Lonely Planet Releases List of Top 10 World Cities

CitizenSugar — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:53:20 -0700

If you're dying to get out of Dodge, you're in luck. The Lonely Planet series of travel guides has just released its list of Top 10 World Cities. One entry is causing a few raised eyebrows — including mine. Glasgow, Scotland has made its way onto the list despite its not-too-distant reputation for rough neighborhoods, gangs, and general dereliction. When I went looking for photos, indeed most of them told that story.

The guide paints a rosier picture of a city resurrected. It says: "Forget castles, kilts, bagpipes and tartan. You come for the cocktails, cuisine and designer chic (plus the legendary native wit). Glasgow has shaken off its shroud of industrial soot and shimmied into a sparkling new designer gown."

The Lonely Planet travel editor seconds that notion saying, "The time has come for Lonely Planet to let one of its worst-kept secrets out: Glasgow's got everything. We're delighted to highlight such a fun, stylish city." While some say celebration is too soon in a city "more violent than New York and sicker than parts of Iraq," we can hope that the Planet folks have their finger on the pulse of a trend of improvement.

To see the rest of the cities that made the list,

Guidebook Writer Says He Never Visited Countries

LibertySugar — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:00:49 -0700

Apparently it isn't essential that a guidebook writer actually visit the country he writes about. A Lonely Planet author is claiming that he made up large portions of his books, and dealt drugs to subsidize his measly salary. Think twice before going to the titles on Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, Venezuela, Chile, and South America, for some first-hand advice.

These damning revelations came out in the writer's, Thomas Kohnstamm, new book Do Travel Writers Go to Hell? He says that he wrote about Colombia without visiting the country because they didn't pay him enough to go to Colombia. He says: "I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating — an intern in the Colombian Consulate."

This guy has the coolest job ever — traveling around the world and writing about it— and he does the arguably hard part while, ditching the fun of seeing the world. I know he's not making a lot of money, but he accepted the job knowing how much he was going to make. Do you think phony travel writers, like Kohnstamm, should go to hell?

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Lonely Planet Releases List of Top 10 World Cities

Guidebook Writer Says He Never Visited Countries