Lonely Planet - The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World

The Story of The Travel Book

Most travel journeys take in just a country or two, but
the journey youre about to embark on incorporates every
country on earth. In this book youll find evocative glimpses
of every single country in the world, from Afghanistan to
Zimbabwe, from the postage-stamp-sized Vatican City to
the epic expanse of Russia.

To actually visit all the countries in this book would
require several passports and a suitcase of plane tickets, or
it can be simulated with a turn of these pages. Highlighted
by some of the finest photography in the world, The Travel
Book offers a glimpse of each countrys perks and quirks:
when to go, what to see, how to eat it up and drink it in,
and ways to immerse yourself in the life and the land. What
results is a grand snapshot of our diverse and kaleidoscopic
world rather than an encyclopedic reference. Its a book
that unashamedly views the planet through the prism of
the traveller, focusing on places for their beauty, charm
or singularity, even if this does sometimes conflict with
defined political or geographical borders.

The Country Conundrum

A country count can be an arbitrary thing. As a
starting place weve used the United Nations
list of 192 member states. Every one of these
countries features in the book, but weve also
built on the list to include foreign dependencies,
whether they be self-governing or not, that are
popular traveller destinations. Thus youll find
Caribbean islands (Anguilla, Cayman Islands,
Guadeloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Turks &
Caicos, Virgin Islands), Atlantic islands (Bermuda,
Falkland Islands) and Pacific islands (Cook Islands,
Guam & Northern Marianas, New Caledonia,
Pitcairn Islands, Tahiti & French Polynesia). There
are the two great land masses of Antarctica and
Greenland, which are too large and fascinating
to leave out of any true world guide. There are
disputed lands such as Tibet and Taiwan, and
recognisably unique regions such as Hong Kong,
Macau and French Guiana. Weve also divided
the United Kingdom into its component parts
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
to recognise their individual appeal and their rich
and distinctive histories and cultures.

At the books end youll find an additional
11 places of interest, chosen by Lonely Planets
founder and chief frequent-flyer Tony Wheeler.
These bonus destinations are small dependencies
that still hold great attraction, whether it be the
smoking cigar of Montserrat or that little piece of
Britannia on the Mediterranean, Gibraltar. In total,
you can read about 230 countries and destinations.
Its exhausting just to think about.

The Structure

The Travel Book follows the most straightforward of
formats A to Z rolling through the alphabet of
nations. From a travellers perspective, a countrys
might and power arent necessarily relative to
its fascination and appeal, and weve tried to
capture that, giving equal weight to every country
regardless of whether it has had 15 minutes or
15 centuries of world fame the likes of South
Sudan and Suriname are as noteworthy here as the
superpowers of the US and China.

The books guiding philosophy is to present a
subjective view of the world from Lonely Planets
perspective, looking below the surface to show a

slice of life from every country in the world. Entries
evoke the spirit of each place by appealing to the
senses what you might see and feel, what kind of
food and drink might flavour your visit, and which
books, music or films will help prepare you for
the experience. Youll find the events, objects and
people that are central to each countrys identity
and youll find curious, little-known facts.

Photos are paramount to capturing and sharing
the spirit of a place and its people, and images
in this book have been chosen to weave stories
of their own. Cliched icons and picture-postcard
views have been avoided in favour of photos that
tell of life in its myriad forms at work, at play,
at worship, laughing, singing, relaxing, dancing
or just surviving in order to bring you countries,
not brochures.

You may never visit all The Travel Book s
destinations, but if its true, as Aldous Huxley once
wrote, that to travel is to discover that everyone
is wrong about other countries, then to read about
them all is to find out if you are right.

We hope this new edition of The Travel Book
inspires a world of travel.

MATT MUNRO // JONATHAN GREGSON // ERIC LAFFORGUE // PHILIP LEE HARVEY

Best time to visit

April to June and September to October with all
visits highly dependent on the political weather

Top things to see

A modern and stable society tentatively
emerging from the ruins of war in historic Kabul

The dizzying 800-year-old Minaret of Jam, adrift
in the central mountains

The skyline of Herats medieval old city,
punctuated by its mighty citadel and thicket of
minarets

The blue domes of Mazar-e Sharifs Shrine of
Hazrat Ali, Afghanistans holiest pilgrimage site

The Panjshir Valley, with its rushing river and neat
villages and orchards

Top things to do

Contemplate the ruins of the giant Buddha
statues amid the serene Bamiyan Valley

Trek with yaks across the Pamir Mountains in the
Wakhan Corridor

Dip your toes in the blue mineral waters of the
Band-e Amir lakes

Feel a sense of peace in the rehabilitated Nilma
Gardens, laid out in the classical Mughal style

Haggle for Afghan carpets at their source with
Pashtun, Uzbek and Turkmen traders

Getting under the skin

Read: Eric Newbys witty A Short Walk in the Hindu
Kush , a genuine classic; Rory Stewarts The Places In
Between , an excellent post-Taliban travelogue

Listen: to qataghani wedding songs and spiritual
qawalis (Sufi religious chants), now enjoying a
revival after the music-free years of the Taliban

Watch: Osama , directed by Siddiq Barmak, which
tells the story of a girl assuming a male identity to
work in Taliban-era Kabul

Eat: fat Kandahari pomegranates; sweet grapes
from the Shomali Plain; and (according to Marco
Polo) the best melons in the world

Drink: chai sabz (green tea), drunk scaldingly hot at
a traditional teahouse