Overall, this book is itself like a solo travel adventure: educational but (mostly) not stuffy, meant to be enjoyed slowly. The tableaux illustrated in each of the four cities really come to life, in stark contrast to the sometimes cheesy or cliched advice for “living life to the fullest” and overabundance of direct quotes. It’s clear that this is the product of both lots of research and personal experience, but it’s the latter that’s really compelling and that I wish comprised an even larger part of the book.