Has the pandemic killed the travel guidebook?

Simon Calder’s Travel Week [View in browser]( [The Independent]( [Travel] Simon Calder’s Travel Week [Simon Calder]( Written by Simon Calder | October 08, 2021 A guidebook can enlighten, empower and entertain the traveller. Yet of all the colonies that make up our travel industry – magnificent until coronavirus and the government’s incoherent response – the one for which I am most fearful is the travel guide business. The expert researchers, editors, cartographers and publishers of these books face an even deeper chasm of doom than do airlines, tour operators and cruise lines. I cling to the hope that some avid travellers have panic-bought guidebooks over the past 18 months to plan a decade’s worth of adventures. But I fear the reality is that sales have fallen off the kind of knife-edge ridge described in terrifying detail by authors of trekking guides to the Alps, Andes and Himalayas. Spine mingling: travel guides to South America, on the red list off-limits for almost all of 2021 A gravity-assisted collapse in demand is only the start of their problems. As the world starts to emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, predicting everything from the Covid policies of individual hotels and attractions to global travel patterns (and therefore sales) is fraught with uncertainty. Then there’s the small matter of pandemic protocol making meaningful research nigh-impossible. We will surely have to wait a year or more before Covid-era travel guides start to emerge. Or will we? I was heartened to see the publication this week of the Bradt Guide to Estonia; more precisely, the eighth edition of the definitive book for travellers to the northernmost Baltic republic. Capital gain: the old town in Tallinn The author, Neil Taylor, told me: “I went to Estonia to escape. 'Fly to Estonia and be normal,’ could have been the slogan. At one stage restaurants and museums closed for a week or 10 days, but it was so much better than lockdown after lockdown in the UK.” Whether you yearn for a filling lunch for a fiver in the capital, Tallinn (ask for a päevapraad, the dish of the day rarely mentioned on English-language menus) or to visit the most Soviet location in Estonia (Sillamäe, deleted from maps while part of the USSR because of its uranium processing plant), invest £17.99 in this labour of true love for a nation. The enlightening, empowering and entertaining Mr Taylor made one important trip back during the pandemic: to pick up the MBE he was awarded for his outstanding contribution to Anglo-Estonian relations. Destination of the week: MOX – the Museum of Oxford People power: a mural at the Museum of Oxford The rejuvenated Museum of Oxford reopens this coming Monday, 11 October 2021. From a penicillin culture vessel to a model of the 1933 Morris 10 – made in the Cowley area of Oxford – the new attraction promises to tell the story of one of the UK's brainiest and most intriguing cities. Don’t miss my daily travel podcast [Green List Travel]( For all the latest travel tips, advice and news listen to my podcast ‘Green List Travel with Simon Calder and The Independent’. It's available now for free on [Spotify](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Pocket Casts]( or [Acast](. Deals of the week: half-term in Europe - With demand for half-term holidays likely to outstrip supply, bargains are few and far between. The two largest tour operators have some stock left at under £500 per person, based on a family of four. Flying on Saturday 23 October with Jet2 from Newcastle to Menorca, staying in the Maribel Apartments in Cala Blanca, there is space at £471. The following day, flying with Tui from Manchester to Faro and staying in the Paladim Aparthotel in Albufeira is £449. Prices include flights (with baggage), transfers and self-catering accommodation. - If your family is ready for something different, you can save a fortune by going east. From Gatwick, easyJet Holidays will take you to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, for £275 for a week – including accommodation at the four-star Metropolitan Sofia City Centre. Not exactly Disney – but expect sunshine and a relaxed Balkan experience. Question of the week: What are the passport rules for the EU – were we wrongly turned away? Question: Our summer holiday was wrecked when our nine-year-old son was refused boarding a flight to Portugal because he had only five months left on his passport. Was the airline wrong, and, if so, can we claim compensation? Answer: [A child's British passport must pass only one test to be valid for EU countries]( such as Portugal: on the intended day of departure, will it have at least three months before the expiry date? Assuming you were planning to stay only a week or two and had met Portugal’s awkward pre-departure testing rules, you appear to have been wrongly denied boarding. I suggest you invite the airline to make a reasonable financial settlement – and make it clear you will not hesitate to take legal action if your request is declined. 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