Bizarrely Beautiful Travel Guides

Two guys. One RV. Twelve seriously cool travel guides.

I met vagabond "Monk" Jim Crotty through craigslist.com when he put out a call for high school debate judges. I'd made the understandable mistake of confusing him for a debate coach/teacher when, in fact, he's a traveler, new media designer and modern-day pamphleteer. (Read the whole collaborative history on their website and mourn your own sadly immobile lifestyle.)

A personal favorite of his many creations with fellow Monk Michael Lane are the witty, spot-on Monk List travel guides, which are available online, free of charge for all who wish to peruse them. I'd go all effusive on you, but The Monks are pretty effective at doing that for themselves:

"The Monk List represents an egalitarian zeitgeist that stretches far beyond any remotely similar destination guide. We are not servicing a demographic or an income bracket, but, rather, a psychographic, a sensibility. The Monk traveler is well-rounded, culturally courageous, with a keen eye for the esoteric as well as the perennial.

"The Monk List isn't for lightweights. It's for true travelers, not tourists. Which means, unlike the conventional 'Best Of's' offered by newspapers, weeklies and magazines, The Monk List doesn't deliver cheery consumerist drivel designed to get you to impulsively spend money. The Monk List is about community, culture, and consciousness, not crass commercialism. It's about the full gamut of travel — from dark passages to enlightened oases, roadside Americana to toxic tourism, the bizarre to the stunningly beautiful."

Monk Lists. Don't leave the RV without 'em.