Frequently Asked Questions

There's already a few guidebooks about Sudan out there. What's so special about yours?

We are very familiar with other guidebooks on Sudan, and we studied them at great length before deciding to write ours. We tried to use some of them when we first arrived in Sudan.

Unfortunately, we found many of these guides to be disappointingly out of date or poorly researched. The inaccuracies in some of them were very frustrating.

Had there been an exceptional guidebook out there, we may have had second thoughts about writing another one. But there wasn't - and now there is.

So are you more-or-less the same as your competitors, in terms of content?

No we are not. We believe that we have found a niche in the market for doing things in a slightly different way.

Independent travellers to Sudan can happily use our guidebook to explore the whole of the country, just as you might use the guidebook of one of our competitors.

On top of this, those that base themselves in the capital city of the country (Khartoum) will derive an additional benefit from the guide. Our guide is centred first and foremost around Khartoum. It covers this city in great detail, and discusses how to explore the rest of the country from this point.

But I don't just want to see Khartoum. I want to see the whole of Sudan. Should I still buy your book?

We believe that, yes, you should. Even though we call ourselves "The City Trail Guide to Khartoum", our researchers have travelled throughout the whole of the country and gathered material from every region that you might want to visit. Even though our reference point is Khartoum, we also consider ourselves the most detailed guidebook that you can find to the rest of Sudan.

Why do you cover Darfur, when it is not even safe to travel about in the region?

A great number of UN and aid workers that come to Sudan end up in Darfur – usually El-Geneina, El-Fasher or Nyala. We felt that it was important that the area they live was adequately covered. For others in Sudan, permission is not easy to get to go to Darfur – and it is still not advisable to travel about in the region. But those that live there have no choice, and are likely to appreciate some more information about the region, since there is not a great deal out there at the moment.

How up-to-date is your guidebook?

It's an undeniable fact that guidebooks start to go out of date from the moment that they are published.

However, we can promise you that our guidebooks are the least out-of-date when they are published, for the simple reason: we are an independent publisher with complete control over the research, writing, layout, publication and marketing of our books.

We have a small, dedicated team and our versatility means that we can easily change things at the last minute, without sacrificing quality. This is a luxury not afforded to most of our competitors.

Whilst we were writing the guidebook, things in Khartoum inevitably changed. This was immediately reflected in the text. Even when we were laying out the pages, there were some significant developments in Khartoum that we decided to include in the published product. In fact, right up until we sent the book to the printers, we were making last-minute amendments as things unfurled. You can't get more up-to-date than that.

That sounds a sure-fire way of introducing errors into the text.

On the contrary, our quality control checks are rigorous. Everything that is changed in the book, at whatever stage, is verified by no less than three people. Quality and accuracy is just as important for us as being up-to-date.

Do you have any more guidebooks in the pipeline?

Yes, we do. We have researchers presently working on two destinations that we are keen to cover, but, for competitive reasons, we can say no more. You will just have to wait and see where we will head next.

I want to write for you. Can I?

Sure. If you have a good idea, talent and writing flare, then check out our writing guidelines. As a new enterprise, we are always looking for new destinations to cover.

But are you going to rip me off if I do write for you?

No. Absolutely not. We have read with avid interest reports in the media recently, criticising some of our competitors for paying their authors so poorly. We have decided to make it a core strategy of ours to make sure that all of our authors are taken good care of. We pride ourselves on the quality of the products that we produce, and we simply can't produce good products with disgruntled authors who are not prepared to give their writing and research everything they have. Writers looking for an easy time need not apply.