Comparing Guidebooks
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By Rick Steves
Guidebooks are $25 tools for $4,000 experiences. Many otherwise smart people base the trip of a lifetime on a borrowed copy of a three-year-old guidebook. The money they save in the bookstore is wasted the first day of their trip, searching for hotels and restaurants long since closed. As a writer of guidebooks, I am a big believer in their worth. When I visit somewhere as a rank beginner — a place like Belize or Sri Lanka — I equip myself with a good, up-to-date guidebook and expect to travel smart. I travel like an old pro, not because I'm a super traveler, but because I have reliable information and I use it. I'm a connoisseur of guidebooks. My trip is my child. I love her. And I give her the best tutors money can buy.
Too many people are penny-wise and pound-foolish when it comes to information. I see them every year, stranded on street corners in Paris, hemorrhaging money. It's cascading off of them in €100 notes. These vacations are disasters. Tourists with no information run out of money, fly home early, and hate the French. With a good guidebook, you can come into Paris for your first time, go anywhere in town for less than $2 on the subway, enjoy a memorable bistro lunch for $20, and pay $150 for a double room in a friendly hotel (with a singing maid) on a pedestrian-only street a few blocks from the Eiffel Tower — so French that when you step outside in the morning, you feel you must have been a poodle in a previous life. All you need is a good guidebook.
Before buying a book, study it. How old is the information? The cheapest books are often the oldest — no bargain. Who wrote it? What's the author's experience? Does the book work for you — or for the tourist industry? Does it specialize in hard opinions — or superlatives? For whom is it written? Is it readable? It should have personality without chattiness and information without fluff.
Don't believe everything you read. The power of the printed word is scary. Most books are peppered with information that is flat-out wrong. Incredibly enough, even this book may have an error. Many "writers" succumb to the temptation to write guidebooks based on hearsay, travel brochures, other books, and wishful thinking. A writer met at the airport by an official from the national tourist board learns tips that are handy only for others who are met at the airport by an official from the national tourist board.
Europe is always changing, and guidebooks begin to yellow even before they're printed. It's essential to travel with the most up-to-date information in print. Most guidebooks get an update every two or three years, but a handful of titles (like many of mine) are actually updated in person each year. The rule of thumb: If the year is not printed on the cover, the guidebook is not updated annually (and you'll have to check the copyright information page — usually just inside the front or back cover — to see when it was most recently updated). When I'm choosing a guidebook for a trip, the publication date is usually the single most important factor in which one I buy.
While travel information is what keeps you afloat, too much information can sink the ship. I buy several guidebooks for each country I visit, rip them up, and staple the pertinent chapters together into my own personalized hybrid guidebook. To rip a book neatly, bend it over to break the spine, score it with a utility knife, and pull chapters out with the gummy edge intact — or just butcher and staple. Bring only the applicable pages. There's no point in carrying 120 pages of information on Scandinavia to dinner in Barcelona. When I finish seeing a country, I give my stapled-together chapter on that area to another traveler or leave it in my last hotel's lounge.
You can buy guidebooks at any major bookstore. But most large cities have at least one good bookstore that specializes in travel, with knowledgeable salespeople and a great selection. Ask around or search the Internet to find one near you.
Types of Guidebooks
There are as many types of guidebooks as there are types of travelers. Here are a few general guidelines to help you sort through the options.
Guidebooks differ in how they cover destinations. You'll find guides that specialize in cities, regions within a single country (such as Tuscany or the Loire Valley), individual countries, combinations of two or three neighboring countries (like Spain and Portugal), and sweeping multi-country regions (like Eastern Europe). Shop for guidebooks strategically. For example, if you're visiting only Venice and Florence, it can make sense to take two slim, in-depth city guides rather than lugging a hefty all-Italy book that covers far more (and with far less depth) than you need.
Here are a few of the types of guidebooks you'll encounter:
Traditional Guidebooks: This is the industry standard — mostly text, with black-and-white maps for key destinations, generally a few glossy pages of color photos and maps, and sometimes black-and-white photos or illustrations throughout. My guidebooks — and most of those listed under "Guidebook Series," below — follow this model.
Visual Guides: These guides feature high-tech, visually super layouts with appealing color photos and illustrations (like cutaway cross-sections of important castles and churches). Visual learners and those who enjoy pretty pictures love this format. But the written information is scant and lacks depth, as it's mostly presented in blurbs short enough to squeeze between the pictures. I don't travel with these (they're printed on glossy paper, so they weigh a ton) — but if I ever need to locate, say, a Caravaggio painting in a church, I seek out a tourist with a copy and ask for a quick peek. Eyewitness (published by DK) and Knopf offer gorgeous guides covering London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Prague, Budapest, Athens, Budapest, Vienna, Barcelona, Madrid, Dublin, and more, plus several regions and countries ($20–30 each, widely available in Europe). Knopf, the more highbrow of the two, tends to be slimmer, with a more sophisticated layout and more insightful commentary.
Combination Map-Guidebooks: These thin guidebooks on individual cities focus on maps, often including a full-size, fold-out map of the destination. Publishers include Moon Metro, Knopf MapGuides, and Fodor's Citypacks. While they can be useful, I find these gimmicky and forgettable.
"Lite" Guidebooks: These slim, pocket-sized books combine full-color maps and images with sightseeing information that's been distilled for maximum portability. Often these are a condensed version of a major series (such as my Rick Steves' Snapshot series, Eyewitness Top 10 or Lonely Planet Best Of). Some are basically in-depth maps with some added guidebook-type content (such as Moon Metro or Knopf MapGuides).
Specialty Books: If you have a focus, there's a book written just for you — whether you're traveling with toddlers, pets, or grandparents. There are books for vegetarians, galloping gluttons, wine snobs, hedonists, cranky teens, nudists, pilgrims, bird-watchers, gay people, music lovers, potheads, campers, hikers, bikers, and motorcyclists. Some are for the rich and sophisticated; others are for the cheap and earthy. Visit a good travel bookstore and solicit the staff's help.
Digital Guidebooks : With the proliferation of iPhones, BlackBerrys, other smartphones, and wireless reading devices such as the Kindle and Sony Reader, technology developers and publishers are searching for the perfect way to sell guidebooks digitally. The technology is not refined yet, and results so far are mixed (e-books can be difficult to flip through to find info, and the maps can be nearly illegible). That said, digital books are here to stay. Many guidebooks, including most of my city guidebooks, are already available as e-books for both the Kindle and the Sony Reader. (Note that you currently can't download titles directly to your reader in Europe — you need to buy and download before you go.) Meanwhile, Apple's iPhone App Store is finding creative new uses for travel resources, such as interactive guidebooks (including selections from mine) and "talking phrase books." E-books allow you to really pack light, and eventually they’ll offer other advantages impossible for traditional paper books — including being able to customize a book to cover precisely the destinations you want, and linking maps to GPS technology so you’ll never get lost. But until the perfect digital solution arrives, the most practical guidebook format remains the one you’re holding in your hands.
Guidebook Series
Since most travelers prefer to take a traditional guidebook to Europe, that's what I'll focus on. Each of these series has its own area of specialization. Let's Go is the hosteler's bible, but you'll be disappointed if you try to use it to find fancy restaurants. If you're into fine cuisine, Michelin Red Guides can't be beat. History nuts seek out Cadogan, Blue Guides, and Rough Guides. Some guidebooks (like mine) are more opinionated and selective, choosing only the most worthwhile destinations in each country and really covering them in depth. These work perfectly for a quick trip to hit the highlights, but leave gaps if you're spending a couple of months in a single country — in which case, you should probably take along more than one guidebook anyway.
Here are some of my favorite series:
Lonely Planet: The worldwide standard for a solid guidebook, Lonely Planet guides cover most countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. They offer bricklike editions covering large swathes of Europe (such as Western Europe and Mediterranean Europe), as well as books on individual countries, regions, and cities. The Lonely Planet guides offer no-nonsense facts, low- and mid-budget listings, and helpful on-the-ground travel tips. These guides' biggest strength is that they're as comprehensive as it gets — ideal for spending a long time in one country. Lonely Planet books are widely available in English editions throughout Europe. However, they are not updated annually; before you buy, check the publication date and find out when the new edition is due out.
Rough Guides: This fast-growing British series includes books covering just about every country in Europe, as well as a fat all-Europe edition and several regional and city guides. These books are written by Europeans who understand the contemporary and social scene better than American writers. While the Rough Guides' hotel listings can be skimpy and uninspired, the historical and sightseeing information tends to offer greater depth than their close competitor, Lonely Planet. Like Lonely Planet, Rough Guides are not updated annually — check the copyright date. When deciding between the two series, many travelers simply pick the one that was published more recently.
Let's Go: Designed for young train travelers on tight budgets, Let's Go books are written and updated by Harvard students — making them refreshingly youthful and opinionated. As other formerly "budget" series are focusing more and more on mid-range travel (such as my books, Lonely Planet, and Rough Guides), Let's Go has retained its super-low-budget approach and is the best resource for shoestring travelers (in many cities, they list only hostels and cheap hotels). With a hip student focus, Let's Go offers the best coverage on hosteling and the alternative nightlife scene. The series' biggest drawback is that nearly every young North American traveler uses it, and the flood of backpacker business it generates can overwhelm a formerly cozy village, hotel, or restaurant and give it a whopping Daytona Beach hangover. Titles include the huge Let's Go Europe, as well as individual books on most countries and a few cities in Europe. Most Let's Go guides to Europe are updated about every two years.
Frommer's Guides: Arthur Frommer's books are full of reliable and handy listings of hotels, restaurants, and sightseeing tips originally compiled by the father of independent budget travel himself. The guides cover individual countries, regions, and cities, giving good advice on which sights are essential when time is short. They're especially well-attuned to the needs of older travelers, but some readers may feel like they're being handled with unnecessary kid gloves. Though he's best known for the frugal-travel classic Europe on 5 Dollars a Day, Frommer's "Dollar-a-Day" guides are gradually being replaced by his daughter Pauline's budget series. The Pauline Frommer guides are part of a publishing behemoth that is generally good for the most important big cities but light on everything else — skipping some of my favorite places in Europe. Other series belonging to the Frommer's empire include the "Irreverent," "Unofficial," and "For Dummies" guides.
Michelin Green Guides: These famous, tall, green books are sort of a hybrid of traditional guidebooks and the newer visual breed: Printed on glossy paper and packed with full-color maps and photos, they offer more written content than most visual guides (such as Eyewitness or Knopf). A French publisher, Michelin has English editions covering several regions of France and most countries of Europe. (The English editions are often available in Europe — especially in France — for lower prices than in the United States.) French-speakers will find more editions available. Each book includes small but encyclopedic chapters on history, lifestyles, art, culture, customs, and economy. Recent editions also contain information on hotels and restaurants. These practical books are a tour guide's best friend. All over Europe, tour leaders are wowing their busloads by reading from their Green Guides. ("And these are fields of sugar beets. Three-quarters of Austria's beet production lies along the banks of the Danube, which flows through 12 countries, draining an area the size of Sudan.") A wonderful and unique feature of the Green Guides is their handy maps, in which the prominence of a listed place is determined by its importance to the traveler, rather than its population. This means that a cute, visit-worthy village (such as Rothenburg, Germany) appears bolder than a big, dull city (like Dortmund). These books are filled with fine city maps and are designed for drivers... ideally on Michelin tires. The Michelin Red Guides are the hotel and restaurant connoisseur's bibles. But I don't travel with a coat and tie, and my taste buds weren't designed to appreciate $100 meals.
Blue Guides: The Blue Guides (which have nothing to do with European brothels) take a dry and scholarly approach to the countries of Europe, and have begun to include more maps and color photos. They're ideal if you want to learn as much about history, art, architecture, and culture as you possibly can. With the Blue Guide to Greece, I had all the information I needed about any sight and never needed to hire a guide. Scholarly types actually find a faint but endearing personality hiding between the sheets of their Blue Guides. There are Blue Guides covering many of Europe's countries, cities, and regions. The Blue Guides publisher, Somerset, also produces two other series: the visually oriented Visible Cities, and the art/shop/eat series, which covers...well, you know.
Cadogan Guides: Cadogan (rhymes with "toboggan") guides are readable and thought-provoking, giving the curious traveler a cultural insight into many regions. They're similar to Blue Guides, but more accessible to the typical traveler. The series includes country, city, and regional guides for destinations throughout Europe, as well as the "Flying Visits" series for quick trips, the "Take the Kids" series for parents, and the "Pick Your Brains About..." series for kids, filled with fun facts, puzzles, and cartoons. They're good pre-trip reading. If you're traveling alone and want to understand tomorrow's sightseeing, Cadogan gives you something productive to do in bed.
Time Out: This popular monthly entertainment guide, which originated in London, has parlayed its wealth of information about the scene in that grand city into a fine series of guidebooks. Time Out Guides now have editions — readily available in Europe — covering nearly 40 European cities and regions from Amsterdam to Zagreb. They cover sights, current events, entertainment, eating, and sleeping with an insider's savvy. Written with the British market in mind, they have a hard-hitting, youthful edge and assume readers are looking for the trendy scene. Their "Shortlist" series is pocket-sized and suitable for quick city jaunts.
Access Guides: These creatively crafted guides offer sightseeing information on London, Paris, Rome, and Florence/Venice. They're organized by a city's neighborhoods, with text color-coded for sights, hotels, and restaurants.
Updated for 2009. For lots more tips, check out our best-selling Europe Through the Back Door travel skills guidebook.