The February release Moon Tijuana, Ensenada, & Valle de
Guadalupe Wine Country by Jennifer Kramer is the publisher’s
first guide focused on those areas of Baja California. In the
forthcoming title, Kramer, who also wrote Moon Los Cabos
and Moon Baja, delves into Tijuana’s growing arts and crafts
district and the increasingly renowned wineries nearby, while
acknowledging the violent realities of some areas of the city.“The places that are in the news are not
where travelers are going,” says Grace
Fujimoto, v-p of acquisitions at Moon.
“The people in Tijuana need the tourism,
and we want to encourage this local
focus. Kramer is really gung ho about
this destination and how you can experi-
ence it and support local businesses.”
Travelers are also asked to be mindful
of their effect on local communities in
Moon Costa Rica (Nov.) by Nikki Solano,
whom Moon describes as an “eco-travel
activist.” Since
Moon published
its first book
on the country
in 1994, the
number of visi-
tors has more
than doubled, to
almost three
million annually,
Fujimoto says,
and it was time for the publisher to
reassess its approach.
The guide covers the many resorts
around the country, but Solano also
emphasizes locally owned businesses
and—with knowledge accrued as an
11-year resident—urges visitors to
adopt the patterns of a local. “Fill up
on plantains at a traditional soda and
shop at a neighborhood mercado,” she
writes.
“We want to have more sustain-
able, ecologically friendly and
locally owned places in our books,”
Fujimoto says. “Travel isn’t just
about the traveler. It’s about the
people who live there.”28 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JULY 29, 2019
Travel Books
image-conscious traveler with Tokyo & Beyond (dist. by Cardinal,
Oct.). At nearly 150 listings, it’s the most ambitious of
Chittenden’s guides, she says, and though it concentrates on
Tokyo, it also includes day trips made accessible by the bullet
train, as well as a section on Kyoto. Entries are culled from her
favorite finds, such as a flea market stall that sells vintage
kimonos and a 10-seat Japanese-Italian restaurant hidden down
a back alley from Tokyo’s main business district.
Chittenden says she’s most enthusiastic about sharing experi-
ences that are enmeshed in traditional Japanese culture, such astaking a flower arranging class whose tenets date to the seventh
century and spending the afternoon at an outdoor public bath.
Zipping through centuries of history in one of the world’s
most modern cities is likely to prove disorienting to many of
those setting their sights on Japan in 2020, no matter which
guide they take along with them. And that’s okay, Iyer writes in
A Beginner’s Guide, summing up assurances that can be found in
nearly all of the guides cropping up to assist the expected masses.
“You’ll be taking in the country as most of us do,” he adds,
“bumping from the strange to the familiar and back again.”Local Impact
Moon Travel Guides ask tourists to consider
the footprints they leave behindhttp://www.press.uillinois.edu“This book is one of a kind.”
—Toni Ann Eames, cofounder and president of the
International Association of Assistance Dog PartnersComing September 2019.
Trade pb ISBN 978-0-252-08450-8;
Ebook ISBN 978-0-252-05151-7.Henry Kisor and Christine Goodier
provide a narrative guidebook
full of essential information and
personal stories of life on the road.
The human companions of Trooper
(Kisor’s miniature schnauzer/poodle
cross) and Raylene (Goodier’s black
Labrador) share experiences from
packing for animal
partners to enjoy-
ing the animal-
friendly rides at
Disneyland.