“Fly Jets While You Still Can” appears in the marginalia of Generation X, Douglas Coupland’s sunny tale of global apocalypse and tourism. It’s certainly a timely suggestion: the latter half of the Twentieth Century saw a seven-fold increase in global tourism. By 2003 tourism accounted for 6 percent of worldwide exports of goods and services, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. The UNWTO also predicts that by 2020 there will be 1.6 billion international tourist arrivals worldwide. Put another way, nearly 20 percent of the projected 8 billion humans on Earth will travel internationally — the lucky 20 percent.
The only things that could derail this future of international travel and understanding is, I don’t know, global economic collapse, oil at $170 USD per barrel, or world war. Maybe Coupland was right. Maybe you should book those tickets now.
The good news is that it’s never been easier to get where you’re going. There’s also more information about your destination available now than there ever has been before.
When the first Guides section was written for Coastalsurvey.com in 1999, the prevailing metaphor for the internet was that of a library where all the books were tossed in a heap on the floor. Google has changed all that; up to date information about your destination is just a few search terms away. And, for travelers exploring the coastlines of the world, Google Maps and Google Earth are incredibly useful resources.
Yet there’s still a place for the well-researched guidebook. A few of our top picks — both printed and digital — appear below.
General Travel Guidebooks
Lonely Planet: The gold-standard for detailed, (usually) authoritative guidebooks for budget travelers. Buy the books if you want all the beta. The LP website does not provide complete listings online.
Rough Guides: The other great budget guide offers full-text listings online, you just have to dig for them.
Moon Travel Guides: The Moon series is more about culture and less about detail than Lonely Planet. Even so, the printed guidebooks are useful and the website offers a handy Activity/Destination search tool.
| Surfing Guidebooks |
Other Travel Sites |
- Indo Surf & Lingo Peter Neely’s venerable guide to surfing Indonesia.
- Oceansurf Stuart B.’s surf travel videos, articles and guidebooks.
- Wavefinder Guides This London-based publisher has guidebooks for Central America, the UK, Australia, Mexico, Indonesia and the USA.
- Surfing California Bank Wright’s guide to surf covers the Golden State from Crescent City to Imperial Beach. Still available from Amazon.
- Stormrider Guides This London-based publisher produces dream-worthy guides to surfing in Europe, North America and the World.
- Surf The Planet Published surf guidebooks for Costa Rica and Peru
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- iafrica travel Africa’s news and sport portal also has some useful travel info.
- Africa by Bicycle The International Bicycle Fund has a wealth of information about Africa, including a country-by-country guide.
- South Africa dot Com South Africa country guide
- Surf of Madagascar Bruce Harris’s travelblog of a 2004 surf trip to Madagascar
- Baliwaves Surfing in Bali, Indonesia
- Indo dot Com A travel and tourism directory for Indonesia
- Philippines Travel Guide A general tourism site with some surf info.
- Travellers Contact Point An excellent service for vagabonds in Sydney’s CBD. Go for mail pickup, jobs, mobile phones, cheap tours and tickets, internet service, bulletin boards, housing, visa info, travel insurance and vaccinations.
- Tasmania Discover Tasmania, the official tourism website for Tasmania, provides info on hotels, tours and activities in Tas.
- Indy Travel Info Another site devoted to backpackers and budget travel
- Costa Rica Surf Info General CR info and surf map
- Beachwizard The European beach guide with over 500 beaches in 12 countries.
- Journeywoman A site for female travelers. Lots of tips and info for women on the road.
- Oceansurf Stuart B.’s surf travel videos, articles and guidebooks.
- Ordnance Survey Great Britian’s national mapping agency
- Vagabondish One of the standouts in a growing field of travel blogs, Vagabondish serves up reports from indy travelers the world over.
- Art of Travel John Gregory’s site is low-tech and high-integrity. His electric tome, How To See The World, is 100,000 words on every aspect of low-budget backpacking.
- South Pacific Islands Travel An informative independent guide to the islands of the South Pacific
- Jason's A great resource for Pacific travel, Jason’s also publishes the Passport Map available from tourist offices and big hotels.
- Tonga on the Net An eclectic collection of links and info from Nuku’alofa, Tonga
- Fiji Me Colorful tourist site with lots of info on the out islands
- Tahiti Guide This sometimes awkward translation from the French site, still offers lots of tips
- Boots N All The Portland, Oregon, based BootsnAll maintains a focus on round-the-world travel and building a travel community. For the most part, it succeeds.
- The Cook Islands An independent compilation of Cook Islands info
- The World Heritage List The world’s great places
- TNT Magazine The Bible for Kiwis and Aussies in London. Lots of travel tips, news and classifieds.
- CIA Factbook The Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook is chock full of helpful tips on currency, political climate and simple ways to overthrow small, left-leaning governments.
- Guide to Ireland Hostels The IHH Guide to Irish hostels
- CycleTote Trailers Rugged aluminium bike trailers made in Colorado. Recommended!
- Bing Travel Foremerly Farecast, Microsoft’s new search service includes a meta search of airlines.
- Independent Traveler Lots of useful info for DIY travelers
- South Pacific Blog Travel writer David Stanley reports from the wide blue yonder
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