Philosophy

The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.
-William Faulker

Begin with a theme

ApproachGuides are organized around cultural themes associated with key travel destinations throughout the world, with a focus on UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  This unique, theme-based orientation serves as an efficient means of organizing travelers’ thoughts and provoking greater understanding.

Appreciate the context

  • It’s a framework. ApproachGuides do not aim to provide an exhaustive review of particular cultural site. Rather, the focus is on giving the traveler a framework for processing what he is seeing and appreciating its defining elements.
  • Key elements that characterize a particular style. For each site, our guides tell you what to look for, what is important, and why it is important.

  • Cross-geographical exchange. Rarely (never) do things exist in a vacuum; accordingly, ApproachGuides connect specific cultural sites to similar sites in geographies throughout the world.
  • Connect the dots. ApproachGuides highlight why sites are important by looking at both how they impacted the development of an overall style and how they reflect the culture of their time.  This “dot connecting” allows travelers to make new connections of their own.

Made by travelers for travelers

  • Designed to be used in conjunction with conventional travel guidebooks. ApproachGuides are entirely complementary to conventional travel guidebooks, in that they provide nothing in the way of logistical information, hotel or restaurant listings, discussion of non-theme linked sites, etc.
  • Bullet point format. A bullet point format is employed throughout to promote quick understanding, ease of reference & accessibility.
  • Every site discussed has been personally visited by the authors.
  • Because they are delivered as electronic documents, ApproachGuides are ideal for travel and on-the-go-referencing:
    • they can be duplicated (never lost) and stored on your hard-drive.
    • they are optimized for easy accessibility on your mobile device (Blackberry, iPhone).
    • the document can be printed to serve as an easily referenced, small form-factor reference guide when you are on location.
  • The Adobe Reader is optimized to provide quick searches of the ApproachGuides documents.