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Rick Steve's is good for Europe. Frommers is good for general information about locations not covered by Rick Steve's. frommers has better maps and organization than fodors. Frommers and Fodors can be out of date. Supplement them with tripadvisor reviews and Internet research.
Lonely planet is too back packy. Not a business class comfort hotels.
There are so many travel guides on the web, but according to you Who makes the best travel guides?
Are you talking just web based or guides in general. For guides in general DK has the best to pack with you on the go whilst Insight have the best all round information.
Lonely Planet is the standard. Good all-around info. Really strong Southeast Asia coverage, especially Thailand.
Let's Go for budget travel.
Rough Guides. In my humble opinion, they're the best-written. They really capture what a place is like.
Nowadays, when I look at a new guidebook I flip to read the bio/profile of the guidebook author. If they've lived in the country or region for years and did the last 10 editions, they're probably an expert.
It's best to shop around. If I'm planning to go somewhere, I'll quickly skim a few different guidebooks and pick the one I like the best. For my Japan trip, I went with Fodor's, which I hadn't used before.
We've chatted about this before. I'm a big fan of the Rough Guides for information, and the Eyewitness guides for pretty pictures. Rick Steve's guides are good to buy so you'll know how to avoid masses of other Americans holding Rick's guides.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by milepig
We've chatted about this before. I'm a big fan of the Rough Guides for information, and the Eyewitness guides for pretty pictures. Rick Steve's guides are good to buy so you'll know how to avoid masses of other Americans holding Rick's guides.
That is the best reason yet to buy a Steves guide. Actually, it may be the only good reason I've ever heard.
I always buy a LP for my destination to give me a rough lay of the land and then fill in the gaps with the interweb.
I'm a solid DK Eyewitness fan here. I want to be able to look through it and see what I might like to visit. Eyewitness is the best for this.
I really don't use them for the hotel and restaurant listings, though. I generally rely upon other sources, like TripAdvisor, for that.
I might add, however, that I also like to use Google Earth, turn on photographs, and just browse over the photographs taken by others in any particular area I am considering visiting in order to decide what towns and routes we might take, and what sights along the way. This method of browsing worked out tremendously well when we visited Languedoc-Roussillon a couple of years ago. That's how I found the town of Collioure on the French coast -- wonderful place.
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If you're going to Hawaii, the best guides are Oahu Revealed, Big Island Revealed, Maui Revealed, and The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook . Lots of detailed, insider info.
I've always used Lonely Planet. They review a range of options, from uber-cheap to very fancy.
I used Rick Steves for my month-long backpacking through Europe after college. He tells you to visit every museum and eat other peoples' leftovers from cafeteria trays as a way of saving money. Plus, I don't think his guides really have much non-touristy stuff like they used to. When I was in Spain in 2010, my Lonely Planet guide suggested a great local restaurant (Bar Restaurant Almocabar in Ronda) that was "off the tourist path". It was empty when we arrived and slowly filled up with Americans, all clutching their Rick Steves books. To be fair, the restaurant WAS outstanding.
I always mean to check out the Rough Guides but keep coming back to Lonely Planet.
