Lonely Planet Predicts 2009 Trends – Book Review : Kathika Travel Website

By Amanda Kendle

Mixx Facebook

Tweet This

List books really are dominating the travel book shelves these days, and here’s another one: Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2009: 850 Trends, Destinations, Journeys and Experiences for the Year Ahead. The nice thing is that this book is well worth a look – of course, not for planning your trip but for getting some ideas on where you might like to go – or simply to learn more about the world and daydream about distant future trips to far-flung lands.

The Lonely Planet team have nominated ten countries, ten regions and ten cities that they think will be hot in 2009. The lists are very mixed: for example, in the top countries list, travel favorite Canada sits alongside more adventurous destinations like Kyrgyzstan and Sierre Leone. Similarly, in the regional list, recommendations range from Hawai’i to Australia and Norway to Colombia. The cities list is perhaps a little more mainstream with a lot of European cities like Lisbon, Antwerp, Glasgow and Warsaw making the list, along with Chicago, Shanghai and Mexico City.

The 2009 edition also has a water theme, so after the lists you’ll find a large section about water-based travel, with short articles mixed with boxed ideas for trips. Then the book gets into an extensive collection of random lists like “Best Underground Experiences” or “Top 10 Places to Steal a Kiss” – and although some of these are a bit quirky, there are some interesting destinations featured. Finally, you can find the “world profiles” – paragraphs and key facts about every country of the world, great for geography lovers.