Best Travel Language Phrasebooks

This handy guide provides key phrases for use in everyday circumstances, complete with phonetic spelling, an English-Italian and Italian-English dictionary, the latest information on European currency and rail transportation, and even a tear-out cheat sheet for continued language practice as you wait in line at the Sistine Chapel. With the help of his hardworking staff of 80 at Europe Through the Back Doorin Edmonds, Washington, just north of SeattleRick's mission is to make European travel fun, affordable, and culturally broadening for Americans.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My husband and I -- who travel frequently and rarely get sick -- contracted some kind of horrible flu/sinus infection/plague on the way out or Rome and needed to seek urgent medical consultation and care from a pharmacy on the Amalfi coast. The Rick Steves guide came to our rescue because it had more than three times the amount of health and medical vocabulary than the Lonely Planet book, which we desperately needed because we had a lot of specific symptoms to communicate and the pharmacist/doctor only spoke a few words of English."
"Came in handy during our trip to Italy."
"This came in handy in Italy."
"It is what I ordered and expected."
"Really loved this book on my internship to Italy."
"Small pocket size with easy to pronounce guides to hundreds of words!"
"We bought this in preparation for a proposed trip."
"We've taken 5 trips to Italy and got along fine with English, but we had a chance to take a course in Italian and bought this book to help us along."

This handy guide provides key phrases for use in everyday circumstances and comes complete with phonetic spelling, an English-French and French-English dictionary, the latest information on European currency and rail transportation, and even a tear-out cheat sheet for continued language practice as you wait in line at the Louvre. With the help of his hardworking staff of 80 at Europe Through the Back Doorin Edmonds, Washington, just north of SeattleRick's mission is to make European travel fun, affordable, and culturally broadening for Americans.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is a very practical and helpful guide to all things French."
"I also like the fact that the pages were tough and made for heavy usage and carrying around."
"Nice reference for someone who doesn't know French or just forgot what they learned in high school French."
"This is a great little phrase book!"
"This is a most useful little book."
"Each of the various sections are necessary. and important in order to understand and learn the French culture abroad."
"We aren't fluent in French and only know a small handful of basic words and phrases, so this book not only was very handy but also enabled us to conduct a variety of basic transactions/conversations."
"I used this phrase book while in Montreal."

The perfect companion for tourists and business travelers in Spain and Latin America, it features words, phrases, and sentences that cover everything from asking directions to making reservations to ordering dinner. Pablo Garcia-Loaeza is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at West Virginia University, where he specializes in Latin American literature and culture.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Now instead of learning to say things such as, "My dog likes to drink water," and "The penguins don't like my sister's blue dress," I can actually order in restaurants, ask directions, shop, ask for help, etc."
"Excellent."
"A very useful book of phrases to help bolster those who are studying Spanish."
"If you serious about learning, this is the best value for real results."
"Handy book to carry with you on a trip to any Spanish speaking country."
"Comes in handy when trying to interact with a Spanish speaker."
"I am completely happy with my purchase and how quickly it arrived."
"Great for homeschool Spanish!"
Best Travel Atlases & Maps

Talk about a bucket list: here are natural wonders—the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that's so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan's 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England. “Fair warning: It's addictive.” — NPR, “Cosmos & Culture” “In this gorgeous collection, the celebrated Atlas Obscura website is condensed into 480 pages of awe-inspiring destinations. “Odds are you won’t get past three pages without being amazed at something truly strange that you didn’t know existed.” — San Francisco Chronicle. “Richly illustrated, delightfully strange, this compendium of off-beat destinations should spark many adventures, both terrestrial and imaginary.” — Boston Globe. “Whether describing a Canadian museum that showcases world history through shoes, a pet-casket company that will also sell you a unit for your severed limb, a Greek snake festival, or a place in the Canary Islands where inhabitants communicate through whistling, the authors have compiled an enthralling range of oddities. Featuring full-color illustrations, this hefty and gorgeously produced tome will be eagerly pored over by readers of many ages and fans of the original website.”— Booklist (Starred Review). a wonderful browse [for] armchair travelers who enjoyed Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York and Frank Warren’s PostSecret .” — Library Journal. It's the kind of book that makes you want to pack in your workaday life and head out to places you'd never have dreamed of going, to see things you could not even have imagined. “ Atlas Obscura is a joyful antidote to the creeping suspicion that travel these days is little more than a homogenized corporate shopping opportunity. Here are hundreds of surprising, perplexing, mind-blowing, inspiring reasons to travel a day longer and farther off the path. Never start a trip without knowing where a haunted hotel or a mouth of hell is!”. —GUILLERMO DEL TORO, filmmaker, Pan’s Labyrinth “ What a strange and wonderful book! Each page reveals some hidden realm—a realm that is frightening, or funny, or magical, or simply mad, but that always leaves the reader in wonder.”. —DAVID GRANN, author of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Be grateful when visiting the Karni Mata Rat Temple if one of the 20,000 venerated rodents runs across your bare foot—it is considered good luck.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Revel in the places that you've seen!"
"I read a short description of the book in the travel section of the SF Chronicle a few weeks ago, and made the purchase based on that. That said, there are items about things I have no interest in seeing, e.g., “Lake Monsters of the USA,” but there don’t seem to be many of that sort of thing included. As with "Lake Monsters," even if you (or a recipient) aren't likely to visit many of the places described, I think for many curious people this would make for an interesting read even without the travel element. It's not a perfect book, and I don't think any one book can be perfect for all readers, but I do think it's very good and I can easily recommend it for anyone who might be potentially interested."
"This book exceeded my already higher-than-average expectations."
"We purchased it for our 19 year old grandson."
"Such a fascinating book!"
"Super fun and entertaini g read if the off beat and curious is your thing."
"Purchased as a gift and spent much of one night pouring through it before giving it away."
"This book is great to have around to pick up while you're waiting for your son to put his socks on, when your eyes need a screen break, during a boring conference call, when you just want to escape your little world for a few minutes."
Best Travel Tips

About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.'.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"it is a good book."
"These are a fun line of books."
"These are a fun line of books."
"Would Gladly purchase again!"
"A perfect gift for the traveler-types that have hippie leanings!"
"Excellent book."
"I was honestly expecting a bigger book (although I guessed I could have seen the page numbers in the description).The pictures and organization of topics is great, and it can be very inspiring at times."
"Refreshing to learn of world wide traditions that can build guiding principles for living a life of peace, connection and perspective."
Best General Travel Reference

Talk about a bucket list: here are natural wonders—the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that's so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan's 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England. “Fair warning: It's addictive.” — NPR, “Cosmos & Culture” “In this gorgeous collection, the celebrated Atlas Obscura website is condensed into 480 pages of awe-inspiring destinations. “Odds are you won’t get past three pages without being amazed at something truly strange that you didn’t know existed.” — San Francisco Chronicle. “Richly illustrated, delightfully strange, this compendium of off-beat destinations should spark many adventures, both terrestrial and imaginary.” — Boston Globe. “Whether describing a Canadian museum that showcases world history through shoes, a pet-casket company that will also sell you a unit for your severed limb, a Greek snake festival, or a place in the Canary Islands where inhabitants communicate through whistling, the authors have compiled an enthralling range of oddities. Featuring full-color illustrations, this hefty and gorgeously produced tome will be eagerly pored over by readers of many ages and fans of the original website.”— Booklist (Starred Review). a wonderful browse [for] armchair travelers who enjoyed Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York and Frank Warren’s PostSecret .” — Library Journal. It's the kind of book that makes you want to pack in your workaday life and head out to places you'd never have dreamed of going, to see things you could not even have imagined. “ Atlas Obscura is a joyful antidote to the creeping suspicion that travel these days is little more than a homogenized corporate shopping opportunity. Here are hundreds of surprising, perplexing, mind-blowing, inspiring reasons to travel a day longer and farther off the path. Never start a trip without knowing where a haunted hotel or a mouth of hell is!”. —GUILLERMO DEL TORO, filmmaker, Pan’s Labyrinth “ What a strange and wonderful book! Each page reveals some hidden realm—a realm that is frightening, or funny, or magical, or simply mad, but that always leaves the reader in wonder.”. —DAVID GRANN, author of The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Be grateful when visiting the Karni Mata Rat Temple if one of the 20,000 venerated rodents runs across your bare foot—it is considered good luck.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Revel in the places that you've seen!"
"I read a short description of the book in the travel section of the SF Chronicle a few weeks ago, and made the purchase based on that. That said, there are items about things I have no interest in seeing, e.g., “Lake Monsters of the USA,” but there don’t seem to be many of that sort of thing included. As with "Lake Monsters," even if you (or a recipient) aren't likely to visit many of the places described, I think for many curious people this would make for an interesting read even without the travel element. It's not a perfect book, and I don't think any one book can be perfect for all readers, but I do think it's very good and I can easily recommend it for anyone who might be potentially interested."
"This book exceeded my already higher-than-average expectations."
"We purchased it for our 19 year old grandson."
"Such a fascinating book!"
"Super fun and entertaini g read if the off beat and curious is your thing."
"Purchased as a gift and spent much of one night pouring through it before giving it away."
"This book is great to have around to pick up while you're waiting for your son to put his socks on, when your eyes need a screen break, during a boring conference call, when you just want to escape your little world for a few minutes."