Over the course of five years, Jennifer and David Raezer traveled the world, read loads of books, followed hundreds of guides, took copious notes, and shot several hard-drives’ worth of photos.  This travel marathon culminated in the creation of Approach Guides, a series of cultural travel guidebooks that take an in-depth look at the history, art, and architecture of important sites throughout the world.

Here’s our story…

Only a few weeks into our travels, we realized that seeing the sites was only part of the experience.  At site after site, we found that the guidebooks we had (and we had a lot) were insufficient.  It was not that the guidebooks did not have enough facts, but rather that they failed to give us a complete appreciation of each site’s place in history.

It was clear that we needed a new approach.  Prior to visiting each destination, we researched each site on our itinerary extensively and made notes that we could reference while on location.  These notes, combined with countless photos and our on-site observations recorded in Moleskine journals, serve as the informational foundation for what has become Approach Guides.

With this new approach, we felt that we had begun to take control of our travel destiny.

However, the key moment came a couple years into our travels, after our collection of notes, photos and journals had expanded considerably (in fact, it was beginning to take over our apartment).  Almost overnight, we realized that this collection had become more than just localized information — for the first time, we were able to draw connections across local boundaries, effectively linking cultures, empires, and civilizations; further, we found that these connections naturally aligned themselves into to a series of discrete categories or themes.  From then on, the “drawing connections” exercise was essential to our travel process.

In the end, the connections we draw are what make Approach Guides totally unique.

Each guide takes a detailed look at a destination-specific theme and reveals the connections that exist among seemingly disconnected cultural sites.  By placing your travel experiences into context, Approach Guides give them greater meaning and set you on a path to your own discoveries.

We hope that this approach will transform your travel experience as it did ours!

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Jennifer and David have also designed a new iPhone application, AG Wine, that offers a entirely new approach to choosing wine.  Rather than offer individual bottle ratings, the application provides a foundation –  with detailed information on grapes, regions, and vintages, as well as recommendations for each — to make an informed choice on any wine list.

When not traveling or devising new iPhone applications, David runs a research & advisory organization, called Cleantech Approach (cleantechapproach.com), that focuses on devising sustainable technology-enabled strategies for urban and global development organizations.  Jennifer is the Director of regional marketing for United Way (liveunited.org), one of the largest non-profit organizations in the U.S..  They live in New York City (for now…).

Celebrating the Holi festival in Gwalior, India