Experience the best of the Czech and Slovak Republics with Lonely Planet. With our 6th edition you'll discover atmospheric castles on green hilltops, marvel at centuries of architectural majesty in Prague, ski down pristine slopes in the Tatras andrelax with a glass of crips, golden beer in historic Plzen. Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed togive you the information you need to make the most of your trip. In This Guide: Tailored itineraries to help you plan your trip. Color highlights chapter showcasing the top sights and activities. Outdoors chapter tells you where to cycle, hike and ski.

Vol. 1 : A-K. - 480 p.

Over 800 full-color photographs, taken specially for this guide, show you Venice and the Veneto at their finest. Unique cutaways and floorplans help you explore public buildings and landmarks - no need to purchase other guides. Carefully selected hotels, cafes, and restaurants in all price ranges. Detailed and accurate maps give you instant access to regions, cities, and towns. The Survival Guide shows you how to use local currency, public transportation and telephones.

Whether you're conducting business, traveling for pleasure, or even relocating abroad, one mistake with customs or etiquette can leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth. International travelers, now more than ever, are not just individuals from the United States, but ambassadors and impression makers for the country as a whole. Newly updated, redesigned, and resized for maximum shelf appeal for travelers of all ages, Culture Shock! country and city guides make up the most complete reference series for customs and etiquette you can find. These are not just travel guides; these are guides for a way of life.

On the most important occasions of our lives, we often find ourselves at a loss for words; when we want to console, celebrate, explain, inspire, or thank, we end up repeating such uninspiring, uninformative phrases as "Words cannot express how I feel." To help us find the right words, Catherine Frank has compiled this handy compendium of quotations that capture the mundane and the magnificent, the everyday and extraordinary moments of our lives. The three sections of the book cover 150 occasions. "Every Year" offers quotations on all the special dates in the calendar from New Year's Day to New Year's Eve, including Martin Luther King Day, Valentine's Day, Ramadan, Mother's Day, Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, and Christmas. "Occasionally" presents quotations on such occasions as giving a speech, having an interview, becoming a parent, getting engaged, welcoming someone, and saying goodbye. "Once in a Lifetime" provides quotations on such momentous events as confirmation, coming out, turning 16, graduation, and retirement.

The editors are grateful for the assistance provided by dozens of helpful chambers of commerce and convention and visitors bureau professionals, as well as municipal, library, and school employees for their invaluable generosity and expertise

In a region of violent physical and cultural contrasts, Costa Rica is often easy to overlook. Among the six small countries of Central America, it tends not to make the news very often. Costa Rica is not the Central American country with the famous U.S.-built canal and the corrupt military dictator overthrown by U.S. armed forces in 1991. It is not the one ruled by Marxists for most of the 1980s and with whom the U.S. waged a small proxy war. It is not the one that suffered through nearly 35 years of a civil war that has only recently ended. The natural disasters associated with Central America–hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions–also seem to happen elsewhere in the region, just across the border in Nicaragua or to the south in Panama. In 2000, Hurricane Mitch, for example, killed thousands of people in Central America and devastated much of the banana industry in Guatemala,Honduras, and Nicaragua, but it spared Costa Rica. Is Costa Rica lucky? In part, this may be the case. Major tropical storms and hurricanes in the Caribbean Basin usually strike just to the north of Costa Rica. The country’s history certainly reveals some lucky decision-making. For instance, the first Spanish colonists avoided settlement close to the country’s active volcanoes; this was not the case in other parts of the region. It is also true that Costa Rica has worked to avoid the mistakes made by its neighbors. While international attention has focused on the plight and misery of its neighbors,Costa Rica has quietly worked to develop democratic institutions and a sense of national identity that makes it exceptional, not just in the context of Central America but throughout the world. As the civil wars and political problems of the region seem to be coming to an end in the twenty-first century (due in part to efforts that began in Costa Rica), the country is emerging from the shadow of its violent neighbors. The world is finally recognizing Costa Rica as a natural wonderland and as a political model for stability and peace.

“The land where the rainbow begins.” This is how the traditional Mayan people of Guatemala describe their country. A land of striking and sometimes violent contrasts,Guatemala’s vivid colors reflect a varied land and a people with ancient roots. The colors of this land are echoed in the hues of traje, the traditional costume of the Mayans. Ancient and contemporary weavers dye their hand-woven cotton the same dark orange and red tones as molten lava from the country’s volcanoes. Luxuriant greens of the rain forest are duplicated in depictions of the Resplendent Quetzal. The iridescent green, red, and white feathers of this tropical bird have symbolized the land since ancient times. Other depictions of ancient life and symbols use the blue of Lake Atitlán, a mountain lake that English author Aldous Huxley called the most beautiful place in the world. Outside the spectrum of rainbow colors are found the black volcanic sands of the Pacific coast and the bleached chalk white colors of the lost cities of the Maya. So close to North America, yet so distant in many ways, Guatemala is home both to modern culture and to one of the world’s most ancient civilizations. The effects of globalization and reverence for the ancient god Quetzalcoatl coexist somewhat uncomfortably here. Its natural beauty and cultural richness are appealing, but Guatemala has another face as well. It is a place of recent civil war and ongoing political and economic turmoil. Ethnic bitterness and social inequality are not uncommon. Ruled by military dictatorships for most of the past hundred years, the country only now is transitioning from repressive tyranny to uneasy democracy. Guatemala is one of the original “banana republics,” a derisive term for Central American countries long dependent on agricultural exports to the United States. It is a fact that much of the country’s infrastructure—its railroad, telegraph lines, and ports—was built and controlled by U.S. interests, principally the United Fruit Company. Like its Mayan heritage, this aspect of the country’s past is still alive as well. Despite economic advances of the last five years, Guatemala is still dependent on banana, coffee, and sugarcane production for most of its export revenue.

Vol. 1 : A - C. - 1 - 461 pp.