Guiding you into loving, living (and never leaving?)

The Love travel guides series tries to shift the spotlight to cities in emerging economies like India.

Have you ever wondered why for all the people who proclaim abiding love for London, Paris or Rome, there are few who say they simply love Nairobi or Kolkata or Lhasa," asks Fiona Caulfield, publisher-writer of the just-launched Love travel guide series that shifts the spotlight on to cities of the emerging world.

Caulfield says she did fall in love with Kolkata, but no thanks to mass-market guides that according to her "assume every traveller is a backpacker".

"The whole point of travelling to a city is so you can fall in love with it. And that isn't achieved by visiting the local museum," she says.

More and more value in tourism is being created by discerning, independent, wealthy travellers, she says, who choose to spend two weeks in Galapagos or Cambodia because they want an authentic experience.

Lonely Planet or Rough Guide certainly doesn't meet their needs. So Caulfield offers her list of "must knows" and "must-dos". Previously a high-profile branding consultant in the US and UK, Caulfield has, in her dramatic switch of careers (unless you look at her current job also as an exercise in branding...cities!), moved to Bangalore.

Naturally, the first in her series of Love India guides is Love Bangalore but she's concurrently working on nine others. Love Mumbai will be out later this year.

Her style of presenting is consciously intimate. "Like a letter from me to you, a friend," she says, "that implies 'Sorry I can't be with you but here's a list of things I think you should do while you're here'."

The listing is comprehensive but discerning "" singular experiences that set a destination apart. Like who is the newest young writer in town, which local NGOs are making the most difference or where you can find socially aware shopping.

Caulfield is hoping that besides visitors, locals will pick up Love guides and find new reasons to fall in love with their cities. At Rs 1,200 apiece it isn't inexpensive, but it is 100 pages worth of content. Besides, the presentation is immaculate.

The book is printed on handmade paper and thoughtfully designed in collaboration with local designers and craftsmen. The ruby red slipcover is certainly not Mysore silk by accident. Although Caulfield says content must always score over presentation, "For every entry, five others are rejected," says Caulfield of her exactness.

And if you think it all sounds too chi-chi, it isn't necessarily. Love Bangalore isn't meant to duplicate the Louis Vuitton city guides, so although target consumers are what Caulfield calls luxury vagabonds, there is plenty outside the realm of the five-star compounds.

Like where to find one of the last remaining painters of Bollywood outdoor posters, that would "look great in a SoHo loft" (a pick from Love Mumbai). "It's really not about finding the latest nightclub, anyone can do that," she says. So it's not like the pithy (and at a subscription of £350 "" very dear) Nota Bene series either, that is obviously guided by the currently hip-n-trendy

Bungalow 8, a Mumbai design store, has already committed to stocking Caulfield's entire series and is launching her maiden guide alongside a showcase of Bangalore's emerging design talent (some of whom are featured in it). It will be a great way for people to decide if they agree with her recommendations or not," laughs proprietor Maithili Ahluwalia.

It will also be a great way for Caulfield to meet locals and gather interesting tidbits for Love Mumbai and her other planned nine guides.

"The best way to get information out of people is to ask them 'If you were returning to your city after 15 years of being away, what would be the first five things you'd want to do'. Ask that to 20 interesting enough people and the book writes itself." And now she's given her secret away.