Best Travel Guides by Continent

     We've broken down(分类)the best travel guides, by continent, to help you find student discounts and travel like a local on your next adventure.

Europe—Let's Go Europe 2017: The Student Travel Guide

     Let's Go was founded about 55 years ago when a Harvard student had an idea to provide accessible, budget travel lips for young people. Students lave its amusing pages. Let's Go Europe 2017 has everything you need for your trip—from the best beer in Brussels to how to avoid the lines at the Louvre.

Africa—The Rough Guide to Cape Toxin, the Winelands, and the Garden Route

     With its colorful photos and detailed tips on how to make the most of South Africa, The Rough Guide is the book to gel when visiting Africa. You may not have access to Google Maps when you1 re out exploring but that's OK. The Rough Guide also comes with easy use to maps.

     It can be purchased as an eBook, or as a paperback(平装本).

Asia—Lonely Planet: South-East Asia on a Shoestring

     This guide is perfect for those backpacking through the hidden treasures of South-Ea.sl Asia. With detailed recommendations from experts in the area, this guide helps first-timers as well as experienced backpackers. This book can lie purchased as a paperback travel guide. A download for an eBook or separate chapters can be purchased to serve as a guide to specific cities.

North America—Planet USA Travel Guide

     With detailed reviews of the best places to eat, sleep, and explore, Lonely Planet is linked with budget-friendly attractions and that's why it makes our best travel guides list. This travel guide is available in paperback.

    It's such a happy-looking library, painted yellow, decorated with palm-tree stickers and sheltered from the Florida sun by its own roof. About the size of a microwave oven, it's pedestrian-friendly, too, waiting for book lovers next to a sidewalk in Palm Beach country Estates, along the northern boundary of Palm Beach Gardens.

    It's a library built with love.

  A year ago, shortly after Janey Henriksen saw a Brian Williams report about the Little Free Library organization, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that aims to promote literacy and build a sense of community in a neighborhood by making books freely available, she announced to her family of four, “That's what we're going to do for our spring break!”

    Son Austin, now a 10th-grader, didn't see the point of building a library that resembles a mailbox. But Janey insisted, and husband Peter unwillingly got to work. The 51-year-old owner of a ship supply company modified a small wooden house that he'd built years earlier for daughter Abbie's toy horses, and made a door of glass.

    After adding the library's final touches (装点), the family hung a signboard on the front, instructing users to “take a book, return a book,” and making the Henriksen library, now one of several hundred like it nationwide and among more than 2,500 in the world, the only Little Free Library in Palm Beach County.

    They stocked it with 20 or so books they'd already read, a mix of science fiction, reference titles, novels and kids' favorites. “I told them, keep in mind that you might not see it again,” said Janey, a stay-at-home mom.

    Since then, the collection keeps replenishing (补充) itself, thanks to ongoing donations from borrowers. The library now gets an average of five visits a day.

    The project's best payoff, says Peter, are the thank-you notes left behind. “We had no idea in the beginning that it would be so popular.”  (317 words)

    If you find yourself checking your phone first thing in the morning, if you find you're text-messaging while driving, checking your phone instead of working on an important assignment—you are addicted.

    Don't worry. The new NoPhone might be just the thing you need. It looks and feels exactly like a smartphone, but it does nothing. It's just a piece of plastic that you can carry around in your hand to fool yourself.

    NoPhone is currently a prototype(手机模型) that will cost only $12 once it hits the market. Its makers are trying to raise $30,000 in order to cover the production and marketing costs.

    Dutch designer Ingmar Larsen, who helped create the NoPhone, said that he had the idea as a joke along with his friends Van Gould and Ben Langveld. To their great surprise, the idea received a lot of attention online and people from all over the world started placing requests for NoPhone of their own, so that's when the three friends decided to raise money for mass production.

David H said," I used to sleep with my phone in my hand, but my night errors would cause me to throw it across the room in an unconscious panic. With the NoPhone, I can still enjoy the comfort of holding a phone in my sleep, without waking up to a shattered screen, thanks, NoPhone."

If you're interested in NoPhone, but concerned about not being able to takeselfies anymore, don't worry. The makers do have an update at no extra charge—the mirror sticker. That way, they say, you can enjoy "real-time" selfies with your friends when they're standing right behind you.

    If you follow these insider tips, your photos will look like you had the place to yourself at the popular tourist attractions.

    Vatican Museums: Vatican City

    The Vatican draws more than five million people each year, and queues can reach four hours during peak season. Christie Hudson, senior communications manager at Expedia，recommends, choosing a skip-the-line tour.“ This not only lets you avoid the ticket counter，but also includes the use of a private partner entrance.” Extra time to visit the Sistine Chapel? Yes!

    Bamboo Forest: Kyoto, Japan

    Bamboo Forest is the most worthy sight in Kyoto. If you're longing to enjoy the pathways and take pictures in total quietness, Kyoto Arashiyama Travel Guide recommends hitting the famous Bamboo Grove Path as early in the morning as possible—think 7 a.m. if you're up for it. Don't miss these hidden treasures you can only witness in Japan.

    Chichen Itza: Yucatán，Mexico

    Home to E1 Castillo and the Temple of the Warriors, Chichen Itza is a must-see. Want to beat the rush? Schedule an early tour that takes place before a site opens to the public. Led by an archaeologist guide，it's full of fascinating insights and facts—without tons of pack-wearing tourists.

    Louvre Museum: Paris, France

    The Louvre is one of the most popular museums on the planet. If waiting around in line to get in isn't the way you prefer to spend your time in Paris，consider purchasing a reserved ticket. This will give you entry to the pyramid within a half-hour window. The Louvre is also open until 9:45 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays, if you're up for some late-night art visits.

    The 65-year-old Steve Goodwin was found suffering from early Alzheimer's (阿尔楚海默症). He was losing his memory.

    A software engineer by profession, Steve was a keen lover of the piano, and the only musician in his family. Music was his true passion, though he had never performed outside the family.

    Melissa, his daughter, felt it more than worthwhile to save his music, to which she fell asleep catch night when she was young. She thought about hiring a professional pianist to work with her father.

    Naomi, Melissa's best friend and a talented pianist, got to know about this and showed willingness to help.

    "Why do this?" Steve wondered.

    "Because she cares." Melissa said.

    Steve nodded, tears in eye.

    Naomi drove to the Goodwin home. She told Steve she'd love to hear him play. Steve moved to the piano and sat at the bench, hands trembling as he gently placed his fingers on the keys.

    Naomi put a small recorder near the piano, Starts and stops and mistakes. Long pauses, heart sinking. But Steve pressed on, playing for the first time in his life for a stranger.

    "It was beautiful." Naomi said after listening to the recording. "The music was worth saving."

    Her responsibility, her privilege, would be to rescue it. The music was sill in Steve Goodwin. It was bidden in rooms with doors about to be locked.

    Naomi and Steve met every other week and spent hours together. He'd move his fingers clumsily on the piano, and then she'd take his place. He struggled to explain what he heard in his head. He stood by the piano, eyes closed, listening for the first time to his own work being played by someone else.

    Steve and Naomi spoke in musical code lines, beats, intervals, moving from the root to end a song in a new key. Steve heard it. All of it. He just couldn't play it.

    Working with Naomi did wonders for Steve. It had excited within him the belief he could write one last song. One day, Naomi received an email. Attached was a recording, a recording of loss and love, of the fight. Steve called it "Melancholy Flower".

    Naomi heard multiple stops and starts, Steve struggling, searching while his wife Joni called him "honey" and encouraged him. The task was so hard, and Steve, angry and upset, said he was quitting. Joni praised him, telling her husband this could be his signature piece.

    Naomi managed to figure out 16 of Steve's favorite, and most personal songs. With Naomi's help, the Goodwin family found a sound engineer to record Naomi playing Steve's songs. Joni thought that would be the end. But it wasn't.

    In the months leading up to the 2016 Oregon Repertory Singers Christmas concert, Naomi told the director she had a special one in mind: "Melancholy Flower"

    She told the director about her project with Steve. The director agreed to add it to the playing list. But Naomi would have to ask Steve's permission. He considered it an honor.

    After the concert, Naomi told the family that Steve's music was beautiful and professional. It needed to be shared in public.

    The family rented a former church in downtown Portland and scheduled a concert. By the day of the show, more than 300 people had said they would attend.

    By then, Steve was having a hard time remembering the names of some of his friends. He knew the path his life was now taking. He told his family he was at peace.

    Steve arrived and sat in the front row, surrounded by his family. The house lights faded. Naomi took the stage. Her fingers. His heart.

My grandfather was born in a small town in Italy. He would wake up at four in the morning every day to work on the farm. Although he was a great student in school, he only went up to Grade 3 because he was required to help with the family farm. 

Later, my grandfather used his own hard-earned savings—the small amount was all he had—to travel to Canada. He was alone in a new country, not knowing anyone and not speaking English or French. At a farm, the owner quickly saw what a hard-working young man my grandfather was, so he paid my grandfather a much higher salary. Although the owner was very nice to him and treated him like family, he was not satisfied. He dreamed of being more successful, of better career advancements. 

One day, he got an offer to work in the construction industry. My grandfather, a newly immigrated young famer, who was eager to move up in the world, caught this opportunity and prospered( 发达 ) through hard work. Around 1967, however, he become overwhelmed(不知所措的)with stress, sleepless nights and anxiety from the business. He also had two young daughters to take care of and my grandmother was in the hospital at the time. The combined stress and anxiety unfortunately drove him into a major depression. During a medical check-up, his doctor warned him about his health. He knew it was time for him to make a change and decided to sell his shares in the company. 

He then began a smaller business of his own, which resulted in less stress and more time with family. Had he chosen not to quit his former job, he might have been a billionaire today. My grandfather will turn 95 in October; even at this ripe old age, he is still strong, well and high-spirited. Looking at his story as a life example, he teaches us to work hard, but at the same time not to forget to enjoy life and have a good sense of humour about it all. 

Work is important, sure, but there is much more to life than just that. Overall, this is the ultimate key to happiness.