New Moon Boutique Storefront on Amazon

May 9th, 2008 | By Joshua | No Comments »

Browse the new Amazon.com Moon Handbook storefront, featuring pretty book covers and a fun collection of colorful photo essays and Q&As with a handful of authors, including yours truly for two of my titles.

Check out the main page, or go straight to my features:

• Nicaragua Photo Essay
• Q&A on Belize
• Main Moon Storefront
  

Lonely Planet “scandal” passes; guidebooks left in the debris

April 16th, 2008 | By Joshua | 3 Comments »

Now that Thomas Kohnstamm has revealed that the global uproar over his alleged “plagiarism” wasn’t really all that (he’d just done a “desk update,” which is occasionally standard in the fast-paced Lonely Planet production process), it’s obvious that gadling.com blogger Jeffrey White was right from the beginning: Who f-in cares? White, however, takes it one step further, rejecting the entire genre of guidebooks:

“The Kohnstamm revelation further cements in my mind—and I’m betting in a few of yours—the belief that guidebooks are by and large a sham … Guidebooks are the CliffNotes of travel writing, nothing more than a hand-holding exercise. They’re good for a few names and a few addresses, some initial info, and maybe even the surprising fun fact … Beyond that, they’re useless. They’re often wrong, more often skewed, and they seek to rob you of the only thing you have as a traveler: your impression.”

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Blogosphere buzzes with juicy Lonely Planet guidebook scandal!

April 13th, 2008 | By Joshua | 5 Comments »

I posted a brief blip a few weeks ago about the allegedly scandalous upcoming title from Random House, Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? by Thomas Kohnstamm. Since then, lurid morsels of the sex and sin to come have been dangled in the press, as well as the swift responses by fellow guidebook authors, even though few of us have read the book yet:

–CNN: “Travel writer tells newspaper he plagiarized, dealt drugs”

–BBC: “Lonely Planet rebuts ‘fake’ claim”

–New Zealand Herald: “More sex than Paeroa”

The bloggers respond:

–Brave New Traveler: Do LP Writers Go to Hell? Thomas Kohnstamm Might

–Gadling: “5 Reasons to be Outraged by the Lonely Planet Fraud”

–David Stanley: “Lonely Planet Author Unmasked”

–Roving Gastronome: “The Kohnstamm Affair: A Long Rant on What It’s Really Like to Be a Guidebook Author”

–First mention on the Tranquilo Traveler

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PerceptiveTravel.com Round-up of Fellow Bloggers

April 12th, 2008 | By Joshua | No Comments »

To blog? Or not to blog? I join a few fellow writers over at Perceptive Travel to answer the why and wherefore of this question. Writes the interviewer, Liz Lewis:

“Curious to find out why professional writers who already have a paid market for their work would also spend hours creating and maintaining travel blogs, I decided to put the following questions - ‘Why do you think travel writers blog?’ and ‘What made you start a travel blog?’ - to a few travel writers.”

Perceptive Travel Blog
PerceptiveTravel.com

Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?

March 29th, 2008 | By Joshua | 4 Comments »

That’s the title of the new industry exposé by Thomas Kohnstamm, subtitle: “A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism.” Expect lots of drugs and hookers, I’m told. Here’s the tantalizing description from Random House: Kohnstamm “unveils the underside of the travel industry and its often-harrowing effect on writers, travelers, and the destinations themselves. Moreover, he invites us into his world of compromising and scandalous situations in one of the most exciting countries as he races against an impossible deadline.” Seems like a trend, especially after the recent Chuck Thompson book, Smile While You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer, which pissed off a lot of writers, but which I found absolutely hilarious and important.

Tranquilo Conversation on Planeta.com

March 19th, 2008 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

I’ve begun a “slow conversation” with the folks at Planeta.com, one of the Internet’s most practical, thoughtful forums on ecotourism. It’s an appropriate place for us slow travelers to gather. In the initial exchange, I answer what gets my goat and what gives me hope.
[LINK]

Thirty Years in the Field: Guidebook guru David Stanley reflects on the history of Moon Handbooks

March 1st, 2008 | By Joshua | No Comments »

His territory includes the South Pacific, Micronesia, Alaska, Eastern Europe, and Cuba, areas which David traveled back when you could camp on the beach in Bora Bora if you didn’t want to pay at the island’s only resort. In a piece he just wrote for Pacific Magazine, “Just Pretend it Isn’t Me: Thirty Years as a Guidebook Writer,” David recalls his work on some of the first Moon Handbooks titles. Moon is a guidebook series by Avalon Travel Publishing which now has over a hundred titles. David’s South Pacific handbook has been the most trusted travelers’ tome to this vast stretch of the earth and his website, www.southpacific.org remains a popular resource as well. Alas, Moon Handbooks South Pacific’s eighth edition will be the book’s final printing. Increased competition and the Internet have contributed to declining sales … but this wasn’t the case back in the day, when David was researching his first edition:

“In 1976 and 1977 I made two extensive trips to Indonesia accompanied by a slim red volume titled Indonesia, A Traveler’s Notes. Each winter when I returned to my job as a customer service representative at a Caribbean resort, I dutifully typed out my own impressions of Indonesia and mailed them to the guidebook’s author, Bill Dalton.”

That’s how it started; next he knew, he bought a plane ticket with fifty stops between Los Angeles and Singapore, and found himself in increasingly unexpected position: “Evidentially the airport officials became suspicious when they saw me writing in my notebook while awaiting my flight, and someone commented that they’d seen me prowling around the airport perimeter the week before.” [LINK]

Perceptive Travel: Traveling with Babies and Drinking Scotch

January 26th, 2008 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

The new issue of Perceptive Travel features stories ranging from pole to pole, with some fine Scotch in between. As a new dad, I’m looking forward to reading Fawzia Rasheed de Francisco’s piece about traveling with children: “Is traveling with kids something to fear, fret over, and throw your old independent spirit out the window for, or does it just require a little tweaking?” (I’m hoping for the latter). Francisco is author of The Rough Guide to Travel with Babies and Young Children. Perceptive Travel is a “rag-tag” bimonthly effort to pull together a great collection of writing. I don’t read it as much as I should.

Planeta.com Book-of-the-Year for Moon Belize

December 6th, 2007 | By Joshua | No Comments »

A quick diversion from Nicaragua, and a look up the Central American coast: Thanks to everyone who voted for Moon Belize in Planeta.com’s Book-of-the-Year contest—and congratulations to the other winners and nominees! I appreciate your support and I wish you all very happy, occasionally scary, and always life-changing travels. Belize is one of the most fascinating little countries in the world and I am humbly grateful to be able to keep returning there. There is no place like Belize—there is no place like Nicaragua—and there is no place like any place in the world. I want to visit them all, just wish I had the time…

Moon Belize up for Award - Vote Now!

October 29th, 2007 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

A couple of news items regarding my latest book, Moon Belize, 7th Edition:

Moon Belize is up for Planeta.com’s 2007 Book of the Year Award in the “Best Place-Based Guidebook” category. Visit Planeta.com (an excellent sustainable tourism resource), and if you’ve had a chance to check out my book and the other nominees, go ahead and cast your vote.

There’s also a new Q&A on Moon.com, where I answer questions about budget accommodations, cheap eats, beaches, diving, and Maya ruins in Belize. Enjoy.

Finally, if you’re planning a trip to one of the world’s best little countries, be sure to check out the Belize Travel Planner, featuring a number of suggested itineraries and must-see sights from Moon Belize.