Wikitravel Press Blog

Here at Wikitravel Press, we pride ourselves on updating our guides monthly, but every now and then our revisions go beyond just an update — and that’s the case for two of our titles this month.

Wikitravel Helsinki, our guide to Helsinki’s capital and the surrounding area, has now expanded to take in Finland’s second city Tampere, just an hour and a half away train.  Home to the world’s only Lenin Museum (complete with capitalist gift shop), a Moomin Valley filled with cuddly cartoon characters and the wild nightlife you’d expect from a university town, Tampere is now also Ryanair’s Finland hub and an increasingly popular gateway to the country.  There’s also a new walking itinerary called A seaside stroll in Helsinki, taking in some of Helsinki’s most popular sights and others that usually fly far below the tourist radar.

Wikitravel Singapore, dedicated to the hyperkinetic tropical city-state, has considerably expanded its coverage of Singapore’s outlying areas, with the beaches and Peranakan shophouses of the East Coast as well as historical World War II sites and the latest in dining and nightlife around the North and West of the island.  The recently opened Southern Ridges Walk, a 9-km stroll through normally unseen sides of southern Singapore and across the amazing Henderson Waves, has also been added to the guide.

The updated November editions of both books are out now and available on Amazon.com, and as always, they’re eligible for Free Super Shipping in the United States.  Get yours today!

After a lot of quiet work in the background, I’m delighted to announce that Wikitravel Press books are now available on the web’s favorite bookstore, Amazon.com.  This also means big savings for our readers, as Wikitravel books are eligible for free super saver shipping (in the United States) if you buy over US$25 worth of any eligible products on Amazon.  The first title to go online is Wikitravel Chicago (ISBN 1440427755), and the rest of the catalogue is expected to be up by the end of November.  Read all about it in our press release, or click below to try it out!

Wikitravel Chicago: The free, complete, up-to-date and reliable guide to Chicago

UPDATE: Amazon is now correctly listing the books as In Stock, instead of the previous erroneous “1-2 weeks”.  This means your book will usually be printed and shipped within 24 hours of your order!

One of the greatest things about our Paris guide have always been the amazingly detailed maps, lovingly crafted by Mark Jaroski from OpenStreetMap and Wikitravel data, but the regular guidebook format doesn’t really do them justice. That’s why we’ve decided to release a special Paris city map book, containing enlarged versions of the maps (A5 sized, or half a sheet of paper), but in glorious full color with a spiral binding, so you can lay it open and keep it open to a given map page as you wander around town. And I have to stress that detailed bit, just take a look at (say) the 13th arrondissement — click to enlarge!

In fact, it’s so big and detailed, we’ve split it across two full pages. All the listings in the main Paris guide are marked on the map complete with listing index, making the city map your perfect travel buddy. Pick one up now!

This blog has been a little quiet lately, but that’s because we’ve been working quite hard on not one, but two fascinating projects and we look forward to announcing them quite soon.  Stay tuned…

But today’s news is that Wikitravel Press will be exhibiting at the Frankfurt Book Fair, in Frankfurt, Germany, in two weeks’ time.  This is the world’s largest exhibition for the publishing industry, with over 7000 exhibitors and nearly 200,000 visitors expected, and we’re excited to have this opportunity to publicize what we’re doing at Wikitravel Press.

Trade days are October 15-17th (Wed-Fri), while the fair opens to the public on October 18 and 19 (Sat-Sun).  You can find us at stand 4.2 E427 (see also hall plan).  Note that we’re not in Hall 3.1 (travel), but next door in Hall 4.2 (scientific publishing), since we’re exhibiting together with our fellow Wiki-to-print enthusiasts PediaPress.  Entry to the fair costs 12 euros for the general public, half that for students.  No book sales allowed until Sunday, but Wikitravellers just might get a free copy of our newly revised Paris guide (while supplies last).  See you there!

Here’s a new guide that’s close to my heart: my old hometown Helsinki, which also covers a few favorite of my favorite spots nearby, including Nuuksio National Park and the delightful little town of Porvoo, soon to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Finnish phrasebook also comes in handy for amusing the natives and scaring everybody else (kalastajamaisuudettomuudellansakaan, anyone?) — but don’t worry, virtually everybody in Helsinki speaks English.

The Porvoo chapter is available as a free download, while the printed book is now available in our online store. Tsekkaa jos et usko!

The choice of destinations covered by our just-released guide, Cairo and Alexandria, are no coincidence: Alexandria will be hosting the Wikimania 2008 conference on July 17-19, and Wikitravel Press is proud to the official guidebook of the conference. We’ll be printing a special edition just for the conference and presenting conference attendees with free copies (while supplies last, so show up early!). Not only is the guidebook a great demonstration of how Mediawiki technology and an enthusiastic community can combine to create wonderful things, but we’re sure that the nexus of Wikimaniacs at the conference will propel the content of the guidebook to new heights. A special thanks to Delphine Ménard and the Mediawiki Foundation for their support.

If you’re not going to the conference, or you are going and want to read up a little before you go (always a good idea), you can order the Wikitravel Guide to Cairo and Alexandria online through our bookstore. The guide also covers the Egyptian capital Cairo, with a special supplement on the Pyramids at Giza, and includes both an Egyptian Arabic phrasebook as well as a detailed reference section of traveling to and around Egypt.

We’re all proud at WTP headquarters about our announcement that Wikitravel Press has published a Paris guidebook. Paris has been one of our most important locations in Wikitravel for years, and it’s good to get a print version available from Wikitravel Press.

Of special interest for the Paris guide is its use of OpenStreetMap geodata to create the guidebook maps. Previously, Wikitravel maps have either been hand-drawn or borrowed from other, inconsistent Open Content sources. The move up to OSM data has meant we have a considerably better-looking, more consistent map style.

Special kudos to Mark Jaroski, who edited the Paris guide, and to all the Wikitravellers who’ve put time and effort into making this a world-class reference book. And of course great work, Jani, in getting this guide out.

You can order the Wikitravel Guide to Paris online through our bookstore.