Travel Blog of the Week...Cool Travel Guide

This weeks ‘Travel Blog of the Week’ is Cool Travel Guide by Lara Dunston, a self confessed perpetual traveler and travel writer. Lara has written over 20 guidebooks and is frequently published in travel magazines around the world.

Read this very first post (Aleppo: no practicalities) of Cool Travel Guide and you’ll immediately see why I love this blog.

"I want to share with you the things I find cool when I travel. The things I can't share with you in the guidebooks I write. Take this scene from the Aleppo souq. It's two in the afternoon and this man's asleep at his shop. It's a cane shop. And they certainly look like nice canes. But that's not the point. I can't write about a cane shop in a guidebook. Who wants to buy canes? Canes don't make great souvenirs. And regardless, including this man's little cane shop would be a headache. It doesn't have a name. There's no phone number. I can't even remember which alley it was on, so how do I answer the editor's query about the practicalities (you know, that practical information in fine print). But what I want to tell you is to make sure you wander the Aleppo souq during siesta when the shopkeepers are taking their naps. You won't be hassled. You won't have to fight your way past boys on donkeys. And you'll witness these moments. A slice of souq life. Of humanity. They're touching. These are the moments that make travel cool for me. Tell me about your cool travel moments."

I was hooked and I’ve been reading the Cool Travel Guide ever since, travelling throughout the world and discovering unique, intriguing, and interesting places hidden in plain sight. Places that you will never discover in a travel guide book.

Cool Travel Guide also maintains a brilliant blogroll of travel related blogs, travel websites, travel media, magazines, and guidebooks -everything an aspiring travel writer needs at her fingertips.

Stop by. Check it out. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

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