World's Best Travel Experiences: 400 Extraordinary Places (National Geographic) - Hardcover

National Geographic

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1426209592 ISBN 13: 9781426209598

Publisher: National Geographic, 2012

Synopsis

Popular actor and award-winning travel writer Andrew McCarthy writes the foreword to this lavish book, offering 400 awe-inspiring destinations chosen by National Geographic's family of globe-trotting contributors; dozens of fun, "Best of the World" themed lists; illuminating sidebars, several by travel and literary luminaries such as Anna Quindlen, Bill Bryson, Gore Vidal, and Pico Iyer; and hundreds of dazzling, oversized, full-color images to bring to life a wide variety of location categories--from entire countries to mountaintop villages to pristine lakes to ancient wonders. This broad, general interest travel title will appeal to active travelers looking for the next great trip as well as to the many readers who simply love dreaming of visiting far-flung, idyllic destinations, and for those who love to be "in the know" of the next travel trend.

About this title

About the Authors

National Geographic cartographers create award-winning maps using state-of-the-art software for cartography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The results are clear, detailed maps that make map reading fun and informative.

Featured author ANDREW MCCARTHY is an actor and television director (known for his roles in St. Elmo's Fire, Mannequin, Weekend at Bernie's, Pretty in Pink, and Less Than Zero) who also has an illustrious writing career. He is an editor-at-large at National Geographic Traveler, and has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Travel+Leisure, Afar, Men's Journal, Bon Appetit, National Geographic Adventure, and others. The Society of American Travel Writers named him 2010 Travel Journalist of the Year, and he was cited three times for notable work in the Best American Travel Writing series. His 2012 memoir, The Longest Way Home, became a New York Times bestseller.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The best place in the world? It’s a big, brash, bold question. And the answer is easy—there are lots of them. For me, it’s the crowded and chaotic suq in Marrakech, and that remote beach on the tiny atoll of Fakarava in the South Pacific. The rocky Burren in the rural west of Ireland, with the late day sun lingering over the Aran Islands, is the best place in the world. And so is my own backyard—New York City’s Central Park.
 
What my best have in common is the ability to excite, to arouse big passions that allow—that demand—bold declarations: This is the best. My best is different from yours. Mine is different today than it was last year, and I bet it will be different next year. It’s as subjective as a sunset, but we all know the feeling when a place, or a moment, takes our breath away and fills us with that feeling of connection, or that sense of discovery, or rediscovery; feelings of being lost, and then found—these are the experiences I search out while on the road.
 
Flipping the pages of this book I can’t help but feel that excitement, that hope and sense of renewal. It makes me want to say, Yes—yes to possibility and adventure. Yes to places I’ve been, and to those I’m yearning to see—the pyramids of Egypt, the Galápagos, Petra, Nepal.
 
The best is a movable feast—the sweeping vistas of Patagonia to the back alleys of Barcelona; Costa Rica’s wild Osa Peninsula to the canals of Venice; Vancouver’s glass- and mountain- filled skyline to the gardens of Versailles. And the best is in the details—where to learn acupuncture in Beijing, or kayak the Cook Islands, or track down the best macarons in Paris. They’re all here. From the Amazon to Zanzibar, the world’s best have been assembled.
 
With some of the premier voices in writing—Mark Twain and Goethe, Paul Theroux and Jan Morris, Bill Bryson and Gore Vidal—and tapping into the finest of the National Geographic Society’s legendary photography, the World’s Best Travel Experiences are at your fingertips.
 
Say yes.
 
--Andrew McCarthy, National Geographic Traveler magazine Editor at Large

Edition details

• Publisher: National Geographic
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1426209592
• ISBN 13: 9781426209598
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320