In 15 months on the road, i’ve used 1 guidebook. I use the internet and local resources for everything else.

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I used to be a guidebook addict (if you could see the shelf behind me you’d understand) but now there are very few destinations I’d bother buying a whole book for. Usually now I just look round the internet first, “chat” to a few people (either locals or people who’ve visited where I’m going) and do the same when I get there too.

Having said that, I don’t usually travel to do the traditional sightseeing routes anymore, but if you do, then a guidebook’s still pretty useful I think. But I would rarely pick, say, a restaurant out of a guidebook. Just use my nose!

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Awesome links, I had never took a real tour through those sites before now. I must say that lonely planet and the rest have a huge edge in the fact that you can get a map and a ton of information. These guides, although more updated do not have the depth of your typical guidebook.

Things like restaurants or museums by area is huge, and with helpful maps to get you there.

I think these guys have a long way to go. My last vacation type trip was in Japan, and without wifi access websites just don’t help, overall we are getting there though. What i found more interesting and useful to use BEFORE a trip is to go to a destination blog (gadling, gridskipper) and sort by city.

That is where the most updated destination related travel info is IMHO

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I believe that both the guide book and internet can be useful when traveling.

The internet is a fantasitic resource for ‘destination discovery’; user generated content (travel reviews, blogs, user photos, etc.) have all contributed to the reshaping of the travel industry–into one that is much more transparent. (gone are the days where the glossy brochure was the only info we could get on a destination of interest)

As an avid traveler myself, i do my research online and generally pick up a copy of the Eyewitness Travel Guide for the desitination I’m heading to. Generally, they provide a good historical and cultural overview–good reading for a long flight!

I do agree with Amanda, above, that while i sometimes use guidebooks as a point of reference, i do not base my adventures on them.

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I think it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Consumers often have unrealistic expectations when it comes to guidebooks being up-to-date and accurate.

Also, not everything you read on the crowd-sourced sites is true, accurate nor particularly helpful — Wikitravel is a good example in this regard, though you wouldn’t think so given the cred Google gives it. IMO as long as a site is relying on unpaid contributors, not everywhere is going to be covered … and it ain’t a guide till everywhere is!

You’ll still generally get better, more accessible background info in traditional guides, and they tend to be more useful than websites when there’s no internet access

But, and I’m certainly not unbiased in this regard, good internet guides offer additional and often excellent, extra research tools.

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After disappointing guide book experiences in Venice, New York, Paris… I just pack a Moleskine City Guide and write down what I find.

For example, the guide to Venice said a gondola ride was 65 Euros for 50 minutes. Yes, apparently that was the guideline three years before the guide was published in 2007!

I think the bottom line is to simply keep your ears and eyes open, haggle where you can, and select restaurants by how busy they are with the locals. Seems to work so much better and is a lot more exciting.

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I have loads of Lonely Planet guides and have just started getting into the Eyewitness Top 10 guides.

While I never book hotels or go to restaurants based on travel guides, they do provide a great overview of what to see and do as well as cultural and historical information on the country you are visiting.

I always read up on a destination before I go by reading information online, but also take my guide book with me as a reminder of places of interest and for info on public transport etc.

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I don’t use guidebooks much I prefer to do research on the internet and then print out the information I consider most useful to me. I like to venture, even slightly off the beaten track and there’s often a lot of in depth information about these destinations even on the internet.

I believe in following the advice of Jan Morris , “The best way to find out about a place is wander around. Wander around, alone, with all your antennae out thinking about what’s happening and what you see and what you feel”. This is much better than adhering to a guide book recommendations.

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I liked Lonely Planet’s idea of selling individual chapters – unpackaging is the only way for trad guides to go. As you say Darren, it’s crazy to blow £17 on a a full guidebook you may only need a small section of.

I like having a map and phrase book on my person, but don’t normally use guides. I tend to look online beforehand and follow my nose when I’m there, which looking at other comments seems pretty standard now.

That said, my brother bought a guidebook before a recent trip we took, and flicking it through over a beer to get some background was kind of fun. Reading print is always nicer than reading digital, and if you treat guides like brochures rather than bibles – i.e. get some ideas, enjoy the pretty pictures and read between the lines at all times – I think they can be a nice addition to your planning.

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We used to rate Lonely Planet guides but have become quite disillusioned by them over the last couple of years.

Accuracy, relevance and sometimes a feeling of doubt over whether I am actually visiting the same place are the main problems, although these guides are still useful for well-established attractions that don’t change (e.g. buildings and mountains!).

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I’m going to continue the agreement and say they are a mixed bag. I use them (mostly cause I get them for free) but i only use them for 2 things: maps and get a general idea of the place im going. For train info, hostels, food, places and pretty much everything else, i use the web and other travelers. I hate the idea of lugging around a thick book. those things are heavy!

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Neither guidebooks nor internet-based info sources can ever be a substitute for actually going and finding out for yourself, of course. But as aids to preparing for travel, both have their pros and cons.

Guidebooks may go out of date moments after they’re published – and some of them may be on the bookshop shelves for several years afterwards – but you can at least usually assume that their content has been at least fact-checked by sub editors, and that things like addresses/ phone numbers etc, are more likely to be accurate. And, in defence of Lonely Planet and RGs, they do include a disclaimer pointing out that they try to be as accurate as possible at time of publication – and they also invite reader feedback where inaccuracies have been spotted. Has David done this?

Then, of course, some guidebooks are more useful than others, depending on who’s using them. A family of sightseers might find a DK Eyewitness a great benefit, but, personally, I’d find it as useful as a chocolate space shuttle. Similarly, Hedonists’ Guides might be useful for twentysomething, well, hedonists, but Bob & Marge from Alabama aren’t going to need to know where the nearest lap-dancing clubs are.

(Actually, knowing Bob, it could go both ways…)

Online info can, by nature, be more up-to-date (although let’s not forget that some travel-related pages from 1996 are still kicking around on the web), but it generally falls into two categories:

Partisan ­– tourist websites, hotel chains, travel agents, et al
Hearsay – wikitravel, tripadvisor and other user-generated-content.

Any info supplied by the former has to be taken with a pinch of salt, as it’s inevitably biased and incomplete, and anything provided by the latter is prone to sloppiness, typos, subjectivity (restaurant preferences dictated exclusively by cyber-savvy backpacker-types), and vandalism.

So, basically, you can’t trust altogether trust anyone and the answer – as all too often – has to be ‘it depends.’

Tamara (Online Director – Mr & Mrs Smith)

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just read this today, seems relevant to the conversation, travel guides for the iPhone.

http://tinyurl.com/3hfu7w

Cool idea haven’t tried it yet though.

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I wrote a guidebook last year. I’m thinking it’s out of date already and it hasn’t gone to press yet. That’s the liability of the medium. The web isn’t guaranteed to be 100% accurate, but it’s got a better chance of being current.

I think full dependency on guidebooks is for novices. They are fantastic pre-trip reads and I enjoy the background material – history, culture, etc… but you just can’t beat asking people who are RIGHT THERE for the best places to eat, things to see, etc… I’ve also been know to – get this – stop by the tourist offices and pick up the local propaganda.

My current faves are the Rough Guides, but even then, I don’t rely on them.

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Hi Folks

I now live in Sardinia and knowing the place really well I felt it was sad that too often people arrived with no real idea about the island and therefore almost seemed to end up wherever they stumbled across some accommodation or near the airport. (this is particularly true from the UK, the Germans have been discovering the island for years and the Italians just want to be on top of the beach!).

I am also, based upon my knowledge of the case on the ground, very suspicious of some contributers to some (big) social sites that seem to be prowled by people with vested interests but no real accountability to anyone.

Cheers

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Darren no prob re the “plug” fully understood.

Not sure I would suggest contributors to social sites are being paid however they may have a “friend” who has an apartment, an activity centre or a place where they get cheap meals. (now if a person was employed to promote tourism in a particular area I can’t think of a better use of their time)
The power of these sites is just a little potentially frightening and as the saying goes power corrupts. In many ways I prefer “interpreting” directly promotional material and in that case you have a comeback. What can you do if a (most are) anonymous person on a social site gives you a recommendation?

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[...] A travelers rant about Travel guidebooks TravelRants Has the Internet rendered paper travel guide books obsolete. TravelRants is always good for…well ya’ know…RANTS [...]

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Hi Darren
If you’re going to force me off the fence, I think I have to come down on the travel writer side – not least because I employ a fair few, and I know the stringent levels of fact-checking they maintain, and I know that any recommendations are personally checked whenever possible.

Some publications may be more lax about that sort of thing, and some may not update their info as regularly as they perhaps ought, so I guess there’s a variable spectrum of info quality out there – just as there is with UGC. I don’t see, however, why there isn’t room for both in the travel industry – all travel guides rely to an extent on user feedback and corrections – isn’t an authored online travel guide that permits and publishes user-interaction the optimum model, therefore?

Tamara (Online Director – Mr & Mrs Smith)

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