Mark Baker is a freelance travel writer with a penchant for offbeat stories and forgotten places. He's originally from the United States, but now makes his home in the Czech capital, Prague.

He writes mainly travel guides on Eastern and Central Europe for publishers like Lonely Planet, Frommer’s, Fodor’s and National Geographic, but finds real satisfaction in digging up stories in places that are either too remote or too quirky for the guides. He also contributes occasionally to publications like The Wall Street Journal and National Geographic Traveler. Prior to becoming an author, he worked as a journalist for The Economist, Bloomberg News and Radio Free Europe.

When he’s not traveling, these days he’s teaching Central European history and journalism at Anglo-American University in Prague or out riding his bike. He has a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York.

Neil was born in Scotland and has lived there most of his life. Based in Perthshire, he has been a full-time writer since 1988, working on more than 80 guidebooks for various publishers, including the Lonely Planet guides to Scotland, England, Ireland and Prague. An outdoors enthusiast since childhood, Neil is an active hill-walker, mountain-biker, sailor, snowboarder and rock-climber, and a qualified fly-fishing guide and instructor. He has climbed and tramped in four continents, including ascents of Jebel Toubkal in Morocco, Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, the Old Man of Hoy in Scotland's Orkney Islands and the Northwest Face of Half Dome in California's Yosemite Valley.

Like most Lonely Planet authors, Neil fell into the guidebook-writing business by accident. Having fled the rat race of the oil industry soon after graduating as a geologist, he returned to university to do postgraduate research. But academia turned out to be just as dull as industry, so like any sane person he gave it all up to be a penniless writer. The penniless bit was easy. On the writing side, he began by producing articles for a Scottish magazine, but was soon off to photograph Corfu for a guidebook. Since then Neil has written and photographed dozens of guidebooks for several publishers, including HarperCollins, AA Publishing, Berlitz and Lonely Planet.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more