Insight Guides are a corporation based in London who create travel guides for commercial and domestic use. They produce atlases, city guides and maps. Other detailed guides include shopping, eating and museum guides. Insight Guides was founded by Hans Johannes Hofer. His first book, was based on the island of Bali, and was funded by a local hotel there and was published in 1970, in 1970. From there he built his publishing empire, exceeding 400 over guide books on over 100 destinations and in the late 90s sold his share of the company to Langenscheidt KG.
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Atlases
Insight Guides create atlases of the whole planet. The more detailed the atlas is, the higher the purchase price is. The atlases are categorized for commercial and domestic use. The atlases provide names of all locations in the local language and a translation too. Geographic features and locations named are:
- Borders
- National Parks
- Peninsulas and extrusions
- Mountains
- Cities/ towns and villages
- Islands
- Water features inc. bays, sounds, rivers and lakes etc.
- Roads
- Cruise ship paths
- Depth measurements and height measurements
At the back of the atlas there is a small guide to all countries in the world which provides information on geography, politics and economy as well as a colour photograph from the country. There is then also a guide to International Organizations. The information provided for each organization is Foundation date, organization members and headquarter location.
Atlas Titles
- Insight Deluxe World Travel Atlas (ISBN 981-258-332-7)
- Insight World Travel Atlas (ISBN 981-258-070-0)
- Insight Concise World Atlas (ISBN 981-258-071-9)
- Insight Illustrated World Atlas (ISBN 981-258-072-7)
- Insight World Atlas and Almanac (ISBN 981-258-073-5)
- Insight Family World Atlas (ISBN 981-258-427-7)
City Guides
Each book is dedicated to a city. They are written by local experts who provide information on restaurants, cafés and other tourist features. Other information provided are the history of the city, art, people and culture. Features include:
- Top attractions listings
- Restaurant location map
- Photographs
- City map
Cities
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Barcelona, Spain
- Beijing, China
- Boston, USA
- Brussels, Belgium
- Cape Town, South Africa
- Hong Kong
- Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
- London, United Kingdom
- Madrid, Spain
- New York City, New York, USA
- Orlando, Florida, USA
- Paris, France
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Rome, Italy
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Singapore
- St. Petersburg, Russia
- Sydney, Australia
- Tokyo, Japan
- Venice, Italy
- Taipei, Taiwan
Other Guides
Insight Guides create other guides too such as pocket guides to a country. They are designed to be itinerary based so that the user/ reader can create their own personal tour of the country. A similar guide which is designed for cities are the compact guides which acts as an encyclopedia for 130 different destinations. Insight Guides also make globes for different uses. The globes can be illuminated and tilted as well. Their latest globe is a levitating globe which is controlled by a computer microchip.
