Lonely Planet Blue List Review

I
got my hands on a copy of another book out from Lonely Planet, the guidebook
publisher who has lately been churning out all manner of new titles related to travel. Now, I have to say up front that
I am biased. I LOVE Lonely Planet. I love everything about the company (well, except for Tony Wheeler’s Web
site), and was gleeful about my own fortune in doing a podcast months ago with Don
George
, one of my travel writer heroes. 

Well, one of the newest titles out from LP is a kind of
encyclopedia of opportunity, a sprawling tome of life-experiences that will make your head whirl and will have you
reaching for your credit card to book the next flight out of dodge.

The idea behind Bluelist is simple, and certainly well-known
to anyone who has been on the road for a while. As LP puts it, “to Bluelist something is the travel equivalent of
‘you should see my guy, he’s the best’. It’s the act of recommending a travel experience. Any travel experience.”
In this case, these experiences and places are suggested for you by the editors and writers at LP…who should
know.

And so the book is loaded with page after elegant page of tips, suggestions and recommendations from
nooks and cities all over the world. It’s good, and the kind of book you’d keep on your coffee table and
thumb through while half-watching a football game or something.

Now, if I have anything negative to say
it’s that some of the entries are sparse and much of the book lacks depth…at least the kind of depth you
expect from Lonely Planet. Now that may be the point, but when you read about a great trip like Overland Track in
Tasmania,
you want o know more. I suppose they
expect that you will go to the (impressive) Bluelist Web site, or will Google the place on your own. Anyway,
that’s my gripe. Otherwise ,it’s a nice addition to the LP oeuvre.