New Great Escapes Guide

Rough Guides’ newest book Great Escapes profiles 500 of the “world’s most inspiring holidays” and off-the-beaten-track and authentic travel.

“Whether you wish to stay in an eco-chic hotel, experience a closer connection with local culture or simply want to see the world in a new light; make your next trip a Great Escape,” says Rough Guides.

Authors Richard Hammond and Jeremy Smith have chosen accommodation, activities and tours run by people who are passionate about what they do.

Freelance travel journalist Hammond is founder of the greentraveller.co.uk.  Environmental writer and producer Smith is the editor of www.bigpicture.tv and the founder and editor of ivili.org.

Here are some of the book’s “escapes”:

• Sleep: on a ‘star bed’ in Kenya, in a lighthouse in Turkey, under a geodesic dome in Chile or hang from the treetops in a Canadian eco-sphere;

• Hang out: with the Bedouin in Jordan, Rastas in Jamaica, shepherds in Sardinia or Native Americans in the States;

• Journey by foot: to the lost city of Teyuna in Colombia, by mekora through the Okavango Delta in Botswana or on The Golden Eagle train from Moscow to Kazakhstan and

• Watch: meerkats in South Africa, red foxes in Sweden, gorillas in Rwanda or pink dolphins in Hong Kong.

Image courtesy of Rough Guides