THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507080108
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STEPHEN HARRIMAN
LENGTH: Long : 116 lines
HERE'S A GUIDEBOOK that comes with the highest recommendations: It's called ``Texas'' ($17.95). It's by Dick Reavis, a Texan, and it's highly endorsed by another Texas, Jerry Flemmons, travel editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Here's what Flemmons has to say:
``Even the best guides are little more than predictable laundry lists of places to go, things to see, where to eat and sleep, all told in prose that nods off into tepid monotone. Those basic elements are all here, but secondary to what Reavis has placed around them. Lots of Texas history, to begin with, told at an agreeable literary gallop.
``Plus, there are excerpts from other authors - Larry McMurtry, Zane Grey and Ann Richards among them - trying to explain Texas and its often strange folkways. Stylish essays interpret Texans' always-curious mores, from six-man football in West Texas (``a track race with a football'') to the slackers of Austin to the Texaness of barbecue joints (``Look at its ceiling: if it's clean, the place is probably a fake'').
``Reavis, a native Texan, has driven all of the state's 70,000-plus highway miles and has found much to recommend along the roadsides. Reavis' elegant prose style is complemented by Will Van Overbeek's photos. This is one guidebook that won't soon go out of date.'' MORE READING MATERIAL
One of the few true ``must-buys'' for every domestic traveler is ``The 1995 Zagat Survey: U.S. Hotels, Resorts & Spas'' (Zagat, $19.95). Zagat is the Gallup Poll of travel, querying 11,730 travelers about their favorite hotels, spas, airlines, rental-car agencies and hotel chains. This is the real thing - the voices of thousands of veteran travelers. The book is sometimes hard to find in stores, so call Zagat at (800) 333-3421.
``How to Plan Your Trip to Europe'' by Karen and Ray Gilden (Artha Press, paperback, $14.95). Subtitled ``A Workbook for Independent Travelers,'' this is a valuable resource for experienced travelers as well as an excellent primer for neophytes. The book contains practical information on everything from knowing what questions to ask a travel agent to getting a passport to renting a car. ROAD SCHOLARS
What's a teen-ager to do this summer? Plenty of ideas - and how-to tips - in the new ``The High School Student's Guide to Study, Travel and Adventure Abroad.'' The book lists more than 200 foreign summer and school-year programs for students 12 to 18. To order a copy send a check or money order for $13.95 plus $1.50 for book-rate postage (or $3 for first-class) to: CIEE, Publications Dept., 205 E. 42nd St., New York, N.Y. 10017. To order with credit card call (800) 349-2433.
Here are two publications for college-level students:
``Peterson's Study Abroad'' ($19.95), a 1,066-page paperback (advertisements included) lists 1,300 semester and full-year programs offered by 400 institutions. Info: Peterson's, 202 Carnegie Center, Princeton, N.J. 08543; (800) 225-0261.
``Academic Year Abroad 1995-96'' ($42.95 plus $4 shipping) contains 612 pages (advertisements included) describing 2,250 semester and year programs. Info: Institute of International Education, 809 United Nations Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017; (212) 883-8200. WORLD VIEWS
The current issue of Colors magazine, a quarterly published by United Colors of Benetton, devotes 144 pages of photography and text to world travel. Just a bit idiosyncratic. Occasionally bizarre. Very interesting. Sometimes even incisive.
Did you know . . . there's a Museum of Socks - more than 20,000 pair - in Tokyo, where there's also a parasite museum that boasts the longest tapeworm in the world? Or that the U.S. National Tick Collection at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro is the largest in the world? This is only the beginning of bizarre. There a Poop Museum in the Netherlands that contains an interactive exhibit consisting of boxes of animal excrement that can be smelled but not seen. Visitors guess the animal and then press a button to find the answer. Lots of other museums listed, too.
To quote from Colors' contents page, ``What the hell IS this magazine?''
``The philosophical idea behind Colors,'' says Editor in Chief Tibor Kalman, ``is noting that all cultures have an equal right to exist and contribute to the cultural richness of the human gene pool. And the notion of travel is critical to our understanding and tolerance of one another as inhabitants of a shrinking Earth.''
Well, OK.
Did you know . . . why airplane catering services produce about 35,000 meals a day and they still can't seem to get it right? Colors interviewed a number of food specialists. One excuse: cabin pressure reduces the power of taste by 40 percent. This could be true. On a recent flight from Dallas to London I sat next to a guy who had no taste at all.
Lots more in Colors, a global magazine about local cultures. It's available at some newsstands and bookstores ($3) and Benetton shops in more than 80 countries. TRAILING BUFFALO SOLDIERS
A weeklong tour of historic sites of the Buffalo Soldiers, black soldiers stationed in the Northern Plains in the late 1880s, will take visitors to the posts occupied longest by the soldiers: Forts Robinson (in Nebraska), D.A. Russell (in Wyoming), Fort Meade (South Dakota), and the remains of forts McKinney and Mackenzie in Wyoming.
The motor-coach tour begins Aug. 12 in Denver. Historian-guide Frank Schubert discusses the experiences and activities of the regiments during this tumultuous period, as the American Indian Wars ended and railroads and industry came to the West.
Cost: $895 per person, double occupancy, including hotels, most meals, sightseeing fees, tips; air fare not included. Info: HistoryAmerica Tours; P.O. Box 797687, Dallas, Texas, 75379; (800) 628-8542. CORRECTION
Here is the correct phone number for the Maryland Seafood Festival at Annapolis, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sept. 8-10: (410) 268-7676. MEMO: Travel-wise is compiled from wire-service reports, news releases, trade
journals, books, magazines and the deepest recesses of the writer's
mind. Send comments and questions to Travel-wise, The
Virginian-Pilot/The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, Va. 23501-0449; phone (804)
446-2904. by CNB