Europe a la Carte Blog

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Frankfurt Book Fair

When I realised I’d be living just a couple of hours south of Frankfurt, it didn’t take me more than a day or two to realise that I would be able to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair. As a lifelong bookworm and aspiring writer, the Frankfurt Book Fair seemed like a fairytale event for me and now that I’ve been twice, I can assure you that if you’re at all like me, you’ll love it!

This year the Frankfurt Book Fair takes place from 15-19 October but the important days for “book tourists” are the Saturday and Sunday (18 and 19 October) when the fair is open to the general public. Entrance is €12 and I promise you it’s worth every cent. As well as book launches and presentations by various authors, you can also see all the new books from pretty much every significant publisher from across the globe, and I’ve always had fun with some of the free giveaways too (I recommend checking out any cookbook publishers - they like to give samples of the results of their recipes!).

It’s easy to find the Book Fair in the huge Exhibition Hall in Frankfurt - you can walk there from Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main station), just look for signs to the “Messeturm”. One tip: after you arrive and have a map showing all the exhibition halls, try to plan your day out a bit - I’m always left with not enough time to check all the sections I want to.

Today, if you don’t mind, I would like to start a discussion. Actually, what I’m doing is trying to pick the collective mind of Europe a la Carte readers, but don’t want to look so needy. So here’s your topic: Guidebooks, or, how I learned to stop worrying and love tourist traps.

Oh yes, a controversial topic and one which I’ve already loaded. I am, as I’ve already mentioned a lot, a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kinda traveller. I don’t like being organised, I revel in the freedom of not having any idea what today brings. Itineraries are useful bits of paper when I’m getting someone’s address and plans are things used to build skyscrapers. But when you move around in this fashion it really is vital to have a quick, encompassing source of reference to work out where, tonight, you’ll lay your head.

Home on the Road by tpuyol

Of course there is a big problem associated with this: you see only the things that your guidebook tells you are good, and you go to places that are filled only with other tourists clutching their copy of The Book in sweaty hands.

Now the web offers a lot of information, this blog is being one example, but the problem is how to distil it. It can take a lot of surfing around to gather the specifics you are after. If I’m in a small town outside Ljubljana internet access may not be a given - plus on the road I’d rather be experiencing the country than communing with Google.

Where Shall I Go? by The Wandering Angel

The behemoth of all guidebooks, Lonely Planet, is usually the first I go to because I’m familiar with it and can quickly get the addresses I need. Let’s Go and Rough Guide are also hugely popular, but I always had issues with the accuracy of the maps – although I haven’t bought one in a few years now so that may have improved. Regardless of which you pick though, you’ll still find yourself in a sea of other foreigners, not a local amongst them, all looking for an “authentic” experience. I have even switched to German guidebooks to try and avoid this trap, but that’s just resulted in being surrounded by German, Austrian and Swiss tourists and waiters speaking in the Teutonic tongue.

So I need your help. Where do you go for information? What are your favourite, or least favourite, guidebooks? Where are their failings and strengths? Who can help me work out where I should be sleeping tonight, in a small town outside Ljubljana?

I happened upon the website http://www.adayin.com which claims to sell ‘free vacation guides’. Upon further investigation, I have to say I am very impressed! At first I thought they only have guides for Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, but this is simply a bug with the display map as a number of central European destinations can be found in the location list.

Each city is broken down into smaller guides (Factual and Background, What’s to See, Shopping, History and Economy, Art & Culture, Recreation & Sport, Getting Around, Eating Out) but you can download a single PDF containing all sections.

Pros:

• ·Consolidates all types of information into a single document.

• It is Free!

Cons:

• You are required to give some self-identifying information before downloading (Gender, Age Range)

• There is no rating or recommendation on listings.

I think these types of guides are perfect for long weekends or city ‘minibreaks’ where you might not find it justified to buy a full blown travel guide (or if you are like me and lacking bookshelf space). Indeed you might need to do some further research, but A Day In offers a great starting point. However, be sure always to check in with us here at Europe A La Carte to find the cheapest airfare and exclusive tips for authentic travel.

My Crowded Bookshelf - Copyright by Andrew Hayes

Armchair traveling is probably not for you if you are reading this blog, but if you do enjoy spending a quiet afternoon with a book, when your wanderlust has been satiated for the moment, you might consider making your next expedition a literary one. The Literary Traveler brings your classic and bohemian heroes to life by offering articles and listing tour providers that allow to you follow in their footsteps. From the Lost Generation in Paris to George Sand, from Gaudi in Barcelona to the mysterious English writer Agatha Christie, from Italian poets in Cinque Terre to Yeats’ Ireland, the information and photos supplied will inspire and guide you to pack up your books and get on the move. You can even purchase books (travel related fiction and nonfiction) to add to your collection. If you’d rather have someone else plot the points on your literary travels, the site lists several tour operators that specialize in these literary adventures.

I interviewed Angela K Nickerson, author of Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome, during a live blog on Wednesday 11 June at 20:00 British Summer Time (which is one hour in advance of Greenwich Mean Time).

Angela’s book is a blend of biography, travel guide and the history and art of Rome and Florence during Michelangelo’s lifetime. You can read my review of A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome on the Wandalust UK travel blog.

Please come along, the live blog will appear inside this post, you don’t need any special equipment or software to watch and it’s easy to make comments and ask questions.

I received a complimentary copy of the book for review purposes as part of Angela’s virtual book tour.

You may have heard of Ruinair an ever expanding low cost Irish airline renowned for its customer service. Well the Irish author Paul Kilfuff had such a memorable taste of this customer service with a ten hour delay on a not so low cost 300 euro flight to Malaga that he hatched a cunning plan to exact his revenge on RuinAir by flying to as many RuinAir destinations as possible for the same total outlay of 300 euros.

The Europe a la Carte blog is one of Paul’s stops on his virtual book tour.

1 On balance would you say that the growth of RuinAir has been a positive or negative thing for travellers?

i would say it is a very positive thing for travellers, since we now have lower fares, more choice of destinations, more choice of departure times and more choice with new airlines springing up all the time to join the new low fares air travel industry. the downsides are on the environment, falling standards of passenger service on many airlines and the loss of jobs as the flag carriers downsize or go bust eg Sabena, Alitalia.

2 Do you agree that all publicity is good publicity as you are giving RuinAir a lot of (I assume) free publicity?

Yes I agree and so does the Ruinair CEO Micheal O’Leary who said that; ‘There is no such thing as bad publicity, as long as it is not safety related.’ I do think there must be some readers who finish my book and then go off to book a flight on Ruinair. It’s well known that bookings on easyJet spike up immediately after the ‘Airline’ programme is shown on ITV, often just minutes after the programme ends on the TV at 8.30 pm!

3 When I started reading the book I laughed so much that I couldn’t read but as I progressed I became slightly tired of the constant haranguing of RuinAir and thought that it was really too much of thesame to sustain a whole book. Did you consider this issue when planning the book?

Thank you for the positve feedback! some people ask me if the anecdotes and quotations are real and i say yes they all are. I dont think there can ever be too much constant haranguing of Ruinair ever, since they are the most miserable airline I have travelled on. also about 1/3rd of the book is about flying on other airlines such as easyJet, Air Belrin, Clickair, Vueling, Myair so i hope this gives some variety. I think also that when i travelled first on Ruinair i was neutral, but after 25 return trips on 2 years I was almost suicidal. I get emails from readers and to date 95% of them agree with my views on the airline and very few say i went over the top in the book. if you travel more on Ruinair, you may share my view!

4 Did you believe that your book would sell well at airports, especially popular to pass the time for delayed RuinAir passengers? Perhaps you could give some complimentary copies for RuinAir to distribute to delayed passengers, good publicity for Ruinair and for your book?

Yes i always thought it would sell very well in airports. the book was the no. 1 non fiction bestseller in ireland for 9 weeks and books sales in Irish airport shops like Hughes & Hughes were a huge factor in this success. i think many people now buy their books in airports, not on the high street or online. I though about a sort of PR stunt with free copies in airports but airports have strict rules on PR work on their sites. i do always carry a copy to give to other passengers if we get chatting about Ruinair the airline. So if you see on my travels, do stop me and ask.

5 Are you concerned about the environmental impact of encouraging passengers “to get even by buying a one cent ticket” i.e taking trips for the sake of it? I think it would be better to add don’t book your hotels, car hire, travel insurance etc through the RuinAir site as I’ve
always found hotels and car hire cheaper using price comparison sites and/or other websites.

i do have some concerns about the environmental impact of flying often but as Micheal O’Leary says: ‘The eco-nutbags blame us for melting the icecaps, war, pestilence and the Sars epidemic when, in reality, the factual information from the EU Environment Agency is that aviation accounts for 2% of greenhouse gas emissions and of CO2 emissions in the EU. If everybody stopped flying for the next 12 months and CO2 levels fell by 2%, it would represent less than the oil and coal-fired stations to be opened by the Chinese in the next 12 months.’ I think you are 100% correct about finding better value other than using the Ruinair web site and I might cover this in the sequel book about travels in Eastern Europe ‘Ruinairski’. I think i tried to avoid ‘Which’ style consumer affairs type topics in the book.

6 Why are you so anti French? I’ve travelled to France many times and found all the French people I encountered to be charming and helpful but then I do attempt to speak some French.

I am sorry that i came across as anti-French. In fact i tried to have a go at most nations in Europe so I am sorry if France came off worse, and this type of behaviour has never done Jeremy Clarkson’s books sales any damage in the past! Its just that I never had a good time in Paris. Aussi, je parle un peu Francais.

7 Have your ever encountered a friendly, smiling, helpful member of cabin crew on a RuinAir flight?

Yes, I have encountered a maximum of one per flight but never all 4 of the cabin crew. It’s an awful job with huge stress so i dont blame them. They must be all saints to work for an airline like that for a salary like that with those hours. If i was them I would go get a job with easyJet.

My comments - Thanks very much for answering my questions, Paul. I have flown with RuinAir on at least eight return flights.. I’ve only had one flight delay from Stansted to Glasgow Prestwick, all the other flights have arrived early. As I generally travel mid week off peak the planes haven’t been to full. I just don’t join in the scrum to get onboard I bring up the rear and take an aisle seat.

I think that Michael O’Leary would probably be willing to distribute some copies of RuinAir onboard, perhaps as prizes for the passengers who manage to push and trample their way onto the plane first and one for the surliest crew member during the flight.

I flew with Easyjet for the first time recently and I did find that the cabin crew more amiable than those I’ve encountered on RuinAir flights.

Have you read the book, does it accurately describe your experience of RuinAir?

Bellagio, Lake Como

I read an article today about the different types of travel writing which reckoned that the more bizarre the topic the more likely the book was to get the necessary publicity to become popular. I have to say that Round Ireland with a Fridge about an guy hitchhiking around Ireland with a fridge, sprang to mind immediately.

The article suggested that there are an increasing number of travellers looking for information about location off the beaten track which is exactly the theme of my travel site.  There’s also a demand for books describing how the “journey” can change your life.  Readers want to be able to put themselves in the writers shoes and think “I could do that” of “that could happen to me”.

In some ways I’ve come to the conclusion that I’d rather travel than read about travel. I suppose I am a travel  writer of sorts in that I write guides for my site and posts about travel for this blog and the Wandalust blog,  However in my destination guides I’m not even attempting to conjure up the atmosphere and beauty of a location with my clever use of descriptive, evocative turn of phrase - I’ll rely on photos. My aim is to inspire readers to visit a less well known destination such as Lake Iseo presenting the reader with links to find out more information about accommodation. local history and activities. I don’t want to be prescriptive in my guides as I am a firm believer is spending time wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere and going to a restaurant which is frequented by locals, rather than the star pick from a guide book.

The genre of my adventures “how wonderful and amusing it was when I moved to warner climes” such as Under the Tuscan Sun never really appealed to me. I think many Brits are under the impression if you move somewhere sunny that all your boring everyday tasks, problems and concerns will somehow disappear. Whereas I think they may well multiply rather than diminish if you can’t speak the language, don’t know local laws and miss your friends and family.  I love visiting places such as the Italian Lakes on holiday but have never felt that I wanted to actually live there.

What can I say, I rarely seem to have the time to read books. Our sons gave me New Europe by Michael Palin for my Christmas present, a good choice for a Mum who has a website about travel in Europe, and it lies unopened.  Maybe if you work in the travel industry you are looking a different topic when you select a book?

What type of travel books do you like to read?  What’s your favourite travel book?  Maybe you prefer  browsing on the internet to get your travel fix?

I was amazed to read about Voytek the ursine 2nd Polish Transport Company army recruit who carried ammunition along the lines during battle the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy. The troops adopted the orphaned bear when they were in Palestine in 1942 and he soon become one of the boys enjoying his beer and cigarettes. The troops were billeted in Hutton in the Scottish Borders after WW2 and Voytek was a popular local figure. After demobilisation Voytek took up residence at Edinburgh Zoo.

There are now calls for Voytek to by honoured by the erection of a statue in Scotland. I’d never heard of Voytek before these recent articles although I now live in Berwick upon Tweed, only a few miles from Hutton. A local teacher, Garry Paulin, is about to publish a children’s book about the bear.

The statue may well materialise as the WW2 canine hero Bamse, a crew member of a Norwegian minesweeper stationed in Scotland, is now immortalised in Montrose in Angus.

For a limited time, Lonely Planet Publications is offering 30% off plus free delivery, if you spend more than £25 sterling/40 euros/40 US dollars. If you planning some trips this year, it’s a great time to buy guidebooks to do some planning and research. If you have family or friends who love to travel, why not purchase books for them too. I think they might really appreciate this gift.

The bite of the travel bug by minxlj

There’s plenty to choose from with “Encounter” guides helping you can make the most of a short trip, “Shoestring” guides if you want to stretch your budget, travel packs containing 3 books at one low price, activity guides, language books and the Blue List 2008.

JumboGo.co.uk is one of the leading shops for travel books, guides, maps and phrasebooks to help you prepare for your trip. JumboGo.co.uk offer free delivery on orders over £5. They are running a competition where the first prize is a weekend in Rome. Click on banner below to visit their site and enter the competition.

I like the search option on their site, where you can enter the country in which you are interested and any keywords. I thought that there prices were pretty good, I saw the “Learn Italian in 15 minutes a day”, which comes with 2 CDs for £9.22. I paid £12.99 for this at a book shop last year.
[tags]travel books, competitions[/tags]