It's Not Just a Travel Guide, It's an Adventure

In 1960, just as exam period was ending, a group of enterprising Harvard students put together a small pamphlet with tips for classmates who were about to begin a Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) charter tour of Europe.

Twenty-four years later and about 784 pages longer. Let's Go Europe has become the hottest selling budget travel guide in the country. More than 200,000 travelers bought one of last year's nine Let's Go guides, bringing gross sales to about $2.7 million.

But only about $165,000 of that total comes back to the HSA publishing office, which started off the series.

"We actually come up with losses most of the time," says Mark E. Fishbein '84, publishing manager. "It costs us a lot more [than a regular author] to put together a manuscript."

Most of the agency's budget goes to travel expenses and salaries for editors and a research staff of about 36 Harvard students. Unlike most of its competitors. Let's Go sends its researchers to places around the world every summer, to report the most timely information on prices and travel conditions.

The Let's Go series has expanded remarkably in the last five years, from four to 10 books. The traditional consumer favorites--Let's Go Europe and Let's Go USA--remain the biggest sellers, but more specialized regional guides to places ranging from Israel and Egypt to Spain. Portugal and Morocco have also garnered sizeable audiences. A new guide on Mexico, which Let's Go staffers have been working on for two years, will hit bookstores across the country this fall.

While the expansion has been great news business wise, editors say they probably will not add books anytime soon on India or Vietnam--as a more unconventional staff did in the late '60s.

"One problem with expansion is that the Harvard student body does not expand with us. I don't think we could get many more good researchers than we do now," says Fishbein.

More than 100 students sought Let's Go positions this year. After completing a detailed seven-page application, about 80 of them get interviews.

Foreign language proficiency might seem to be the prime criterion, but other qualities top the editors' list. The applicants must demonstrate writing ability--the application requires two essays and one editing sample--and "rugged" travel experience.

"What's most important is durability--the ability to be on your own and walking around for eight or 10 hours a day," says Susan Whitlock '84, managing editor for the USA guide, which sold about 30,000 copies last year.

Each researcher spends eight to 11 weeks in an area, following an itinerary determined during the spring. They search out cheap restaurants and accomodations and interesting sights, and take down practical information about trains and post offices.

In travelling, researchers try to find the least expensive and most hospitable places for students. In the U.S., this means staying at Motel 6's or KOA campgrounds. It may mean eating a lot of bad, cheap food to find those few good, cheap eateries.

"We aim for the most homestyle kinds of places, usually family run with just good, simple food," says Fishbein. "We even list it if its lousy, we make sure and say 'lousy, but cheap,'" he adds.

Investigators also try to convey an idea of a city's individual character and social life, and write up sections on the best nightclubs, hangouts, gay bars and discos.

But potential researchers should not expect much pay in return for their sore feet and upset stomachs, Let's Go editors say. Few make any surplus from the flat rate Let's Go gives them for their expenses, even when it is as much as $2400. Those touring in Scandinavia and the U.S. have actually reported losing money on this summer venture.

Managers, however, hope to avoid these losses this year by instituting a per diem salary system which would vary with the region's cost of living. Airfare and travel will also be included for the first time this year.

But the editors say they also want to avoid offering researchers too comfortable a financial situation. "We try to make sure that they'll have just enough to get by on--because we want it to be a realistic guide for travelers on a budget," says Whitlock.

The Let's Go series caters to the college-aged budget traveler, and accordingly it sells especially well at stores like the Coop. "The marketing figures are astronomical for us and buyers I've talked to at Dartmouth and the University of Washington, where they have similarly sized stores," says George Stephens, a buyer for the Coop.

The collection's publisher, St Martin's Press, also handles its advertising and distribution. Cities with large student populations--like Boston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles--are Let's Go's strongest markets, according to publicist Maryann Mazzola.

Most Let's Go buyers choose this guide--which costs either $8.95 or $7.95--because friends who have used it recommend it. But St. Martin's also invests in an extensive advertising campaign, relying heavily on radio spots on FM rock stations and advertisements in college newspapers to each consumers.

In addition to stressing the books' annual updating and emphasis on budget accomodations, another selling point is its student-oriented writing style.

As the radio commercial puts it, "Let's Go--the only travel guide written for students by students."

Many researchers see the writing, which they send into HSA's Thayer Hall office in installments every ten days, as the greatest challenge on the road.

"I found the most interesting part was trying to perfect the prose. I would spend hours on it every night--what an ego trip to begin writing and have all these people take an interest," says Jeffrey M. Rosen '86, who spent last summer canvassing France, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

"It's amazing because every single person who's under 30 carries this orange book [Let's Go Europe] around. Some of them would ask me to autograph them," Rosen says.

At the same time, though, writing and especially being edited, can be frustrating. Maria A Agui '86, who spent much of last summer in the Deep South, says, "I wrote about things to the editors about the lingering prejudice but a lot of it didn't get in."

Other past researchers and editors expressed similar concerns about what material was appropriate for a travel guide of this type.

Some say they feel the guide should reflect the "explore the world and experience" attitude. "A lot of people on the staff fit the counter-culture image of the 60's--they've taken time off from this place and are willing to sacrifice and live cheaply just to be in a different country," says researcher and editor Gideon A. Schor '84-5.

Rosen says he sees a "dichotomy among the current researchers, between the diehard hippies and the more lavish travelers."

Other writers, though, say the hippies have lost out. "I'm really offended by a tone that pervades much of the Let's Go writing--it's the slightly snide, know-it-all rich kid tone," says Schor.

The more lavish travelers may indeed be more numerous now, if Let's Go's growing commercialization is an indication. In addition to putting out books, it now sells knapsacks and other travel gear, started its own travel agency, and even puts ads in the guides.

"We're become a little too slick. It's HSA it's natural to try to exploit this thing," says one former researcher who requested anonymity.

But publishing manager Fishbein--sees the guide's relatively structured format as a check to overly biased evaluations. The researcher's only opportunity to editorialize is in each section's short introduction. Otherwise, they must conform to the standard, concise division of accommodations, restaurants, sights, and entertainment.

"The introduction gives you some space for getting at the soul of the place," says Rosen.

The regional guides leave more room for detail and creativity in giving travel advice because they appeal to an older, more experienced market. Of the seven regional books, the most popular are the Britain/Ireland and California/Northwest USA books.

Past researchers speak positively about their Let's Go jobs, saying that despite the low pay and long hours, their trips proved challenging and adventurous.

William Herzberg '84, though, says he probably had a little too much adventure. He was arrested in Morocco last summer on suspicion of being a spy.

"It was incredibly tense because the Royal Moroccan Forces had just taken over. I was innocently taking notes when this guy stopped me, took my identification and ransacked my things," recalls Herzberg.

He was finally allowed to leave the country, but only after presenting a letter from the government's tourist division introducing him as a Let's Go researcher.

But spending several weeks in the Sahara also proved to have its fringe benefits--Herzberg received two marriage proposals. After helping remove Herzberg's jeep from a ravine, one gentleman wanted Herzberg to repay the favor by marrying his sister.

"I asked him if she spoke English because I didn't speak their Berber dialect, but he said that didn't matter," laughs Herzberg.