The Scientific American Handbook of Travel

There are no conditions of travel in which a few general hints as to how to adjust one's self to surroundings can prove so useful as on a sea voyage, and it is with the object of preparing the traveler for his trip by telling him how to go, how much it will cost, how to amuse himself, and what to do on arrival at the coveted shore, that this book has been written. The writer believes that by giving just that sort of information which he himself and others of his acquaintance have wanted to know on various trans-Atlantic voyages, he cannot fail to meet pretty closely the needs of the average voyager. The writer also hopes that the information contained in this volume will be augmented in subsequent editions by the voluntary experience of its readers, an addition which cannot fail to greatly increase the value of the book.
It may interest the reader to know that many hundreds of pamphlets, issued by various transportation companies throughout the world, were thrown into the alembic which produced this slender volume a fact which will give the reader some idea of the difficulties which are entailed in editing a work of this character. Within the last two or three years steamship and railway companies have done much to annihilate space; it is now possible to make a complete circuit of the earth in 38 days, or less than one-half the proverbial 80 days of Jules Verne.

This fantastic book is a reprint of the original published in 1910.