What a wild week this has been, starting with my new book, Don’t Go There. It came out last Tuesday, and it started a firestorm.

Well, with the title like Don’t Go There, you know I’m going to be naming names. Don’t Go There is my essential guide to the must-miss places of the world.

That’s right, it’s about the places you want to avoid.

There are about 34 communities that are now marching against me. And we’re just getting started, simply because we’re telling the truth.

If you go out there in the blogosphere, it’s flaming with people who don’t understand what I said. On the Today show, we talked about “lamest claims to fame.” That means slogans, brochures and marketing campaigns that are either total exaggerations or just absurd.

I’ll give you one that’s absurd: Fountain, Minnesota. Someone actually thought it was a good idea to promote them as “the Sinkhole Capital of America.”

How did they illustrate this on the brochure? They did an artist depiction of two young boys riding bicycles. Hello? It’s the sinkhole capital of America. Where are these kids going to end up? Four hundred feet down?

And then there’s total hyperbole and exaggeration. Ashland, Virginia calls itself the Center of the Universe. They must have not gotten the memo—not only are they not in the center of the universe, they’re not even in the center of Virginia. There’s a rumor that there’s a group coming to New York to protest what I said on the Today show.

In these tough economic times, it’s imperative for us to have credible information to make decision in where we want to travel. And that’s what this book is about.

In Cleveland, they’re angry at me. Of course, the people angriest at me didn’t even read the book. But I had to list them because of their high crime rate. It doesn’t mean I don’t like Cleveland. It just means that if you go, it might be a good idea to stay west of the Cuyahoga River.

In North Charleston—now that’s the craziest one. We talked about their crime rate, and they’ve now called for a Today show boycott. They demanded to know how I got those figures. Well, I talked to their own police chief and the FBI supplied those figures.

Somebody in that story got mad at me and said, “I’ve lived here for 10 years and have never felt safer. We’d like to invite Mr. Greenberg to come out with us on our citizens’ patrol against drug and crime.”

Wait a second, you have a patrol against drug and crime because … you have drugs and crime. So let’s call it what it is.

I’m not telling people not to go to North Charleston; I’m saying if you’re going to go, stay away from these locations. It’s exactly what we said in Detroit, Miami, and other cities. We’re letting you know where not to go when you go and I happen to think that’s important to know.

Let’s talk about other places. Hereford, Texas has about 14,500 people living there, with about 3.5 million cows. That works out to be about 241 cows for every man, woman and child. Can you smell it?

And in western Kentucky, it’s so bad due to the concentrated animal feeding operations that the Sierra Club in Cumberland actually offers a “Tour de Stench.” Now, I’m not actually advising that you take the tour, but the fact that it’s even available, it’s showing you how bad it is. I’m not telling you not to go to western Kentucky; I’m telling you that if you’re going to go, you might want to hold your nose.

That’s just the beginning. In this book, we’ve broken it down into pollution, crime, highways of death, places that literally smell. And it’s not just domestic locations.

Let’s talk about Naples, Italy because at times there are mounds and mounds of garbage. Why? Because every three days there is a garbage strike.

So if you’re going to Naples, now you know what you’re up against (at left).

We also have something in the book about banned airlines. That’s right, it’s about airlines that are so bad in terms of their maintenance and safety that they’re not allowed to fly in the EU. If you’re going to be traveling around the world, you need to know that before you change planes, right?

The philosophy here is that I’m not a reporter for the travel industry; I report on it. That’s an essential and important distinction.

I’m not their booster, I’m not their marketing partner. I’m out there to give you, hopefully, credible information so you can make intelligent, independent, reasoned decisions about where you spend your travel dollars.

Get more from Peter’s Travel Detective Files Blog or learn more about Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio.

Peter’s going on tour to support the book, so find out where he’ll be heading.

See what Peter talked about on the Today show.

Learn all about Don’t Go There.