Turkey--Bright Sun, Strong Tea: On the Road with a Travel Writer [Paperback]

Tom Brosnahan (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Travel Info Exchange (April 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976753103
• ISBN-13: 978-0976753100
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #384,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #88 in Books > Travel > Asia > Turkey

More About the Author

Tom Brosnahan is a veteran travel writer who has written 40 guidebooks. He now writes travel websites including TurkeyTravelPlanner.com, NewEnglandTravelPlanner.com, FranceTravelPlanner.com, ParisTravelPlanner.com, EgyptTravelPlanner.com, and St MoritzTravelPlanner.com, offering free in-depth travel information to nearly five million travelers annually.

His humorous travel memoir, "Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea" (available through Amazon.com) relates his experiences as a Peace Corps English teacher in Turkey (1967-68), and his--sometimes hilarious, sometimes perilous--travels on assignment.

Born and raised in eastern Pennsylvania, Tom Brosnahan graduated from Tufts University in 1967, joined the Peace Corps, and went to Turkey to teach English. In Turkey he discovered a fascinating country little known in North America or Europe. He wrote Frommer's "Turkey on $5 a Day" (1972) as a Peace Corps project to encourage tourism and increase acquaintance with Turkey. During the next 20 years, the guidebook was the best-seller to the destination, going through seven editions, up to Turkey '92-'93 on $40 a Day.

After graduate studies on a US Title V fellowship, Tom returned to Istanbul in 1974 on a Fulbright-Hays Dissertation Fellowship fellowship for 15 months' research of 19th-century Ottoman legal documents for his PhD dissertation.

As jobs for historians were lacking in academia, he instead became a travel writer, guidebook author, photographer and consultant on travel information. His 40 guidebooks to Belize, Canada, Egypt, England, France, Guatemala, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, New England, Tunisia and Turkey for Lonely Planet, Frommer's, Berlitz and Insight have sold over four million copies worldwide, and have been translated into ten languages. His Lonely Planet guide to Turkey became the best-seller to the destination shortly after its publication in 1985. Tom also wrote the original editions of the Lonely Planet's "Istanbul" guide, "Turkish Phrasebook," and "Turkey Travel Atlas."

Tom served as a founding Contributing Editor for "Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel" magazine. Many of his travel articles and photographs have been published in other leading newspapers and magazines as well.

Tom has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including ABC's "Good Morning America," NPR's "Talk of the Nation," the Travel Channel, and PRI's "The Connection." He has given lectures on Turkey at the American Turkish Council's annual conference, the Smithsonian Institution, the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design, and other organizations.

His travel-information consulting clients have included many top names in the travel and public relations industries, as well as the Turkish Embassy in Washington. He is currently a consultant to Dream Design Factory of Istanbul, a prominent advertising and public relations company that has developed many worldwide annual advertising and publicity campaigns for Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

He is a longtime member of the Society of American Travel Writers, and has served two terms on its board of directors.

In 2000 he founded Travel Info Exchange, Inc., a developer of destination websites. TurkeyTravelPlanner.com now serves four million visitors from 213 countries annually. Other TIE websites include NewEnglandTravelPlanner.com, SipNewEngland.com, FranceTravelPlanner.com, ParisTravelPlanner.com, EgyptTravelPlanner.com, and St MoritzTravelPlanner.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Praise for Bright Sun, Strong Tea, December 13, 2005

By 

P. Bleha "avid traveler" (Charlevoix, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Turkey--Bright Sun, Strong Tea: On the Road with a Travel Writer (Paperback)

While planning a trip to Turkey, I ran across Tom Brosnahan's website, www.TurkeyTravelPlanner.com. I discovered Bright Sun, Strong Tea and purchased the book, not really expecting too much, but I am an avid reader when it comes to a subject I am interested in. Was I surprised, first with Mr. Brosnahan's writing style and secondly with the wealth of information he gives the reader through his experiences and expertise, all with great wit and humor. This is a wonderfully, entertaining and well written book of Mr. Brosnahan's experiences with the Peace Corps in Turkey, fresh out of college, and how that experience develops into his career as one of the best travel writers the business has ever known, particularly Frommer's and Lonely Planet. The author brings Turkey to life through his descriptions and characters. His expertise on where to go, what to do, and thouhtful insight on the Tukish people and their customs are invaluable. I'm ready to hop on the plane today and regret I only have a fraction of time to spend exploring this rich and wonderful country. A must read if you are planning a trip to Turkey, a great read for any reason.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for all travelers to Turkey, armchair or otherwise!, July 23, 2005

By 

Joan Peterson (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Turkey--Bright Sun, Strong Tea: On the Road with a Travel Writer (Paperback)

Readers of "Turkey: Bright Sun, Strong Tea" will be charmed by veteran travel guidebook author Tom Brosnahan's humerous and sometimes tell-all autobiography, which recounts his introduction to Turkey as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in 1967, details his adventures and misadventures throughout Turkey in the ensuing decades-and describes how he stumbled into his career of being a travel writer and photographer.

Tom Brosnahan is recognized as one of today's foremost guidebook writers, making this book a must-read both for wannabe travel writers and for travelers, especially those whose discovery and exploration of the exotic destination of Turkey was enhanced and superbly aided by using Tom Brosnahan's guidebooks.

His guide to Turkey (Frommer's Turkey on $5 a Day, 1971) was the first of many to this country that were written for several major publishing houses, including his best-selling Lonely Planet Turkey guide, 1985, which became a best-seller as did several more recent editions of it.

One laments that nowadays many general guidebooks are penned by writers who have little to no prior experience in the destinations they will cover, and that guidebook production for large publishers often is a "work for hire" proposition that allots insufficient time and resources for the endeavor. Indeed, longtime travelers might well yearn for the halcyon days when publishers of travel guides chose to afford writers like Tom Brosnahan, who had an intimate knowledge of the destinations they wrote about.

Joan Peterson, author of "Eat Smart in Turkey: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods & Embark on a Tasting Adventure."

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Treasures of Turkey, October 12, 2005

By 

Svea G. Fraser "Hoca Hanim" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Turkey--Bright Sun, Strong Tea: On the Road with a Travel Writer (Paperback)

The sights, sounds and smells of this exotic country come through every page of Tom Brosnahan's adventures in Turkey:
Bright Sun, Strong Tea is a book that takes you back to a time when Peace Corps Volunteers discovered a country steeped in history and hospitality, and a country that continues to offer a rich tapestry of cultural history, awesome geograpy, gastronomic delights and untold treasures to discover.
Tom's book combines biography, travel and love into an engaging story that puts you smack in the middle of Anatolia and invites you to go see for yourself.
And it's all true: I know. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer there myself.