Koncocoo

Best Travel Reference

Lonely Planet New Zealand (Travel Guide)
Experience Maori culture, be wowed by beautiful glaciers or hike through gorgeous scenery; all with your trusted travel companion. Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - Maori culture, history, cuisine, arts, music, landscape, wildlife Free, convenient pull-out touring map (included in print version), plus over 90 maps Covers Auckland, Bay of Islands, Coromandel Peninsula, Central Plateau, Rotorua, East Coast, Wellington, Marlborough, West Coast, Christchurch, Dunedin, Queenstown, Fiordland, Southland and more. Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalise your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search capabilities get you to key pages in a flash Embedded links to recommendations' websites Zoom-in maps and images Inbuilt dictionary for quick referencing.
Reviews
"This book was the end-all-be-all for references and recommendations in New Zealand."
"Very informative, with up to date information and good recommendations on activities, restaurants, etc."
"Incredibly helpful in planning my trip to New Zealand."
"Provides most of the necessary information."
"We stuck mostly to the book and had an amazing trip."
"Informative and easy to use and enjoy."
"For trip planning, background history, information about the country and important travel tips to know it is great."
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Lonely Planet's Ultimate Travel: Our List of the 500 Best Places to See... Ranked
Lonely Planet, the world's leading travel guide publisher, brings you the world...ranked. This compilation of the 500 most unmissable sights and attractions in the world has been ranked by Lonely Planet's global community of travel experts, so big name mega-sights such as the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal battle it out with lesser-known hidden gems for a prized place in the top 10, making this the only bucket list you'll ever need. About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community.
Reviews
"it was a bit disappointing, but it is still a beautiful book and i am excited to continue my travels and check off more places!"
"The only thing I didn't like that much is that as the list goes on, there are no pictures for every destination and the description of each place starts getting shorter and shorter."
"This was a gift for a teenager to keep them interested in Travel and seeing the world."
"Perfect coffee table book that has great pics and travel info."
"Nice big hardcover book."
"Great read and has me all excited to start traveling."
"Bought this for a friend."
"Gave this to a friend for Christmas who is a known Traveler."
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The Wine Bible
Announcing the completely revised and updated edition of The Wine Bible , the perennial bestselling wine book praised as “The most informative and entertaining book I’ve ever seen on the subject” (Danny Meyer), “A guide that has all the answers” (Bobby Flay), “Astounding” (Thomas Keller), and “A magnificent masterpiece of wine writing” (Kevin Zraly). “MacNeil’s writing style is engaging and conversational, and if you want to know anything about wine her book is the place to start” – Forbes.com. Karen MacNeil is the only U.S. winner of every major wine award in the English language, including the James Beard Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional of the Year (2004). She is the host of Wine, Food and Friends with Karen MacNeil (PBS nationally); a writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Food & Wine, Saveur, and Town & Country ; and chairman emeritus of the Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley.
Reviews
"NOTE: this is NOT Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia, HJ's Wine Companion, Broadbent's Great Vintage Wine Book, or Oxford's Companion, etc etc (all of which I love & use). Traveling to Jerez and enjoying gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimp) with manzanilla while breathing the salty ocean air...I got that idea from this book, & the retelling of it, helped me pass my last Exam."
"The definitive wine book, although MacNeil's writing can be a bit unhelpful at times ("you don't drink this wine, the wine drinks you"."
"Reads like a digest."
"The Wine Bible has lots of wonderful information about wines."
"My only reservation is about hoe outdated some of the statistics might be."
"I knew I knew very little about wine."
"I have my copy highlighted and full of sticky notes."
"Aside from the serious stuff about grapes and winemaking, etc,, it also has nice little tid-bits like explaining why waiters in restaurants give you the cork to inspect when they open your wine (Her explanation makes perfect sense, but I'd never heard it before)."
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Best Travel Atlases & Maps

Destinations of a Lifetime: 225 of the World's Most Amazing Places
NatGeo takes you on a photographic tour of the world’s most spectacular destinations, inspiring tangible ideas for your next trip. "This breathtaking, 320-page volume, published by National Geographic, contains 250 exquisite color photographs that will either inspire you to see the world or at least give you the opportunity to become the quintessential armchair traveler. Images taken by some of the world’s premier photographers are accompanied by practical travel information for visitors to each place, including dining and lodging options.
Reviews
"I bought this for my 90 year old father who has dementia."
"Very pretty, but not quite as informative as I was hoping."
"People love to look at the book when it's on the coffee table."
"Awesome travel book."
"Nice quality hard cover with great pictures."
"Beautiful book...we have enjoyed going through every page and filling our bucket lists!"
"This was a gift for someone that travels a lot."
"I do not find the photographs well curated, or inspiring."
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Best Travel Language Phrasebooks

Easy Spanish Phrase Book NEW EDITION: Over 700 Phrases for Everyday Use (Dover Language Guides Spanish)
Over 700 conveniently organized expressions include terms for modern telecommunications as well as phrases related to transportation, shopping, medical and emergency situations, and other common circumstances. Pablo Garcia-Loaeza is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at West Virginia University, where he specializes in Latin American literature and culture.
Reviews
"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!"
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Best Travel Tips

Vanabode happily camp, travel and live forever on $20 a day
Revolutionary new travel book shows everyone regardless of current financial condition how to camp, travel and live forever anywhere in the United States on $20 a day. You need this book if any of the following apply to you: if you are so bored with your lifestyle that you don't feel like you're living at all, if you have household expenses so great that you never get ahead or get to do anything fun, if you would like to happily camp, travel or live anywhere on $20 a day, if you are retired and want to keep a house but still travel cheaply, if you would like to downsize from a large RV to save money and time while adding destinations, if you have children you would like to travel and camp easily and cheaply with, if you would like to take time off work to write a book, recover from a tragedy, or change your life, if you are a foreign tourist coming to the U.S. for a long holiday, if are you a survivalist who wants to live off the grid, if you want to disappear and leave your past behind, becoming invisible escaping creditors or stalkers, if you are heading for divorce, blaming your marriage instead of your life, for the boredom killing you, if you want to run your own mobile business? More on these subjects vandweller, vehicle dwelling, van dwelling, living in vehicle, living in van, rv, travel, camp, explore, road, adventure, fun, offgrid, cheap, live, retire, early, quit, work, travel, vacation, van, motorhome, camper, travel trailer, disappear, escape debt, work from home, work while traveling. He released the first version of Vanabode in 2010 and continues to update and upgrade the website supported book, philosophy and strategies employed in this unique method of travel.
Reviews
"If you are interested in simplicity, freedom, stealth, and flexibility, without having to become an electrician, a builder, a plumber, and an expert on solar energy then this is the book for you."
"It's very inspiring so far and I look forward to the very practical aspects of it as well as I really want to know more about free camping and if it's quiet enough and how realistic it is to have no bathroom except a port a toilet inside your van."
"Jason was kind enough to send me an electronic copy of his book after I had purchased it in audio, so that I had easier access to the photos."
"Would love to see an update that includes medical advice for us seniors traveling the country."
"my kindle was at fault and not your book."
"Good perspective and some advise that will challenge some levels of comfort for some people."
"I was expecting more options to be presented but it was very helpful."
"This felt like a sales pitch as to why you should 'vanabode', but very little 'How to'."
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Best Air Travel Reference

Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections
•How planes fly, and a revealing look at the men and women who fly them. •Straight talk on turbulence, pilot training, and safety. •The real story on congestion, delays, and the dysfunction of the modern airport. •The myths and misconceptions of cabin air and cockpit automation. •Terrorism in perspective, and a provocative look at security. •Airfares, seating woes, and the pitfalls of airline customer service. •The colors and cultures of the airlines we love to hate. “Patrick Smith is extraordinarily knowledgeable about modern aviation, and communicates beautifully in English, not in pilot-ese. “A brilliant writer, Patrick Smith provides a laugh-a-page tour of a misunderstood industry -- a journey into the world of aviation, stripped of the mumbo-jumbo and filled with humor and insight.”. -- Christine Negroni, aviation correspondent and author of Flying Lessons. "Patrick Smith doesn’t just know everything about air travel, he possesses a rare knack for explaining it in lucid and witty prose." “Patrick Smith manages to demystify the experience and remind us of the magic of aviation.
Reviews
"Are you someone who doesn't get excited looking at the lights of planes as they line up in the night sky outside a busy airport, coming in for a landing, one after the other? Smith has been been a pilot and in love with all forms of air travel since, as a child living in Boston, he'd sit on the Revere beach and watch in awe as planes landed at nearby Logan Airport. He grew up to make a living as first a pilot for a commuter carrier - flying up and down the Atlantic seaboard and all around New England - and then he "graduated" to flying cargo jets for a freight airline. We're also fascinated by the arcane of the airline industry - old tickets from the 1940's and clips from newsreels of passengers boarding a plane in the 1950's outfitted in suits and ties and hats. Looking at the September 11th terrorist attacks in particular, he talks about how the TSA and other government groups reacted by imposing the wrong "rules" in the hopes of making airplane travel "safer". Smith recounts the many terror attacks and hijackings of airplanes and airports in the 1970's and 1980's that we've seem to have forgotten. Good lord, it's half the battle of flying today just getting through TSA security."
"You'll learn the author's personal grades for major carriers' aesthetics, his take on UFOs, a straightforward assessment of flight safety, and "the horror and absurdity of history's worst plane crash" that few have heard of."
"Expect more of these…. On a flight from London to New York, I noticed that our 747 was flying almost parallel with, and very close to, a Lufthansa plane. The tracks are 60 miles apart, however, so you were likely on the same track as the Lufthansa jet, a thousand feet higher or lower, and slightly offset horizontally. A plane one or two miles away horizontally and only a thousand feet lower or higher will basically appear parallel to you. The tracks go west-to-east in the evening, when the vast majority of planes depart North America for Europe, and east-to-west in the mornings and afternoons, when most flights are headed the other way. Track “A” on Tuesday might consist of a totally different string of latitude/longitude fixes than Wednesday’s track “A.”. Separate from ATC communications, there’s an open radio frequency (VHF 123.45) used on the track system that allows crews to talk to each other. The landing gear produces quite a bit of drag and occasionally we’ll lower it sooner, as a way of increasing the rate of descent or helping us slow down, when necessary. Then, as we began our descent, he indicated that the landing gear would be lowered earlier than usual in order to use up excess fuel. It sounds as though your shortcut left the plane with so much fuel that it would have been above its maximum landing weight for the runway (perhaps, because of wind or weather-related reasons, the only available runway was a short one?). The increase in drag produced by the landing gear would result in considerably more fuel burn, helping get the plane within limits. We were above landing weight, however, and the dispatchers recommended that instead of landing heavy, which would entail a time-consuming inspection, that we should descend to a lower altitude and deploy the gear for the last half-hour or so of flight. You’ve got green lights, red lights, white lights; steady lights and flashing lights. Mind you there are variations, but here’s a generic rundown: Navigation lights (wingtips and tail): Colored lights that show a plane’s orientation: red on the left, green on the right, white in the back. Anti-collision lights (on the wingtips and sometimes the upper or lower fuselage as well): Very bright, white flashing lights that basically mean “look out, here we are!” Used night and day. Turned on just prior to the takeoff roll; turned off again just after landing. Rotating beacon (upper or lower fuselage): A red flashing light used any time aircraft is moving. Means, “stay clear!”. Landing lights (most commonly wing-mounted and/or mounted on the nose gear strut): Very bright, white, forward facing beams. Taxi lights (normally on nose gear strut): White, forward facing beams. Runway turnoff lights (if installed, wing-mounted): Bright white lights aimed slightly askew, to aid in high-speed turns when exiting the runway."
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Best 30-Minute Travel Short Reads

Travels with Charley in Search of America
Travels with Charley in Search of America is an intimate look at one of America's most beloved writers in the later years of his life—a self-portrait of a man who never wrote an explicit autobiography. This Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition also features French flaps and deckle-edged paper. “Pure delight, a pungent potpourri of places and people interspersed with bittersweet essays on everything from the emotional difficulties of growing old to the reasons why giant sequoias arouse such awe.” —The New York Times Book Review “Profound, sympathetic, often angry . Travels with Charley is animated by Steinbeck's attention to the specific details of the natural world and his sense of how the lives of people are intimately connected to the rhythms of nature - to weather, geography, the cycles of the seasons.
Reviews
"What I didn't know about John Steinbeck is that he is always engaging. Certainly he was a charming man."
"This was a great way to read Steinbeck!"
"I'll have to sit down and think hard if we've made honest progress in America since 1960."
"One of those books that lets you turn the world off and just kick back and enjoy the trip!"
"Exactly as advertised."
"One of my favorite reads and includes several memorable quotes about Montana."
"My children were required to read The Grapes of Wrath, so I read parts of it when they did."
"This old favorite was chosen by my book club."
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Best 15-Minute Travel Short Reads

Spanish Vocabulary (Quick Study Academic)
The same graphically designed and thoughtfully organized quick reference expected from QuickStudy now in Kindle edition.
Reviews
"I use them during down times or when I find myself waiting in a line or at a doctor's office, which always leads to a conversation with a stranger about the struggles of learning a 2nd language."
"This is great only if you can pair it up with something that can pronounce it as well."
"Another great addition to my collection of these - Quickstudy is wonderful for a quick refresher when you have a few minutes."
"helping me to hablo espanol, I study with a friend and it really helps to have these."
"Pros: Easy to read material. Well organized flow. Good quality laminate. Cons: None to me."
"I bought this in the bundle of 3 and keep it in the front of my Spanish class notebook as a quick and handy reference."
"just received last week, so i don't really know."
"Great help in high school, to get some of the basics."
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Best Trivia & Fun Facts

Now I Know: The Revealing Stories Behind the World's Most Interesting Facts
From uncovering what happens to lost luggage to New York City's plan to crack down on crime by banning pinball, this book will challenge your knowledge of the fascinating stories behind the world's greatest facts. "Every story in the book is interesting, and Lewis includes a 'bonus fact' at the end of each story which is a mini mind bender on its own."
Reviews
"The story on the Bats considered for use in spreading fires in Japan during World War II hooked me, line and sinker. I’ve included a small excerpts below, so readers can peruse the style of presentation utilized by the author. EXCERPT. BAT BOMB. USING BATS IN UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE. During the final days of World War II, the United States, apparently believing that Japan was unlikely to surrender otherwise, dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The death toll from these two bombs numbered as high as 250,000 when one factors in those people who died up to four months later due to burns and radiation sickness. If the United States Army could figure out a way to start fires in a large number of buildings spread out over a wide area, the Japanese infrastructure and economy would suffer but the direct loss of life would be relatively small. But a few months before the Manhattan Project got underway, a dental surgeon named Lytle Adams came up with the idea to use bats— those nocturnal flying mammals— as part of the strategy. As he would later tell Air Force Magazine, after seeing millions of bats flying around caves in Carlsbad Canyon in New Mexico, he immediately thought that they could be used as a way to spread firebombs throughout Japan. He collected a few of them himself, did a little research, and found that even tiny bats weighing well under a pound could carry three times their weight in explosives. The timer ticks down and shortly after, without obvious explanations, hundreds of thousands of Japanese buildings start to burn to the ground. By March 1943, the U.S. military had identified a suitable population of bats, having located a series of caves in Texas that were home to millions of the flying critters. But the final report on the bat bombs issued in mid-1944, though positive, noted that they would not be ready for combat for another year. A fish lodge owner named Richard Perky built the Sugarloaf tower in 1928 with much fanfare— and one big problem. According to Atlas Obscura, when Perky put the bats into the tower, they flew off to find some bugs to eat— and never came back."
"As the owner of an extremely popular "interesting fact" website (TodayIFoundOut) and someone who runs a similar newsletter to Now I Know, I've read or at least skimmed pretty much every major interesting fact/story website and book out there, so I can tell you from vast experience that Dan Lewis is one of the best in this genre."
"For example and this is not in the book; Do you really think the American Civil War was fought because the North felt that no person should own another person? Romantically this is what is implied with every American history lesson but the full truth is that the North could not compete in an economy where the South had free labor."
"to his site/newsletter, so I was happy to get the book, which meant I could actually know more than one thing a day."
"A fun read to dip into a few minutes at a time as time allows."
"I've been subscribed to Dan Lewis's daily emails of fascinating facts for about a year, so I was very excited to see he was releasing a book."
"Wife is a trivia and useless facts nut."
"Quick reads, no plots to remember, and some amazing information."
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Best Sao Tome & Principe Travel Guides

Sao Tome & Principe (Bradt Travel Guides)
Marooned off the coast of Gabon, the volcanic islands of São Tomé & Príncipe are a largely undiscovered, uniquely rewarding and safe destination with an exciting blend of African, Portuguese and Caribbean cultures. · Observe endemic birds at Obô National Park. · Scramble up the Pico de São Tomé. · Check out the colonial architecture and cool culture. · of São Tomé city. · Lounge upon picturesque Banana Beach. · Taste single-estate chocolate from the ‘Cocoa Islands’. Lying just off the western coast of Africa, the diminutive islands of São Tomé and Príncipe remain unspoilt by mass tourism, making the former Portuguese colony the perfect place for adventure.
Reviews
"Absolutely the best guide ever written."
"The guidebook covers E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G there is to know about Sao Tomé and Príncipe: from logistics, lodging and eating to sightseeing; from culture to the good, the bad and the ugly."
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Best Curiosities & Wonders

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders
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
"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."
"I think she is gonna love this."
"For all who love the obscure in life, this is your book."
"Wonderful book to have on table in living room where everyone can see it."
"WOW!"
"A lot of interesting and informative info."
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