a fish’s guide to… guides
Everyone has their own method of trip planning. If you’re my mom, you start eight months in advance, starting with the Internet, then advancing to the aisles at Barnes and Noble, selectively gathering phrase books and travel guides. If you’re my friend Neil, you just show up somewhere, say, Czechoslovakia, and hope for the best. And if you’re me, you fall somewhere in the middle. You buy the travel guide and the phrase book, but you wait until you’re hovering over the middle of the Atlantic to crack the spine. Which is why, the best guides, in my… uh, book, are the ones that give you all the crucial stuff before the evening meal service. Here are some of my favorites:
Let’s Go is tailored for the not-so-big budget. Some of the hostels I stayed in didn’t make their radar, but the cheap eats they recommended were some of the best eatin’ I had in Italy. And when I found myself in wandering around Milan, craving something more familiar, I just followed the map right to the American Bookstore. Do be mindful of the little numbers next to restaurant blurbs - it’s easy to get caught up in the drool-worthy food descriptions and forget all about your budget.
It’s because of my mother’s diligent trip planning that I got turned on to MapEasy. Leave your guidebook in the hostel and take one of these maps along and you’ll miss nothing. From shopping to food to historic sites, it’s all mapped out. The sites are user-submitted (MapEasy does not take money to advertise restaurants or shops), so you’re not going to be disappointed when the hype does not match the reality. From refreshing out of the way vegetarian cafes in Barcelona to the must-have dining experience in Florence, these maps almost always led to treasure.
Anyone have a travel guide they swear by? I’d love to hear about it.
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Matt Hanson
I was just given the “Let’s Go” guide to Ireland last week and it’s definitely been helpful just from a few glances through. Like no tipping bartenders! Who knew? Plus, you can find some pretty funny nuggets within the useful information. My favorite has been that if you want to flip someone off, use two fingers instead of one, but have your palm facing inwards, because if it faces outwards, “then you are giving the peace sign, you damned hippie.”
Rick Steves is like the easy-beach-read-romance-novel of travel guides. He’s so entertaining, covers most of Europe, and is great at finding things off the well-worn path. While he has several guides for specific countries or regions, my favorite has always been “Europe Through the Back Door” (and no, he’s not gay). Also check out his web-site, ricksteves.com. He updates most of his books yearly, or every-other-year, and is big on forming relationships with the vendors he finds. Enjoy!
I like to use both the Let’s Go books and the Lonely Planet books. I love the Let’s Go books for finding places to eat. I’ve been a fan of Let’s Go since my first trip to Europe.
The Lonely Planet books have been great for finding rooms. LP has rooms by prices and types so you can find anything from a hostel to a really posh hotel. I once splurged (a little) on a guest house that LP recommended in Ireland. To this day it is one of the nicest places I’ve stayed; never would have found it on my own.
Both guides give you good suggestions for things to do. My bookshelf is full of my well used guide books.
The Eye Witness Guides by DK Publishing are great. The have excellent maps and photos. I use them to plan what to see and to get around but not for food & lodging (too expensive). The reason these guides are at the top of my list is that the photographs with the commentary help ensure that I see the sights I really want to see. With Lets Go I used to end up trekking out to something based on the written description and decide once I got there that I wasted my time.
I love the Lonely Planet books. I second Linda; they have fantastic hotel sections. I also really enjoy the organization of the book. I can easily find what I am looking for.