Britain On Your Own: A Guide for Single Mature Travelers, by Dorothy Maroncelli, West Wind Books, P.O. Box 246, Dundas, MN 55019, Tel: 507-663-7262, $12.95 paperback, plus $3 for shipping and handling.
Britain On Your Own: A Guide for Single Mature Travelers is a delightful travel book geared towards single seniors. It is so full of excellent advice and valuable information, however, that anyone planning a trip to Britain will find it helpful.
For those of us who fancy ourselves travellers and not tourists, author Dorothy Maroncelli provides fresh insight on how to become intimately acquainted with a country and its people on a personal level. As she says, you must “Take the time to talk with those you meet and to learn more about them and their country.”
Drawing on her own experiences as a lone traveller, Maroncelli convinces you that exploring Britain on your own can be exciting and rewarding. She appeals directly to seniors who find themselves single after many years of being “half a couple”, encouraging them to strike out on their own.
She replaces apprehension with enthusiasm for travelling alone by describing ways in which travellers can prepare for their first solo journey. Her advice covers everything from the best times of the year to visit to how to travel with only one carry-on bag. She describes the process of designing your own trip in great detail, providing names and addresses of various agencies in England you can contact for precise, up-to-date information.
An especially interesting section of the book describes how to tailor your trip around any particular interest you might have, including history, literature, art, music, theatre, gardens, legends and myths, automobiles, photography, antiques, and golf. The book includes all of the cultural, political, and language background information you’ll need to get along in Britain and to truly appreciate what you observe; there is no need to pick up a cumbersome history book to refresh your memory.
Couples, singles, beginners, and experienced world travellers of all ages will appreciate this book, even if England is already a familiar landscape. Maroncelli introduces you to a side of Britain you will treasure always, a side that perhaps you were not expecting to see.
