A closer look
When Tony Wheeler stapled together his first Lonely Planet guide in 1973, he unknowingly destroyed the exact counterculture he was writing about. By printing step-by-step instructions on how to travel cheaply through Southeast Asia, he codified what became the Banana Pancake Trail. Suddenly, remote villages were swarming with gap-year students clutching his blue books, demanding English breakfasts and cheap hostels. Wheeler’s quest for authentic travel effectively standardized it into a predictable, mass-produced commodity.
