Let's Walk the French Quarter

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This guide takes you on a delightful self-directed stroll through some of the most charming facades of any city, providing both directions and commentary on places of interest along the way. Travel across tiled street names, beneath iron balconies and galleries of the French Quarter, and through famed restaurants to the raised cemetery and jazz halls of Rampart Street, with photos as guides. From the heart of Jackson Square and the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, commonly called the St. Louis Cathedral, to the iconic striped awnings of Cafe Du Monde, locals and visitors alike can soak up the history around them, captured in atmospheric photos by talented McCaffety, as they breathe in the powdered sugar that scents the air. This book serves as both a memento and traveling companion for exploration of a city made to delight the senses.

Waterfalls of the Blue Ridge: A Guide to the Natural Wonders of the Blue Ridge Mountains

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 "Waterfalls of the Blue Ridge, now in its fourth edition, combines the pleasure of hiking with the wonder of one of nature's most captivating sights: waterfalls. Outlining hikes that feature more than 110 waterfalls in the Blue Ridge Mountains, this guide has been updated with 30 new waterfalls, updates to existing routes, and new photos. Offering something for hikers of every level of experience, waterfalls range in height from 10 to 500 feet, some requiring no hike at all while others include hikes of up to 10 miles. In this guide, today's most experienced guidebook author Johnny Molloy teams up with Nicole Blouin along with Marilou and Steve Bordonaro to introduce hikers to waterfalls spanning two states, four national forests, three national parks, and eight state parks all throughout the Blue Ridge. "

Kyoto: City of Zen: Visiting the Heritage Sites of Japan's Ancient Capital

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In "Kyoto: City of Zen, " local Kyoto expert Judith Clancy presents the most important gardens, temples, shrines and palaces of this ancient capital city and enduring cultural center. In addition to unveiling the city's spiritual and historical riches, this book shares with readers the exquisite foods, artistic crafts, religious ceremonies and architectural traditions that have flourished in Kyoto for over a millennium. Tea ceremonies, calligraphy, weaving, pottery, painting, drama, and many more traditional arts and crafts are presented through more than 350 photographs by Ben Simmons, whose images capture the true essence of Kyoto. The city's natural setting also comes into focus as you walk along leafy mountain paths and through spectacular parks and gardens viewing the best foliage each season has to offer.

Special Places to Stay: Italy

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"All these places are special in one way or another. All have been visited and then written about honestly so that you can take what you want and leave the rest. Those of you who swear by Sawday's books trust our write-ups precisely because we don't have a blanket standard; we include places simply because we like them."

The Pilgrimage Road to Santiago : the complete cultural handbook

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Home Sweet Anywhere: How We Sold Our House, Created a New Life, and Saw the World

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How Martin and her husband sold their house and became full-time international wayfarers. The travel bug can bite at any moment, and it sank its teeth into the author and her husband, Tim, when they were in their mid-60s. Since then, they have recorded their travels on the author's blog, homefreeadventures.com, always following their motto, "postpone nothing." To jettison home and a lifetime of stuff can be a liberating and rejuvenating experience, and the Martins took to the road with an envious moxie and openness. Since they were not operating with a fat bank account to provide an easy cushion--they calculated their budget by including their Social Security checks--they were always on the prowl for bargains mixed with good locations and a modicum of cleanliness. Nearly every page has some crack piece of travel wisdom: the power of civility, patience and flexibility; the difference between knowing the facts about a place and knowing "those facts in a way that only being on the ground and experiencing them offers a person." Martin is a plainspoken chronicler, eschewing pyrotechnics in her descriptive writing, and though obviously polite and cultured, she is also often frank and unvarnished in her estimation of things and people. She was not too jaded to pay attention to the serendipities of travel--a full moon rising over the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, for instance--nor too formal not to speak her mind: Argentinians are moody, temperamental and confused. The Martins were happy making a lonely trip to the Oracle of Apollo and catching the wind off the Cornwall coast, but they also liked to mix it up: "Seeing your first bar fight after age sixty-five is not an insignificant event." Though the dialogue has its wooden moments, this is, on the whole, an accessible, inspiring journey. Kirkus Reviews 2/15/14

The Wander Year: One Couple's Journey Around the World

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Mike McIntyre and his longtime girlfriend, Andrea, are in their early 40s and itching for a break. So they rent out their San Diego home-dog, cat and furniture included-and embark on a yearlong journey around the world. "We're not out to find ourselves, or even to lose ourselves," McIntyre writes. "We're merely seeking a pause in our routines." But the couple is soon swept up in the adventure of a lifetime: trekking in the Himalayas, traversing the Sahara on camel, scrambling over the temples of Angkor, crossing the world's largest salt flat in South America, scaling a New Zealand glacier. The book recounts the odyssey in 48 dispatches from 22 countries.