by Claire Lumb (24 Dec 05)

There are two kinds of travel books - guide books that are indispensable to those going on a trip, and coffee-table tomes that show off how widely travelled the author is while making the reader feel glum for how narrow his horizons have been.

Lonely Planet's Bluelist falls into the last category despite the travel guide publishers usually being the first stop for backpackers. Apparently, "bluelist" is the verb to recommend a travel experience and this book is packed full of tips, hints and lists. With categories such as Most History Per Square Mile (Rome), Most Iconic Man-Made Structure (Taj Mahal) and Best Places To Get Naked (a Japanese onsen), there is plently of browsing to be done by the increasingly jealous reader.

Most interesting for the motorist is the Best Road Trip section, which is sandwiched between the Classic Train Trips (Trans-Siberian Express) and Most Awesome Treks (Everest Base Camp) pages. What makes a good road trip is, of course, a personal matter, but I would certainly suggest no children on the journey. All that "are we there yet?" bleating would defeat the object of a road trip - travelling for travelling's sake. I would also advise going to a country that has cheaper fuel than the UK so as not to bankrupt oneself, and to take plenty of road-trip CDs.

Lonely Planet chose the East Coast of Australia as its number one road trip which it says has "excellent roads which make the kilometres easy companions". For a bit closer to home, making the list are the Coastal Highlands in Scotland, which are described as "astonishingly beautiful", an accolade I completely agree with, no matter what the weather. If I were talking about a hiking holiday rather than a car trip, well, that would be another matter entirely.

I did feel rather smug when I realised that I had undertaken one of the African trips mentioned. No, not the 10-week Cape Town to Cairo trip (gulp), but another with a Cape Town starting point. This is to Hermanus, a whale-spotting town about 75 miles away. I found this rather an odd one to include, not just because I would hardly describe a morning's drive as a road trip, but also because out of all the driving journeys I did in South Africa that was about the least memorable.

The best recollection was a spectacular ride out to the Drakensbergs, where large skies and dramatic mountains met tiny villages and African culture (as well as poverty). The worst involved two of us driving on Johannesburg's crazy ring road with no idea where we were going. Friend's advice: "If someone cuts you up, whatever you do, don't get angry and honk the horn. They probably have a gun." It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase road rage.

Other features in this interesting and lively book include a break down of countries into continental sections, giving a general outline for larger countries and short paragraphs for smaller ones. Information and random facts are given for each place. Did you know that the cat's eye was invented in 1933 by a Yorkshireman, Percy Shaw? Or that Hong Kong has more Rolls-Royces per capita than any other city in the world?

In his introduction to the book, Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler drops in little ancedotes about his travels such as being in Afghanistan in the '70s or about a time he "joined a group following polar explorer Shackleton's epic trek across the frozen island of South Georgia". As one does. He points out that getting to a place is half the fun, and certainly there can be nothing like hitting the road and seeing where you end up at the end of the day.

Lonely Planet Blue List is priced £14.99 ISBN 1-74104-734-X. It's a good buy for any member of your family who has just come back from a round-the-world-trip and wants to relive a few memories. Or even just buy it for yourself and have a good old daydream.

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