Culture Trails

Pacific Coast Highway Travel reviews the book Culture Trails by Lonely Planet, which has a section on Vintage Hollywood alongside 51 other perfect weekends for culture lovers around the world.

Culture Trails Cover

We worked with publishers Lonely Planet to bring readers of Pacific Coast Highway Travel an extract from their new book Culture Trails. Click over to Vintage Hollywood and you can read a typical spread from the book. You can also visit one of our other travel websites, Greece Travel Secrets, to read a second extract: Artistic Athens. If you want to know about the rest of the book, read on.

Culture Trails Contents

We were impressed with the extracts we saw, and even more impressed when a finished copy of the book reached us. It's a big and handsome coffee table book that will make a great present for anyone you know with a bad case of wanderlust, or indeed a wonderful treat for yourself.

Culture Trails Sample Spread

You can see sample spreads from the book on this page and on the two extracts from the book, so we don't need to tell you how good it looks. Just imagine them blown up to full size. Each spread picks a cultural theme that's appropriate to the destination, so for Havana it's music, for Copenhagen it's design and for Ethiopia it's ancient religions. You can see that the cultural topics are quite wide-ranging, as are the destinations, from Australia to the USA. The 52 perfect weekends are spread across 33 countries.

For travel in the USA there are some interesting options, in addition to Vintage Hollywood. For the Deep South the natural choice is the Blues Trail, from Memphis into Mississippi. It's a route we've driven ourselves, to places like Clarksdale and Greenwood, and the author Joe Bindloss captures the atmosphere well.

Culture Trails Sample Spread

The same author also writes about New York, covering Bob Dylan and Greenwich Village. This is another place we've been lucky enough to visit and wander around, and again the spread reads well and mentions all the best places, like the Chelsea Hotel and the Bitter End. The other two US entries are Cape Cod's literary landscapes and Washington DC as portrayed in political TV dramas like House of Cards.

The spreads each have an introductory essay followed by a route linking all the main places. There are then suggestions on Where to Stay, Where to Eat and Drink, and Celebrations. This bit lists any special events related to the cultural theme so you can plan your visit to take them in, if you want to.

Culture Trails Sample Spread

A few of the other topics covered around the world include:
• On a Classical High in Vienna
• Confronting Soviet Ghosts in Bulgaria
• Literary Paris through the Eyes of Hemingway
• Traditional Music in the Wild West, Ireland
• Mackintosh & the Glasgow Style
• Aboriginal Art in the Northern Territory, Australia
• Tokyo Pop Culture
• Finnish Sauna Culture

If that doesn't get your travel bug itching, there's also Bob Marley's Jamaica, Venice's art masterpieces, comic-strip art in Brussels (great choice!), and the creative artisans of Marrakesh. We loved the eclectic collection and it's certainly fired us up to take some of these culture trails.

Culture Trails Sample Spread

Don't expect the thoroughness of a guidebook, as the strength of this book is in enjoying the readable essays. The practical sections are limited to a couple of hotels and a couple of eating or drinking recommendations, though they're usually ones that link with the theme.

You'll still need to do a little bit of work to turn these culture trails into perfect weekends. Other than that, you're good to go with this highly enjoyable book. You can buy it on Amazon.

Other books pages

Ten Fun Family Things to Do in Los Angeles
Pacific Coast Highway Travel picks ten fun family things to do in Los Angeles, from Universal Studios to the Los Angeles Zoo and Children’s Museum.
Los Angeles Airport Hotels
Los Angeles Airport hotels include Hilton, Radisson, Marriott, Embassy Suites, Crowne Plaza and other top names, all of them within a mile or so of LAX.
Guide to the Olympic Peninsula
Moon's Spotlight Guide to the Olympic Peninsula covers hotels, restaurants, and sights, including Forks, the Olympic National Park and other places.
LA to Hearst Castle
Pacific Coast Highway travel offers advice on driving from LA to Hearst Castle, including distance, journey time, and route.
Napa and Sonoma Guidebook
The Napa and Sonoma Guidebook to California Wine Country is from the Moon Handbooks’ travel guide series with reviews of wineries,vineyards, and wine tastings.
Pacific Coast Highway Moon Guide
Pacific Coast Highway Travel reviews the Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip guide from Moon covering California, Oregon and Washington
Public Transport in Los Angeles
Pacific Coast Highway Travel brings your guide to public transport in Los Angeles to show how you can get around in the city without a car, even to the beaches.
New Hotels in Los Angeles
Pacific Coast Highway Travel lists the new hotels in Los Angeles, and those refurbished and renovated, and all open for business in 2025.
West Coast RV Parks
One of the best guides to West Coast RV Parks, covering campgrounds in California, Oregon, and Washington, is West Coast RV Camping from Moon Guides.
Los Angeles Travel Guide
The Los Angeles travel guide book from Lonely Planet also covers San Diego and Southern California, including Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, and Disneyland.
Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide
Pacific Coast Highway Travel reviews an Olympic Peninsula Travel Guide published by the Beautiful Pacific Northwest website.
Soul of Los Angeles
Soul of Los Angeles from French publishers Jonglez is a travel guide to 30 Exceptional Experiences in California's largest city.
The Best Coast Book Review
The Best Coast is a west coast travel guide, sub-titled A Road Trip Atlas it doesn't use photos but instead has hundreds of beautiful illustrations.
Ten Best Films Set in Los Angeles
Pacific Coast Highway Travel picks the ten best films set in Los Angeles from classics like Chinatown and Sunset Boulevard to The Big Lebowski and La La Land.
California Bed and Breakfast Inns
The guide to California Bed and Breakfast Inns lists over 250 boutique hotels, wine country cottages and more.
Best Time to Visit Los Angeles
Pacific Coast Highway travel suggests the best time to visit Los Angeles with information about the weather and climate month by month and season by season.
Most Romantic Hotels in Los Angeles
Pacific Coast Highway Travel picks the most romantic hotels in Los Angeles, including beach-front beauties as well as those in the heart of the city.
Road Food Guide
West Coast Road Eats is a road food guide covering the Pacific Coast from California through Oregon to Washington, giving the best road trip food stops.
Must-See Hollywood
Pacific Coast Highway Travel reviews 111 Places in Hollywood That You Must Not Miss, a guide that includes iconic attractions and hidden secrets too.
Free San Francisco Kindle Guide to Free Attractions
101 free San Francisco attractions and things to do are in the Kindle guide, 101 Free Things to Do in San Francisco, in the Travel Free eGuidebooks series.
California Camping Book Review
Pacific Coast Highway Travel's California Camping book review rates the 20th anniversary edition of Moon's complete guide to over 1400 tent and RV campgrounds.
Best Budget Hotels in Los Angeles
Pacific Coast Highway Travel picks the best budget hotels in Los Angeles so you can have a cheap stay in LA and still be near Hollywood or Universal Studios.
Ten Best Things to See at the Getty Museum
Pacific Coast Highway Travel picks the ten best things to see at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, split between The Getty Center and Getty Villa.
Washington State Travel Guide
The Washington State travel guide from Frommer's covers hotels in Seattle, driving the Pacific Coast Highway, Olympic National Park, where to eat and more.
Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast
Lighthouses of the Pacific Coast, published by Voyageur Press, is a guide in words and pictures to historic lighthouses along the Pacific Coast Highway.