travel guide

How Savvy a Traveler are You? Take the Condé Nast Test and See

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Books

"The Conde Nast Traveler Where Are You?" is a coffee-table extravaganza based on the travel magazine's monthly contest.

Readers in every issue since 1993 are challenged to identify a secret international location. Each page is a puzzle ranging from desolate deserts and scintillating cities to architectural icons and undersea wonders shot from a glass-bottom boat.

There are no dead giveaways.

The clues are there for those with good visual memories who have been around the world more than once. And for those who haven't, you can still test your travel savvy.

One invitation to figure out where a photo of an earth and stone structure was shot begins like this: "You are looking into a spiral pit, one of a series dug into the ground by a pre-Christian civilization." Another begins: "You are standing in a former watchtower...surveying a town that has looked this way for five hundred years."

You won't have to wait a month to get the answers as in the travel magazine's "Where are you?" page as they are listed in the back of the book ($65).

Tags: Assouline, books, conde nast, conde nast traveler, The Conde Nast Traveler Where Are You, travel guide

Custom Hg2 Travel Guides from Tumi

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Books

Chic luggage and travel accessories company Tumi has partnered with Hg2, the Hedonist series of travel guides, on a distinctive, stylized set of guidebooks in a bespoke case. Eight customized Hg2 guides – for Paris, London, Milan, Tokyo, Berlin, New York, Buenos Aires and Dubai – come sheathed in Tumi's signature ballistic nylon.

To evoke the theme of travel, the open case has a handle and luggage tag. Infused with the Tumi lifestyle, the colorful customized guides, known for their lavish photography, contain original content and serve as a passport to the best each city has to offer.

Each chapter is segmented with sections dedicated to, Work, Rest and Play. For the complete immersion in a particular destination, the guides include a comprehensive address book of key contacts for everything from gyms and hair stylists to florists and more.

With a retail value of $125 as an added bonus each purchase will be accompanied by a complimentary one-year membership to Hg2.com with updates and extras.

[via JustLuxe]

Tags: guidebook, Hg2, luggage, travel guide, TravelGuide, Tumi

Dream of Italy at Christmas -- and Every Day in 2010

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Italy is one of those countries that seems to get a grip on the imagination and just doesn't let go. Kathy McCabe, publisher of the well-regarded travel newsletter Dream of Italy, says that 40% of her subscribers have been to Italy six or more times -- and they keep finding reasons to return.

Now, McCabe and her contributors have so much information to share that the monthly newsletter is overflowing. Starting in 2010, the site is launching a daily newsletter, "Italian Day Dreams", which will cover Italian food, wine, travel and lifestyle. "Italian Day Dreams" will be free, while an annual subscription to the monthly newsletter costs $99 if you receive it on paper, and $79 if you receive it online.

Sign up for the daily email and you'll also get a sumptuous gift: Christmas in Italy, a 35 page ebook filled with all you need to know about spending the holiday in a country that really knows how to celebrate, and I mean for an entire month -- the festivities start December 6th, with La festa di San Nicola (the feast of St. Nicholas) and continue through January 6th, L'Epifania, or Epiphany, which marks the arrival of the the three wise men to visit the baby Jesus.

Tags: christmas, ebook, holiday traditions, HolidayTraditions, italy, newsletter, travel, travel guide, travel tips, TravelGuide, TravelTips

Luxe City Guides Offer Only the Best

by Sandy Maple (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

Luxe City Guides are not your ordinary travel books. In fact, they aren't books at all. They are are beautiful, sleek, accordion-style guides that are small enough to fit in your pocket. These travel and style guides point the discerning traveler to only the best of the best in Asian, European and Australian cities.

From Bali to Tokyo, the guides are packed with personally researched information from city-insiders who know their way around the fashion, food and entertainment scenes. Luxe takes things a step further by including information on services, shops and secrets that you might never find on your own. With Luxe, you are a visitor, not a tourist.

Whether you are looking for the best martini in Istanbul, want to design your own handbags in Hanoi or desire a quiet moment in a secret garden in the heart of Bangkok, Luxe will take you there in style.

The guides are written in an opinionated and irreverent style and are beautiful to look at. With no paid advertising, the Luxe City Guides are updated twice each year with regular online updates.

Buy the guides individually for $9 each, or get a customized boxed set of twelve for $108.

Source

Tags: asia travel, AsiaTravel, austrtalia travel, AustrtaliaTravel, bali, bangkok, city guide, CityGuide, entertainment, european travel, EuropeanTravel, hanoi, istanbul, luxe travel guide, LuxeTravelGuide, style, tokyo, travel, travel guide, travel secrets, TravelGuide, TravelSecrets