Pilgrims’ Progress

OFF THE ROAD; A MODERN-DAY WALK DOWN THE PILGRIM’S ROUTE INTO SPAIN by Jack Hitt (Simon & Schuster, $22 hardcover).

Since the 9th Century, pilgrims--Catholic and otherwise--have trod a series of roads and pathways extending from various points in France (Paris, Vezelay, Le Puy and Arles are the traditional four) to the supposed tomb of St. James the apostle in the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in the Spanish region of Galicia. In medieval times, thousands upon thousands of people made the trek each year, returning home with scallop shells pinned to their garments as proof that they’d reached the Galician coast. (The French call scallops “coquilles St. Jacques” or St. James’ shells.)

Today, though their numbers are far fewer, pilgrims still make the trip; so do writers looking for a story. Irish novelist Colm Toibin did it for the Times’ “Traveling in Style” magazine last year. And Harper’s contributing editor Jack Hitt has done it, to wonderful effect, for this book. Many of his adventures are predictable (there’s as much slogging along busy highways in the rain as strolling over mountain trails; colorful travelers of many nations are encountered along the road), but some are not. In any case, Hitt writes well, sometimes with a flair of macabre humor that seems particularly appropriate to his medieval-based subject matter. “Farther down the road,” he notes at one point, “a grassy path seems up to no good. Upon approach, a pleasant looking tree has a rotting dog, wearing death’s sinister smile, wedged into the crotch of two limbs . . . . The locals grow white asparagus . . . . In the bars they are delicious, but fields of them resemble rows of freshly filled mass graves.”

THE BEST OF HAWAII; THE BEST OF THE UNRECOGNIZED AND RECOGNIZED HAWAII, revised and updated edition, by Jocelyn K. Fujii (Crown, $16 paper); DRIVING & DISCOVERING OAHU by Richard Sullivan (Montgomery Ewing Publishers, $16.95 paper); MAUI MADE AFFORDABLE by Jody van Aalst and Tom Spaulding (The Information Machine, $16.95 paper) and THE ULTIMATE KAUAI BOOK by Andrew Doughty & Harriett Friedman (Wizard Publications, $10.95 paper).

Hawaii--what a concept. Beaches, palm trees, rum drinks, pupu (hors d’oeuvres) platters, leis and, of course, several million beachfront mega resorts . . . . Well, yes. But also lunar landscapes, cattle ranches, historical and art museums, whale-watching, sophisticated cooking, B&Bs.; There’s certainly nothing wrong with the laid-back, do-nothing aspects of Hawaii, but there’s plenty more to the islands than just lounging on the sand with a mai tai in hand. Jocelyn Fujii, a Hawaii-born travel and dining writer, does an admirable job of describing and assessing and (where necessary) demystifying the islands in this new edition of her thick Hawaii guidebook. She is particularly good on food and shopping.

“Driving and Discovering Oahu” is part road atlas, part picture book, part photographer’s guide. (The book contains 258 color photos, each keyed to an accompanying map; it also contains occasional plugs for Eastman Kodak, which partially sponsored the work.) I’d be surprised if there is a hidden byway or a corner of beach or town that Sullivan has not discovered and revealed here--even on the leeward shore of the island, which remains relatively unknown to visitors.

The title of “Maui Made Affordable” is a bit misleading. This isn’t a bargain guide to the island at all. Rather, it’s a shorthand-style guide to hotels, condominium rentals, golf courses, beaches and the like--affordable and otherwise--in chart form, with a great deal of very specific information.

Authors Andrew Doughty and Harriett Friedman cover Kauai thoroughly, with notes on hotels, restaurants, beaches, shopping, sacred Hawaiian sites and more--accompanied by color photographs and rather overenthusiastic graphics.

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