1,000 Places To See with Wanderlust

Ian:                                             Author Patricia Schultz has taken her bestselling book, 1000 Places to See Before You Die, to new heights. In her new deluxe edition, 1000 Places to See Before You Die: The World As You’ve Never Seen It Before, the reader is immersed in gorgeous scenic photographs handpicked by Patricia.

Patricia S.:                             It’s a mix of photographers from all over the world who specialized in particular regions or cities.

Ian:                                             Avalon Travel’s new Moon travel book, Wanderlust, includes hundreds of pages of travel interests and destinations. Editor Grace Fujimoto tells us that Wanderlust’s eclectic list of travel ideas has something to offer for everyone.

Grace F.:                                  I feel like we hit a lot of different interests with these lists. Hopefully everyone will be able to find a list in there that really speaks to that.

Ian:                                             Join us for conversations with New York Times bestselling author Patricia Schultz, and Avalon Travel’s Grace Fujimoto, as we explore, 1000 Places to See Before You Die, with Wanderlust, on World Footprints with Ian.

Tonya:                                       And Tonya Fitzpatrick.

Tonya:                                       Author Patricia Schultz has transformed her New York Times bestselling book, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, into an illustrated masterpiece featuring a thousand mesmerizing photos displaying the world as you’ve never seen it before. This deluxe edition has been reconceived for the photographic format and features a hundred percent new material.

Tonya:                                       I love your new coffee table deluxe edition of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Tell us how this book is different from all of the others in the 1,000 Places series.

Patricia S.:                             First of all, we call it photo driven because that’s simply what it is, versus the first book which was essentially as a soft covered book. It was quite a brick, quite a heavy, wordy text-driven book that was a lot more a background and history. I tried to give more of the backstory, and why you needed to visit, and when. The informational websites, and the how to’s, and when to’s, and all of that. This is solely with captions of course, but it’s far more visual I think, in this Instagram world. We’ve been reminded of what we’ve known all along, which is that a photo is worth a thousand words. So they’re big, lush, gorgeous, sometimes double page spreads of photos, that are the same 1000 places as the original. This time it’s all about, I think it’s much more dreamy and much more inspiring from a visual standpoint. Much more captivating because it’s really, it kind of grips your interest immediately. Whereas the other book is something that you kind of tuck into and you read for more basic, and factual, and practical information. This is just big and glorious and gorgeous, and our new baby. Our new addition to the line of 1,000 places.

Tonya:                                       Well it’s a six pound baby too, and just big, and beautiful.

Patricia S.:                             Yeah. You know, they don’t seem to call them coffee table books anymore, I don’t know why. I think maybe it’s kind of an old-timey expression that’s a throwback to the eighties and nineties when they were very popular. It is a perfect gift. It’s called the gift edition, or the deluxe edition. It’s all of that, and it’s just a perfect compliment I think. It’s great for people who already have the 1,000 Places book, as well as those that are newbies who are hearing about 1,000 Places for the first time. Hopefully that’s not too many people. It seems to be such a well known title, and it seems to be on everybody’s proverbial bedside table for inspiration. But this, I think, is inspiration of a different kind.

Tonya:                                       Indeed. One of the things that I really love about this book, first of all. Well there are many things I really love about this new deluxe edition. I love the emphasis on photography, because travel is visual. You have to… You can experience travel through…

Patricia S.:                             I know. The only, I’m happy to say only comments, if one might want to call it complaint, with the first book is that there are no visuals. There are just these postage stamp size visuals. Actually, not that small but in some cases, yes. In the first book, travel lends itself and travel demands something visual. How can… But at the same time we were very… It’s 1,000 places and we were very pressed for space. You can only make a book so big before it’s not bindable. The original book was almost a thousand pages. So we needed to make that compromise of one over the other, to reach a mix of both text and visuals. In this, we just gave ourselves totally over to photographs.

Patricia S.:                             It’s not one photographer, and I am not the photographer of these visuals. It’s a mix of photographers from all over the world who specialized in particular regions, or cities, or destinations, et cetera. People ask me all the time, is it my photography? And I thought, no, because sometimes photographers need to wait weeks or need to travel on a whim to the other side of the world. That wasn’t me. In my dreams, I would like to have done this kind of photography. It’s all I can do to find a decent photograph to put on Instagram. These are, I think, some of the finest out there. We’re very proud of the mix. It was fun actually, to wade through thousands of photographs to create this compilation.

Ian:                                             You’ve written 1,000 Places books for different countries. Your new deluxe edition includes destinations around the world. Did you select the best of the best destinations from your other 1,000 Places series?

Patricia S.:                             This in fact, they’re the same 1,000 Places as the original book, which came out in 2003. Which we’ve since updated and revised in our attempt to keep it relevant and up to date and everything. This book, as with the first, because it’s the world of which can be daunting to a lot of people. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this, but there’s a disappointing number of Americans who cannot find the U.S. or North America on a world map. Given that Americans, or travelers in general around the world, are challenged when it comes to geography.

Patricia S.:                             It follows the same sequence, this coffee table book, as the original. It makes it as user friendly. In other words, it’s not first all my favorite islands, and then my favorite big cities, and then my… But rather, it goes according to geographical regions.

Patricia S.:                             So it’s easy to use, whichever way you choose to use it. It’s a great conversation piece to grace your coffee table. I hope the book is as educational as well as it is inspiring because it’s just astonishing to me. Not just Americans by any means, but travelers wherever you go. I hate to say that the younger you are, the less you seem to know about world geography. There’s just so much to know and appreciate about the world.

Patricia S.:                             This is my humble effort to make people aware of the possibilities, and where they can be found. And how we should try to see them sooner rather than later, because there is no guarantee that we’re going to be here, let alone countries. You think, “Well, these monuments and these UNESCO sites have always been here. I’ll go when I retire.” Or, “I’ll go when the mortgage is paid off.” Or, “I’ll go when I’m an empty nester.” Or whatever.

Patricia S.:                             I just encourage people to go now, because there is really no guarantee, ever. I can’t tell you how many trips I put on credit cards that somehow always managed to be paid off, and never came back regretting anything. If at all, I came back realizing that, was that the most remarkable experience ever. Worth the interest rates I paid on my credit card.

Tonya:                                       I have a followup question regarding that, but I wanted to ask you. With so many places to see, and again you’ve outlined a thousand, what are a couple of places that we absolutely must see, in your opinion?

Patricia S.:                             Well, that’s such a good question. My long winded, I’ll keep it as short as possible, answer is that you really need, to your own self be true. Because like you said, that life is so short. If we have a conventional job, we’re lucky if we get two weeks a year. Many people are so overwhelmed by planning, that those two weeks, and sometimes not consecutively, they spend organizing their closets, or painting the deck, or cleaning out the garage. It’s a shame.

Patricia S.:                             You have to be true to yourself. Do you love all things French? Are you an Italophile? Have you always wanted to see Rome, Venice, and Florence? Is culture your thing? Are you an outdoors person? You want to be active, you want to see the national parks of the U.S. We have 61, and each one is more beautiful than the next.

Patricia S.:                             What is your budget? Can you go away for three nights and four days, or three weeks? Do you want… Are you not so mobile? Do you want to take a cruise? Do you want to take a river cruise in Europe, or do you want to take a cruise in the Mediterranean, an ocean cruise? So there’s all of that, because you don’t travel ever as much as you would like. You need to be, I think, really selective and very discerning. My favorites, if that’s what you’re asking for…

Tonya:                                       Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Patricia S.:                             My list is a thousand places long, but when asked for my favorite places, I usually give three favorite experiences, more than city specific or town specific choices. First most is Italy because that’s my heritage. My mother’s from Italy, we grew up thinking we were 500% Italian. Nobody has been to Italy who hasn’t enjoyed it. So that’s always my confirmation or my validation.

Patricia S.:                             Another is Southeast Asia, that I mentioned before. It’s an area of Asia which is a massive, that I’ve always loved. I’ve always loved India as well. But Southeast Asia, which is Thailand, and Burma, and Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos. And then the Island countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, et cetera. Singapore is so exciting. We’ve all seen crazy Asia. What is the name of that film?

Tonya:                                       Crazy Rich Asians.

Patricia S.:                             Yeah, see, we all know it. So that kind of woke up America, as like, “Whoa, Singapore is not what I expected. Kind of like the Manhattan of Southeast Asia. That’s fascinating.” So that entire area, where the experience is not at all that similar, but yes, it is coming from a first time Western visitor. Then the African Safari, there may be a dozen countries, like Uganda, and Zambia, Kenya, South Africa. The experience is different, but again, the Safari experience in general is such a remarkable thing.

Patricia S.:                             I was kind of late to experience it because it’s not inexpensive, and you do need a chunk of time. Once I did experience it, I’ve been back, I don’t know how many times. And I’d go back in a nanosecond. So those three things ar