“Beginner’s Guide to Cruising”
BookSurge Publishing, $15
People considering a cruise for the first time can be overwhelmed by choices: which cruise line, ship, itinerary? These and other questions are answered in Aaron Mase’s book, a short primer on the complexities of cruise travel. He also offers advice on what to do when you finally board and how to handle the last day of the cruise. In addition, he comments on topics from the crucial (seasickness) to the mundane (laundry).
“Stern’s Guide to the Cruise Vacation” — 2010 edition
Pelican, $26
More experienced travelers — and those not intimidated by sheer size (736 pages) — can turn to Steven B. Stern. Updated annually, the book’s 20th edition covers virtually everything you need to know about cruise vacations. In addition to the preparation procedures, he has chapters on all kinds of specialty cruising such as for singles, tennis buffs and joggers, and cruising with children. He also offers detailed descriptions of European riverboats and barges. Of course, the cruise lines and their vessels themselves get the full treatment.
“British Columbia & the Yukon”
Lonely Planet, $19.99
With the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver fast approaching, this is a good time to take a look at British Columbia and its northern neighbor, the Yukon Territory. The authors recommend various theme trips to consider, such as Foodie B.C., a wine-flavored journey (the Okanagan Valley has dozens of wineries) or a trip that takes in various UNESCO World Heritage sites, from Banff to the Klondike area. Because most people go to experience the great outdoors, there is plenty of information on activities such as cycling and mountain biking, hiking and backpacking, skiing and snowboarding. The authors also spend considerable space, rightly so, on British Columbia’s best-known ski resorts. An entire chapter is devoted to Whistler, a host of Winter Olympics mountain events. Moving northward, they offer brief portraits of the Yukon’s small cities and towns, from Whitehorse (at population 23,000, the biggest) to Dawson City, the-end-of-the-road former Gold Rush town and “one of North America’s most authentically colorful towns.” For literary buffs, Dawson City also boasts poet and writer Robert Service’s cabin and the Jack London Interpretive Center. As with every Lonely Planet book, a big part of the fun is perusing the many fascinating sidebars, such as the brief description of curling, one of Canada’s national sports (“loosely defined as shuffleboard on ice”) — every town in the region has a curling club — or their concise sketch of the three main highways that run through the Yukon. Includes a color insert.
“National Geographic Image Collection”
National Geographic, $50
When you have almost 11 million images to choose from, selecting the best and most representative can be tough. But the editors behind this marvelous collection were up to the challenge. They chose 450 photographs that capture the range and depth of their institution’s remarkable collection. Photography curator Michelle Anne Delaney wrote an essay offering a historical perspective on the collection, and Leah Bendavid-Val wrote the foreword. “We’ve made room,” Bendavid-Val notes, “for the whimsical, the quirky and the unexpected.” The society was established in 1888; nine months after that first meeting, National Geographic magazine was published. The first photograph to appear in the magazine, of remote Herald Island in the Arctic in the July 1890 issue, is included here. The historic scenes are not only impressive in their own right but also potent reminders of the power of images: a stark photo of an ice-clogged ship in the Arctic Ocean in 1905-06, a photo of an astronaut floating above Earth, or the solitude of a Martian sunset. Some photos are simply one of a kind: three police officers — triplets — staring straight into the camera while sitting in a New Jersey squad car in 1981 or the world as seen through one drop of seawater. The book is divided into four major sections: exploration, wildlife, people and culture, and science and climate change.
“Cape Town: City Guide”
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Lonely Planet, $19.99
Cape Town is considered South Africa’s most multicultural city. It’s Christian but also Muslim and Jewish and Hindu and gay-friendly as well as traditionally African. It also is linguistically complex: Three of South Africa’s 11 official languages are spoken here: Afrikaans (spoken by many), English (spoken by nearly everyone) and Xhosa (spoken primarily by blacks). The authors describe what to do, see and eat in various neighborhoods and suburbs and also suggest several walking tours. An entire chapter is devoted to wine, because more than 200 wineries are within a day’s drive of Cape Town. One of the popular places to visit is Robben Island — now a museum and United Nations World Heritage site — where visitors can see Nelson Mandela’s cell. And given South Africa’s complicated history, the authors have put together a useful sidebar on how visitors can circumnavigate the country’s reaction to racism for, as they point out, whatever your skin color, “the constant awareness of race, even if it doesn’t lead to problems, is an annoying feature of travel in South Africa.”