Courtesy Rodale Books
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Web-Exclusive Book Review
The Complete Travel Detective Bible: The Consummate Insider Tells You What You Need to Know in an Increasingly Complex World
By Peter Greenberg (Rodale Books)
Review by Ken Budd, November 2007
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Peter Greenberg calls himself the Travel Detective, but that’s almost too modest. He’s more like the Eminent Travel Smart Guy Who Knows All. The longtime Today show travel editor seems to know every tactic, every trick, and every place in the world worth visiting. A mix of enthusiastic Everyman and ultimate insider, Greenberg offers more than 600 pages of money-saving, stress-reducing, beat-the-system tips in The Complete Travel Detective Bible, from ways to avoid flight cancellations (don’t fly at the end of the month; that’s when labor disputes are more likely to happen) to car rental advice (skip the 800 number when you book: you’ll have better luck negotiating the price if you contact a local agency directly).
 
Greenberg’s insider knowledge is no accident. He’s a dogged reporter and an equally dogged traveler. “This book is the result of more than 18 million miles of lifetime travel—planes, trains, automobiles, and other modes ranging from submarines off the coast of Russia to elephants in Botswana, ziplines in Costa Rica to motorcycles in Jordan and donkeys in the Grand Canyon,” Greenberg writes in the introduction. His travel philosophy is based in the joys of serendipity—that the best moments come not by developing a plan but by deviating from it. Skip the brochures, he suggests. Talk to hotel maids and taxi drivers. They know everything. A hotel maid in Buenos Aires once invited him home for dinner with her family, he writes, giving him an intimate, anything-but-touristy taste of the city, its people, and—best of all—its food.
The size and breadth of the Travel Detective Bible (it’s thicker than the Gideon bibles in most hotel rooms) would seem to be both its strength and its weakness. Greenberg covers an extraordinary amount of material in 35 chapters, from transportation to insurance to types of travel (solo travel, family travel, spiritual travel, medical tourism, etc.). So the narrower the topic—say, volunteer vacations—the less specific the info, right? Not quite. Greenberg manages to profile 21 major volunteer vacation organizations. That’s not the 100-plus organizations offered by a more specialized resource guide such as Volunteer Vacations (Chicago Review Press, 2006), but Greenberg has covered all the major players in a way that’s more concise and less overwhelming.
So the Travel Detective has convinced me: not only is this fine reference guide going on my bookshelf, I vow from here on out to get travel advice from hotel maids.
Ken Budd is AARP The Magazine’s travel editor.
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