As I’ve said before, I’m not fond of lists, but I’m occasionally persuaded by wiser colleagues that they have their place. Last Saturday we (The Daily Telegraph travel section) had “25 Great Autumn Escapes”. The Guardian had “100 brilliant autumn breaks”. Now Rough Guides has sent me a review copy of Make the Most of Your Time on Earth: 1000 Ultimate Travel Experiences. I think that’s going a bit too far.
  My Collins English Dictionary says under ultimate: “conclusive in a series or process; final…the highest or most significant… the most significant, highest or greatest thing”.
  1000 (fashionably missing a comma) Ultimate Travel Experiences suggests to me not a collection of the greatest, but an inability to conclude a series or process – to make an expert choice that might actually be useful to readers and travellers who already have difficulty making up their minds where to go and what to do.
  Rough Guides’ 608-page book is divided into regions – Britain & Ireland, Western Europe, Mexico & Central America, etc. Each regional section is followed by a “miscellany” of names, facts and folklore that includes yet more lists; the miscellany on the Iberian Peninsula, for example, has Five Beautiful Beaches and Five of the Best Books on Spain.
   The introduction says that the publisher has always sought to “push travel a bit further, inspiring our readers to get away from the established routes and seek something that little bit more special and authentic”. It may well be doing so with experience Number 693: “Mountain Biking the World’s Most Dangerous Road” (it’s in Bolivia). But what do we find at Number 011 and Number 665? “Supping Guinness in Dublin” and – surely an experience most will be anxious to avoid — “Being serenaded by mariachis in Guadalajara.”