Bill Bryson Reveals the Value of a Good Travel Guide
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 10.16.07 | 1:31 PM ET
Yeah, I’m talking about the same Bill Bryson who famously took to the Appalachian Trail accompanied by his college friend, the “big soft flabby baby” Stephen Katz. Bryson admits in the first line of this piece in the Guardian that “Anyone who has read my books will know that I don’t tend to use guides when I am travelling.” Yet he was asked to help judge the Paul Morrison/Wanderlust Guide Awards, and the experience caused him to reflect on times he did use a guide and how important guides can be to a travel experience.
Bryson says about a trip to Mexico City with his daughter:
We had been told that it was a dangerous place and I didn’t want to blunder into a bad situation. So, we did one day on our own and one day with a guide.
On our day looking after ourselves we found the city strangely subdued—which was pretty unexpected for a city of over 19 million people. We had a good time and we saw some interesting things but what we didn’t get was anything ... additional. The next day was something of a revelation. Not just because our guide showed us some great churches and squares and museums, but more because by being with him we got a real insight into the life of a Mexico city resident.
Does Bryson think he’d be a good guide?
“No, not all,” he says. “I would make a genuinely terrible guide. I can’t remember things. I would get half way through telling a story or explaining something and I would get distracted. Oh, and I have absolutely no sense of direction at all.”
Now that’s the bumbling, shambolic author of “A Walk in the Woods” and In a Sunburned Country we know and love.
Related on World Hum:
* Paul Theroux, Bill Bryson, Jon Krakauer on Charlie Rose/YouTube
* Bill Bryson: ‘When I Check into a Hotel Almost Never Do They Know Me’
* Bill Bryson Becomes Made Man in Britain
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
Karen Misuraca 02.06.08 | 2:40 PM ET
Bryson recently addressed the Society of American Travel Writers in Manchester, England, regaling us with jokes and tall tales. He said, “I have made a career out of being a terrible traveler.” When asked what he likes about England, he said, “Just look around.” Originally from Iowa, now a resident of Norfolk, England, Bryson is Chancellor of Durham University, and the recipient of an honorary OBE for services to literature. Beyond just looking around his beloved English countryside, he is president of the Council to Protect Rural England (CPRE). Among accomplishments over the last few years, CPRE has helped to prevent A303 becoming a dual carriageway road through the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Somerset. The organization launched “tranquillity maps” to show the range of tranquillity across England, and facilitated new legislation to save starry nights by making light pollution a Statutory Nuisance. CPRE Oxfordshire created the Oxford Green Belt Way, a 50-mile circular walk around Oxford, a route created using existing footpaths and bridleways. CPRE believes that a beautiful, tranquil, diverse and productive countryside is fundamental to people’s quality of life(http://www.cpre.org.uk).