Our Story
A beat-up old car, a few dollars in the pocket and a sense of adventure. In 1972 that’s all Tony and Maureen Wheeler needed for the trip of a lifetime – across Europe and Asia overland to Australia. It took several months, and at the end – broke but inspired – they sat at their kitchen table writing and stapling together their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap. Within a week they’d sold 1500 copies. Lonely Planet was born.
Today, Lonely Planet has offices in Franklin, London, Melbourne, Oakland, Beijing and Delhi, with more than 600 staff and writers. We share Tony’s belief that ‘a great guidebook should do three things: inform, educate and amuse’.
Our Writers
Anthony Ham
Anthony is a freelance writer and photographer who specialises in Spain, East and Southern Africa, the Arctic and the Middle East. When he's not writing for Lonely Planet, Anthony writes about and photographs Spain, Africa and the Middle East for newspapers and magazines in Australia, the UK and US.
In 2001, after years of wandering the world, Anthony finally found his spiritual home when he fell irretrievably in love with Madrid on his first visit to the city. Less than a year later, he arrived there on a one-way ticket, with not a word of Spanish and not knowing a single person in the city. When he finally left Madrid ten years later, Anthony spoke Spanish with a Madrid accent, was married to a local and Madrid had become his second home. Now back in Australia, Anthony continues to travel the world in search of stories.
Read more about Anthony at: lonelyplanet.com/profiles/anthony_ham
Trent Holden
A Geelong-based writer, located just outside Melbourne, Trent has worked for Lonely Planet since 2005. He’s covered 30 plus guidebooks across Asia, Africa and Australia. With a penchant for megacities, Trent’s in his element when assigned to cover a nation’s capital – the more chaotic the better – to unearth cool bars, art, street food and underground subculture. On the flipside he also writes books to idyllic tropical islands across Asia, in between going on safari to national parks in Africa and the subcontinent. When not travelling, Trent works as a freelance editor, reviewer and spending all his money catching live gigs. You can catch him on Twitter @hombreholden.
Read more about Trent at: lonelyplanet.com/profiles/hombreholden
Stay in Touch
Australia
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%03
8379 8000, fax 03 8379 8111
Ireland
Unit E, Digital Court, Rainsford St, Dublin 8, Ireland
USA
124 Linden Street, Oakland, CA 94607 %510 250 6400, toll free 800 275 8555, fax
510 893 8572
UK
240 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NW %020 3771 5100, fax 020 3771 5101
Published by Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd
ABN 36 005 607 983
4th edition - September 2017
ISBN 9781787011632
© Lonely Planet 2017 Photographs © as indicated 2017
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