This read like a first draft at best, and a series of notes collated together at worst. Picked it up because I loved Anthony Bourdain's previous books, but this book isn't his at all as it's something he planned to work on sometime in the future, and then passed away before this broad idea could be revised and refined.
Very disappointing - most of the vignettes were about cab fares from the airport! In a world of Uber and other rideshare options, is this even relevant? Also, this book was released during the pandemic, with information dating pre-pandemic - how much of it is really still valid today?
Not at all what was advertised or sold via the blurb

World Travel by Anthony Bourdain: The most common reason to not like a book – in many ways, the only one – is that it didn’t meet your expectations. In this case, the expectation that went unmet was who wrote the book. It says Anthony Bourdain on the cover. That’s why I asked for it on Netgalley. What I quickly discovered is that it was actually by a guy named Laurie Woolever, and it’s mostly about places Bourdain visited rather than Bourdain talking about places he visited. That’s a very different kettle of fish and unless I’m actually visiting those places, one without use to me. Very disappointing.

In 2018, Anthony Bourdain’s long time assistant Laurie Woolever sat down with him to chat about a new project – a book that will document all of his favourite places across the world, written, in fact narrated, in Bourdain's characteristic style, curating all of his favourite places to eat, drink and explore.

Anthony Bourdain never lived to complete the project and after much deliberation Laurie decided to go ahead and publish the book just as it is, with personal essays from some of Bourdain’s favourite people on their precious memories of Tony.

And I am so grateful that World Travel saw the light of the day.

My thoughts

This book made me hungry at all odd hours and more importantly made me crave traveling in this age of pandemic when traveling is a pleasure rarely found. Most importantly though, the book made me realise just how much Anthony Bourdain is missed.

I especially loved Christopher Bourdain's memoir about their time in Paris as kids when he was 7 and Anthony was 10.

Personally, I kind of skipped the 'How to Get there' and 'Where to stay' parts and went straight for Tony's thoughts on each place. That and the memoirs.

Final Thoughts:

A true tribute to Anthony Bourdains’ legacy. Read it if you're a fan of Bourdain, especially if you loved No Reservations and Parts Unknown. However, read it also if you've never seen any of his shows, as it'll help you seen the world from Tony's unique perspective - I am a storyteller. I go places, I come back. I tell you how the places made me feel.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the advanced reader's copy.

Like a lot of people, I binge watched all seasons of Parts Unknown during the lockdown last year. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, it was a great way of travelling the world from the comfort of your own home. So I was very excited to be accepted to read this new book, World Travel by Anthony Bourdain, written after his death by his long-time "lieutenant" and close friend Laurie Woolever.

World Travel is part travel guidebook, part memoir and part world history, filled to the brim with recommendations of places to visit; where to stay, what to do and what to eat whilst you're there. Bourdain had the idea of creating a book of essays on all the places he'd visited a few months before he died, leaving Woolever with the huge task of creating this book without him - no mean feat!

The book incorporates quotes from Bourdain's various TV travel programmes, weaved in with beautiful illustrations from Wesley Allsbrook and insightful essays from family members and friends on what it was like to work and travel with him. World Travel brings together all the places he recommended visiting, but also works as a great reference guide for when we are able to travel again. I definitely recommend for Bourdain fans and those who love to travel.

I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend Anthony's Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.
This book was more like a travel guide than a structured book. I didn't know this and wouldn't have picked it. The book was prepared and assembled after his death and his quotes are definitely the highlight.
The book was too broad for me, and I fear most of these places will have closed in the years since then.

Not quite a travel guide, not quite a memoir but World Travel is totally Anthony Bourdain. You can here him talking to you as you read. His honesty, dry humour and love of food fill the pages. The essays from friends and family are like a behind the scenes glimpse.

A great book for anyone with a love of finding great food on their travels.

I was given a copy of World Travel by NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

How to write a book without its author? That’s exactly what Laurie Woolever had to do in this ‘irreverent’ travel guide. Although Anthony Bourdain had agreed to work on this book, his untimely death prevented him from actually writing it, leaving Woolever to piece it together with the use of extracts from his tv shows.

The choice in design for the book is like an attempt at transparency. Bourdain’s quotes are clearly demarcated in blue/boldface, and there is an appendix at the end that tells us exactly where they came from, which comes across as a conscious effort from Woolever’s part not to impersonate Tony.

“Does the world need this book?”, asks Woolever. Do we need yet another travel guide? Probably not. But if you’re like me, you didn’t watch Bourdain’s tv shows for travel tips. His appeal was his frankness, his eclecticism, and his unique view of the world. As a travel guide, this book has nothing new to offer, nothing that hasn’t already been shown in Bourdain’s shows, at least. Perhaps if he had lived past the conception phase of this book, this would have been a very different book. Perhaps: a mix of possibility and wishful thinking.

The best parts of this book are the commissioned essays, written by either people who knew Tony or who encountered him during the production of his shows. They offer a glimpse of the behind the cameras and of the manufactured-reality-for-tv-ness that even Tony could not escape from.

You don’t need this book. But if you admired Tony’s work, you might want to have it. It is admittedly not the most comprehensive world guide one could have, but it is beautifully illustrated and it does offer some of Bourdain’s unique worldview — even if you seen it before.

Devastated by the loss of Tony Bourdain and his unique voice and passion for food! This was such a delight to read. Love his raw humour, the rock'n'roll, the easy charm.

This is not written by Anthony Bourdain but by his assistant Laurie Woolever. It mainly consists of Anthony's quotes about particular places and information about restaurants, hotels he visited in that place joined together by information on how to get there. Occassionally there are short essays from Bourdain's family, friends and collaborators.

Is this the book for me? Well no it is not. I do not read travel guides. Why did I choose to read it, well because I love Bourdain's shows and wanted some more of that. I only got a bit because I got a chock full of quotes from him which are as usual very good but I had hoped for more. I sort of imagined a sort of world view from him. I think my sadness at his loss and my wish for more misled me in this case.

An ARC gently provided by author/publishers via Netgalley.

This is first book I have read by this author. The only way to travel over the last twelve months has been through books, TV and film. This joyous and honest recollection of towns and cities around the world through the medium of restaurants is wonderful. The relaxed but informative style of writing is refreshing. It felt as if I was sitting down with a good friend and discussing where to eat when planning a trip. I am just sorry that I found the author after he had passed away as I would of used his advice for my own travels.
Not linked to one stlye of food or culture which is part of the joy.

Anthony Bourdain was on the most well travelled people on the planet. His easy going personality gave him the chance to really get into the country he was visiting. He simply comes across as a really nice man. His book - World Travel - shines with his descriptions and insights. I love his style of writing, gentle yet informative. I have enjoyed very much reading this - a lovely book to muse at bedtime!

World Travel is a book, as the author would admit, that was written without the reflected and considered input of the co-author, Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain and Laurie Woolever would only have one meeting on the book, with the material within being sourced from transcripts and Woolever’s re-viewing of Bourdain’s wildly successful ‘Parts Unknown’.

The book is a cross between a travel guide and a brief culinary summation of that particular country. In today’s climate one wonders how many of the wonderful establishments described by Bourdain will still be operating when life gets back to normal.

Each chapter consists of a few pages on how best to reach the heart of the city from the airport and then a list of recommended restaurants / eateries. As long as one goes into this book knowing that it is more of a recommendation guide rather than travel guide, one will be pleased. Definitely a must for Bourdain fans to add places to the wish list when normal service resumes.

I’ve long been a fan of Anthony Bourdain: ten years ago or more I read, and loved, Kitchen Confidential and A Cook’s Tour and ever since I’ve voraciously chased down episodes of his television shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown. In these shows he travels the world, meets people, explores the area and eats and drinks his way through just about anything can think of. I was so obsessed with these programmes that I even tracked down a food shack he visited in one of his episodes. After watching it on a flight from the UK to Australia I tracked down Harry’s Café de Wheels, in Sydney, which is known for its meat pies and mash – and I have to say the food really was very good!

Like so many people, I was devastated when AB took his own life in 2018. What a tragic loss. And I was surprised when I spotted this book, due for release in April 2021 – is it a book that had been written before his death and was just now being released? Unfortunately not, in fact it’s something that grew out of the recording of a one hour meeting between Bourdain and his assistant, a few months before he died. The net result is, I think, something of a mishmash. In close to five hundred pages we are treated to brief overviews of quite a few of the places Bourdain visited, with each section comprising a collection of quotes from the man himself, details of restaurants he visited (address, average cost of a meal etc.) and some travel information such as where the airports are situated and how much it might cost you to get from there into the nearest centre.

To be fair, the lines from Bourdain are often priceless, reminding me just what a clever and amusing writer and raconteur he was. But why mix it up with the sort of information you’d get from a travel guide or online? In addition, in the e-copy I read the text was broken up by a series of drawings - what a missed opportunity, I’d happily have dispensed with the travel information and swapped the drawings for some photographs. In this format the book just didn’t work for me. So where is the audience for it? I suppose the best fit might be fans of the man who decide they want to track down some of the places featured in his shows, or perhaps just have a record of these places accompanied by some of Bourdain's memorable lines.

A beautifully designed book which will appeal to huge Bourdain fans but I am not quite sure whether it is of practical use to the traveller, mainly because restaurants and hostelries close (and with a pandemic in progress, this is even more likely) so any book which lists them will soon date.

It is tastefully edited with contributions from Bourdain's brother, Christopher, and some of the people who he worked with across various shows and the text is punctuated by Bourdain's own writing and commentary (taken from his shows and books). Laurie Woolever has done a good job on what must have been an extremely difficult task considering the structure of the book had to change after Bourdain's sudden death.

The idea of a new book from the late Anthony Bourdain was exciting. I followed his TV series where he visited places all over the world and loved his down to earth approach to wherever the landed.

This is a curious book. It came out of an idea he had before he died, to write essays on places he'd visited. The co-author Laurie Woolever introduces Anthony's comments and adds her own about a particular city or country. There are even mentions of recommended restaurants to eat at - but of course these may have been visited some while ago. .

If you'd like to dip in and read Anthony's take on a particular location from Argentina to the United States, you'll enjoy this. But to plan World Travel? This doesn't quite work.

An excellent book weaving together Tony's own words and a number of his friends, family members, and colleagues own collected thoughts and memories.

This would be absolutely ideal for fans of Parts Unknown and anyone looking to plan how to get around and find a good place to eat in an unfamiliar country.

This is a quite complete travel guide (although self admittingly not through or accurate in terms of specific transportation and cost estimates) shaped around the life and travels of Anthony Bourdain. Mostly written by his co-author, it is a compilation of the various places he travelled to with his TV show No Reservations.