This new, thoroughly updated seventh edition of Bradt's Namibia remains the longest and most detailed guidebook to this vast African country - more than twice the size of Germany but with less than 3% of the population. With sweeping landscapes, empty roads and wildlife reserves, Namibia has long captured the imagination of photographers, independent travellers and nature enthusiasts.Namibia's immense emptiness offers majestic sand dunes along the Skeleton Coast, seemingly endless gravel plains, vast tracts of farmland and rugged mountains hiding galleries of ancient San rock art. Throw in exhilarating wildlife encounters and the unexpected beauty of the rivers that define the country's northern and southern boundaries, and it's easy to see why Namibia attracts lovers of the great outdoors. Moreover, the country is extraordinarily diverse in human terms. Alongside the increasingly cosmopolitan feel of its capital, Windhoek, and the coastal town of Swakopmund, Namibia is home to many different cultures, among them the Himba in the Kunene region, and the San on the fringes of the Kalahari.Written by expert author and long-standing Africa tour specialist Chris McIntyre, and updated by two outdoor-adventure experts from South Africa, this new edition incorporates all key recent changes to this comparatively inexpensive safari destination. It provides unrivalled coverage of places to stay and eat, from small, personal guesthouses to classy hotels and upmarket game lodges, and detailed information for self-drivers (including personally researched and checked GPS coordinates) as well as for fly-in and guided safaris. Indeed, getting around Namibia is part of its appeal: the well-maintained road network, punctuated by independent lodges, makes light of long distances. Helping you to discover Namibia in detail, 13 chapters offer a regional breakdown, from Windhoek to the Southern Kalahari, Namib Desert, Swakopmund, Skeleton Coast, the world-renowned wildlife-watching destination of Etosha National Park, and the Kavango and Zambezi regions in the extreme northeast, including excursions into neighbouring Botswana. There's also in-depth coverage of wildlife and where to see it, including a full-colour field guide encompassing mammals, reptiles and amphibians, marine life and birds. In sum, Bradt's Namibia guidebook remains the essential travel companion for this thrilling country.

New from Bradt is Dog-Friendly Weekends: Scotland, written by canine-travel expert Lottie Gross (author of Bradt's best-selling Dog-Friendly Weekends), who proposes 30 excursions and holiday ideas for dog lovers in this beguiling country - from city breaks to outdoorsy days, and characterful campsites to pubs welcoming furry friends. Each suggestion showcases the finest dog-welcoming places to eat, sleep and be entertained.Scotland is a veritable playground for dogs and their owners, offering exceptional walking in mountains, along lochs and through dramatic glens. Even so, Bradt's Dog-Friendly Weekends: Scotland goes way beyond walking: it suggests scores of exciting attractions to keep visitors with dogs entertained, from castles and beaches to rainy-day activities such as museums and steam trains (even including those where dogs get their own tickets!). From island-hopping escapes in far-flung archipelagos to sweeping beaches perforating craggy coastlines, Scottish scenery is enough of a draw on its own. But the capital, Edinburgh, also has adventures aplenty for those travelling with dogs, thanks to a smattering of unusual destinations that welcome those on four legs as well as two, plus its own extinct volcano to climb for those bent on stretching their legs. Each weekend idea is furnished with accommodation suggestions, from the dog-friendliest campsites to charming hotels. To write this book, the author travelled thousands of miles and stayed in hundreds of accommodation offerings to personally test each one for its dog-friendliness. Destinations featured read like a roll-call of Scotland's finest locations: from the Isle of Skye to Orkney, Loch Ness to Loch Lomond, Glasgow to Aberdeen, and Ben Nevis to the Cairngorms.Despite its manifest riches, Scotland is not always the easiest country to explore - it has remote areas that can be tricky to reach but rewarding once there - and there considerations aplenty for dog owners around safety, wildlife and impact on the environment, especially in light of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. Bradt's Dog-friendly Scotland helps visitors and locals alike navigate the sensitivities, providing inspirational insights alongside advice on how to have a stress-free and safe holiday with your dog in this beguiling country.

Folkestone resident and prolific travel writer Simon Richmond turns the spotlight on his home county in the new, thoroughly updated second edition of Bradt's Kent (Slow Travel), which is part of Bradt's distinctive, award-winning series of 'Slow' travel guides to UK regions - and remains the only standalone guidebook to Kent. Walkers, cyclists, families, foodies, art lovers and wildlife enthusiasts are all catered for, with intimate detail and insider tips about a wide range of attractions, as well as all the practical information needed to enjoy England's delightful southeasternmost corner. The diversity of Kent is striking - and this in-depth guide covers many lesser-known locations as well as all the most popular places. Embraced by the English Channel, North Sea and Thames Estuary, the county's 200 km of coastline includes some of Britain's finest seaside resorts and maritime walks. British history is writ large across Kent. Roman ruins include Richborough Fort and Lullingstone Villa. Keep an eye out for invaders along the ramparts of Dover Castle or from one of the Napoleonic Martello Towers that guard Kent's southern coast. Imagine the lives of historical figures as diverse as Anne Boleyn, Charles Darwin and Vita Sackville-West in the castles and grand country houses in which they once lived, or visit the Historic Dockyard Chatham, where Lord Nelson's flagship HMS Victory was built. Explore Dover and spend time at its iconic White Cliffs, saunter through Vita Sackville-West's gorgeous gardens at the National Trust's Sissinghurst estate, visit the grave of Pocahontas in Gravesend, and contemplate thought-provoking public art in the revitalised seaside town of Folkestone. Canterbury Cathedral, part of a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, forms the seat of the Church of England, while Dungeness comprises an extraordinary beach of vegetated shingle that is home to artist and film-maker Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage. There are oddities too, such as St Leonard's Church in Hythe, which houses the UK's largest and best-preserved collection of ancient human skulls and bones, and Europe's only crab museum (in Margate). From castles and water-sports to beaches and wildlife (including reintroduced European bison!), discover Kent with Bradt's unique Slow Travel guide.

The updated Bradt Svalbard guidebook, now in its seventh edition, remains the only detailed, standalone guidebook from a major publisher to this evocative High Arctic archipelago. Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land and Jan Mayen collectively constitute Europe's wildest frontier. In this remote destination, perfect for ecotourism and adventure sports, the Global Seed Vault safeguards plants in case of environmental disaster, there are 4,000 snow scooters for a population of just 2,500 and reindeer graze beside icy roads, keeping a wary eye open for polar bears.More than 50 nationalities live together in the tiny capital city of Longyearbyen, where no-one can easily be born in hospital (due to limited medical facilities) nor buried (due to the permafrost). Once populated by trappers, miners and whalers, the Norwegian city is now home to climate scientists. Moreover - as the updated Bradt Svalbard guidebook makes clear - it provides the hub for a thriving tourist destination, where you can:* take expedition cruises in summer (June-August) to explore coastal areas, looking for thrilling wildlife including polar bears, walruses, beluga whales and Arctic foxes;* during the so-called 'light winter' months (March-May), go husky-sledding, skidooing, cross-country skiing, hiking, kayaking, ice climbing and fossil-hunting amid Svalbard's glorious mountains, majestic fjords and sprawling valleys, explore the mining ghost towns of Barentsburg or Pyramiden, or even notch up geographic superlatives (such as the world's most northerly kebab, most northerly souvenir shop); and* during winter (November/December-March), when the sun disappears for four months, enjoy polar 'noctourism', admiring ink-black skies filled with stars and the dance of the aurora borealis (northern lights).Interest in the region has never been higher, partly thanks to travel vlogger Cecilie Blomdahl's New York Times bestseller, Life on Svalbard. The updated Bradt Svalbard guidebook provides all of the practical and background information you'll need to explore this wild place, turning the hostile into the hospitable. Freshly researched and amended, this seventh edition reflects important recent changes in the archipelago, from climate-responsible travel innovations to eco-minded tours, plus a slew of new hotels and restaurants, making it the indispensable guide to this once-in-a-lifetime destination.

This new, extensively revised eighth edition of Bradt's Albania remains the most authoritative and detailed standalone guidebook to what is still a relatively little-known part of Europe. This Balkan country has much to offer almost everyone - from hiking in unspoilt mountains to gawping at Byzantine churches or plentiful birds, from homestays in traditional villages to backpacking around beaches.Many visitors rave about spectacular alpine scenery with stellar hiking and cycling opportunities. Others laud the country's cultural heritage, which reaches back two and a half millennia. Must-sees include the Ottoman cities of Gjirokastra and Berati (both UNESCO World Heritage Sites), many outstanding archaeological sites and early mosques, Venetian castles dotting hilltops and coastal promontories, and Byzantine religious art in medieval churches and the museums of Tirana, Korça and Berati. For city slickers, lively Tirana offers shopping malls, fine dining, art galleries and historic buildings. Beaches such as Dhërmiu and Jali in the south are popular with younger travellers attracted by music festivals.Tourists seeking a return to a simpler, traditional way of life can find it in Albania's alpine villages, where residents still live much as did their grandparents, tending goats and sheep, hand-spinning wool and making cheese and yogurt. Many villagers have opened up their homes as guest houses, offering visitors a wonderful opportunity to experience local culture first-hand. Birdwatchers have long been attracted to Albania, even during the Communist period when the country was all but closed to most foreign visitors, thanks to its many different habitats and the fact that it lies on several migration routes; those interested in other wildlife might seek out Europe's largest population of brown bear, plus grey wolf, European wildcat and Eurasian lynx. Visiting Albania is increasingly easy, with more airlines flying from western Europe and fast highways now connecting main cities. Such developments infuse this new edition, whose coverage of natural history and museums has also been strengthened as part of a thorough update. With its unparalleled wealth of practical advice for the independent traveller, Bradt's Albania remains the ideal companion for a rewarding trip to this fascinating country.

In 1968, aged 21, John Western left England, not realising that he might never bother to return. The boy who had always loved maps, trains and travel to new places was posted by Voluntary Service Overseas to a missionary school in rural Burundi, Central Africa. From the world's longest-industrialised country, he pitches into what was probably then its least industrialised nation. For two years, Western experiences life in an 'overwhelmingly illiterate subsistence economy of material poverty' - realities that provide the foundation for his fourth book, An Africa Ago. Two years after he leaves to study in the United States, Burundi's Tutsi ruling minority massacres 100,000 Hutus after an attempted coup against the military dictatorship. In 1975, Western - by this time, living in South Africa to research a doctoral thesis about apartheid in Cape Town - revisits Burundi to assess the aftermath. What he encounters will haunt him for ever. Of the schoolboys he taught, many have vanished into mass graves - carted off in lorries, still alive, then layered face down under rocks. 'The little mission hill,' he finds, 'is now a place of desolation, of widows and orphans and injustice'. Meanwhile, at the southern tip of this complex continent, Western's inside stories of the lives of Cape Town's 'Coloured' (mixed-race) residents, under the heel of 1970s apartheid, reveal an attempt to dominate, oppress and humiliate - not merely to racially segregate. But Western's memoir is not all darkness. There is adventure too - tales of overlanding 7,500 miles in barely two months, most by hitchhiking, Western's route taking in Botswana, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Zambia, Tanzania, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). And there are accounts of strong bonds forged with working-class Afrikaners utterly removed from any political or racial disputes, the unexpected point of connection being a shared love of locomotives as the era of the steam engine was drawing to its close. And it is trains with which An Africa Ago closes - a luxurious journey on a Namibian 'sealed hotel-on-wheels' from which the author offers us a self-conscious, 21st-century return to the era of white settler colonialism in southern Africa.

In the early 1980s - long before smartphones, budget flights or the safety net of Google Maps - an uncertain and gloriously uninformed Chris Price set out to cross Asia the slow way. Armed with a backpack, questionable judgement and a stack of diaries, the accidental adventurer crossed 13 countries by whatever moved: rattling trains, rust-bitten ferries, overcrowded buses, the odd smuggler's car - and frequented more dubious guesthouses and toilets than he will ever publicly admit to. For most of the journey he relied on a single Bartholomew's map, picked up guidebooks after travelling through the regions as souvenirs, and navigated China with a map written entirely in Chinese.A Dozen Dirty Dumplings is a candid, amusing and often uncomfortable account of travel before the world became curated, convenient and constantly connected. In place of Instagram sunsets are nights in musty rooms, run-ins with border officials, strangers who offered improbable kindness, and long stretches of heat, dust and bafflement. Yet beneath the chaos runs a deeper thread: the discovery of small human moments - shared food, brief friendships, quiet landscapes - that stay long after the journey ended.Drawn directly from the diaries Price kept on the road, A Dozen Dirty Dumplings maintains the immediacy, honesty and rawness of its original notes. It captures the confusion of youth, the thrill of independence, the fear of getting truly lost, danger and the exhilaration of travel across a continent that had not yet learned to perform for tourists. Join Price as he swims in the Ganges, hitchhikes with the People's Liberation Army, breakfasts with Tibetan nomads, and lunches with tribal elders carrying Mausers and AKs - moments that blend danger, absurdity and unexpected kindness.Part travelogue, part coming-of-age story, A Dozen Dirty Dumplings offers a vivid portrait of a vanished era: a world of paper tickets, sweaty backpacks and conversations shouted through train windows. It is a story about learning - sometimes the hard way - how to navigate the world and oneself. Chaotic, reflective and sharply funny, it reveals that the most memorable journeys often come from the moments you never planned for - and could never repeat today.

'Nairobi enchants, like the eyes of a loved one, like their smile, like their kisses, like their caresses, like their very thought.' Thursdays in Nairobi is a personal account of an expat's life in Nairobi, related through a unique collection of vignettes about Kenya´s capital city. Written by Mexican journalist, foreign correspondent and former diplomat Diego Gómez Pickering, and translated from the original Spanish by Aaron Rosenberg, this unique travel narrative offers testimonies about the city's characters, history, neighbourhoods and atmospheres. Writing with affection and intensity, Gómez Pickering reveals Nairobi to be a cosmopolitan, vibrant, unequal and contrasting place where life becomes an addictive, exhilarating experience for both the chronicler and its readers. Join Gómez Pickering in exploring this Equatorial African city, sitting on his shoulder as he peers behind the scenes of diplomatic gatherings and keenly observes political life. Become a fly on the wall during Gómez Pickering's intimate interview with Sarah Onyango Obama, the third wife of Barack Obama's grandfather - and the woman that the former US President calls 'Granny Sarah'. Enjoy safaris within spitting distance of skyscrapers or brave a first-hand account of interethnic violence in East Africa. For something different, venture with the author into Kibera, the continent's largest urban slum, or head out after dark to experience Nairobi's offbeat nightlife (and, vicariously, the sex life of its inhabitants). This unprecedented collection of real-life stories celebrate the beauty, diversity, intrigue and visceral reality of one of Africa's most famous cities. Compelling, authentic and wide-ranging, Thursdays in Nairobi is a portrait of a capital where life is saturated with vitality, where emotions run high, where life is deeply felt. 'In Nairobi, one misses more, loves more, suffers more, laughs more. In Nairobi, questions that have never been asked are answered. In Nairobi, opposites meet; in Nairobi, halves unite.'

If you have ever felt too shy, too old, or too plain for adventure - In Spite of Myself is for you.Growing up as a painfully timid child in Kenya, Mary Fogarty discovers that independence is not something you are born with - it is something you swim towards, stumble upon, and seize when nobody is watching. Sometime journalist, sometime travel guide, always an outsider (and always a swimmer), Fogarty looks back on decades of spontaneous solo travel across five continents with self-deprecating honesty, warmth, and razor-sharp wit.Wherever she journeys - from Milan to Mexico, Perth to Peru, mountains to souks - she feels marked by difference. Her teenage self is branded an African savage at a British convent school; in Italy she is a country bumpkin in the city yet the only foreigner in the village; in Australia, the lone Pom in a Macedonian community; in Spain, the only single expat among couples. Sometimes following love, sometimes finding it once she arrives, Fogarty flings herself into relationships both magnificent and disastrous - with a cast of unlikely characters no novelist would dare invent.Gawp as she meets an Egyptian doctor on the night train to Cairo; takes off across the desert with a Syrian bus driver in search of a hotel that serves alcohol; shares a sleeping bag with a Sherpa on the descent from Everest to cure her altitude sickness; encounters an Omar Sharif lookalike in Australia, only to discover he is sleeping in his office and growing marijuana in the flowerpots - and is nearly murdered by the new girlfriend of her Berber ex-lover in Marrakech.Simultaneously intensely personal and irresistibly universal, In Spite of Myself is for anyone who worries about being alone - and proof that there is always a way, and you can do it on your own.

This new, thoroughly updated seventh edition of Bradt's Namibia remains the longest and most detailed guidebook to this vast African country - more than twice the size of Germany but with less than 3% of the population. With sweeping landscapes, empty roads and wildlife reserves, Namibia has long captured the imagination of photographers, independent travellers and nature enthusiasts.Namibia's immense emptiness offers majestic sand dunes along the Skeleton Coast, seemingly endless gravel plains, vast tracts of farmland and rugged mountains hiding galleries of ancient San rock art. Throw in exhilarating wildlife encounters and the unexpected beauty of the rivers that define the country's northern and southern boundaries, and it's easy to see why Namibia attracts lovers of the great outdoors. Moreover, the country is extraordinarily diverse in human terms. Alongside the increasingly cosmopolitan feel of its capital, Windhoek, and the coastal town of Swakopmund, Namibia is home to many different cultures, among them the Himba in the Kunene region, and the San on the fringes of the Kalahari.Written by expert author and long-standing Africa tour specialist Chris McIntyre, and updated by two outdoor-adventure experts from South Africa, this new edition incorporates all key recent changes to this comparatively inexpensive safari destination. It provides unrivalled coverage of places to stay and eat, from small, personal guesthouses to classy hotels and upmarket game lodges, and detailed information for self-drivers (including personally researched and checked GPS coordinates) as well as for fly-in and guided safaris. Indeed, getting around Namibia is part of its appeal: the well-maintained road network, punctuated by independent lodges, makes light of long distances. Helping you to discover Namibia in detail, 13 chapters offer a regional breakdown, from Windhoek to the Southern Kalahari, Namib Desert, Swakopmund, Skeleton Coast, the world-renowned wildlife-watching destination of Etosha National Park, and the Kavango and Zambezi regions in the extreme northeast, including excursions into neighbouring Botswana. There's also in-depth coverage of wildlife and where to see it, including a full-colour field guide encompassing mammals, reptiles and amphibians, marine life and birds. In sum, Bradt's Namibia guidebook remains the essential travel companion for this thrilling country.

New from Bradt is Dog-Friendly Weekends: Scotland, written by canine-travel expert Lottie Gross (author of Bradt's best-selling Dog-Friendly Weekends), who proposes 30 excursions and holiday ideas for dog lovers in this beguiling country - from city breaks to outdoorsy days, and characterful campsites to pubs welcoming furry friends. Each suggestion showcases the finest dog-welcoming places to eat, sleep and be entertained.Scotland is a veritable playground for dogs and their owners, offering exceptional walking in mountains, along lochs and through dramatic glens. Even so, Bradt's Dog-Friendly Weekends: Scotland goes way beyond walking: it suggests scores of exciting attractions to keep visitors with dogs entertained, from castles and beaches to rainy-day activities such as museums and steam trains (even including those where dogs get their own tickets!). From island-hopping escapes in far-flung archipelagos to sweeping beaches perforating craggy coastlines, Scottish scenery is enough of a draw on its own. But the capital, Edinburgh, also has adventures aplenty for those travelling with dogs, thanks to a smattering of unusual destinations that welcome those on four legs as well as two, plus its own extinct volcano to climb for those bent on stretching their legs. Each weekend idea is furnished with accommodation suggestions, from the dog-friendliest campsites to charming hotels. To write this book, the author travelled thousands of miles and stayed in hundreds of accommodation offerings to personally test each one for its dog-friendliness. Destinations featured read like a roll-call of Scotland's finest locations: from the Isle of Skye to Orkney, Loch Ness to Loch Lomond, Glasgow to Aberdeen, and Ben Nevis to the Cairngorms.Despite its manifest riches, Scotland is not always the easiest country to explore - it has remote areas that can be tricky to reach but rewarding once there - and there considerations aplenty for dog owners around safety, wildlife and impact on the environment, especially in light of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. Bradt's Dog-friendly Scotland helps visitors and locals alike navigate the sensitivities, providing inspirational insights alongside advice on how to have a stress-free and safe holiday with your dog in this beguiling country.

Folkestone resident and prolific travel writer Simon Richmond turns the spotlight on his home county in the new, thoroughly updated second edition of Bradt's Kent (Slow Travel), which is part of Bradt's distinctive, award-winning series of 'Slow' travel guides to UK regions - and remains the only standalone guidebook to Kent. Walkers, cyclists, families, foodies, art lovers and wildlife enthusiasts are all catered for, with intimate detail and insider tips about a wide range of attractions, as well as all the practical information needed to enjoy England's delightful southeasternmost corner. The diversity of Kent is striking - and this in-depth guide covers many lesser-known locations as well as all the most popular places. Embraced by the English Channel, North Sea and Thames Estuary, the county's 200 km of coastline includes some of Britain's finest seaside resorts and maritime walks. British history is writ large across Kent. Roman ruins include Richborough Fort and Lullingstone Villa. Keep an eye out for invaders along the ramparts of Dover Castle or from one of the Napoleonic Martello Towers that guard Kent's southern coast. Imagine the lives of historical figures as diverse as Anne Boleyn, Charles Darwin and Vita Sackville-West in the castles and grand country houses in which they once lived, or visit the Historic Dockyard Chatham, where Lord Nelson's flagship HMS Victory was built. Explore Dover and spend time at its iconic White Cliffs, saunter through Vita Sackville-West's gorgeous gardens at the National Trust's Sissinghurst estate, visit the grave of Pocahontas in Gravesend, and contemplate thought-provoking public art in the revitalised seaside town of Folkestone. Canterbury Cathedral, part of a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site, forms the seat of the Church of England, while Dungeness comprises an extraordinary beach of vegetated shingle that is home to artist and film-maker Derek Jarman's Prospect Cottage. There are oddities too, such as St Leonard's Church in Hythe, which houses the UK's largest and best-preserved collection of ancient human skulls and bones, and Europe's only crab museum (in Margate). From castles and water-sports to beaches and wildlife (including reintroduced European bison!), discover Kent with Bradt's unique Slow Travel guide.

The updated Bradt Svalbard guidebook, now in its seventh edition, remains the only detailed, standalone guidebook from a major publisher to this evocative High Arctic archipelago. Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land and Jan Mayen collectively constitute Europe's wildest frontier. In this remote destination, perfect for ecotourism and adventure sports, the Global Seed Vault safeguards plants in case of environmental disaster, there are 4,000 snow scooters for a population of just 2,500 and reindeer graze beside icy roads, keeping a wary eye open for polar bears.More than 50 nationalities live together in the tiny capital city of Longyearbyen, where no-one can easily be born in hospital (due to limited medical facilities) nor buried (due to the permafrost). Once populated by trappers, miners and whalers, the Norwegian city is now home to climate scientists. Moreover - as the updated Bradt Svalbard guidebook makes clear - it provides the hub for a thriving tourist destination, where you can:* take expedition cruises in summer (June-August) to explore coastal areas, looking for thrilling wildlife including polar bears, walruses, beluga whales and Arctic foxes;* during the so-called 'light winter' months (March-May), go husky-sledding, skidooing, cross-country skiing, hiking, kayaking, ice climbing and fossil-hunting amid Svalbard's glorious mountains, majestic fjords and sprawling valleys, explore the mining ghost towns of Barentsburg or Pyramiden, or even notch up geographic superlatives (such as the world's most northerly kebab, most northerly souvenir shop); and* during winter (November/December-March), when the sun disappears for four months, enjoy polar 'noctourism', admiring ink-black skies filled with stars and the dance of the aurora borealis (northern lights).Interest in the region has never been higher, partly thanks to travel vlogger Cecilie Blomdahl's New York Times bestseller, Life on Svalbard. The updated Bradt Svalbard guidebook provides all of the practical and background information you'll need to explore this wild place, turning the hostile into the hospitable. Freshly researched and amended, this seventh edition reflects important recent changes in the archipelago, from climate-responsible travel innovations to eco-minded tours, plus a slew of new hotels and restaurants, making it the indispensable guide to this once-in-a-lifetime destination.

This new, extensively revised eighth edition of Bradt's Albania remains the most authoritative and detailed standalone guidebook to what is still a relatively little-known part of Europe. This Balkan country has much to offer almost everyone - from hiking in unspoilt mountains to gawping at Byzantine churches or plentiful birds, from homestays in traditional villages to backpacking around beaches.Many visitors rave about spectacular alpine scenery with stellar hiking and cycling opportunities. Others laud the country's cultural heritage, which reaches back two and a half millennia. Must-sees include the Ottoman cities of Gjirokastra and Berati (both UNESCO World Heritage Sites), many outstanding archaeological sites and early mosques, Venetian castles dotting hilltops and coastal promontories, and Byzantine religious art in medieval churches and the museums of Tirana, Korça and Berati. For city slickers, lively Tirana offers shopping malls, fine dining, art galleries and historic buildings. Beaches such as Dhërmiu and Jali in the south are popular with younger travellers attracted by music festivals.Tourists seeking a return to a simpler, traditional way of life can find it in Albania's alpine villages, where residents still live much as did their grandparents, tending goats and sheep, hand-spinning wool and making cheese and yogurt. Many villagers have opened up their homes as guest houses, offering visitors a wonderful opportunity to experience local culture first-hand. Birdwatchers have long been attracted to Albania, even during the Communist period when the country was all but closed to most foreign visitors, thanks to its many different habitats and the fact that it lies on several migration routes; those interested in other wildlife might seek out Europe's largest population of brown bear, plus grey wolf, European wildcat and Eurasian lynx. Visiting Albania is increasingly easy, with more airlines flying from western Europe and fast highways now connecting main cities. Such developments infuse this new edition, whose coverage of natural history and museums has also been strengthened as part of a thorough update. With its unparalleled wealth of practical advice for the independent traveller, Bradt's Albania remains the ideal companion for a rewarding trip to this fascinating country.

In 1968, aged 21, John Western left England, not realising that he might never bother to return. The boy who had always loved maps, trains and travel to new places was posted by Voluntary Service Overseas to a missionary school in rural Burundi, Central Africa. From the world's longest-industrialised country, he pitches into what was probably then its least industrialised nation. For two years, Western experiences life in an 'overwhelmingly illiterate subsistence economy of material poverty' - realities that provide the foundation for his fourth book, An Africa Ago. Two years after he leaves to study in the United States, Burundi's Tutsi ruling minority massacres 100,000 Hutus after an attempted coup against the military dictatorship. In 1975, Western - by this time, living in South Africa to research a doctoral thesis about apartheid in Cape Town - revisits Burundi to assess the aftermath. What he encounters will haunt him for ever. Of the schoolboys he taught, many have vanished into mass graves - carted off in lorries, still alive, then layered face down under rocks. 'The little mission hill,' he finds, 'is now a place of desolation, of widows and orphans and injustice'. Meanwhile, at the southern tip of this complex continent, Western's inside stories of the lives of Cape Town's 'Coloured' (mixed-race) residents, under the heel of 1970s apartheid, reveal an attempt to dominate, oppress and humiliate - not merely to racially segregate. But Western's memoir is not all darkness. There is adventure too - tales of overlanding 7,500 miles in barely two months, most by hitchhiking, Western's route taking in Botswana, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Zambia, Tanzania, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). And there are accounts of strong bonds forged with working-class Afrikaners utterly removed from any political or racial disputes, the unexpected point of connection being a shared love of locomotives as the era of the steam engine was drawing to its close. And it is trains with which An Africa Ago closes - a luxurious journey on a Namibian 'sealed hotel-on-wheels' from which the author offers us a self-conscious, 21st-century return to the era of white settler colonialism in southern Africa.

In the early 1980s - long before smartphones, budget flights or the safety net of Google Maps - an uncertain and gloriously uninformed Chris Price set out to cross Asia the slow way. Armed with a backpack, questionable judgement and a stack of diaries, the accidental adventurer crossed 13 countries by whatever moved: rattling trains, rust-bitten ferries, overcrowded buses, the odd smuggler's car - and frequented more dubious guesthouses and toilets than he will ever publicly admit to. For most of the journey he relied on a single Bartholomew's map, picked up guidebooks after travelling through the regions as souvenirs, and navigated China with a map written entirely in Chinese.A Dozen Dirty Dumplings is a candid, amusing and often uncomfortable account of travel before the world became curated, convenient and constantly connected. In place of Instagram sunsets are nights in musty rooms, run-ins with border officials, strangers who offered improbable kindness, and long stretches of heat, dust and bafflement. Yet beneath the chaos runs a deeper thread: the discovery of small human moments - shared food, brief friendships, quiet landscapes - that stay long after the journey ended.Drawn directly from the diaries Price kept on the road, A Dozen Dirty Dumplings maintains the immediacy, honesty and rawness of its original notes. It captures the confusion of youth, the thrill of independence, the fear of getting truly lost, danger and the exhilaration of travel across a continent that had not yet learned to perform for tourists. Join Price as he swims in the Ganges, hitchhikes with the People's Liberation Army, breakfasts with Tibetan nomads, and lunches with tribal elders carrying Mausers and AKs - moments that blend danger, absurdity and unexpected kindness.Part travelogue, part coming-of-age story, A Dozen Dirty Dumplings offers a vivid portrait of a vanished era: a world of paper tickets, sweaty backpacks and conversations shouted through train windows. It is a story about learning - sometimes the hard way - how to navigate the world and oneself. Chaotic, reflective and sharply funny, it reveals that the most memorable journeys often come from the moments you never planned for - and could never repeat today.

'Nairobi enchants, like the eyes of a loved one, like their smile, like their kisses, like their caresses, like their very thought.' Thursdays in Nairobi is a personal account of an expat's life in Nairobi, related through a unique collection of vignettes about Kenya´s capital city. Written by Mexican journalist, foreign correspondent and former diplomat Diego Gómez Pickering, and translated from the original Spanish by Aaron Rosenberg, this unique travel narrative offers testimonies about the city's characters, history, neighbourhoods and atmospheres. Writing with affection and intensity, Gómez Pickering reveals Nairobi to be a cosmopolitan, vibrant, unequal and contrasting place where life becomes an addictive, exhilarating experience for both the chronicler and its readers. Join Gómez Pickering in exploring this Equatorial African city, sitting on his shoulder as he peers behind the scenes of diplomatic gatherings and keenly observes political life. Become a fly on the wall during Gómez Pickering's intimate interview with Sarah Onyango Obama, the third wife of Barack Obama's grandfather - and the woman that the former US President calls 'Granny Sarah'. Enjoy safaris within spitting distance of skyscrapers or brave a first-hand account of interethnic violence in East Africa. For something different, venture with the author into Kibera, the continent's largest urban slum, or head out after dark to experience Nairobi's offbeat nightlife (and, vicariously, the sex life of its inhabitants). This unprecedented collection of real-life stories celebrate the beauty, diversity, intrigue and visceral reality of one of Africa's most famous cities. Compelling, authentic and wide-ranging, Thursdays in Nairobi is a portrait of a capital where life is saturated with vitality, where emotions run high, where life is deeply felt. 'In Nairobi, one misses more, loves more, suffers more, laughs more. In Nairobi, questions that have never been asked are answered. In Nairobi, opposites meet; in Nairobi, halves unite.'

If you have ever felt too shy, too old, or too plain for adventure - In Spite of Myself is for you.Growing up as a painfully timid child in Kenya, Mary Fogarty discovers that independence is not something you are born with - it is something you swim towards, stumble upon, and seize when nobody is watching. Sometime journalist, sometime travel guide, always an outsider (and always a swimmer), Fogarty looks back on decades of spontaneous solo travel across five continents with self-deprecating honesty, warmth, and razor-sharp wit.Wherever she journeys - from Milan to Mexico, Perth to Peru, mountains to souks - she feels marked by difference. Her teenage self is branded an African savage at a British convent school; in Italy she is a country bumpkin in the city yet the only foreigner in the village; in Australia, the lone Pom in a Macedonian community; in Spain, the only single expat among couples. Sometimes following love, sometimes finding it once she arrives, Fogarty flings herself into relationships both magnificent and disastrous - with a cast of unlikely characters no novelist would dare invent.Gawp as she meets an Egyptian doctor on the night train to Cairo; takes off across the desert with a Syrian bus driver in search of a hotel that serves alcohol; shares a sleeping bag with a Sherpa on the descent from Everest to cure her altitude sickness; encounters an Omar Sharif lookalike in Australia, only to discover he is sleeping in his office and growing marijuana in the flowerpots - and is nearly murdered by the new girlfriend of her Berber ex-lover in Marrakech.Simultaneously intensely personal and irresistibly universal, In Spite of Myself is for anyone who worries about being alone - and proof that there is always a way, and you can do it on your own.