Guide Books

I’ve lost count of how many guidebooks we purchased in the past. We’ve tried digital versions but prefer having the hard copy unless we only need one or two chapters. I guess we are still old school.

Over the years, we’ve used Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, Bradts, and several specialty guides to help us plan and execute our trips.

So without further ado, here’s a list of the leading players in the Guide Book space:

Amazon Travel Guides – If you’re unsure what guide you want or need, Amazon is a good place to start, with over 60 000 to browse!!!! Take a look at the whole range of Travel Guides on Amazon. And, if you don’t want to read the rest of this page or search through 60 000 products, I’ve done the searches for you.

• • Rough Guides
  • Lonely Planet Guides
  • Bradt Travel Guides
  • Fodors Travel Guides.
  • Rick Steves Travel Guides
  • Conde Naste Travel Guides
  • Frommers Travel Guides
  • Eye Witness Travel Guides
  • Marco Polo Travel Guides – (Not on Amazon)

If you want to know more about each publisher, read on.

Rough Guides – These guys have been around since 1982. The same company publishes Rough Guides and Insight Guides. The range includes guides covering regions, countries, and languages. And they now have a podcast, run tailor-made trips, and have lots of helpful info on their website.

We are currently traveling through India with a Rough Guide. We’ve used local intel for the day-to-day logistics as things change quickly, but the book was an excellent planning tool.  It’s BIG and heavy but comprehensive.  And we have access to the digital version as part of the purchase price. We just prefer to use the hard copy.

Lonely Planet – Our favorite guidebooks in the 90’s were the Lonely Planet ‘On a Shoestring’ series. Sadly, this series is discontinued.

South East Asia on a Shoestring was our first, closely followed by The Middle East, Africa, and South America.

In pre-internet days, budget travelers often called LP ‘The Bible.’ I’m not sure that’s the case these days with the plethora of info online.

In addition to their Travel Guides, they also have Experience, City, Language Guides, and general guides like their Where to Go and When guides.

Bradt Guides – Bradts is a leading independent travel publisher. They produce a lot of niche guides with information you won’t find elsewhere. They are a good choice for travelers who are interested in less-obvious experiences and less-visited places. They also publish travelogues by some incredible writers.

We used their Madagascar guide back in 2013, and it was excellent.

We have not used any of the following guides on our travels, although I used to borrow some from the library in the early 90s when imagining our first 3-year round-the-world trip. However, they are all solid publications that have been around for decades.

Frommers – These guys published some of the earliest budget guidebooks. Europe on $5 a day came out in the 1950s. I think it was up to about $20 a day when I started to borrow them from the local library and devour their content. They are still producing excellent guides to this day.

Fodors – Fodors have been around for over 80 years and publish guides covering over 7500 destinations. We’ve never used them, but plenty of people swear by them.

Conde Naste – Publishes content in the luxury travel space. A bit out of our price range until we win the lottery. But their recommendations seem superb for those of you with cash to spare.

Rick Steves Guidebooks – Rick Steves, famous for his travel series,  also has a range of destination, pocket, and ‘best-of’ guides. The books focus mainly on European destinations. We’ve never used one, but he obviously has a lot of expertise to offer.

Eye Witness Guides –  are published by DK (Dorling Kindersley), which is part of Penguin House. These guides stand out because of the incredible graphics and maps.

Marco Polo Guides – Along with their compact guidebooks, they offer itinerary-based guides, phrasebooks, folding maps, travel handbooks, travel journals, city maps, and road atlases.

Have we missed any of your favorites? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll add them to the list.