Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Lonely Planet, $14.99.
Fun times are ahead as you test your travel knowledge with Lonely Planet’s Ultimate Travel Crosswords. This is Lonely Planet’s first-ever crossword book collection with brain-teasing crosswords from easy to downright difficult and questions that will confound everyone.
If you are a crossword fan who is presently at home, dreaming of your next escape, then these 200 brain-teasing puzzles are guaranteed to be a challenge.
As Joe Fullman says in the introduction, this book contains “fill-in grids themed (sometimes fairly loosely) on travel. They’re arranged into four sections, which increase in difficulty as the book progresses”.
The book is divided as follows:
Chapter 1: Day-Tripper (Easy) is your entry level. The crosswords in this section will require some mulling and pondering, but they’re designed to test rather than confound.
Chapter 2: Traveller (Medium) go up a notch here. The answers get a little more obscure, the clues a little less generous, the anagrams fewer and, as such, your progress may slow a little.
Chapter 3: Explorer (Hard) is were you expect things to get even harder once you’ve reached this level. Expectations of general knowledge have risen, so the clues are now terser and much less giving.
Chapter 4: Daredevil (Cryptic) and you may realise cryptic crosswords aren’t for everybody. This is the pinnacle, where things get really tricky. Up to this point, all the crosswords have been straightforward tests of general knowledge. This short section will require you to have your lateral thinking hat on.
With questions on everything from geography and culture to history, wildlife and transport, it’s an entertaining and challenging test for all ages. The answers (no peeking beforehand!) can be found at the end of each section and there are a few blank pages at the end of the book for notes and anagram solving.
