Whenever we decide on our next destination (or often even before we have) my first reaction is to head to the bookstore and buy a nice fat travel guide. Resist the urge!
TIP #1: HIT UP YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY
Get your hands on every guide book available on your desired location. Don't waste your time reading them all cover to cover. Ain't nobody got time for that! Skim through a few different guide books to get a feel for the one you like best: writing style, maps, layout. Truth be told (don't rat us out to the library) if the trip is not going to be that long sometimes we just take the library copy along with us and renew it a few times. You can't highlight, write or fold the corners down that way though.
Some books are better for preplanning your trip while others are ideal for getting you around day to day. The book, you also choose, depends on how you plan on using it. Some books will be better for preplanning (booking hotels and activities before you go), while others cater to being carried along with you and doing things more spontaneously when you arrive.
I also like to take out a few books on the local culture. I am mainly interested in the art so I like to read up on significant works done in the region and track them down if they are still in local museums or galleries. (Many works of Asian art, for example, on display in North America or Europe.)
THINGS TO WATCH FOR WHEN YOU DO BUY:
TIP #2 - SIZE/WIEGHT
A key feature, to pay attention to, is its mass. If you are going to be on a long trip with limited luggage space you, don't want your guide book hogging all the room. Buy one for a specific region or city if you can. Many guide books also offer PDF version that you can put on your phone or tablet. I liked this when we travelled through eight different Asian countries last spring. We didn't need a different book for each country and city.
TIP #3 - MULTIPLE COUNTRIES IN ONE
If you are crossing borders on the same continent look for a book that specializes in that. Many of them will have tips on the best ways to cross borders or suggest good stops in multiple places. We liked Lonely Planet's South East Asia on a Shoe String, which helped us navigate currency exchange and border crossing. Some of our travel companions lost over $500, when they ignored the advice we shared with them from the LP.
TIP #4 - TRAVEL YOUR WAY, ON YOUR BUDGET
Lonely Planet is aimed at a younger backpacker audience while Frodor's targets at a bigger budget and more luxury-style travel.
Our personal favourite travel guide is Lonely Planet. I would never go on a trip without one. It recommends the type of travel we enjoy most. I like a mix of the sights and off the beaten track. We also usually travel out of backpacks and on a budget.
More recently I've discovered "Top 10" is an intimidating place to first start.
TIP #5 - CURRENT
Often when you go on a trip someone you know will be excited that they were there ten years earlier. How convenient that they have saved their old travel guide all these years. Why don't you take it and save yourself thirty dollars? Travel guides can be pricey. Do not travel with a book even one edition out of date—it is entirely useless. An up to date edition is especially important in rapidly developing countries. For example, we found even some of the information in our current edition books was already out of date in India.
TIP #6 - DON'T BRING IT HOME
Some people like to keep their guide books on their shelves like little awards or pins on a map, which is a kind of a cool way to remember your trips. Some people consider books sacred and would never cut them up but for us though travelling light always takes priority over sentimentally, on this one. We cut out the sections of the guidebook that we needed for our trip to India and left behind the sections on provinces and cities we were not planning to see. As we leave a region we, leave that section of the guidebook too. I'd rather bring home something I bought there than an outdated book.
In case you can't tell from my mountain of library books we are off on another adventure again! We leave in a month to return to South Africa and on the layover home we are spending just over two weeks in Turkey.
TIP #1: HIT UP YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY
Get your hands on every guide book available on your desired location. Don't waste your time reading them all cover to cover. Ain't nobody got time for that! Skim through a few different guide books to get a feel for the one you like best: writing style, maps, layout. Truth be told (don't rat us out to the library) if the trip is not going to be that long sometimes we just take the library copy along with us and renew it a few times. You can't highlight, write or fold the corners down that way though.
Some books are better for preplanning your trip while others are ideal for getting you around day to day. The book, you also choose, depends on how you plan on using it. Some books will be better for preplanning (booking hotels and activities before you go), while others cater to being carried along with you and doing things more spontaneously when you arrive.
I also like to take out a few books on the local culture. I am mainly interested in the art so I like to read up on significant works done in the region and track them down if they are still in local museums or galleries. (Many works of Asian art, for example, on display in North America or Europe.)
TIP #2 - SIZE/WIEGHT
A key feature, to pay attention to, is its mass. If you are going to be on a long trip with limited luggage space you, don't want your guide book hogging all the room. Buy one for a specific region or city if you can. Many guide books also offer PDF version that you can put on your phone or tablet. I liked this when we travelled through eight different Asian countries last spring. We didn't need a different book for each country and city.
TIP #3 - MULTIPLE COUNTRIES IN ONE
If you are crossing borders on the same continent look for a book that specializes in that. Many of them will have tips on the best ways to cross borders or suggest good stops in multiple places. We liked Lonely Planet's South East Asia on a Shoe String, which helped us navigate currency exchange and border crossing. Some of our travel companions lost over $500, when they ignored the advice we shared with them from the LP.
TIP #4 - TRAVEL YOUR WAY, ON YOUR BUDGET
Lonely Planet is aimed at a younger backpacker audience while Frodor's targets at a bigger budget and more luxury-style travel.
Our personal favourite travel guide is Lonely Planet. I would never go on a trip without one. It recommends the type of travel we enjoy most. I like a mix of the sights and off the beaten track. We also usually travel out of backpacks and on a budget.
More recently I've discovered "Top 10" is an intimidating place to first start.
TIP #5 - CURRENT
Often when you go on a trip someone you know will be excited that they were there ten years earlier. How convenient that they have saved their old travel guide all these years. Why don't you take it and save yourself thirty dollars? Travel guides can be pricey. Do not travel with a book even one edition out of date—it is entirely useless. An up to date edition is especially important in rapidly developing countries. For example, we found even some of the information in our current edition books was already out of date in India.
TIP #6 - DON'T BRING IT HOME
Some people like to keep their guide books on their shelves like little awards or pins on a map, which is a kind of a cool way to remember your trips. Some people consider books sacred and would never cut them up but for us though travelling light always takes priority over sentimentally, on this one. We cut out the sections of the guidebook that we needed for our trip to India and left behind the sections on provinces and cities we were not planning to see. As we leave a region we, leave that section of the guidebook too. I'd rather bring home something I bought there than an outdated book.
In case you can't tell from my mountain of library books we are off on another adventure again! We leave in a month to return to South Africa and on the layover home we are spending just over two weeks in Turkey.
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