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Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

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Promised Land Closed

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10 Sizzling Hot Travel Tips From Sir Francis Bacon

Rolf Potts repackages the 17th century philosopher’s ‘Of Travel’ essay in the manner of a 21st century magazine feature

I Don’t Want to Travel with a Guidebook. What Do You Think About Traveling With an Atlas?

Dear Rolf,

I have been planning to “disappear” for a few years in Europe/Asia when I finish college. I don’t really like guidebooks because they take the discovery out of travel. Can you recommend a good world atlas (or Europe/Asia in particular)?

--Weylin, Cheyenne, Wyoming

Dear Weylin,

Before you buy anything, I suggest you go to your campus library and spend some time in the map and atlas section. I’m sure the atlas publishers won’t like this advice too much, but it seems that studying a world atlas at this point in your travel preparation will mainly serve as inspiration (instead of direct guidance), so there’s no need to buy one just yet. Thus, I suggest you spend lots of quality time in the geography section of the library to whet your appetite for travel. In time, you’ll learn plenty about maps, and the regions they represent.

Once you’ve graduated and saved up the proper amount of money, I suggest you fly off to the destination of your choice, and buy local maps as you go. In Hungary, you should be able to find a plethora of Hungary maps; in Thailand, there are plenty of Thailand maps to choose from; in Brazil, Brazilian maps should be readily available. If possible, check the National Geographic office in each country for official topographical maps (I did this in Laos, and the maps they sold me took me to some amazing places). In time, hunting for local maps (and judging their relative accuracy or inaccuracy) will become part of the adventure.

On a final note, I’ll mention that I love the notion of traveling by map instead of traveling by guidebook. That said, however, guidebooks can come in handy—if only for cultural, historical and safety information. Thus, I suggest you buy one general regional guidebook for your trip (say, a “Let’s Go: Europe,” or Lonely Planet’s “Southeast Asia on a Shoestring,” and stuff it in the bottom of your pack. You needn’t bother using it for your itinerary, but it’s worth digging out from time to time to check up on local customs, regional history, travel scams and the like.

Columnist Rolf Potts is the author of Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel.

Send your questions to . If you want to see if Rolf has already answered your questions, see the Ask Rolf archive. 

Wow.  Sounds like a plan.  You could writea great blog on the basis of traveling without a travel guide. 

Not something I have read before.  I say do it.

The only thing I reckon is that if you don’t have a guide then you should know the language.  Far more fun to ask suggestions of local people than just to follow the Lonely Planet.

Good luck.  I hope you do it. And do it safely.

Good advice about the shoestring book.  To me though it’s not the background and history you need - it’s that Getting There and Getting Away, which is the all important one.

Downside:  You come home and someone asks, “Hey, did you see [X}?  ‘Cuz I know you love that sort of thing.” And you smite your forehead and say, “Damn!  I never knew that was there.”

But otherwise, that’s a great way to travel, but I think it works best if you allow yourself plenty of time to appreciate each place you land.

A Mis-Guide to Anywhere furthers such exploration by drawing attention to the differences and connections between places. It was created with an acute awareness of our own position in the world and the relative freedoms, as well as the particular perspectives that are particular to the UK. Can one, we ask, use a Mis-Guide ‘anywhere’? We have challenged ourselves to contemplate creating ‘walks’ for places such as ‘A City Under Siege’ or for ‘A Place Where There is a Road Block’ as well as the possibility of playing with scales of exploration, from ‘A Walk for Outer Space’ to ‘A Mis-Guide to DNA’. We deliberately draw attention to the flows and exchanges between places, looking for ‘wormholes’ to other places: minarets on a 19th century British hotel, flight paths overhead, a personal reminiscence sparked by a passing resemblance… We also suggest walks that will invite the walker to discover the moments where walking, or looking, becomes difficult.  In these various ways, we explore the tensions and bonds between a given particular place and the unrealisable, infinitely various notion of ‘anywhere’. (Wrights & Sites, 2006)

I ALWAYS travel with a MAP.
How else do you know where you are.
Buy Local maps where-ever possible but don’t expect a “local” to point out anything on the map - may be even the first time they have seen a map ??
(True for S.E.A. and Phils)
--------------
Don’t travel with out a guide book !!
Or you WILL miss many places that you may not hear about or find. It’s a big world out there and even a small guide book will avoid you saying (when you get back) Oh ! I wish I had known about that !!!!

Why stick the Southeast Asia on a Shoestring in the bag? I found these everything in one volume-guides very limited. They tell you just the most basic facts about the countries, and nothing at all on the important things.

If you are spending several years in Europe, you’ll be able to pick up quite new guide books like Rough Guide and LP at any backpackers, and you’ll get plenty of info meeting people and asking around at serious tourist offices.

I met more and more people during my last 12 months who were travelling without guidebooks and many enjoyed it.  I’ve never done it, but as a suggestion, if you are going to Asia why not take one for your first country, and try the second one without?  If you are in SE Asia you’ll always find a guidebook close by.
Also, if you do take a guidebook, don’t let it stop you asking questions as it’s the only way you’ll find the gems, and the ones in the guidebooks that are bad.
Also, in SE Asia...if you get fed up carrying guidebooks, there’s always a (ahem) local seller willing to sell you one ;->
The more I travelled the more you realise that as good as guidebooks are, if you are travelling through many countries, you have to prioritise and see the things that mean things to you.  Unless it’s your bag, there’s nothing special about seeing say, the biggest waterfall in Cambodia if it’s only 10 feet tall, when you saw a 150 foot one in Laos the week before (made up scenarios but you know what I mean).  Also - if you’re not a temple person you may well get sick of them, despite being in a place where the guidebook may describe the one down the road as a ‘must see’.

My guess is that once you see a guidebook, you’ll start using it over your map.

I started with a map myself. I plopped down in the Dominican Republic with a map, no guide book, and zero Spanish. Would I do it again? Hell no.

Guidebooks give great timetables for buses and connections—information that you often can’t get out of some languages. Use the Internet as a crutch, but it’ll be helpful to simply ignore the subjective drivel in most guides and simply focus on the their maps and transport sections.