One of our newest travel guides partners is Rough Guides. They are a great travel guide publisher, and we're so pleased to be able to review their books for our Wandering Educators!

Rough Guides are a general guidebook series designed for independent travelers on a range of budgets seeking  the best cultural and historical coverage but just as interested in finding-out-of-the-way beaches and clubs. The guides combine opinionated reviews with the most up-to-date information on accommodations, restaurants, sights, and activities. In addition to publishing travel guidebooks to hundreds of destinations around the world, Rough Guides also have a broad-ranging pop culture reference list that includes film, technology, music, science, literature titles that each combine erudition with accessibility.

Rough Guides, a division of Penguin Group, publishes guidebooks for independent-minded travelers. Also published are inspirational travel tomes, books for pop culture connoisseurs, dictionary phrasebooks, and waterproof, rip-proof maps.

Rough Guides was started in 1982 by a small group of recent college grads who wanted to create a contemporary, journalistic alternative to the old-fashioned attitudes and approaches of traditional travel guides.

• Brief but detailed reviews give you a real sense of the character of a place.
• Outstanding maps and language section.
• Strong on historical detail.
• Best nightlife and entertainment sections, especially for local flavor.
• Guides emphasize a destination’s contemporary culture, including politics, economy, art, and music.

Rough Guides

* Publishes guidebooks to over 225 destinations worldwide, from Alaska to Zanzibar
* Over 30 million books sold globally in 26 years
* Offices in New York, London, and Delhi
* International distribution
* Rough Guides have appeared in TV shows such as Men in Trees, and feature films including Tropic Thunder, The Jane Austen Book Club, and the forthcoming Duplicity (2009)
* Awards won include: Lowell Thomas Award, Thomas Cook Prize, &  BAA/Expedia Travel Award

These days, Rough Guides is as much a travel content provider as it is a publisher of guidebooks. The guides themselves – distributed worldwide by the Penguin group – cover more than 200 destinations around the globe and subjects as diverse as Climate Change and Pregnancy.

Rough Guides are also back on TV screens with Five’s successful Rough Guide to… series. And of course, Rough Guides have also migrated to digital platforms with the launch of Rough Guides Mobile, and downloadable travel podcasts, podscrolls, and e-books.

* Travel guides to more than 200 worldwide destinations
* Dictionary phrasebooks to 22 major languages
* Full colour inspirational guides such as Make the Most of Your Time on Earth
* Travel Specials including First-Time guides and Travel with Babies and Young Children
* Maps printed on rip-proof and waterproof Polyart™ paper
* Music guides running the gamut from Opera to Elvis
* Reference books on topics as diverse as Climate Change and Shakespeare
* Pop culture books from iPhones, to Classic Novels, to Cult TV
* Rough Guides Mobile, e-books, podcasts and podscrolls
* World Music CDs in association with World Music Network

Look for our book reviews on Rough Guides!

For more information on Rough Guides, please see:
http://www.roughguides.com/