It you've ever browsed in the travel section of a bookstore, then you've probably seen the books.
"Let's Go. USA. Let's Go Europe," and their companions are a series of regional travel guides for people who want to see Europe the inexpensive way.
Work for the guidebooks begins the December before they are published, according to Teresa E. Turvey '84, the editor of the Italy and Great Britain version. Editors are chosen, and start planning their books by looking at the previous book and seeing which areas need more coverage and which needless.
Then, editors choose their researchers, meet with each researcher to decide what his itenary will be, train their researchers. The training sessions, Turvey said, are necessary "to give them an idea of what they're letting themselves in for."
By June, the researcher is off exploring the far reaches of exotic places such as Europe, Morroco or maybe the Soviet Union.
Jeffrey T. Wise '88, an applicant for a job researching Europe, said he filled out the extensive application because he wanted the opportunity to go places he had never been before.
A similar fascination with the Let's Go guides induced Per H. Jebsen '96 to file an application last February to research Spain. "It just seemed like a really great job--to go to Europe and have my expenses paid.
For Jeffrey M. Rosen '86, the lure of working for the "Bible of budget travelling" was too great to resist.
As an editor of the first version of the Let's Go Pacific Northwest, Diane K. Wachtell '83-'85 found it "a little frustrating not to be able to write." She added, "I was really psyched to go home places and write about them, not having to make up adjectives for places that I hadn't seen, but to be able to see a place and know which adjectives to use."
Wachtell researched for the first edition of Let's Go Mexico. Although she does speak Spanish, Wachtell said she was so anxious to work on the new book that, "had it been about Scandanavia, I would have told them that I spoke Scandanavia. I would have told them that I spoke Scandanavian."
Armed with only an itinerary, luggage, map, money, and, perhaps, a typewriter--the researcher arrives at the starting point for his travels. His job is to update and revise the previous book, making changes where necessary, as well as adding new finds to the book.
"The most exciting thing is when you find new things," said Rosen. "You go to local bars and talk to factory workers and shopkeepers there, and ask them to tell you about good places."
For Jebsen, finding cheap places was easy, but not finding cheap and "half-way decent" places. Sometimes, he did make a mistake and "stay in dives." One particularly memorable "incredibly dark" dive was located in Barcelona, complete with a decrepit sink and "all sorts of bugs." recalled Jebsen.
Wachtell remembered quite a different sort of night spent on a beach on the Pacific coast of Mexico. A man who had picked up her and her co-researcher when they were hitchhiking told them about a beach owned by the Mexican military. They hiked in to the base and obtained the commander's permission to stay on the beach. Later, said Wachtell, he came to ask them whether they would be interested in going, along with his camp, to a festival in town.
Rosen was treated equally well by the members of a small town, who took him to a feast at the mayor's palace and then gave him his own trailer in the local campground.
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