Comments on: Discover who publishes the best travel guides

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:25:12 +0000

Time Out is the best for cities, but not so great for countries or regions. Lonely Planet is extremely overrated, often inaccurate, and since they are so popular what they describe as off the beaten track soon becomes the beaten track. Sometimes, however, LP is all that’s available for some of the more exotic countries. Rough Guides seem pretty good, albeit pretentious and light on logistical details. DK, despite all their pretty pictures, are generally useless for practical matters like food, hotels, and logistics. I’ve only used a Moon Guide once, because it was all I could find for the Ukraine on short notice, but I was very impressed. I haven’t tried Rick Steve’s. I guess I should.

By: gdb

gdb — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:44:01 +0000

The Internet! I do my research online before leaving, and copy and cut and paste only the info I want into a document. I print it out and take it along, and can discard pages when I no longer need them. Why carry around so much info that you’ll never use? There is a wealth of useful info online from fellow travellers, press travel critics and official visitor offices.

By: Dick

Dick — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:44:04 +0000

I agree with Rick Steves as No. 1, but I would reverse No. 2, Lonely Planet, and No. 3, Rough Guide, chiefly because I have found on several occasions that maps provided by Lonely Planet were less than accurate.

I was disappointed that Let’s Go guides were not even listed.

By: Taylor Brooks

Taylor Brooks — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:38:41 +0000

I’ve studied them all and think the best is the AAA Spriral guides. I’ve used them for Rome, Florence and Venice and think they are the Best.

By: Lydia

Lydia — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:04:57 +0000

Yes, pretty much. Rick Steves is definitely #1! And I also use Frommers and I see that’s #4, which is just about right. I was surprized to see that Cadogan Guides didn’t make it onto your list – I’ve used those in conjunction with Rick Steves when preparing for trips to both Italy and Spain. They’re not updated every year, but they provide good background.

By: William Baxter

William Baxter — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:29:19 +0000

Lonely Planet guides are the best. They cover the planet and are reasonably accurate. i use them and swear by them !!

By: Michael Goler

Michael Goler — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:08:59 +0000

We have used the Cadogan guides all over Europe for years and have always been happy with them. Their restaurant picks are always “spot on”, as are their hotel recommendations. And their style of writing is both humoruos and enlightening, and far more detailed with respect to the history and background of a location than other books we’ve used. We have alos used DK and, from time to time, the online versions of Fodors & Frommmers, but their recommendations have not always been accurate, especially with restaurants.

We like Rick Steves (and have all his DVDs), but his recommendations tend to be more “low budget” and we like to stay in nicer hotels whenever we can. He does have a nice way, however, of letting people know about the culture and niches in a area.

But overall, for us it’s always going to be Cadogan if they have a guide for where we are going.

By: Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:33:43 +0000

The best guides are different for different destinations and for the places to be visited in each. Lonely Planet tends to have much more inclusive coverage of most countries than does Rick Steves, and the information is complementary. I would recommend using both–and at least looking at the others for a given country or city.

By: maury c

maury c — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:03:34 +0000

My vote goes to the Rough Guides. Several years ago, my wife and I spent two weeks in Romania, driving a rental car for almost 2,000 miles in a little-visited country. While we had a Romanian friend along as a translator, the Rough Guide was an almost infallible source of information, much of which our Romanian friend did not know. It provided much fascinating background about the history and politics of the nation, and did so in a very entertaining manner. The down side is that sometimes it is hard to find a particular edition at major bookstores. Give yourself time to order online.