Après Ski
To Erin Isakov, a lifelong skier and cofounder of ski apparel brand Erin Snow, “Skiing isn’t just a sport; it’s a way of life” and après ski, or after-ski time, is best filled with “glamour, refreshments, vistas, and revelry following a great day on the mountain.” In Après Ski: The Scene, the Style, the Menu, the author shares her passion for ski culture via insight into the history of the modern ski holiday, fashion trends through the decades, ski-centric movies, resorts “for every type of enthusiast” and more.
Fabulous photos showcase stunning vistas, vacationers bellying up to bars made of snow and celebrities clad in chic skiwear. Isakov shares recipes and party planning tips, too, (sherpa throws and antlers help set the mood) for those ready to level up their off-slopes time. Après Ski is perfect for the winter sports buffs in your life—as well as those who will appreciate the “escapism and joy that the world of ski culture has brought to humans around the world” from a cozy spot on the couch. Hot chocolate, anyone?
★ 100 Train Journeys of a Lifetime
All aboard! 100 Train Journeys of a Lifetime: The World’s Ultimate Rides is a captivating, photo-packed compendium by award-winning travel writer Everett Potter.
100 Train Journeys of a Lifetime is brimming with fascinating information sure to thrill and inspire train enthusiasts, history buffs and any reader ready to ride the rails. Potter writes, “Trains can offer countless beautiful vistas and give you a window into a culture,” and his selections do just that, traveling all over the world and ranging from ultraluxurious to more affordable, vintage to modern, superfast to leisurely paced.
Breathtaking photos capture stunning views from trains like Switzerland’s Jungfraubahn, “a train to the top of Europe”; the Mukuba Express through jungle and savanna from Zambia to Tanzania; and Peru’s Andean Explorer, with local musicians inside and sweeping mountainscapes outside. Potter describes each journey’s history, geography and can’t-miss aspects, all of which will help readers narrow down (or perhaps greatly increase?) their must-ride list.
The Inn Crowd
Interior design aficionados and travelers who appreciate quiet luxury will swoon over author-photographer Jackie Caradonio’s The Inn Crowd: Artistic Getaways and the Modern Innkeepers Who Crafted Them.
Caradonio, daughter of a hotel general manager, “spent holidays in suites, weekends at brunches” since childhood. As a travel journalist and editor, her appreciation for hotels deepened, and in The Inn Crowd she admiringly profiles the titular “elite coterie of creatives” and the “exquisite little universes they’ve created.”
Doing so was risky for the innkeepers: They left careers, contended with inner doubt and sometimes leapt into proprietorship without prior experience. Caradino chronicles their “desire to build something special, a wish to bring people together, and a chance to give their lives over to their coveted passions” and showcases their lovely properties in New York’s tristate area, Long Island, upstate New York, the Berkshires, Vermont and Maine.
The Inn Crowd’s sumptuous photos and engaging stories are sure to enchant armchair and active travelers, inspire hospitality-minded entrepreneurs—and have readers considering a trip to the northeast U.S. very soon.
★ The Traveler’s Atlas of the World
National Geographic’s The Traveler’s Atlas of the World clocks in at 560 pages of fascinating information, engaging illustrated maps and striking color photos.As Jessica Nabongo, the first Black woman to travel to every country in the world and author of The Catch Me If You Can, notes in the foreword: “The world is our neighborhood, and we share this beautiful planet with nearly eight billion neighbors.”
The Traveler’s Atlas of the World visits those neighbors via brief yet highly detailed profiles that include Fast Facts, Best Known For lists and Best Kept Secrets like the world’s first jaguar preserve in Belize. Cultural treasures are highlighted, too, such as Bhutan’s Tiger’s Nest Monastery (“clinging to a mountain at 10,236 feet”) and the Antarctic Peninsula (with “massive colonies of chinstrap, gentoo, and Adélie penguins”).
Readers will find much to marvel at in this edifying and engaging volume, whether they’re planning bucket list itineraries or hoping to feel more connected to other inhabitants of our big, wide, wonderful Earth.
★ Toilets of the World
There’s armchair travel, and then there’s toilet time. Who says they can’t happen simultaneously? Lonely Planet’s Toilets of the World: 100 Strange and Spectacular Thrones, Commodes, Loos, and Latrines makes a strong case for that approach.
As one might expect, the book’s voice is clever and cheeky, rife with toilet-centric puns on its jaunty journey to comfort stations in regions near, far and even farther. Travelers who are urinal-curious can decide which European ones to visit: standard models atop an Austrian mountain or tuba-shaped ones in England? Perhaps they want to pop into an Art Deco rest stop in New Zealand or a Mt. Kilimanjaro outhouse near a dormant volcano.
Toilets of the World’s striking photos convey the beauty in the mundane and offer new perspectives on intriguing destinations. There’s also a helpful Glossary of Toilet Terms and maps for those who want to create a toilets-to-visit list. It’s the perfect gift for travelers with an eye toward practicality and an appreciation for irreverence.
