Why travel? Most people travel to experience something new — to see new places and meet new people. But travel is often shallow — you see the upper surface of a place but don’t get more than a glimpse of what lies beneath — the true culture of a place.

In Immersion Travel USA, Sheryl Kayne challenges the idea of shallow travel, and encourages and equips readers to have meaningful, active vacations all across the United States. It’s an inspirational book, designed to get people thinking about alternatives to the traditional sight-seeing holiday, and it’s also a guide — full of practical information and contact details.

At 430 pages, it’s a little heavy to carry about, and as a guide it’s not the kind of book you’d read cover-to-cover. But it’s easy to dip into if you’re looking for travel inspiration or a short description of someone’s time at one of the many excursion options. The four main sections — help, learn, care, and play — cover a variety of possible experiences, and the writing style is fresh and clear.

Unfortunately, the formatting of the book is less-than-ideal, with a large typeface and unjustified text somewhat taking away from the content of the book. I would have found
the book easier to read and navigate if it was thinner and more tightly styled, with programs occupying one page or perhaps a double-page spread, rather than running on into each other and being broken up by stories, photos and pullquotes.

That said, the stories, photos and quotes, as well as the snippets of information scattered throughout the book, help to provide a well-rounded description of destinations when paired with Sheryl’s explanation paragraph.

Immersion Travel USA is a good place to start if you want to be inspired to see more, and experience more, of the United States. I just hope the format is improved in the next edition!

Immersion Travel USA: The Best & Most Meaningful Volunteering, Living, and Learning Excursionsis published by Countryman, this edition 2008. It was supplied for review and is available to buy from Amazon.com.

This article was written by Linda Martin

Linda Martin is a self-confessed word geek, Spanish addict and world traveller. She and Craig have been travelling full-time for five years, taking in parts of Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. She's currently back home in New Zealand for the Southern Hemisphere summer, preparing for the next trip -- to Spain.