Our Story
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies. Lonely Planet was born.
Today, Lonely Planet has offices in Franklin, London, Melbourne, Oakland, Beijing and Delhi, with more than 600 staff and writers. We share Tony’s belief that ‘a great guidebook should do three things: inform, educate and amuse’.
Our Writers
Simon Richmond
Journalist and photographer Simon has specialised as a travel writer since the early 1990s and first worked for Lonely Planet in 1999 on their Central Asia guide. He’s long since stopped counting the number of guidebooks he’s researched and written for the company, but countries covered including Australia, China, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Russia, Singapore, South Africa and Turkey. For Lonely Planet’s website he’s penned features on topics from the world’s best swimming pools to the joys of Urban Sketching – follow him on Instagram to see some of his photos and sketches.
https://auth.lonelyplanet.com/profiles/simonrichmond
Mark Baker
Mark is a freelance travel writer with a penchant for off beat stories and forgotten places. He’s originally from the United States, but now makes his home in the Czech capital, Prague. He writes mainly on Eastern and Central Europe for Lonely Planet as well as other leading travel publishers, but finds real satisfaction in digging up stories in places that are too remote or quirky for the guides. Prior to becoming an author, he worked as a journalist for The Economist, Bloomberg News and Radio Free Europe, among other organisations. Instagram: @markbakerprague Twitter: @markbakerprague
Marc Bennets
Marc is a Moscow-based journalist and writer whose work has appeared in the UK’s Guardian and Times, as well as other UK and US newspapers. He is the author of three books: Football Dynamo (Virgin, 2008) about Russia’s football culture, Kicking the Kremlin (2014, Oneworld), about the anti-Putin protest movement and I’m Going to Ruin Their Lives (Oneworld, 2016), about how Putin has retaliated. Marc has lived in Russia since 1997.
Stuart Butler
Stuart has been writing for Lonely Planet for a decade and during this time he’s come eye to eye with gorillas in the Congolese jungles, meta man with horns on his head who could lie in fire, huff ed and puff ed over snowbound Himalayan mountain passes, interviewed a king who could turn into a tree and had his fortune told by a parrot. Oh, and he’s met more than his fair share of self-proclaimed Gods. When not on the road for Lonely Planet he lives on the beautiful beaches of Southwest France with his wife and two young children. His website is www.stuartbutlerjournalist.com.
Trent Holden
A Geelong-based writer, located just outside Melbourne, Trent has worked for Lonely Planet since 2005. He’s covered 30-plus guidebooks across Asia, Africa and Australia. With a penchant for mega cities, Trent’s in his element when assigned to cover a nation’s capital – the more chaotic the better – to unearth cool bars, art, street food and underground subculture.On the flipside he also writes books to idyllic tropical islands across Asia, in between going on safari to national parks in Africa and the subcontinent. When not travelling, Trent works as a freelance editor, reviewer and spends all his money catching live gigs. You can catch him on Twitter @hombreholden.
Ali Lemer
Ali has been working for Lonely Planet as a travel writer and editor since 2007. Besides authoring articles for lonelyplanet.com on Japan, Scotland and the US, she’s written for several travel magazines and authored guidebooks on Bali, Hawaii and Russia; she also co-edited an anthology of personal narratives from migrant Australian authors called Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home. A native New Yorker, Ali has also lived and studied in Chicago, Prague, the UK and Melbourne, Australia, where she became naturalized several years ago. She currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Tatyana Leonov
Tatyana is a travel writer and editor based in Sydney, Australia when she’s not on the road. She’s written for Lonely Planet Asia magazine and lonelyplanet.com, as well as a heap of other magazines, newspapers and websites from around the world. Check out www.tatyanaleonov.com.au for more.
Tom Masters
Dreaming since he could walk of going to the most obscure places on earth, Tom has always had a taste for the unknown. This has led to a writing career that has taken him all over the world, including North Korea, the Arctic, Congo and Siberia. After graduating with a degree in Russian literature from the University of London, Tom went to work in Russia as a journalist at the St Petersburg Times. He now indulges his love of communist architecture by living on Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin’s Friedrichshain, but still returns regularly to the former Soviet Union for work. Tom can be found online at www.tommasters.net.
Kate Morgan
Having worked for Lonely Planet for over a decade now, Kate has been fortunate enough to cover plenty of ground working as a travel writer on destinations such as Shanghai, Japan, India, Russia, Zimbabwe, the Philippines and Phuket. She has done stints living in London, Paris and Osaka but these days is based in one of her favourite regions in the world – Victoria, Australia. In between travelling the world and writing about it, Kate enjoys spending time at home working as a freelance editor.
Leonid Ragozin
Leonid studied beach dynamics at the Moscow State University, but for want of decent beaches in Russia, he switched to journalism and spent 12 years voyaging through different parts of the BBC, with a break for a four-year stint as a foreign correspondent for the Russian Newsweek. Leonid is currently a freelance journalist focusing largely on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine (both his Lonely Planet destinations), which prompted him to leave Moscow and find a new home in Rīga.
Regis St Louis
Regis grew up in a small town in the American Midwest – the kind of place that fuels big dreams of travel – and he developed an early fascination with foreign dialects and world cultures. He spent his formative years learning Russian and a handful of Romance languages, which served him well on journeys across much of the globe. Regis has contributed to more than 50 Lonely Planet titles, covering destinations across six continents. His travels have taken him from the mountains of Kamchatka to remote island villages in Melanesia, and to many grand urban landscapes. When not on the road, Regis lives in New Orleans.
Mara Vorhees
Mara writes about food, travel and family fun around the world. Her work has been published by BBC Travel, Boston Globe, Delta Sky, Vancouver Sun and more. For Lonely Planet, she regularly writes about destinations in Central America and Eastern Europe, as well as New England, where she lives. She often travels with her twin boys in tow, earning her an expertise in family travel. Follow their adventures and misadventures at www.havetwinswilltravel.com.
Stay in Touch
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Published by Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd
ABN 36 005 607 983
8th edition - April 2018
ISBN 9781787019423
© Lonely Planet 2018 Photographs © as indicated 2018
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