan has of late attracted only low numbers of travellers. Having endured mind-numbing bureaucracy and travel rough enough to rid many of ‘the Africa bug’, those tenacious, happy few venturing to Sudan will, Inshallah, experience life-affirming hospitality and adventurous travel at their very best.

Author Paul Clammer writes, “the lack of a current guidebook to Sudan has long been frustrating…Most travellers have the impression of a big sandy place to be transited as quickly as possible…” Publisher Hilary Bradt visited Sudan in 1976 and wrote in her first Africa guidebook: ‘The Sudanese are mysterious, beautiful and hospitable. Anyone asking directions in the Sudan evokes their traditional laws of hospitality which means a cup of tea, or a cooling drink, at the very least. They’ll really bend over backwards to see that you’re looked after. We certainly never saw the like of it anywhere else on the continent.’ She adds now, “How wonderful to read Paul’s comment: ‘Indeed, it’s not uncommon for trans-Africa travellers to commend Sudan as their favourite country in the whole continent.’ So it hasn’t changed!”
The guide’s first half provides historical context for the many present-day realities of life in Sudan and gives up-to-date practical advice for prospective travellers. The second section explores Sudan from the confluence of the Blue and White Niles at Khartoum and Dervish grave dancing of neighbouring Omdurman to the pyramids of the Nubian Desert, railhead town of Atbara and frontier settlement of Wadi Halfa in the north. Heading south, chapters encompass El Obeid, the world’s Gum Arabic capital, and the fertile Nuba Mountains, where travel is just beginning to open up in the wake of the peace agreement. Elsewhere the sugarloaf Taka Mountains near Kassala and the Eritrea border are described together with the pristine dive sites of Sudan’s Red Sea coast.
Publication coincides with an historic peace and power sharing agreement. Against this new political backdrop there is genuine hope that the peacemaking efforts will shift to troubled Darfur.

Paul Clammer works for an adventure-travel company and runs a website dedicated to independent travel in Kabul. In 2002 he crossed Sudan following the Nile from its source in Ethiopia to the sea and fell in love with the place and its people.

For review copies or interviews, contact Nick Redmayne at Travel Media – 01830 540 440 or info@travel-media.co.uk

Title: Sudan: The Bradt travel Guide

Author: Paul Clammer

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Price: £13.95

ISBN: 1 84162 1145

For review copies of any Bradt Travel Guide
contact Debbie Everson at the Bradt office.
Bradt Travel Guides
19 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

WANDERLUST

TRAVEL AWARD WINNERS

At the end of 2004 Wanderlust asked readers to share their experiences in all areas of travel - over 2,500 voiced their opinions covering 151 countries, 335 tour operators and numerous travel specialists. At Destinations travel show Bradt Travel Guides received their award from Wanderlust Editor Lyn Hughes and Radio 4 Excess Baggage presenter and humorist Arthur Smith.

Bradt Travel Guides – Bronze Award
For Best Guidebook Series in the UK 2004

No stranger to ‘extreme publishing’ and an eternal pioneer in the field of travel guides Bradt has excelled in leading travellers off the global High Street and out of the backpacker pipeline, offering an insightful, refreshing and occasionally subjective view of the road less travelled. Founder Hilary Bradt commented, “It’s great to have this support for our publishing programme which emphasises not just the less-known destinations, but the natural history and cultural background that make them so special. The award demonstrates that travellers are becoming increasingly adventurous in terms of where they travel while maintaining a sense of responsibility in how they travel.”
New Bradt Travel Guides soon to be published include:
Sudan - with more pyramids than Egypt the largest country in Africa is an emerging destination offering riches which include the ancient kingdom of Kush and the marine wonders of the Red Sea.
Panama – the underrated bridge between Central and South America. The archipelagos of Bocas del Toro offers uncrowded beaches while more than one third of the country is conserved as rainforest. Cited as the new Costa Rica in terms of birding and wildlife but with the added attraction of indigenous peoples including Kuna and Embera Indians.
2005 titles include Nigeria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Ljubljana, Costa Rica and Eccentric California.

For review copies of any Bradt Travel Guide
contact Debbie Everson at the Bradt office.
Bradt Travel Guides
19 High Street
Chalfont St Peter
Bucks SL9 9QE
tel 01753 893 444
fax 01753 892 333

email info@bradtguides.com
web www.bradtguides.com  

Posted 15/02/05

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