Lonely Planet Launches Hostel Service, Sez Backpackers Plan US Trips

Interesting stuff from Lonely Planet: apparently, 2500 British Isles backpackers surveyed have chosen the US as the spot at the top of their must-visit list, followed by Spain and Australia, and reportedly edging Oz out of its former number one spot. The US does offer travelers diversity galore and some of the prettiest scenes seen on the planet -- it's one of the world's great road trip countries. The US also rates high for language travelers, coming in second behind the UK last year among student travelers studying languages worldwide. (An interesting aside on the backpacker survey story: check out the comments in the Scotsman, one theme of which is the non-nice treatment of tourists at international customs and airport security in the US.)

More reading: UK #1 Language Study Destination | US Airport Rules | American Road Trips 101

LP Goes Into the Hostel Booking Biz

In other recent Lonely Planet news, the guidebook publisher recently partnered with Expedia and Hostelworld.com to add its LP-written reviews of hostels to a new hostel booking service. A serious drawback, it seems to me, is that LP guidebooks don't focus on hostels, though they may have done that back in the day when the founder really stayed in 'em (like 30 years ago...) -- perhaps the new publishers (LP was bought by the UK's BBC last year) plan to ask for more hostel coverage from their underpaid writers in the future. One quick search in Guanajuato, Mexico, for instance (where there are roughly a bazillion student travelers and about 10 hostels), shows zero LP-reviewed hostels.

So -- LP's entrance into the hostel booking field isn't really news you can use, but it may get better; in the meantime, check out the also-new TFT hostel search engine for some real fun with hostel booking.

More reading: Hostels 101 | Hostel FAQ | New and Cool: TFT Hostel Booking Search Engine

_{Student Travel blog home | Share on Facebook |}