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Mark Baker is a freelance travel writer with a penchant for offbeat stories and forgotten places. He's originally from the United States, but now makes his home in the Czech capital, Prague.

He writes mainly travel guides on Eastern and Central Europe for publishers like Lonely Planet, Frommer’s, Fodor’s and National Geographic, but finds real satisfaction in digging up stories in places that are either too remote or too quirky for the guides. He also contributes occasionally to publications like The Wall Street Journal and National Geographic Traveler. Prior to becoming an author, he worked as a journalist for The Economist, Bloomberg News and Radio Free Europe.

When he’s not traveling, these days he’s teaching Central European history and journalism at Anglo-American University in Prague or out riding his bike. He has a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York.

Kevin Raub is an Italy-based travel and entertainment journalist and certified

Brazilianist who grew up in Atlanta and started his career in entertainment in

New York, working for Men's Journal and Rolling Stone magazines and

"freelancing" (interviewing hot young actresses about their sex lives over

a few too many cocktails) for men's magazines like FHM, Stuff and Maxim. He

spent five years in Los Angeles as the senior writer for Allstar News,

CDNOW's now-defunct (thank you, Amazon!) groundbreaking online music news

site.

The rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle took its toll, so he needed an extended vacation and

took up travel writing. For the last decade, Raub has scoured the globe for a

variety of publications, including CNN, Travel+Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller,

Afar, Robb Report, New York Times T Magazine, Departures, Town & Country, The

Guardian, American Way (American Airlines), Rhapsody (United Airlines), Culture

Trip, Celebrated Living, Angeleno, Guitar Aficionado, Time Out: Sao Paulo, BBC

History, and New York Post, among others. From the top of the El Toco volcano in

Chile’s Atacama Desert (18,372) to the Dead Sea in Israel (-1,385 ft), Raub has

nearly seen it all, covering both high-end luxury travel and backpacker bargains

– just to keep it all in perspective. Along the way, he’s snapped a few photos

as well.

Raub spent seven years on Brazilian soil, canvassing the South American Giant

one caipirinha at a time on his way to getting to know 22 Brazilian states for a

variety of American and international publications. A well-known Brazil expert,

he also handled all of Lonely Planet's on-the-ground social media coverage

during the FIFA 2014 World Cup before relocating to Portugal the following year.

In late 2019, he relocated to Italy.

Raub is the co-author of over 110 Lonely Planet travel guides, including Brazil

(7th Ed.; 2008), Mexico (11th Ed.; 2008); Chile & Easter Island (8th Ed.; 2009),

The Carolinas, Georgia & The South: Trips (1st Ed.; 2009); Colombia (5th Ed.;

2009), Lonely Planet’s Best In Travel 2010 (2nd Revised Ed.; 2009); South

America on a Shoestring (11th Ed.; 2010); Venezuela (6th Ed.; 2010), Central

America on a Shoestring (7th Ed.; 2010), Brazil (8th Ed.; 2010); India (14th

Ed.; 2011), South India & Kerala (6th Ed.; 2011), Discover India (1st Ed.;

2011); Dominican Republic & Haiti (5th Ed.; 2011), Caribbean Islands (6th Ed.;

2011), USA (7th Ed.; 2011), Eastern USA (1st Ed.; 2011), Discover USA (1st Ed.;

2011), Colombia (6th Ed.; 2012), Chile & Easter Island (9th Ed.; 2012), Peru

(8th Ed.; 2013), South America on a Shoestring (12th Ed.; 2013), Discover Peru

(2nd Ed.; 2013), India (15th Ed.; 2013), Discover India (2nd Ed.; 2013), Brazil

(9th Ed.; 2013), Dominican Republic (6th Ed.; 2014), Caribbean Islands (6th Ed.;

2014), Discover Caribbean Islands (1st. Ed.; 2014), Colombia (7th Ed.; 2015),

India (16th Ed.; 2015), Discover India (3rd Ed.; 2015), Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra

(4th Ed.; 2015), Chile & Easter Island (10th Ed.; 2015), USA (9th Ed.; 2016),

Discover USA (3rd Ed.; 2016), Eastern USA (3rd Ed.; 2016), Lonely Planet’s Best

of USA (1st Ed.; 2016), Civil War Trail: Road Trips (1st Ed.; 2016), Brazil

(10th Ed.; 2016), South America on a Shoestring (13th Ed.; 2016), Portugal (10th

Ed.; 2017), Europe (2nd Ed.; 2017), Western Europe (13th Ed.; 2017), India (17th

Ed.; 2017), South India & Kerala (9th Ed.; 2017), Dominican Republic (7th Ed.;

2017), Caribbean Islands (7th Ed.; 2017), Discover Caribbean Islands (2nd. Ed.;

2017), Discover India (4th Ed.; 2017), Best of India (1st Ed.; 2017), USA (10th

Ed.; 2017), Discover USA (4th Ed.; 2017), Eastern USA (4th Ed.; 2017), USA Best

Trips (3rd Ed.; 2018), Florida & the South’s Best Trips (3rd Ed.; 2017), Italy

(13th Ed.; 2018), Colombia (8th Ed.; 2018), Europe on a Shoestring (10th Ed.;

2018), Dubai & Abu Dhabi (9th Ed.; 2018), Chile & Easter Island (11th Ed.;

2018), Georgia & the Carolinas (2nd Ed.; 2019), Great Smoky Mountains National

Park (1st Ed.; 2019), Pocket Lisbon (4th Ed.; 2019), Brazil (11th Ed.; 2019),

Eastern Europe (15th Ed.; 2019), Western Balkans (3rd. Ed.; 2019), Portugal

(11th Ed.; 2019), Discover Portugal (2nd Ed.; 2019), Best of Portugal 2 (2nd

Ed.; 2019), India (18th Ed.; 2019), South India & Kerala (10th Ed.; 2019), Goa &

Mumbai (8th Ed.; 2019), Discover India (5th Ed.; 2019), Best of South America

(1st Ed.; 2019), Discover South America (1st Ed.; 2019), South America (14th

Ed.; 2019), Cruise Ports Mediterranean Europe (1st Ed.; 2019), Western Europe

(14th Ed.; 2019), Italy (14th Ed., 2019), Greece (14th Ed., 2020), Crete (7th

Ed.; 2020), Greek Islands (11th Ed.; 2020), Best of Greece & the Greek Islands

(1st Ed.; 2020), USA (11th Ed.; 2020), Eastern USA (5th Ed.; 2020), Best of USA

(3rd Ed.; 2020), Chicago (9th Ed.; 2020), Hawai’i the Big Island (5th Ed.;

2021), Best of Hawai’i (2nd Ed.; 2021), Trip Builder (1st Ed.; 2021), Lonely

Planet’s Best Places to Eat in Every Country (1st Ed.; 2021), New York City

(12th Ed.; 2022), Pocket New York City (8th Ed.; 2022), Italy (reprint, 2021),

Greece (reprint, 2021), Greek Islands (reprint, 2021), Colombia (reprint, 2021),

South America (reprint, 2022), Europe (reprint, 2022), Experience Italy (1st

Ed.; 2022), USA (12th Ed.; 2022), India (19th Ed.; 2022), Best Road Trips Europe

(2nd Ed.; 2022), Europe (4th Ed.; 2022) Italy (16th Ed.; 2023), Sweden (8th Ed.;

2023), Scandinavia (14th Ed.; 2023), Chile (12th Ed.; 2023), Brazil (13th Ed.;

2023), India (20th Ed.; 2024); and the forthcoming Italy (17th Ed.; 2025),

Experience Italy (2nd Ed.; 2025) and Georgia & the Carolinas (4th Ed.; 2025),

Croatia (13th Ed.; 2026), Montenegro (6th Ed.; 2026), Western Balkans (5th Ed.;

2026) and Europe (5th Ed.; 2026).

Raub happened upon his 100th country and territory in 2018, becoming a member of

the long-coveted Traveler's Century Club. His country count currently stands at

109.

Neil was born in Scotland and has lived there most of his life. Based in Perthshire, he has been a full-time writer since 1988, working on more than 100 guidebooks for various publishers, including the Lonely Planet guides to Scotland, England, Ireland and Prague. An outdoors enthusiast since childhood, Neil is an active rock climber, hill-walker, mountain-biker, sailor and snowboarder, and a qualified fly-fishing guide and instructor. He has climbed and tramped in four continents, including ascents of Jebel Toubkal in Morocco, Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, the Old Man of Hoy in Scotland's Orkney Islands and the Northwest Face of Half Dome in California's Yosemite Valley.

Like most Lonely Planet authors, Neil fell into the guidebook-writing business by accident. Having fled the rat race of the oil industry soon after graduating as a geologist, he returned to university to do postgraduate research. But academia turned out to be just as dull as industry, so like any sane person he gave it all up to be a penniless writer. The penniless bit was easy. On the writing side, he began by producing articles for a Scottish magazine, but was soon off to photograph Corfu for a guidebook. Since then Neil has written and photographed dozens of guidebooks for several publishers, including HarperCollins, AA Publishing, Berlitz and Lonely Planet.

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Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Greg Bloom (b. 1969) is a Manila-based travel writer and editor. He specializes in writing guidebooks about Southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union. Over the years he has been detained by authorities in Uzbekistan, taken a shlagbaum to the head in Kyiv, jumped out of helicopters atop volcanoes in Kamchatka, hit 100km/h in a Latvian bobsled, flown out the back of a jeepney in Puerto Princesa, and survived a bus crash on the back roads of Bicol on the Philippine island of Luzon - mostly in the service of Lonely Planet.

Greg dabbled in careers as diverse as Christmas tree salesman, ski bum, PR flak and New York City bike messenger before moving to Ukraine in 1997 and settling into a career as a journalist. He was editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Post, an English-language weekly, from 1999 to 2003. Since 2004 he has divided his time between Cambodia (Phnom Penh and Siem Reap) and Manila. His travel articles have appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post, the Toronto Globe & Mail and Action Asia, among other publications.

You can read about his travels at www.mytripjournal.com/bloomblogs. Greg also leads trips in the Philippines and Cambodia through his adventure-tour company, Bearcat Travel (facebook.com/bearcattravel).

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Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Jessica Lee is a travel writer and guidebook author who specialises in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.

She likes mountains and deserts and is on a constant quest to find the perfect hummus.

Anthony has been traveling to the wild places of the planet seeking stories for nearly three decades. His travels on assignment have taken him from the Arctic to the Amazon, from the deserts and savannahs of Africa to remote Indigenous communities in Outback Australia.

He has written two books of narrative nonfiction, The Last Lions of Africa and The Man Who Loved Pink Dolphins. His writing also appears in the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, Geographical and other online and print publications around the world.

As a guidebook author for Lonely Planet, he specialises in many of the same destinations, writing or co-writing guides to Botswana & Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, Algeria, North Africa, Madagascar, Australia, Western USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Spain, Iceland, and Norway among others.

He speaks fluent Spanish, and divides his time between Madrid and Melbourne.

With over 150 million guidebooks in print, Lonely Planet is a trusted source for any traveler. Since our inception in 1973, we've inspired generations of travelers to discover amazing places and enabled curious travelers to get off the beaten paths to appreciate different cultures and become agents of positive change.

Anita Isalska is a travel journalist and storyteller who writes mainly about Central and Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia, especially outdoor travel and offbeat experiences. www.anitaisalska.com

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Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.