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

Brendan Sainsbury

Oaxaca Born and raised in the UK in a town that never merits a mention in any guidebook (Andover, Hampshire), Brendan spent the holidays of his youth caravanning in the English Lake District and didn’t leave Blighty until he was 19. He’s since squeezed 70 countries into a sometimes precarious existence as a writer and professional vagabond. In the last 11 years, he has written more 40 books for Lonely Planet from Castro’s Cuba to the canyons of Peru.

Kate Armstrong

Yucatán Peninsula Kate Armstrong has spent much of her adult life traveling and living around the world. A full-time freelance travel journalist, she has contributed to more than 50 Lonely Planet guides and trade publications and is regularly published in Australian and worldwide publications. She is the author of several books and children’s educational titles.

Ray Bartlett

Yucatán Peninsula Ray has been travel writing for nearly two decades, bringing Japan, Korea, Mexico, and many parts of the United States to life in rich detail for top-industry publishers, newspapers, and magazines. His acclaimed debut novel, Sunsets of Tulum, is set in Yucatán and was a Midwest Book Review 2016 Fiction pick. Among other pursuits, Ray surfs regularly and is an accomplished Argentine tango dancer. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or contact him via his website www.kaisora.com.

Celeste Brash

Baja California Like many California natives, Celeste now lives in Portland, Oregon. She arrived, however, after 15 years in French Polynesia, a year and a half in Southeast Asia and a stint teaching English as a second language in Brighton, England – among other things. She’s been writing guidebooks for Lonely Planet since 2005 and her travel articles have appeared in publications from BBC Travel to National Geographic. She’s currently writing a book about her five years on a remote pearl farm in the Tuamotu Atolls and is represented by the Donald Maass Agency, New York.

Stuart Butler

Chiapas & Tabasco 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, huffed and puffed 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.

Steve Fallon

Western Central Highlands A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Steve graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Science in modern languages. After working for several years for an American daily newspaper and earning a master’s degree in journalism, his fascination with the ‘new’ Asia and led him to Hong Kong, where he lived for over a dozen years, working for a variety of media and running his own travel bookshop. Steve lived in Budapest for three years before moving to London in 1994. He has written or contributed to more than 100 Lonely Planet titles.

John Hecht

Central Pacific Coast Los Angeles native John Hecht has contributed to more than a dozen Lonely Planet guidebooks and trade publications, mostly focused on Mexico and Central America. He is also a published food and entertainment writer and wrote a screenplay for a short film shot in Mexico City, his adopted home where he enjoys merrymaking in cantinas and chowing down greasy-good street eats.

Anna Kaminski

Veracruz Originally from the Soviet Union, Anna grew up in Cambridge, UK. She graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in Comparative American Studies, a background in the history, culture and literature of the Americas and the Caribbean, and an enduring love of Latin America. Her restless wanderings led her to settle briefly in Oaxaca and Bangkok and her flirtation with criminal law saw her volunteering as a lawyer’s assistant in the courts, ghettos and prisons of Kingston, Jamaica. Anna has contributed to almost 30 Lonely Planet titles. When not on the road, Anna calls London home.

Tom Masters

Northern Central Highlands 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.

Liza Prado

Copper Canyon & Northern Mexico Liza Prado has been a travel writer since 2003, when she made a move from corporate lawyering to travel writing (and never looked back). She’s written dozens of guidebooks and articles as well as apps and blogs to destinations throughout the Americas. She takes decent photos too. Liza is a graduate of Brown University and Stanford Law School. She lives very happily in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and fellow LP writer, Gary Chandler, and their two kids.

Phillip Tang

Mexico City; Around Mexico City Phillip Tang grew up on a typically Australian diet of pho and fish’n’chips before moving to Mexico City. A degree in Chinese- and Latin-American cultures launched him into travel and then writing about it for Lonely Planet’s Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam guides.

Published by Lonely Planet Global Limited

CRN 554153

16th edition – September 2018

ISBN 978 1 78868 137 7

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