Once a year, usually at around the end of May, thousands of members of the publishing industry gather together to attend Book Expo America.

 

For awhile this premier convention used to take place at alternating parts of the country, but for now it has continued to remain in New York City’s sprawling Jacob Javits Convention Center.

If you at all enjoy reading, this is like being a kid in a candy store with famous authors signing their latest work and publishers giving away advanced copies of books that might not be out to the general public for at least a couple of  months. In other words, loads and loads of fun.

I was happy to be invited to attend this amazing event, especially to see what’s in store for travel books.  I was told by some publishers that Iceland is becoming the next big travel book destination.

Lonely Planet had a lot of interesting travel books and, as a follow up, it has released its newest annual list: Lonely Planet’s Top 10 European Destinations for 2013.The media company said that the destinations were chosen by the company’s team of editors and authors based in Lonely Planet’s US (Oakland, CA) and European (London, UK) offices for either being under-the-radar, but generating buzz, or perennial favorites with fresh reasons to visit in 2013.

Portugal’s Porto & Douro Valley claimed the top honor on the list, chosen as the #1 destination to visit in Europe in 2013. The list also features (in ranked order): Budapest, Hungary; Northern Iceland; Cinque Terre,Italy; Moravia, Czech Republic  Bern, Switzerland;  Marseille, France; Croatia; Northern Ireland; and Copenhagen, Denmark.

Note: In celebration of Portugal’s Porto & Douro Valley being  named #1 on the Top European Destinations list, Lonely Planet has made its Portuguese Phrasebook iPhone app free until June 30th, 2013. This app can be downloaded from the App Store.