Lonely Planet
-
On July 4, 1972, a pair of young newlyweds named Tony and Maureen backed out of the driveway of a family home in the south of England. They were driving a used blue minivan that they had bought for the princely sum of £65, and their goal was to get to India. Or somewhere. They had a trunk full of food, cooking equipment, some spare parts for the car, a stack of traveler’s checks, some sleeping bags, and an old tent. As he eased the car out of his parents’ driveway, Tony called out to his mum and dad that they’d be back in a year. Fate had other plans.
So begins the story of Lonely Planet, the most powerful travel brand of the twentieth century—a company that would influence the movements and experiences of tens of millions of travelers, while also shaping the fate of countless businesses and, in some cases, entire communities. But the five-and-a-half-month overland journey that led to the company’s founding was hardly unprecedented. In many ways, those newlyweds—Tony and Maureen Wheeler—were typical young baby boomers: they were eager to see the world, and they wanted to do so in a way that had been both unthinkable and, in many cases, physically impossible for their parents. As they set off on their trip, Tony and Maureen were following in the footsteps of thousands of young travelers who’d already blazed the “Hippie Trail” across Asia. But these young newlyweds were also exceptional, which is why we’re still talking about them today: Tony and Maureen’s trip to India and beyond went on to inspire a business that would tap into the restless power of their generation, serving the millions of young Westerners who shared their drive to escape the confines of the comfortable postwar societies in which they’d been raised. The couple’s business, which they would found in Australia at the other end of that now-fabled 1972 journey across Asia, would fundamentally change the way tourists experience the world. And it would change the world, too.
-
Interesting! I've actually never purchased (or read) a Lonely Planet guide myself, but when I lived in Japan, other ex-pats were often passing around copies, for Japan of course but also for nearby destinations in Asia. It never occurred to me that there was a couple behind the famous name.
-
Frommer's sent me on what was supposed to be a moderate mtn bike ride in the Alaskan wilderness that was actually 11 and 1/2 hours.
The description of the trail was obviously written by an imaginative liar. I met one person
that showed me the marks in the ground were from grizzlies.
I like Lonely Planet. Their guides work for me.
