Guidebooks are a bit like the original treasure maps. You buy them before you leave on your journey and they get you riled up and excited for a trip. When you're away they help you find provisions, shelter and safe passage — and even help you out of trouble. And when you've come back home, they're often the best souvenir from your trip.
But which one should you pick? Back in the old days guidebooks were aimed at backpackers. Now, their ranks have swollen as a number of different publishers got in on the act. Brick-sized tomes compete for shelf space with pocket-sized guides, and nowadays there are even books with compasses built into their spines.
This is a guide to the best of the best. Whether you're heading to Africa or Athens, you're backpacking or honeymooning, there's a guide that's been made for you, and your style of travel.
Best for inspiration
DK Eyewitness Travel Guides and
Insight Guides make up the best of the "pretty" guides on the market. Both are filled with glossy colour photos of landmarks and landscapes, mouth-watering food and cultural events. While there
is some background and cultural information, there's not much practical, on-the-ground content about where to stay or where to eat. These guides are strictly to get you excited about a trip and give you some general information and background — the sort of thing you tote around if you've pre-booked a packaged holiday.
Best mainstream
The mother of all guidebook companies is
Lonely Planet. Started in 1972 with the kitchen-table-produced
Across Asia on the Cheap, the guide is now a massive 500-title monster, publishing more guides to places than there are countries in the world. What they do best is what they originally did — South-East Asia and India. While they have the biggest market share and a familiar format, questions still linger about quality control of their guides and the "Lonely Planet effect" — all travellers tend to stick to the same highlighted towns and businesses.
Rough Guides is the other major mainstream guide. It started off by/for British backpackers and went big, with 350 titles today. The guides have more cultural and less logistical information than Lonely Planet, and are fairly comprehensive. Let's Go rounds out the American market. Written by "student employees" (cough, upper middle class American college students, cough) the guides focus mainly on Europe, but also reach to other parts of the globe.
Best for South America
If you're headed to South America, grab a
Footprint guide. Comprehensive and updated regularly, these guides have been published annually since 1986. Aimed at long-term travellers, it isn't one for party animals. It's published in hardcover and has super-thin pages, but has detailed colour maps. Downside: it carries some ads.
Best city guide
Frommer's Day by Day guides are the pick of the city guides. They're organised according to itinerary, and each one- or two-day route is set on an individual city map. Along with the normal listings, niche itineraries are filled with opinion-driven tips and quirks — almost as if a friend drew you a map and told you what you need to see and the best place to eat along the way. Downside: the format does overlap at times.
Best for trendy types
Luxe City Guides and
Wallpaper City Guides are designed for the luxury short-term traveller. Both have similar attributes: small, thin, discreetly packaged city-based guides written for people who have a big budget to spend on the best. Wallpaper focuses on design, architecture and style, with big glossy photos, while Luxe does high-end indulgences: food, fashion bars and clubs in a pocket-sized guide.
Best off the beaten track
Bradt Guides started out focusing on hiking and the outdoors but are one of the smarter guidebook companies, carving a niche in the market by covering obscure destinations no-one else had in places such as the Middle East and Africa, and by producing excellent wildlife guides. Downside: the guides can be quite heavy on the culture and history, and are aimed at people with chunkier travel budgets.
Best for party animals
TimeOut city guides and magazines focus on what to do once you've reached a town, with comprehensive listings for pubs, clubs, bars and live music, as well as dining and shopping. Their youth-oriented weekly and monthly magazines have great gig listings. Pick and choose from their range, though — some guides are updated more often than others.
Best electronic guides
Cool Places guides for iPad are the best on an electronic platform. Designed for Apple products and moving into phones with Android, these guides are slickly formatted and clever. They focus on small guides to regional cities, such as Oxford, Brighton, Bath, and price them appropriately at just a few dollars per application. While they are well-designed, they don't really have a great deal of meat on their bones in terms of content, and for the time being only cover the UK.
What is your preferred guidebook for your favourite destination? Enter your comments below.
