The top-selling travel guidebook for the first half of 2015, according to Nielsen BookScan, does not offer a sweeping tour of a few dozen European capitals. It doesn’t tout the top attractions across an entire country, or even a U.S. state. It’s Birnbaum’s 2015 Walt Disney World (Disney Editions), and it sold almost 36,000 print units from January to June.

Though the book zeroes in on a single vacation resort—albeit one that spans 43 square miles—it can nevertheless be viewed as a mainstream guide, according to Stephen Mesquita, author of the “2015 Nielsen BookScan Travel Publishing Year Book.”

As an example of a title that appeals to a niche, Mesquita points to The Food Lover’s Guide to Paris by Patricia Wells (Workman). The book was originally published in 1984, and its fifth edition has sold almost 17,000 print units since its March 2014 release. That may not look like a blockbuster performance, but those numbers are strong for a niche book. Specialty travel guides, Mesquita says, do not represent a huge part of the market.

But as more travelers seek out custom-made vacations, and as websites offering tailored travel experiences proliferate (in April 2015, for example, Amazon launched the Destinations portal to promote local getaways), publishers continue to release books that cater to all kinds of niche interests.

Untapped City

For some travelers, a visit to a bustling metropolis means days spent hitting as many museums as possible, and evenings devoted to poring over fancy tasting menus at white-tablecloth restaurants. Others prioritize exploring a particular area of the city, often away from the usual tourist landmarks.

Take, for instance, New York. Once, Manhattan was the nucleus of N.Y.C. travel, but in recent years the borough of Brooklyn has flourished as a tourist destination, and its attractions are at the top of the list for many visitors.

This year sees the release of two new guides to Kings County. In September, the venerable Fodor’s is publishing its first Brooklyn guide, with illustrated neighborhood maps by local artist Claudia Pearson. A few months earlier, Off Track Planet, which was launched as a budget-travel website out of a Brooklyn hostel in 2009, released Off Track Planet’s Brooklyn Travel Guide for the Young, Sexy, and Broke (Running Press).

OTP entered print publishing with the more wide-ranging Off Track Planet’s Travel Guide for the Young, Sexy, and Broke (Running Press, 2013). A San Francisco guide will be released in October; 2016 brings Off Track Planet’s Travel Guide to ’Merica! for the Young, Sexy and Broke.

“When some people consider where to travel, they automatically think about international destinations,” says Running Press senior editor Jordana Tusman. “But what people are now realizing is that there are a lot of exciting cities to explore right in our own backyard.”

Portland, Ore., another trendy destination, may be considered a spiritual sibling to hipster Brooklyn, at least if the satirical IFC show Portlandia is to be believed. David Banis and Hunter Shobe’s Portlandness: A Cultural Atlas (Sasquatch, Nov.) highlights the Pacific Northwest city’s offbeat soul, with 150 infographic maps charting everything from what neighborhoods favor which house colors to the typical wait time at Sunday brunch staple Tasty n Alder.

Also this fall, Berkeley, Calif., indie house Roaring Forties is releasing a guide to its East Bay home. In Berkeley Walks: Revealing Rambles Through America’s Most Intriguing City (Oct.), Bob Johnson and Janet Byron, both tour guides and longtime residents, offer 18 walking tours through various neighborhoods, highlighting everything from secret pathways and hidden parks to the apartment building where Patty Hearst was kidnapped.

Other forthcoming titles take an off-center approach to international cities. In The 500 Hidden Secrets of Amsterdam (Luster, Oct.), sixth in the 500 Hidden Secrets series, local journalists Saskia Naafs and Guido van Eijck urge visitors to venture beyond the Rijksmuseum by presenting what they deem their city’s best small museums, vintage markets, concert venues, and more.

Sherlock Holmes’s London: Explore the City in the Footsteps of the Great Detective by Rose Shepherd (Ryland Peters & Small/CICO, Oct.) takes Arthur Conan Doyle fans to Baker Street and beyond.

Across the channel, Bright Lights Paris: Shop, Dine & Live... Parisian Style (Berkley, Sept.) views the French capital through the lens of fashion publicist Angie Niles, who blogs at La Vie en Rose and has more than 55,000 Pinterest followers.

Get Out

According to the “2015 Nielsen BookScan Travel Publishing Year Book,” U.S. activity guides—books on hiking, climbing, kayaking, etc.—are one of two travel subcategories that showed improvement in 2014, growing by 3.13% over 2013, according to Mesquita’s analysis (the other is road/street maps and atlases; see p. 32 for details).

Often such books originate with small regional publishers, who maintain close relationships with local authors. Portland’s Dragonfly Press has just released Connie Soper’s Exploring the Oregon Coast Trail (Dragonfly), which details 40 hikes along the nearly 400 miles from the Columbia River to the California border.

Another Portland-based press, Graphic Arts/Westwinds, is releasing Day Hikes in the Columbia River Gorge by Don J. Scarmuzzi.

For some travelers, the mode of transportation is as important as the locale. Rodale has just published The Cyclist’s Bucket List: A Celebration of 75 Quintessential Cycling Experiences by Ian Dille, a contributing writer for Bicycling magazine. The book discusses practical matters, such as bike shops and gear, amid its appreciations of dramatic routes across the globe, from the Leh-Manali Highway in the Indian Himalayas to Peru’s Inca Trail.

In January 2016, Avalon is publishing a guide focused on a single route traversing California, Oregon, and Washington State. Moon Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip is aimed at motorcyclists, RV drivers, and everyone in between, offering fundamental details such as place-to-place mileage, as well as more subjective tips, like where to find the best beaches and best views.

Seek and Find

Several forthcoming titles, not all from religion houses, focus on the spiritual side of travel. Rick Steves’ European Easter (Avalon, Feb. 2016) offers a look at Christian, secular, and pagan observances across the continent.

Sites of religious import, from the Tempel Synagogue in Kraków, Poland, to Angkor Wat in Cambodia are among the places highlighted in World Monuments: 50 Irreplaceable Sites to Discover, Explore and Champion (Rizzoli/Universe, Oct.), whose release is timed with the 50th anniversary of the World Monuments Fund. In addition to photography by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Mario Testino, and many others, the volume collects essays on topics including the effects of climate change in Venice, Italy; the pressures of development in Cairo; and the impact of urbanization in Mexico City.

Two January 2016 guidebooks from Findhorn also take a devotional view. John Brierley’s Camino Pilgrim’s Guide Sarria-Santiago-Finisterre leads readers along the last five stages, all in Spain, of the Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James). A Guide to Mystical France by Nick Inman will not—as readers should be able to glean from the title—help those in search of the perfect macaron or pair of Louboutins. Rather, it highlights the France of the Cathars, Nostradamus, King Arthur, and others.

“These kinds of books are increasingly interesting to readers because they offer more than just beautiful images and historical information,” says Findhorn publisher Thierry Boglilo. “Readers not only learn how and why these sites evolved or were created but their place in the world and their importance to those who created them.”

Alia Akkam is a freelance writer who covers food, drink, travel, and design.

Below, more on the subject of fall travel books.

The Monocle Travel Guide Series: Fall 2015 Travel

London-based ‘Monocle’ magazine, which focuses on global affairs, culture, and design, has launched a series of city guidebooks

Culinary Tourism: Fall 2015 Travel

Publishers, realizing how many travelers build their itineraries around dining and imbibing, are capitalizing on this predilection.