"Lifetime Trips" Reads Like a Tour Brochure Anthology

Travel anthology is a surprising yawner

I love to take anthologies on my own travels. If I put a book down and don't pick it up again for six months, I haven't lost my place. Houghton Mifflin's Best American Travel Writing of Fill-in-the-Year and its companion series, the now-suspended Best American Food Writing...., are my favorites. Travelers' Tales anthologies, each of which follows single destination or subject as seen by many writers, are a close runnerup. These collections are filled with gorgeous prose by some of the best writers in the land who make their topics spring from the pages.

Therefore, I was looking forward to Once in a Lifetime Trips, subtitled "The World's 50 Most Adventurous, Luxurious, and Memorable Travel Experiences." The author, Chris Santella, certainly comes with impressive credentials. His byline has appeared in top publications (including The New Yorker for which he wrote a "Talk of the Town" piece back in 1995). His numerous books include Fifty Places to Fly Fish Before You Die (and also ...to Play Golf, ...to Dive and ... to Sail Before You Die) and spinoffs from several of them.

My hopes for a great travel read were dashed when I actually plowed through the review copy. Santella's writing is curiously devoid of passion or insight. In fact, the book reads like a compendium of 50 tour brochures. The opening sentences to many of these adventures are real snoozers. But he does know how to craft a run-on sentence.

I wouldn't travel to Cape Town, South Africa, to fly a fighter jet based on the lead for that chapter: "There are no exact figures that speak to the increase in the number of U.S. Air Force and Navy recruits after the 1986 release of the Hollywood blockbuster Top Gun, through the military acknowledges that there was a significant bump and even staffed recruiting booths in select theaters where the picture was showing." Yawn.

Nor would I feel motivated to spend $20 million, if I had $20 million, to visit the International Space Station based on this book. Santella starts his description this remarkable adventure with, "In 2001, American multimillionaire Dennis Tito became the first civilian to travel in orbital flight, thanks to the Russian Federal Space Agency and a U.S. Company called Space Adventures, which has a partnership to purchase a seat on the Soyuz spacecraft and a ten-day spot on the International Space Station (ISS) every six months." Yawn.

The occasional lead sentence reads like a term paper rather than a tour brochure. Consider, "While the number of Bengal tigers is dwindling worldwide, populations in north-central Nepal are stable." Yawn.

Have I bored you enough? The press release accompanying the review copy boasts that the "vacations...are so unusual that you can't just search for them on the web or find them in travel magazines," and that the author's "detective work" has unearthed them for us. In truth, most of the them on the web (no surprise), and Santella's own "If You Go" appendix lists outfitters, their phone numbers and/or websites. However, unless the list was fact-checked between the printing of the review copy and the May 12 publication date, there are errors. For example, the review copy gives Abercrombie & Kent Space Travel for the Capetown fighter jet flight, when in fact, A&K handles reservations the Soyuz. If you want to fly a jet in South Africa, contact Incredible Adventures. The hardcover book will cost $24.95. Save your money -- unless you're in need of a good sleep.