I don't even understand this topic.
If you don't want to travel per Steves' recommendationsv, don't. If you do, go for it.
It's like saying I hate Cook's Illustrated, because you don't cook.

I use Seat 61 a lot but agree that for non "rail fans", you do have to be cautious with his enthusiasm for some options at times. I am a fairly big rail fan myself, coming from a railroad family, but my wife isn't. So I have to take that into account when I want to try a train service that seems interesting to a geek like me, but Mrs 84fiero might not enjoy! :eek: And even I will sometimes choose the more efficient air option anyway, depending on the situation.

As for Steves, his affable manner is great for presenting and narrating. When I was growing up, before the internet, the main sources of travel ideas/inspirations were my grandparents' stories and slide shows (actual photographic slides - not PowerPoint :p) from their trips and Rick Steves' shows on PBS. So I have a soft spot for him. I still occasionally borrow one of his books from the library when I just need to get past the traveler's equivalent of writer's block - and I've enjoyed downloading a few of his podcasts for certain sites. I don't tend to find his books very practical for the actual nitty-gritty of planning and logistics for me, personally. Though it's tough for a printed book to keep up with what's online nowadays.

I'm not really political in general anymore, so I do tune out when I've seen Steves get sort of "politically preachy" in more recent spots.

Just visited Seat 61 for the first time. Holy cats...that's a rabbit hole I could get lost in for hours just reading about the various great train journeys.

I agree about LP - they used to be the go-to guidebooks throughout my 20s for information (not so much hotels/dining). But really in the last decade they are exactly as you describe.

The strangest European guidebooks were the "Let's Go" series, which was written by Harvard students. I think they still publish one title, but most have been discontinued. Imagine a guidebook written by young, very inexperienced travellers. What could go wrong? Lots, which I guess is why the brand disappeared. Getting advice from amateurs is usually not very useful.

I've read lots of guidebooks over the years, and my favorites are the Hawaii Revealed books. They can be a bit controversial at times -- including stuff the locals don't want to have included -- but, jeez, there's some useful and very updated information about Hawaii travel in those books. I wish every destination had a guidebook that good.

I loved Lonely Planet when I was backpacking but I think it occupies an odd middle ground now; most of the accommodation it mentions are well beyond a backpacker's means.

I wish I could remember which "Let's Go" book I picked up once at the library some time back. I do recall that it was really...goofy is the word that comes to mind!

Definitely agree about the Hawaii Revealed series - highly useful and among my favorite series of guidebooks (have used the books for Maui, Big Island, and Oahu).

I still have a Let's Go!, I picked up in a used bookstore. Europe 1970 edition. They're actually not too bad, just listings of youth hostels, cheap hotels, and eateries with the kind of tourism tips that 20 year olds backpacking for the summer would be interested in. Very much of it's time.<br />You want the real deal for hippie expats in the 60's 70's check out the hard to find "Vagabonding through Europe and North Africa" by Ed Buryn. That one had specific information about things like where to find work picking grapes, how to buy a car in Dam Square (no paperwork required, just buy it and drive off), buying baggage insurance at the Italian border and how that could be useful, where to go in Istanbul before starting on the "hippie trail" to India. That book is an awesome peek at a kind of travel that's no longer possible.