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A guide to the guidebooks: best travel book options for all travelers
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While traveling or studying abroad, it is a good idea to pick up a travel book about the area you will be visiting. However, if you are like me this seemingly easy task can be quite challenging. You enter your favorite book store, probably a few days before leaving on your big trip—in other words still completely clueless and unprepared—and suddenly there are 20 different guide books to choose from. Here are some travel book hints so you don’t end up like me just picking the book with the prettiest cover with very little useful content.
The travel book you want largely depends on your type of travel and your personal interests. For instance, many books are historically themed and are meant more for educational purposes than a comprehensive day to day guide. Other books highlight restaurants and clubs rather than monuments. If you are on a guided tour, I would stick to this second option. If you have someone explaining all of the sights to you it is unlikely you will use a book for historical purposes.
If you are not on a tour there are many great travel book options which highlight the area’s most impressive monuments and architecture. For example, Eyewitness Travel Guides are my favorite for history and monuments, especially in Europe. Each section highlights the history and style with its own drawing of the most important structures of the area. These can be found used on Amazon.com for around $5 used or new for around $15-$20.
If you are traveling to an area with more environmental richness than architectural, such as Costa Rica or Hawaii, I recommend National Geographic Traveler which offers stunning photographs and comprehensive scientific explanations for everything from volcanoes to sea turtles. It also contains very detailed maps and has an impressive history section. On Amazon.com these can be found for around $20 new and $10-$15 used.
For a good mix between historical content and restaurants and hotel information, Rick Steves’ is a good choice. It emphasizes the most important sights while offering a variety of economical restaurant and hotel options. I would recommend Rick Steves’ for mature travelers who are not on tours. The information is pretty straight forward and basic and is especially helpful for trip planning. These books can be found for around $15 new and $7-$10 used on Amazon.com.
All of these previously mentioned options are great for vacations. However, if you are living for an extended period of time in an area, the hotel and restaurant information is eventually lacking. Especially for students studying abroad, I highly recommend Lonely Planet as the best option for a travel book. It is the most detailed and useful for living abroad. It has historical and cultural context as well as straight-forward information on day-to-day life. It is the best option for budget travel as it has the greatest number of hostels and inexpensive restaurants. This book was indispensable on my two semesters of study abroad. Lonely Planet can be found for just about any area and runs around $17 new and $10-15 used on Amazon.com.
The only problem with Lonely Planet is its inconsistency. Each area is written by different authors who are free to express their opinions about the area. Also, Lonely Planet is considered one of the more liberal travel guides. If you are looking for a different option, another good choice for living abroad or extensive travel is Frommer’s. It is another no-frills guide, which comes especially handy for long backing trips across several countries. These can be found for around $15 new and $7-$10 used on Amazon.com.
Whatever option you decide to take for whatever motive, purchasing a travel guide is a great idea that allows you greater access to the area. The maps will no doubt come in handy at some point as will the language section many books offer. Lastly, these books are a great way to save time and money as you can more effectively plan your travels.
For more info: Visit Amazon.com's extensive travel book section.
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