Just wondering what travel guide books yall use? I have traditionally gone with the Lonely planet, but have one old Lets Go that i like and have heard good things about them... really like the little city guides Lonely planet produces, but not sure about there whole country one's, think there format it a little repetitive and doesn't seem to be much updating between versions, plus in the whole country version, seems very many stream and not much off the beaten track unusually stuff really want to get a new USA guide, so which brand do yall recommend??
I travel quite a bit but usually rely on message boards for primary travel interests. In fact, this is a good place to get first hand info on a specific destination. That said, I would hit the local library. They will have a better selection than most book stores, and it's free.
Good Choice. You can usually find them between the 914s and 917s in the Social Sciences departments. Fodor's, and Frommers, and some others i cant think of now.
For the last 6 months, I literally lived by the Rough Guides series. It offered the best combination of cultural information plus practical. Though I haven't ever thought to use it on an american trip. LP is far too popular in my opinion, as many of the hotels & restaus they recommend are mobbed by fellow LP'ers. And their one-para descripstions of major tourist sites is...unhelpful. By comparison Rough Guide goes a lot more in-depth (though it sacrifices the amount of hotel/resto descriptions) I also don't like the LP chapter layout, where they shift arrival/transport info to the very back of each city/region description - that makes no sense to me. That said, if you don't need practical info and are looking just for cultural information, the Eyewitness guides are very good. The NYC one in particular I've though was excellent. Likewise, a lot of Americans use Fodor's for domestic vacations. Also, Footprints is great for cultural info but their practical info sections are lacking. Let's Go is crap, IMO. When I was 19 and using those I had already outgrown them.
i love lets go. ive used it for about 5 trips in mexico and one in germany and holland that i just got back from last week. as far as hotels, i have never had a bad one based off of them. some of the city maps could be a little more in depth, but that is a minor complaint.
really i find the the lonely planets to be dumbed down enough we actually already have a USA lonely planet 2002 and got the 2004 as a Xmas present, have had a quick look at it, and it is pretty much the same, so want to exchange it for another guide..... suspect it may come down to what we can find in book stores here, otherwise will order the rough guide online.....
I used Frommer's when I went to spain and portugal and it worked out great... not sure if the ameican one is nearly as good....
Lonely Planet and Rough Guide for me. But any edition more than two years out is pretty useless for accomodation. And if you're high season, then you won't get their recommendations anyways. I've looked at the LP USA and Canada and haven't really found them that useful. Trying to cover too much info, I think. They also don't seem that great for urban settings. Their regional books are much better. If you have your accomodations set....and are beyond the backpacker budget...I'd leave those guides at home, and do a net search on the cities you'll be visiting.
