Hi FT,

First post here.

I am currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina and came down here with 3 guide books; frommers, fodors, and LP.

In general I was pretty disappointed with them and a lot of the information was outdated. Once I arrived i found a great expat community who suggested an online guide, babible.com - it is free for students and they have an iphone mobile version which is handy. The guide is interesting and worth it since it is free.

The internet has a ton of information, but online guides that can be updated regularly by someone from the specific country is invaluable. Sometimes too much information on the 'nets makes it hard to decide what to do/see/eat.

Quality control in Argentina is a huge issue, thus some "hot" spots quickly become places to skip. Having the flexibility of constantly receiving updates is nice.

Time Out in BA is also a good go to source.


TWG_1

Actually, to amend (and slightly retract) what I said before, my Bradt guide for Tanzania was excellent. There was a section on wildlife and what to see on safari that was very informative. So there is a place for guidebooks in my world.

For cities, though, I'm still of the opinion that better resources can be found online or in free magazines and maps available in most hotels.

I've been around the world, since I turned 18 I've been going by myself too. As a solo traveler in a totally foreign land I rely on a few resources to see me through...

Wikipedia. Learn the history, culture, customs and interesting facts about the country. Must know where people come from to understand where they are now

Wikitravel. Great resource for activities, directions to popular landmarks and general information about any destination

TripAdvisor. The forums are invaluable, get the answer to the most specific questions pretty quickly and accurately. Great information on hotels, restaurants and things to do also. English speakers who live in the area can fill you in on things you would never find otherwise

Language. I rarely go anywhere without being able to hold a basic conversation. I highly recommend it, asking somebody in a bar what they like to do is a great way of experiencing the local scene

I don't recommend guide books to anybody, if you are organised there is much better and up to date information available on the web. You just have to pick out the bits that sound interesting to you. Some people prefer the convenience of having the book with them but I put everything in my iPhone or iPad. Recently in Shanghai I met some of my friends from London. I'd been there before but they had not, and the recommendations in their LP guide were absolutely diabolical. It made an obscure mural in an old bank sound like the greatest attraction on the Bund. I confiscated this tome and took them around instead, we had a great time

I mix and match. I use a combination of guide books, wikitravel, wikipedia, frommers.com, flyertalk (we do have tons of good info here too!), and whatever else I can google up.

For dead trees, I like Time Out. No specific reasons as to why, just had good luck with them. But the bulk of my exploration and planning is done online.

Hi,

I do a mixture of both.

Pre travel planning on the internet but I take a guidebook with me . I generally do not look at the hotel sections as I have prebooked but I like the larger scale city maps and descriptions in the Guidebooks ( I like the rough guides and the Eyewitness guides by DK). Whilst the information/prices may be a litlle out of date the maps and sight descriptions will be generally good for a few years.

I do not take a laptop or iphone or ipad with me.

Regards

TBS

I find the best guidebook varies by author, brand and age. So for one destination it might be LP, another Rough Guide, another In Your Pocket. Hotels and dining are normally researched in depth in advance by Internet and then backed up on the ground.