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, Dublin, 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

Jade Bremner

Curator

Jade has been a journalist for more than a decade. She has lived in and reported on four different regions. Wherever she goes she finds action sports to try – the weirder the better – and it’s no coincidence that many of her favorite places have some of the best waves in the world. Jade has edited travel magazines and sections for Time Out and Radio Times and has contributed to The Times, CNN and The Independent. She feels privileged to share tales from this wonderful planet we call home and is always looking for the next adventure.

Alex Egerton

Boyacá, Santander & Norte de Santander; Medellín & Zona Cafetera; Cali & Southwest Colombia, Pacific Coast

A news journalist by trade, Alex has worked for magazines, newspapers and media outlets on five continents. Having had his fill of musty newsrooms and the insatiable corporate appetite for superficial news, Alex decided to leap into travel writing in order to escape the mundane. He spends most of his time on the road checking under mattresses, sampling suspicious street food and chatting with locals as part of the research process for travel articles and guidebooks. A keen adventurer, Alex has hiked through remote jungles in Colombia, explored isolated tributaries of the mighty Mekong and taken part in the first kayak descent of a number of remote waterways in Nicaragua. When not on the road, you’ll find him at home amongst the colonial splendor of Popayán in southern Colombia. Alex also worked on the Survival Guide chapters.

Tom Masters

Caribbean Coast; San Andrés & Providencia; Los Llanos; Amazon Basin

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. Despite a childhood spent in the English countryside, as an adult Tom has always called London, Paris and Berlin home. He currently lives in Berlin and can be found online at www.tommasters.net. 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. This first writing job took him on to work at the BBC World Service in London, and as a freelance contributor to newspapers and magazines around the world. He also spent several years working in documentary production for UK and US television companies. Tom indulges his love of communist architecture by living on Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin’s Friedrichshain and still returns regularly to the former Soviet Union for work. His most recent projects include guides to the Russian Far East, Central Africa and Colombia. Tom also worked on the Understand chapters.

Kevin Raub

Bogotá

Atlanta native Kevin Raub started his career as a music journalist in New York, working for Men’s Journal and Rolling Stone magazines. He ditched the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle for travel writing and has written nearly 50 Lonely Planet guides, focused mainly on Brazil, Chile, Colombia, USA, India, the Caribbean and Portugal. Raub also contributes to a variety of travel magazines in both the USA and UK. Along the way, the self-confessed hophead is in constant search of wildly high IBUs in local beers. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram (@RaubOnTheRoad). Raub spent seven years on Brazilian soil, canvassing the South American Giant one caipirinha at a time on his way to getting to know 22 Brazilian states. A well-known Brazil expert, he also handled all of Lonely Planet’s on-the-ground social media coverage during the FIFA 2014 World Cup. Raub has contributed to a variety of publications including Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller and New York Times T Magazine, among others. Raub continues pounding the world’s pavements with one goal in mind: Membership in the Traveler’s Century Club before the age of 50. His country count currently stands at 86. Kevin also worked on the Plan Your Trip chapters

Published by Lonely Planet Global Limited

CRN 554153

8th edition – August 2018

ISBN 978 1 78701 928 7

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