| Access |
Good
guides for major cities. Helpful for self-guided walking tours. Organized
by street and block, so you know what restaurants and stores are near
the tourist sights. Good details on major sights and museums. Accommodations
and restaurants are not intended for budget travellers. |
| Baedeker's |
Good
for sights, including finding little known points of interest. No information
on hotels or restaurants. |
| Blue
Guides |
Good
for those who want detailed information on museums and on historical and
archaeological sights. Sometimes considered dry reading. |
| Bradt |
Not
often mentioned; has been recommended for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. |
| Cadogan |
Very
good for historical and cultural perspectives. Well written and opinionated. |
| Greats
Eats/Great Sleeps |
Not
always cheap (by some people's standards), but good values, which explains
the name change. Detailed and accurate. |
| Dorling
Kindersley (DK) Eyewitness |
Beautiful books. Good for figuring out what sights to see and also useful
as a souvenir, but has rather little actual information. Includes neighbourhood
maps and museum floor plans. Not the book for hotel recommendations. Heavy
to travel with. |
| Fodor's |
General purpose, mainstream guidebook with information on sights, restaurants
and hotels. Too upscale for some; certainly not for budget travellers.
Some strong praise for the restaurant recommendations. The feature "If
you have one day...", "If you have three days...", etc.,
is useful for travel planning. Not strong on historical background. |
| Frommer's |
All-around
guidebook with information on major sights, restaurants, hotels. Some
have been quite pleased with the hotel and restaurant recommendations.
Not strong on historical background. |
| Gault
Millau |
Covers
hotels and restaurants in France. nicely written, and can be useful as
a check to confirm restaurant recommendations listed in Michelin. |
|
Insight Guides |
Good
for getting the flavour of a place. |
| Karen
Brown |
For
those willing to spend more money. Some say they've found memorable lodgings
through these books; others say they've found the descriptions misleading. |
| Knopf |
Similar
to DK Eyewitness both are beautiful, very visually focused books. Knopf
has somewhat better background information. For reasonably affluent travellers.
|
| Let's
Go |
Student
written guides for budget travellers. Considerable information on budget
accommodation, restaurants, and public transport -- as well as things
like laundromats. Good background information on history and culture,
although not extensive. |
| Lonely
Planet |
Notable
for amount of information crammed into one book. Strong on the practical
stuff: accommodation, restaurants, public transport, laundromats, bookstores
with English language books. Lots of maps, but some find them too sketchy.
Lacking in historical information. The colourful writing that marked this
series is a thing of the past. Covers a range of prices; used to be focused
on the budget traveller, but have moved somewhat upscale over time. |
| Lonely
planet subwwway |
List of some
of the best travel sites in the world |
| Michelin
Green |
Detailed
information on sites, with a star rating system (3 stars: worth a journey;
2 stars: worth a detour; 1 star: interesting) that many find useful in
planning a trip. |
| Michelin
Red |
Hotel
and restaurant recommendations. Some find them too upscale. Others point
to the non-starred but "good food at moderate prices" listings
as a way of balancing price and quality. |
| Rick
Steves |
People
are very passionate about Rick Steves: they tend to really like him or
really dislike him. These are not comprehensive guidebooks for the countries
covered, but focus on Rick's perception of the highlights. Very opinionated.
Seem largely intended to help inexperienced travellers, beyond their student
years, who would like to try independent travel |
| Rough
Guides |
These
guides usually get good marks for general background and historical and
cultural perspective. A number of people note that they use them to decide
where to go, but don't use them for hotel or restaurant recommendations |
|
Time Out |
Well-regarded
guides to specific cities, with useful information on restaurants, cafes,
and other "hang-outs". |
| Touring
Club Italiano |
The
hardcover regional red guides ("Guide rosse") cover the visual
arts and architecture nearly exhaustively, and provide historical introductions
with separate sections on the history of arts and crafts. Notable features
of local cuisine are sometimes covered in some detail, but no recommendations
for hotels or restaurants are given. |
