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Travel Advice -
Buying the right guidebook for you
Guidebooks help the traveler solve three fundamental problems. First, a good
guidebook acts as a travel advisor, helping to categorize the attractions
and point out the unique aspects of the travel destination. Second, the
guidebook serves to help you understand the "cultural, social, and
historical"
environments in which your vacation will take place. Finally, most
guidebooks provide recommendations on lodging and restaurants.
A good guidebook is one that will serve as a guide
during your vacation. You will find yourself reading it at night to
prepare for the next day's touring. You will use it to get a
bird's-eye view of each destination and plan out your itinerary. So,
examine guidebooks to make sure they contain the information of interest to
you, presented in a manner that is easily found, informative, and concise.
Travelers differ in
their perspective on travel and so do the authors or editorial teams who
create guidebooks. In the following article, we present information on how
to choose and use a guidebook to your best benefit.
Guide Basics
In order to buy the right guidebook for you, become
familiar with the editorial viewpoints of the guidebooks publishers. Some guides are written with the
purpose of providing clues to "budget travel"; others provide the
"insiders view", “adventure travel”, or a number of diverse
perspectives. Try to find
a guide series that is a good match for what you like to do and how you
want to focus your attention during your vacation. The only way you
can do that is to take some time and examine the guidebooks available for
your destination.
Why are prices so different?
Publishing books that contain illustrations, color photography,
and detailed maps on quality paper is a high cost business.
Publishing books without photos or illustrations allows publishers to use lower quality
paper, which decreases production costs. Many low price guidebooks skimp on
photographs and detailed, illustrations.
Which one for you?
So how do you choose? Well, vacations are important, so do a little
research.
- Head to the library or bookstore and look over the crop at your
leisure.
- Take the time to read some of the text and see if what is offered
meets your needs.
- If you like to take walking tours, does the guide
provide maps, suggest walks, and provide detailed descriptions of the
route and attractions along the way?
- If your persuasion is the arts, does
the guide provide detailed coverage of noted galleries and museums?
- You
know what is important to you, so look for a guidebook whose authors share
your values.
- Most stores or online booksellers do not offer
the entire range of products that guide publishers provide. You
may want to visit the publisher's website to see if they offer a
guidebook focused on
the area you hope to explore.
- Another source of information is to ask
knowledgeable, store personnel to make a
recommendation.
- Although book superstores offer great prices, it is hard to
find personnel familiar with the advantages and disadvantages of
various guidebooks.
- Travel stores that sell guidebooks, generally, have a
knowledgeable sales staff
and carry the most popular guides.
- Another good source of how satisfied
guidebook users are with the product can be found by reading reviews of
the various guidebooks that are contributed by fellow travelers and published at
Amazon
and Barnes
and Noble
Important Guidebook features
If the trip you are planning will be your first one
to the destination, you should choose
a guidebook that has photos, drawings, and detailed area maps, as these will help
preview the destination for you. We think having detailed maps of city
centers or tourist areas is a must, as these help you plan your itinerary
and walks around the city.
Recommended guidebook publishers
- Insight Guides offers well written, lavishly illustrated, encyclopedic,
guidebooks that cover every tourist destination conceivable in a
particular country.
- As a general rule of thumb, we find that guides
that are published by the Insight Guides or the
Automobile Association of the United Kingdom" (for
guidebooks of the UK or Europe) are generally excellent choices for the
first time traveler.
- Both guides are aimed at independent travelers and
combine practical information, points of view, great illustrations, and
detailed maps into concise, yet comprehensive publications.
- One ideal
feature of the Automobile Association guides is that most include detailed
walking tours in major tourist cities. The AA guides are often co-published
outside of the United Kingdom by other major travel publishers.
- Fodor’s
has published many of the AA guides in the Fodor’s "Exploring" series.
- Dorling Kindersley’s Eyewitness
Guides are richly
illustrated with detailed artwork indicating the important aspects of site
architecture and serve as a good primer for understanding the importance
of major attractions before you visit. The DK Guides are more expensive
than other guidebooks due to their lavish use of illustrations and high
quality paper and binding.
- Rick Steves
(published by John Muir Publications) has attained a cult-like status
due to his successful PBS show; his line of travel guidebooks is
extremely popular with members of the “Boomer” market and those who
aspire to traveling inexpensively.
- The Steves’ guides are focused on
presenting ways that you can “…experience culture like a local”.
The books feature few photographs or illustrations but include numerous
maps that provided detailed paths to many of the attractions he
features.
- Rough
Guides forgoes illustrations and, instead, provides detailed information
about destinations and budget travel. Rough Guides cover many
out-of-the-way destinations and appeal to backpackers and other
footloose travelers.
- Lonely Planet, generally, produces
exhaustive, detailed guidebooks of high quality. The editorial
viewpoint of Lonely Planet appears to be heavily weighted
to favoring those locations offering quality nightlife, entertainment and
alternative lifestyles.
- Lonely Planet has an excellent website used to
support its products.
- If you are a seasoned traveler and headed to Europe or the UK, you may find the
Michelin Tourist Guides (recognized by the green cover), good travel companions.
- The "green guides" read as if you were in the presence of a
knowledgeable
tour guide, who is able to intertwining history and detailed information about the
attractions covered.
- The Green Guides provide detailed descriptions
of attractions but a lack much of the supporting material offered by
other publishers.
- Fodor's Guides
are widely available and provide a no-nonsense, comprehensive approach
to the countries they cover (and they cover more than most).
Fodor's appears aimed at a mature audience and those with a comfortable
travel budget.
- Frommer's Guides
are one of the mainstays of the travel world: recently, the the line has
been undergoing a facelift to make the product appeal to younger users.
- Frommer's provides an excellent Internet site supporting its published
guides.
Many guidebooks are repackaged publications that were originally prepared by another
publisher. If
you are interested in determining the owner of the material included in
the guide, look at the page containing the copyright information.
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