First tourist guide
Who
Itinerarium Burdigalense
What
first
Where
()
When
329

Medieval Christians developed a “pilgrims’ guidebook.” The earliest such extant guide is the “itinerary from Bordeaux to Jerusalem,” (known alternatively as “Itinerarium Burdigalense”)--composed by an anonymous traveler in 330 AD. Rather than roadside motels and B&Bs, the guide described locations of hostels…and instead of gas stations, detailed information was provided for places where pilgrims could refill on water and in lieu of an oil change, they could change horses and donkeys on the long trek to the Holy Land . Although some of these early renditions included crude maps, it took nearly a thousand years for these early “tour guides” to be produced in map form sometime in the 13th Century—a welcome and familiar sight for travel weary eyes.