Tuesday, August 05, 2008

10 of the Oddest Travel Guides Ever Published...

Slate has put together a list of what they consider the '10 oddest travel guides ever published.'


1. The Truth About Hunting in Today's Africa, and How To Go on Safari for $690.00 by George Leonard Herter (1963)

2. A Guide Through the District of the Lakes in the North of England by William Wordsworth (5th edition, 1835)

3. Das Generalgouvernement by Karl Baedeker (1943)

4. Fodor's Indian America by Jamake Highwater (1975)

5. Bollocks to Alton Towers by Robin Halstead, et al. (2006)

6. Travel Guide of Negro Hotels and Guest Houses by Afro-American Newspapers (1942)

7. Lonely Planet Guide to Micronations by John Ryan et al. (2006)

8. The Night Climbers of Cambridge by "Whipplesnaith" (1937)

9. A Tramp Trip: How To See Europe on Fifty Cents a Day by Lee Meriwether (1886)

10. Overland to India and Australia by the BIT Travel & Help Service (1970)



I haven't read any of them, although I have heard of a couple.

Head on over to the Slate article to find out what makes these travel guides unique.

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10 comments:

Gurunath said...

Nice work....See my wallpapers from India...Some are great monuments...

Caffienated Cowgirl said...

Hmmmm...Bollocks to Alton Towers? Only the finer things in the UK?? Too funny.

Anonymous said...

What a great list!

Liz Lewis said...

anyone read any of these books???

Anonymous said...

I've read Bollocks To Alton Towers - there's some great stuff in there. Well worth buying if you can get hold of it.

Essentially it just explores all the ridiculously odd tourist attractions in Britain. I've been to a couple of them myself as a result.

British Lawnmower Museum anyone?

Anonymous said...

I read 'Bollocks to Alton Towers' and its quite a good book. Worth reading.

Anonymous said...

>>A Guide Through the District of the Lakes in the North of England by William Wordsworth (5th edition, 1835)<<

This is said to be the first guide-book ever to be written ... I haven't read it all, but bits of it sometimes get quoted in modern guide-books. In particular, the boat cruise people are particularly fond of the bit that says the low hills around Windermere are best viewed from the lake.

One of my favourite oddities is 'Fair Dale of Wensley' by Edmund Bogg ... they wouldn't let me out of the library with it. I had to read it on the premises

Anonymous said...

I'm actually trying to find this one

The Night Climbers of Cambridge by "Whipplesnaith" (1937)

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