Travel guidebook options for your next trip

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Travel guidebook options for your next trip

Article created: Feb 4, 2008
Article by: Jeremiah Faith

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My first big trip was in 2000 when I left my home university (LSU) to study abroad for a year at Swansea University in the UK. The British university had an incredibly long spring break (a month), which was the time that all of the study abroad students picked to go around Europe. One of the recurring debates before we all scattered around Europe, was which travel book (if any) to use. We were all extreme budget travelers, so the group was really broken into three camps: no guidebook, Lonely Planet, and Rough Guide.

I was in the Lonely Planet camp, as I'd already purchased copy of Lonely Planet Western Europe while I was in the states. However, in my over one month of travels, I many times went outside the bounds of Western Europe and either used no guidebook or a Rough Guide. Below I discuss the pros and cons of different travel guidebook options.

Popular Guidebooks

The travel guidebook industry has continued its expansion from my first trip. There are numerous guidebooks available. However, the most popular amongst the budget travel guidebooks are still Lonely Planet and Rough Guide. For travelers willing to part with a little more cash while they're abroad, I think Fodors is more popular; I haven't used their guides much.

If you're going to be a lifelong traveler, and you decide you prefer traveling with a guidebook, I recommend choosing one brand and sticking with it. Each brand lays out their information in a consistent manner, so if you've already traveled using a few Lonely Planet books, it won't take any time to figure out where things are in your next Lonely Planet book.

Lonely Planet

I purchase a Lonely Planet book (if one exists for the region), on any substantial trip I take. If I'm visiting a very large city in a region that doesn't have many popular destinations (e.g. Illinois or Austria), I usually buy a city Lonely Planet guide. Otherwise, I buy the book for the country or region. For countries with a vast number of travel destinations (e.g. the US), a country guide will be a massive tomb with very little information about every destination, so if possible it's better to buy the guidebook for the individual states you plan to see.

I always try to go with Lonely Planet for my trips, because I know where things are in the book, because I'm used to their style of maps, and because I think the history and culture sections are usually pretty well written. Lonely Planet was initially aimed at the extreme budget backpack traveler. However, the books have expanded over the years to include low-budget and mid-budget food and accommodations as well. If you're looking for over-the-top luxury vacations, pick a different guide.

Rough Guides

Rouge Guides travel books are my second choice; like the Lonely Planet books they include quite a lot of information for the budget traveler.

Not using a Guidebook

There are a few situations where a guidebook is not necessary or not desired.

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