A guidebook is one of the most useful items you can pack, and selecting
a good one can make all the difference to a trip. Whether it is scholarly coverage of
the religious history of the local monasteries, a means of finding a quick alternative
to the dive of a hotel you were recommended before you left home, or detailed
information about trekking routes on some of the world's highest
mountains, you may well be glad of a guidebook's services on
the road.
Since this chapter was last updated, the travel guidebook market has mushroomed.
One of the main results of this expansion has been the increasing number of
specialist or niche guides. There are now guidebooks for almost every type of
holiday everywhere.
The main publishers and the main guides
Detailed here are the main guidebook publishers and their key general titles for the
independent traveller. All the guides detailed here abound with practical
information: where to stay, where to eat, what to see, how to get around and so on.
All will include background information and some coverage of history and culture.
However, this is where the similarities end. Each publisher has a different
emphasis and each guide series a different sequence of information and style.
Lonely Planet is undoubtedly one of the most well-known publishers. It began in 1973,
when Tony and Maureen Wheeler published their guide to South-East
Asia on the Cheap (based on their own experiences of travelling
across South-East Asia). Lonely Planet's reputation has been
made by its general guides to the countries and cities of the world and its
continental guides. These all offer massive amounts of detail, clear layout and
uncompromising reviews. Lonely Planet is one of the biggest guidebook publishers
and is moving towards become one of the most diverse. As well as its core titles, it
produces walking guides and phrasebooks and, in recent years, has added
restaurant guides, food guides, diving guides, map guides, healthy travel guides,
picture books, condensed guides, first-time travel guides and an acclaimed series
of travel writing titles to its list. For more details of some of these, please read on.
The first Rough Guide, to Greece, was written in 1982 by a
group of English university graduates. They saw the need for guides that, as well
as giving you practical information and candid opinions about the main sights, also
offered considered cultural and political coverage. The Rough Guides have kept to
this basic idea and refined it over the years to make their books easier to use on
the ground. They now have a superb range of guides for over 100 destinations
- whole countries and cities - each with maps,
colour photographs and excellent coverage of off-the-beaten-track sites. They
have recently introduced a series of Mini Rough Guides
as well as a series of guidebooks for first-time travellers. Rough Guides are
intended to be as easy and enjoyable to read as straightforward books.
Bradt Publishing is famous for its coverage of off-the-beaten-track destinations, and
currently produces the only guide to Spitzbergen, as well as having been among
the first to produce guides for Cuba, Zanzibar and Madagascar. Its guides take a
more personal and less formulaic approach, and the company prides itself
'on providing a greater and often more considered insight into the
history and people of a country' than other publishers in the field.
As well as its general guides, it also produces a range of specialist guides: rail
guides. walking guides, wildlife guides and a even a guide to eccentricity!
The reputation of Footprint Handbooks is largely built upon the encyclopaedic detail
of its guides to Central and South America. No town or village is left out, no matter
how obscure a place it might be. Indeed, many independent travellers to these two
areas will take no other guidebook with them. Footprint also produce very good
guides for a whole host of other destinations, and pride themselves on using
writers who are authorities on their areas. They have recently restyled their books
as sturdy paperbacks, which now include a colourful photographic introductory
section. An interesting feature of the Footprint Handbooks is that the
Continent Handbooks are published annually.
Moon Handbooks is an American publisher. Its strongest point is coverage of the
US, where it has a guidebook for each state, as well as
publishing guides to destinations in South-East Asia, particularly Indonesia and
Bali. Its Hong Kong Guide comes highly recommended
and its Tibet Pilgrimage Guide is easily the largest single
guidebook Stanfords stocks on Tibet. These guides are packed with detailed and
reliable research on all practical aspects of independent travel, and are enhanced
by line maps, drawings and comprehensive, descriptive introductions.
Fodor's is another one of the giants of guidebook publishing. Its
reputation is based on the accuracy and reliability of its Gold
Guides. Younger travellers often regard these comprehensive general
guides as stuffy. But do not dismiss them; it is often said that travel may be less of
an adventure with Fodor's, but it is also less likely to go wrong.
Many Gold Guides are updated annually and maintain a
good balance between their description of sights and their presentation of practical
information on transport, money, accommodation and restaurants. The post-2000
guidebooks include excellent introductory sections and, usually, a fold-out road
map. Fodor's is also responsible for a superb series of gay
guides, a budget travel guide range, pocket guides, luxury photographic guides for
the United States and the Karen Brown series of accommodation and travel
guides.
Frommer's is another large American guidebook publisher. The
stalwarts of its range are the Frommer's Complete
Guides, a range of comprehensive guides for travellers on all budgets.
The $ Per Day series, a range of
country and city guides that emphasise value for money, are based around a
specific daily budget. It produces many other guides, including shopping guides,
National Park guides, pocket guides and guides for people travelling with children.
These guides are often criticised for their American orientation, and the fact that
most of the more specialist titles are concerned only with US
destinations would seem to confirm this.
Cadogan Guides' books are elegantly written and emphasise
personal opinion. As a result, they usually feature lively and literate texts. The
accommodation and restaurant listings are minimal by some standards, but you
can rest assured that the author of the book has stayed in all the places he or she
recommends. The coverage of history and culture is very good and is firmly woven
into the main text. Of particular note is the Giant Caribbean
Guide.
APA publishes Insight Guides. These are highly visual and
informative guides that use photographs and magazine-style articles to explain a
destination and the everyday lives of the people who live there. The books are
divided into three parts, with an extensive introductory section, followed by regional
chapters and a list of practical information at the back. Insight Pocket
Guides and Insight Compact Guides are two
spin-off series, both providing more practical detail and both arranged around a
series of itineraries, some of which are quite innovative, such as cycle touring
around Kathmandu.
On a budget
While all of the books mentioned so far cater for independent travellers who are
seeking value for money, there are a number of guidebook series designed
specifically for travellers on a very small budget.
Let's Go
Guides are considered by many to be the kings of budget travel. They
are written and researched annually by teams of students from Harvard University
and have a formidable reputation amongst backpackers. There are many tales of
travellers tearing out sections of the enormous Let's
Go Europe once used, and passing the much-needed extracts on to
other travellers. Let's Go often bundles popular destinations
together, i.e. Spain and Portugal, India and Nepal, so you save money and packing
space by only having to buy one book.
Vacation Work is perhaps the most interesting publisher as it takes the view that
instead of scrimping and saving before you go, you can actually earn money as
you travel. Its Live and Work guides are packed with
advice and ideas on how to get temporary and permanent jobs in the country of
your choice. It also publishes a series of Travellers'
Survival Kits, which are aimed at budget travellers, and are an ideal
accompaniment to the Live and Work books or as guides
on their own.
As well as these, there are a number of budget guides from smaller publishers. These
are often very good, although you may have to go to a specialist travel bookshop
to obtain them. Some current examples would be Canadian Budget Zone, which
produces an excellent guide to Central America, and Get Lost, a DIY publisher of
two guides, one for Amsterdam and one for San Francisco.
Trekking guides
General guides will often include information on the popular walking areas of a
country and advice on where to find out more. But a specific walking guide will
provide you with maps and far more detailed directions and route options. Even if
you are not planning on doing much walking, the amount of extra detail a specific
walking guide provides makes it worth carrying in addition to your general guide.
Two publishers already mentioned, Lonely Planet and Bradt Publications, produce
some very fine specialised guides. Lonely Planet's excellent
trekking guides to Spain, Italy, Australia, the Karakorams, Greece, Alaska and the
Himalayas are just some of its current titles. Extensive sections on travelling in the
country or region and specific advice for the trekker are followed by chapters
detailing a wide variety of treks in a given area, there are day-to-day descriptions
of each trek and special trekking maps of the area. Some of the first Bradt Guides
were hiking guides and Hilary Bradt, the company's founder, has
written many of the South American guidebooks. Other areas that Bradt is strong
on include guides to the more obscure trekking destinations of South America,
Eastern Europe and Africa. Each have sketched maps, accompanied by specific
advice and route descriptions.
Cicerone, a long-established company, highly respected among walkers, has one of
the most impressive ranges of trekking guides, covering almost every walking
region in Europe as well as common trekking destinations across the world.
Trail Blazer is one of the most exciting specialist companies. It produces an excellent
range of trekking guides that provide new perspectives on some well-known
trekking areas in Europe, India and Nepal, and also publishes the first
comprehensive guide to the Inca trail. All its books include detailed maps and
plenty of background information.
Cultural and historical guides
Not everyone travels with a rucksack and not everyone travels independently. If you
want more information about the history and culture of a place and less about such
basics as where to stay and how to get about, then there are many guide series
that will provide you with just this balance of information.
The superb guides published by Odyssey cover a range of both the popular and less-
popular destinations. It is one of the few companies to produce anything for
Georgia and Uzbekistan, although this is sure to change. Its main strength is the
quality of the photographs and the writing: all contributions come from authors with
extensive local experience and extracts of work by local writers and celebrated
travel writers are always included.
Everyman Guides and
Eyewitness Guides, have a distinctive format of almost entirely of their
own - a very modern look, where text mixes delightfully with
drawings, diagrams and photographs. Everyman offers exceptionally rewarding
and intelligent coverage of history and culture, with sections on art and wildlife, too.
As well as cutaway diagrams, the books often use a range of special devices, such
as lavish fold-outs, to explain and illustrate. In addition to the main series,
Everyman also produces a City Guide series that uses
similar production values but concentrates on the practical side of a stay: where to
eat, shop and sleep. Eyewitness Guides are famous for
presentation, using cut-away diagrams and 3-D street
elevation maps to explain the area and the sights.
Pallas Guides and Companion
Guides are highly respected and scholarly series that offer
unparalleled detail and intelligent comment on the art, architecture, history and
culture of a place. Pallas Guides are few in number but
giants of quality, with excellent writing style and content. Generally considered
more readable than the Blue Guides, and with impressive
colour and black-and-white photography, they are an ideal accompaniment to your
travels and also contain many practical details, suggested walking tours and
itineraries. Companion Guides, like the Blue
Guides, are a well-respected, established series that contain lots of
historical and cultural information, practical advice and maps. They are written in
the style of a travel narrative, making them easy and enjoyable to read.
Blue Guides are justly renowned for their comprehensive
treatment of the architecture and the arts. Although they used to be seen as being
rather dry and impractical, many of the titles in the range have been revised and
rewritten. As a result, many Blue Guides provide a lively
and intelligent commentary and are far more functional then their reputation once
suggested.
Touring guides
Touring Guides are aimed mainly at the driver and are based around two formats: the
easy-reference format and itineraries, which detail the sights, a selection of places
to eat and places to stay along a prescribed route.
The Automobile Association (AA) publishes some classic
touring guides: AA Explorer Guides, AA Essential Guides
as well as the Baedeker Guides. AA Explorer Guides and
AA Essential Guides are usually arranged around a tour
of the main sights, usually by car but sometimes on foot. Baedeker
Guides, still regarded by many as the last word on the main sights of
an area, are presented as colourful photographic gazettes of the main attractions.
A distinctive feature of all these guidebooks is the inclusion of a folded road map.
Famous enough to be identified simply by colour, the Michelin Red
Guides and Michelin Green Guides are an
excellent choice of touring companion. The Red Guides are an incomparable
source of reference for the affluent hotel and restaurant connoisseur, and feature
location maps, information on facilities and prices and, of course, the famous
symbols of recommendation. They are updated annually and, once you master
their language, they are hugely informative. More substantial touring information
can be found in the series of Michelin Green Guides.
These contain introductions to the history and art of an area, followed by a detailed
alphabetical survey of places of interest. Clear and easy to use, they provide near-
comprehensive coverage of the sights, with many maps, photographs and detailed
descriptions. Both the Red and Green
Guides can be cross-referenced to each other and to a range of
excellent Michelin maps.
Fodor's also publishes the Mobil Travel
Guides, which are similar in layout to the Michelin Green
Guides, but cover the main regions of North America. The guides are
updated annually, and feature road maps and city plans, followed by selections of
above-average hotels and restaurants and suggestions of things to do and see in
each town in the region.
Literary guides
Literary guides act as an optional extra if you don't mind carrying
the extra weight. They can give a wonderfully illuminating insight into a place.
Equally they can prepare you for your plunge in culture shock before the trip, or
remind you vividly of your happy memories after the event. The best are the
In Print series, from John Murray. These cover Greece,
India, Egypt, Rome and Florence, among other places, with a delightful
compendium of extracts from writers great and unknown. Other series to look out
for are Travellers' Tales, which collect
many travellers' accounts of a destination, and
Odyssey Guides, mentioned above.
City guides
If you are going to be spending most of your time in one city or are just going for a
short break, you should consider a city guide. Even if you are planning to explore
the surrounding countryside, many of the popular excursions will be covered.
Time Out Guides are laid
out in a similar way to the magazine listings, giving them the feeling of a directory.
The reviews are detailed enough to let you make an informed choice and the
candid comments rarely fall short of the mark.
Access Guides are large, clearly laid-out
guides that tackle a city area by area. A map of the area is followed by colour-
coded listings (red for restaurants, blue for hotels, etc) making them exceptionally
easy to use on the ground.
AA City Packs are slim, pocket-sized guides that offer a
quick summary of all the main sights and activities. Maps and colour photographs
are included and the guide comes complete with a fold-out street map in a plastic
wallet, which is, incidentally, particularly useful for holding bus tickets and museum
passes.
All the main publishers also produce city guides along the same format as their
country guides. Of particular note are those from Lonely Planet and Rough Guide.
Lonely Planet's titles cover cities and offer clear and
comprehensive listings, accompanied by colour photographs and extensive
mapping sections. Rough Guide is well established as a publisher of city guides,
each of which feature excellent sections on history and detailed listings.
Women's travel
Rough Guide publishes More Women Travel, which covers
over 60 countries and offers advice for female travellers in the form of first-hand
accounts written by women. These accounts are supported by practical advice and
some addresses. It is worth noting that most of the main guidebooks now have
sections covering specific advice that women may require when travelling around a
country.
Travelling with children
There is quite an extensive range of guides for anyone wishing to travel to
US destinations, including Disneyland and Disneyworld, with
children, most notably those by Frommer's, although many of the
other companies also publish such guides. For anyone wishing to travel outside of
the US mainland, there are few guidebooks aimed
specifically at people travelling with children, although most of the major guidebook
series, such as the AA City Packs, include advice on
child-friendly sights and activities.
Gay guides
Nearly all the main guidebook series include some advice for gay travellers as well
as, to a greater or lesser extent, listings. However, a specific gay travel guide will
almost certainly be more up to date and include information about the gay scene
and the gay friendliness of many non-gay establishments that you may want to stay
in, eat in or visit, as well as the main tourist attractions.
The Spartacus Guides are the obvious ones to mention.
There is a worldwide guide in the series, as well as some for specific countries
such as Britain and Spain. These guides are generally regarded as being
comprehensive, and feature lists of the bars, clubs, cruising areas, hotels,
cafés and restaurants, all accompanied by good maps and
background information about the gay scene. Scene Gay
Guides is another series that covers such destinations as Berlin,
Thailand and New York. Each Scene Gay Guide has an
introduction to the gay scene, a section on dos and don'ts and
listings of the bars and clubs.
Fodor's produces a neat series of Gay
Guides. Apart from the US one, each guide is
pocket-sized and contains details of the gay and non-gay sights of an area as well
as an assessment of the gay friendliness of a place.
If you are travelling to San Francisco, one publication with a title to savour is
Betty and Pansy's Severe Queer Review of San
Francisco. Also, it is worth noting that a lot of the main travel guides,
the Time Out and Rough Guides
in particular, have very strong sections for gay travellers.
And finally
This survey is, inevitably, incomplete due to the fact that new guidebooks are being
published all the time. So, if possible, visit a specialist travel bookseller before you
go or even before you start to make plans and you will find inspiration, choice, and
possibly some expert advice from someone who has already done exactly what
you want to do.
