''Let's Go'' is a

travel guide A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

series researched, written, edited, and run entirely by students at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. ''Let's Go'' was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

History

The first Let's Go guide was a 25-page mimeographed pamphlet put together by 18-year-old

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

freshman

Oliver Koppell Gabriel Oliver Koppell (born December 15, 1940) is an American lawyer and politician from New York City. A member of the Democratic Party, he is a former member of the New York City Council and the former New York Attorney General. Biography Ko ...

and handed out on student charter flights to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. In 1996, Let's Go launched its website
Letsgo.com
while publishing 22 titles and a new line of mini map guides. Let's Go announced a new print publisher,

Avalon Travel Perseus Books Group was an American publishing company founded in 1996 by investor Frank Pearl. Perseus acquired the trade publishing division of Addison-Wesley (including the Merloyd Lawrence imprint) in 1997. It was named Publisher of the Y ...

, upon the expiration of its contract with St. Martin's Press in 2009. The switch led to a new format for the insides of the books, new retro covers for the outsides, and a rebranding to emphasize Let's Go's student origins. The theme has been changed in 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2009. In 2014, Let's Go began self-publishing for the first time since 1970.

Editorial style

Let's Go has used many words to describe the style of its content. "Witty and irreverent" is possibly the most frequently used descriptor; the company takes pride in its youthful, casual, sometimes zany tone and trains its writers to avoid " brochure-ese". Let's Go also promotes the unvarnished opinions of its reviews, stating that they want the takeaway of every single listing, good or bad, to be clear to the reader. This honesty led to a

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

against Let's Go in 1990 as a result of a scathing review of an Israeli hostel, but the travel guide was victorious in court, upheld by the judges as "the modern equivalents of

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

or John Peter Zenger." Other traits the company has emphasized include its budget roots and social consciousness.

Titles

As of the 2019 series of guidebooks, Let's Go has published 75 titles covering six continents. The books range from country guides to adventure, city, budget, and road trip guides, many of which are still updated annually. Let's Go has also published 20 abridged, pocket-sized "map guides" (

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, and

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

), though these have been discontinued.

Notable alumni

Because Let's Go employees are all students when working for the travel guide, many of its alumni have gone on to careers in travel writing and other areas. * Megan Amram, comedy writer and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

celebrity *

Jesse Andrews Jesse Andrews (born September 15, 1982) is an American novelist and screenwriter. He co-wrote the screenplay for ''Luca'' and wrote both the novel and the feature-film adaptation of ''Me and Earl and the Dying Girl''. Personal life Andrews w ...

, novelist and screenwriter of the novel ''

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl ''Me and Earl and the Dying Girl'' is a 2012 debut novel written by Jesse Andrews. The novel was released in hardcover by Amulet Books on March 1, 2012, and in paperback on May 7, 2013. Plot Greg Gaines is a senior at Benson High School in P ...

'' (2012) * Darren Aronofsky, film director * Jenny Lyn Bader, playwright * Rick Barton, diplomat * Elif Batuman, Turkish author and journalist *

Ben Beach Bennett "Ben" Hastings Beach (born May 23, 1949) is an American writer-editor and recreational distance runner who holds the record for most consecutive completed Boston Marathons (50 on April 17, 2017). He and Johnny (The Elder) Kelley share t ...

, marathoner *

Jess Bravin Jess M. Bravin (born 1965) is an American journalist. Since 2005, he has been the ''Wall Street Journal'' correspondent for the United States Supreme Court. Background Bravin graduated from Harvard College, where he wrote from 1985 to 1987 for ...

, journalist and author *

Lisa Brennan-Jobs Lisa Nicole Brennan-Jobs ( Brennan; born May 17, 1978) is an American writer. She is the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan. Jobs initially denied paternity for several years, which led to a legal case and various media ...

, journalist, author, and daughter of

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...

Irin Carmon Irin Carmon () (born 1983/1984) is an Israeli-American journalist and commentator. She is a senior correspondent at ''New York Magazine'', and a CNN contributor. She is co-author of ''Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg''. Pr ...

, writer and blogger * Pete Deemer, tech entrepreneur
David Eilenberg
television executive * Eleni Gage, author * James Gleick, author and essayist. * Kristin Gore, author, screenwriter, and daughter of

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

* Barak Goodman, Oscar-nominated documentarian *Ellen P. Goodman, Rutgers Law professor *

Adam Grant Adam M. Grant (born August 13, 1981) is an American popular science author, and professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania specializing in organizational psychology. Early life and education Grant was born in the township ...

, organizational psychologist and

Wharton Wharton may refer to: Academic institutions * Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania * Wharton County Junior College * Paul R. Wharton High School * Wharton Center for Performing Arts, at Michigan State University Places * Wharton, Ch ...

professor * Frank Huddle, Jr., former U.S. ambassador to

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

* Pico Iyer, travel writer, essayist, and novelist *

Kent M. Keith Kent M. Keith (born in 1949 in Brooklyn) is an American writer and leader in higher education. Raised in Nebraska, California, Virginia, Rhode Island and Hawaii, where he graduated from secondary school, Keith entered Harvard College to study gov ...

, author and academic *

, New York politician *

Andrew Laming Andrew Charles Laming (born 30 September 1966) is a former Australian politician who was a member of the House of Representatives representing the Division of Bowman, Queensland, for the Liberal National Party of Queensland from 2004 to 2022. H ...

, Australia politician *

Eric Lesser Eric Philip Lesser (born February 27, 1985) is an American lawyer and politician who served in the Massachusetts State Senate. Before representing his hometown of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and neighboring communities in the Greater-Springfield ...

, Massachusetts politician *

Justin Levitt Justin Levitt is an American constitutional law scholar and professor at Loyola Law School. In September 2015, he left Loyola Law School to become the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Divisio ...

, American constitutional law professor *

Jane Lindholm Jane Lindholm is the host for the Vermont Public Radio (VPR) newsmagazine '' Vermont Edition'', producer and host of ''But Why: A Podcast For Curious Kids'', and a photojournalist. She lives in Monkton, Vermont. Lindholm attended the Brooks Sch ...

, National Public Radio host * Annie Lowrey, journalist
Nathan Lump
travel writer *

Ghen Maynard Ghen Maynard is a television producer and Senior Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming, at CBS Studios. Maynard played a key role in the introduction of European reality shows to the American television market. Early career In 1988, Ma ...

, television producer and executive *

Emily Naphtal Emily Naphtal (born April 20, 1989, in Skokie, Illinois, Skokie, Illinois, United States) is an American lawyer and figure skater who competed internationally for Mexico. She was the 2006 Mexican national silver medalist and multiple time Junior W ...

, competitive figure skater *

Celeste Ng Celeste Ng ( ) (born July 30, 1980) is an American writer and novelist. She has released many short stories that have been published in a variety of literary journals. Ng's first novel, '' Everything I Never Told You'', released on June 26, 20 ...

, author *

Joanna O'Leary Joanna is a feminine given name deriving from from he, יוֹחָנָה, translit=Yôḥānāh, lit=God is gracious. Variants in English include Joan, Joann, Joanne, and Johanna. Other forms of the name in English are Jan, Jane, Janet, Janice ...

, food writer and literary historian * Julie Cotler Pottinger, romance author *

Jeffrey Rosen Jeffrey Rosen may refer to: * Jeffrey Rosen (legal academic) (born 1964), U.S. academic and commentator on legal affairs * Jeffrey Rosen (businessman), American billionaire businessman * Jeffrey A. Rosen (born 1958), U.S. lawyer who served as Depu ...

, author and legal commentator *

Claire Saffitz Claire Saffitz (born 1986) is an American food writer, chef, and YouTube personality. Until mid-2020, she was a contributing editor at ''Bon Appétit'' magazine and starred in several series on the ''Bon Appétit'' YouTube channel, including '' ...

, food writer *

Peter Sagal Peter Daniel Sagal (born January 31, 1965) is an American humorist, writer, and host of the National Public Radio game show '' Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!'' and the PBS special ''Constitution USA with Peter Sagal''. __TOC__ Early life, fami ...

, radio host and writer * Elizabeth Scarlett, author and professor, University at Buffalo * Ashley Shuyler, founder of AfricAid *

Martin Sixsmith Martin Sixsmith (born 24 September 1954) is a British author and radio/television presenter, primarily working for the BBC. He has also worked as an adviser to the Labour government and to the BBC television comedy series ''The Thick of It''. Si ...

, author and TV/radio presenter * Kaitlin Solimine, writer
Alex Speier
sportswriter for the

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

Adam Stein Adam Stein is an American film director and screenwriter working in Los Angeles, California. Stein graduated from Harvard University and the directing program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He co-directed the Disney live-action movie ''Ki ...

, screenwriter and director *

Thomas G. Stemberg Thomas George Stemberg (January 18, 1949 – October 23, 2015) was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He was a pioneer of the office supplies superstore industry, most notably for founding office supply retail chain Staples ...

, businessman and venture capitalist, co-founder of

Staples Inc. Staples Inc. is an American retail company headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, that offers products and services designed to support working and learning. The company opened its first store in Brighton, Massachusetts on May 1, 1986. By ...

* Nicholas Stoller, screenwriter and director * Andrew Tobias, columnist, author, and DNC treasurer * Lisa Tolliver, media personality and academic-practitioner *

Graeme C.A. Wood Graeme Charles Arthur Wood (born August 21, 1979 in Polk County, Minnesota) is an American staff writer for ''The Atlantic''. Prior to that he was a contributing editor there and has written for ''The New Yorker'', ''The American Scholar'', ''The ...

, journalist and contributing editor at ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

In popular culture

There have been references (in a non-review/article context) to Let's Go in:

Films

* ''

Bridget Jones's Diary ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Sharon Maguire and written by Richard Curtis, Andrew Davies (writer), Andrew Davies, and Helen Fielding. A co-production of the United Kingdom, United States and France, it is ...

'' (2001) * '' What a Girl Wants'' (2003) * ''

'' (2015)

Music

* ''Let's Go'' (Rancid album), 1994 album

Print

*''

Either/Or ''Either/Or'' (Danish: ''Enten – Eller'') is the first published work of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Appearing in two volumes in 1843 under the pseudonymous editorship of ''Victor Eremita'' (Latin for "victorious hermit"), it o ...

(2022), novel'' *''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' * ''MAD'', magazine * ''

The Marriage Plot ''The Marriage Plot'' is a 2011 novel by the American writer, Jeffrey Eugenides. The novel grew out of a manuscript that Eugenides began after the publication of his sophomore Pulitizer Prize-winning novel, ''Middlesex.'' Eugenides has stated tha ...

'' (2011), novel * '' The Onion''

Television

* ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...

'' * ''

Gilmore Girls ''Gilmore Girls'' is an American comedy-drama television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore) and Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore). The show debuted on October 5, 2000, on The WB and became a flagshi ...

'' * ''

How I Met Your Mother ''How I Met Your Mother'' (often abbreviated as ''HIMYM'') is an American sitcom, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays for CBS. The series, which aired from September 19, 2005 to March 31, 2014, follows the main character, Ted Mosby, and his ...

'' * ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...

'' * ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December 18, 2014, for 1,447 episodes. The show focuse ...

'' * ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...

'' * ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'' * '' Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?''

References

{{reflist

External links

LetsGo.com
– Official site Book series introduced in 1960 Harvard University publications Travel guide books