AAA Destination Discovery

Travel writer-photographer team Lara Dunston and Terry Carter have experienced over 60 countries in the 15 years they been traveling together. The Australian-born, UAE-based couple have authored, contributed to and updated 35 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, AA Publishing, and Thomas Cook. That long list included some 25 books for Lonely Planet alone, contributions to coffee table books The Blue List and The Asia Book and hundreds of hotel reviews and digital content for the website. This year, the globetrotters will add Footprint, Rough Guides and Thames & Hudson to the list, along with a few more countries. They have had their travel writing and Terry's photos published in dozens of newspapers and magazines around the globe, including National Geographic Traveler, Lifestyle+Travel, Paperplane, Get Lost, The Independent, and USA Today, along with a multitude of in-flight and hotel magazines. They write the travel blog Grantourismo for San Franciscan lifestyle site Charles and Marie. The perpetual globetrotters currently call their Samsonites and a storage unit in Dubai "home," having been on the road traveling continuously for two and a half years. Lara has juggled multiple careers in filmmaking, writing, PR/media relations, and academia. She holds several degrees in film, writing, communications and International studies, in which she majored in Latin America, and her PhD project is called "Mobility and the Moving Image" about the connections between film and travel. Terry studied photography, film and communications, and has a Masters degree in media studies; his research project was on national identity in the UAE. Specializing in the Middle East and Europe, they also write occasionally on Australia, Asia, and South America, and next year plan to settle down and split their time between Abu Dhabi and Buenos Aires.

Larry Habegger is Triporati's managing editor and cofounder and executive editor of Travelers' Tales, where he has edited dozens of books including Travelers' Tales Australia, India, Ireland and Thailand. He is a writer, editor, journalist, and teacher who has been covering the world since his international travels began in the 1970s. As a freelance writer for almost three decades and syndicated columnist since 1985, his work has appeared in many major newspapers and magazines, including the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Travel & Leisure, and Outside. In 1993 he cofounded the award-winning Travelers' Tales Books where he has helped oversee the development of the company's publishing program and has worked on all of its 100-plus books. He is also author of the safety and security column World Travel Watch that since 1985 has appeared in newspapers in five countries and on travel web sites. Habegger is an inspiring writing teacher and coach, emphasizing the craft and art of the personal travel story. He regularly teaches at writing conferences and in private workshops. Get more information at LarryHabegger.com, TravelersTales.com, and BestTravelWriting.com.

David Stanley has spent much of the past three decades on the road. He has crossed six continents overland and visited 193 of the planet's 245 countries and territories. His travel guidebooks to the South Pacific, Micronesia, Alaska, Eastern Europe, and Cuba opened those areas to budget travelers for the first time. For his first trip across the Pacific in 1978, Stanley bought the longest ticket ever issued in Canada by Pan American Airways. Since then he has returned many times, visiting and revisiting the islands. His career as a travel writer began with the letters he wrote to Bill Dalton and Tony Wheeler, the pioneers of budget travel to Asia in the 1970s. That feedback soon led to guides of his own, published by Avalon Travel Publishing and Lonely Planet. With over a million copies sold, he's still on the road writing guidebooks. Though Stanley has traveled widely and become a specialist on many parts of the world, he always keeps returning to his favorite area, the South Pacific. One of the biggest treats for a guidebook writer is meeting people who are using a handbook. David researches his books incognito and the "mystery shopper" approach means he can't always admit who he is, but it's still fun hearing what unsuspecting readers think of the book. The author of Moon Fiji, Moon Tahiti, and Moon South Pacific, Stanley enjoys receiving mail from those who have used his guides. His website www.southpacific.org provides contact details. Also see his photo site, Pacific-Pictures.com.