The Moon Handbooks come highly recommended: our friend Steve in Bangkok says their guide to Thailand is among the best (he lent us his copy when we were there, and it was very useful) and Edward Hasbrouck (whose own The Practical Nomad is published by Avalon, which publishes the Moon books) recommends them too.

But save our use of the Thailand handbook, I’ve never used them for other destinations.

Today I learned why: the list of countries they cover doesn’t include any countries in Europe, and as the balance of our travels in the past 10 years have been to European countries, there simply haven’t been Moon books for our destinations.

This is not entirely true: the Moon Metro series does cover several European cities.

Presumably this is all at least in part due to the fact that Avalon also publishes the Rick Steves guides to Europe (Europe Through the Back Door and related country or regional books).

I’m not a big fan of Rick Steves. I’m sure his advice and take on travel works for some, but I when I read his books, and watch his PBS television show I don’t see my approach to travel.

Speaking of travel, the big season finale of The Amazing Race is airing tomorrow (Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2004) at 10:00 p.m. Atlantic on ATV (also on CBS, CTV etc. elsewhere). We’ll be watching. Go Chip and Kim!