 While other publishers may be churning out titles to complete a country-by-country list, we've concentrated on providing travellers with information either to a region or country where no other guide is available - Azerbaijan, for example - or else more detailed and useful information on a region for which there may already be a guide (eg Trekking in the Pyrenees).
The range
Our list now includes trekking guides (Ladakh, Annapurna, Everest, Langtang, Pyrenees, Dolomites, Morocco), rail guides (Trans-Siberian, Silk Route, China, BAM, Trans-Canada, Australia), budget route guides (Asia Overland, Istanbul to Cairo Overland), driving guides (Sahara Overland), plus guides to other adventurous destinations and activities (Azerbaijan, Tibet Overland, Ski Canada, Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, Indian Ashram Guide).
The guides
Our guidebooks are strong on practical information but do not neglect the cultural background. We give you all the best accommodation and eating options and also advise on what's worth seeing and what's better to avoid.
We tell you how to get there, what to pack and what to read before you go. There is comprehensive background information on history, climate, food, and the people. Detailed sections are included on the environment, particularly in the trekking guides, each of which has a detailed Minimum Impact Trekking chapter. We firmly believe that a good guidebook must have good maps, specifically tailored to the reader's needs.
Above all, however, we think that a guidebook should inspire the reader to travel and encourage him or her to interact with local people. Our guides are entertaining as well as informative.
In the words of one reviewer, Trailblazer guides are examples of: 'Good guides (that) read like a novel and get you packing in no time'.
The authors
Trailblazer authors have a voice. Our authors are travellers first and authors second, and we're a small company not an international conglomerate.
These books are opinionated; we let the author's voice show through in each guide. They tell it like it is - bad as well as good.
 Trailblazer was started in 1991 by traveller and author, Bryn Thomas. In his travels since the early 1980s he has used a lot of guidebooks but he has often found that, for the places that interest him most, current guides are either too generalised in their coverage or else they do not exist at all.
Trailblazer beginnings
In 1985, after a few months' teaching English in Japan, Bryn took the Trans-Siberian railway back to Britain and realised that with many travellers using the train as an interesting means to travel between Europe and Asia, there was a need for a practical guidebook. After doing the journey twice more and spending six months researching Siberian history in the British Library, he wrote the Trans-Siberian Handbook. The first edition of this book was published by Travel & Cartographic publisher Roger Lascelles in 1988.
The second edition of the guide was published under the newly-formed imprint in 1991, as Trailblazer's founding title.
Early successes
From the beginning our aim has been to produce quality guidebooks to adventurous destinations. By 1993, although we had just four titles, they were receiving considerable critical acclaim. We were the only travel publisher to be able to claim that 50% of our titles had been shortlisted for the prestigious Thomas Cook Travel & Guide Book Awards. These were our two rail titles: Trans-Siberian Handbook and Silk Route by Rail.
Expansion
The list has now grown considerably and we enter the new millennium with more than 20 titles. They include trekking guides, rail guides, budget route guides and driving guides as well as guides to other adventurous destinations and activities.
We now publish around a dozen titles a year.
 We believe in the joy of travel and we aim to provide readers with the inspiration to make their travelling experience enriching not only for themselves but also for the people whose community or country they are visiting.
We think travel should be more than lying on a beach or ticking off sights in a travel brochure; we also believe it should be more than following a herd of jaded backpackers from one backpacker dive to the next.
In our guides we try to give readers information that will help them interact positively with local people and the local environment. |