Travel Goals

1. Climb to Everest Base Camp.
2. Climb Mt Kilimanjaro.
3. Learn to Scuba Dive.
4. Visit every continent.
5. See the Galapagos Islands.
6. Sail down the Amazon River.
7. Climb Ayer's Rock.
8. Ride the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
9. Go into space.
10. Throw tomatoes at La Tomintina.
11. See the sunrise from Mt. Fuji.
12. Figure out the Buddhist messages at Borobudor.
13. Visit the Pyramids
14. Safari in East Africa for 3 months.
15. Go to the World Cup!
16. See Machu Picchu.
17. Join the Century Club.
18. Visit Antartica.
19. Do development work in the 3rd world.
20. See Petra Jordan.
21. Backpack the Eastern Block.
22. See the Northern Lights.
23. Vegas Baby! Vegas!
24. Greek Island hop.
25. Cycle Tuscany.
26. Visit India.
27. Lounge forever in the Seychelles.
28. See Morocco.
29. Oktoberfest!
30. Caravan across the Sahara.
31. Visit Tibet.
32. Fly first class.
33. Go to Israel.
34. Carnival!!!!
35. Mardi Gras!
36. Go to the Cannes Film Festival.
37. Go to the Sundance Film Festival.
38. Eat a sushi meal at NOBU
39. Pacific Island hop.
40. Spend a night in the Ice Hotel in Sweden.
41. See Glacier National Park before.

A few months ago, it was reported that Thomas Kohnstamm made up stories he wrote for Lonely Planet saying he never went to the country he was supposed to review. The story received wide press coverage and brought up the credibility of guidebooks and travel writers. In reality, he was assigned to write about the culture and history of Columbia not review destinations. All the reviews and local information were done by people who actually live in the country.

There was a lot of talk that this might bring down the guidebook industry. I don’t buy that. People will still buy guidebooks. Lonely planet’s sales might fall in the short term but overall, they’ll be ok. For your average person, a guidebook is still the easiest way to get information. But, it begs the bigger question, are guidebooks worth buying? Should we trust them like we always have?

Yes and No.

I buy guidebooks because they make good guides. They provided useful information about a country’s history and environment as well as major attractions, practical transport information, and maps. When I get into new areas, I flip open my guidebook to read up and take a look at the maps or check up the train schedule.
I hardly ever use guidebooks for accommodation or restaurant information. I use recommendations from other travelers or just try my luck and hope it works out. Guidebooks are good to have as a back up but that’s it. They shouldn’t be used as bibles. The problem is that many people do use them as bibles.

But guidebooks have two main faults:

• The information can be dated. By the time the author gets the reviews together, the publisher edits them, and the book gets printed, the information is at least a year old. That’s not very helpful since a lot can happen quicklyr, especially in rapidly developing areas of the world like Asia and Central America. As a traveler, you need up to the minute information and no matter how fast they turn out those guidebooks, they just can’t keep up that quickly.
• They can be vague. There are guidebooks that cover all of America, Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the pacific islands- any region you can think of. With such a vast area of coverage, it’s hard to get the depth of information you need. Not all the cities and towns will be on it nor all the attractions, modes of transport, and the selection for food and stay will be very limited. You can only put so much information into those little paragraphs. You won’t be able to get the depth of information you need if you pick up an area guidebook.

Alternatives to guidebooks

There are many good alternatives to guidebooks that are available to other travelers.

• Online Message Boards- Online travel communities like Matador Trips, Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree, Eurotrip, and Boot’s N All are good alternatives to guidebooks. You can post messages and get responses from other travelers. Their information will be much more update and will be much more in depth. Active members and regular postings ensure that people correct misinformation. You’ll be able to get a general consensus. You might even meet a travel partner or two.
• Travel Blogs- Get it straight from the horse’s mouth! Other travelers are a great resource for information. You can view their photos, ask questions, interact with their community, and read stories from their past trips. Some good travel blogs are Almost Fearless, Blissful Travel, Travel Rants, and Collazo Projects.
• Travel Magazines- Sites like Vagabondish, Jaunted, World Hum, and Matador post regular articles on a variety of topics and are updated daily. Information never gets dated on them.
• Citysearch/Yelp!- Online city and restaurant guides can help you find out the best things to see and do in a town. These sites are contributed to by the locals. You can find out what’s hot in town, what events are playing, and good activities from the locals that will know the area best.
• Hostel booking sites- Sites like Hostelworld, Hostelbookers, Hostelz will have a much more accurate, up to date, and in depth guide to hostels around the world. Hostels are also rated by a number of metrics so you can find out what’s good right now not last year.
• Travelers- Travelers are the BEST resource you can have. They are right on the road with you. They’ll give you the most accurate information because they’re just coming from where you are going. Wherever you go, always ask as much as you can from other travelers. One traveler is worth a million guidebooks.

If you haven’t been to a country before and are looking to get some practical information, then a guidebook is worth buying. But remember their limitations - they are not bibles. Use them for the basics but use alternative sources to find out what’s hot right now, where to stay, and what time that train actually gets here.

4 Responses to “Are Guidebooks Worth It?”

1. Quickroute on April 23rd, 2008 6:20 pm

   Agred - A website or printouts from a pc will never be a substitute for a book on the road

2. Govinda Ale on June 17th, 2008 5:20 am

   Guidebooks make trekkers blind!

   Only dull folks use guidebooks and miss out what’s happening around them. Guidebooks are full of errors. Things are changing faster everywhere than guidebooks are printed or updated. Certainly this is a living fact in remoter areas like trekking paths in the Himalayas.

3. Dr Bosque on June 30th, 2008 10:29 pm

   Since living in a scenic part of Mexico, I’ve heard that Lonely Planet requires that a certain percentage of recommendations be made with each new edition - regardless of how goo the ones being removed are.

4. Dr Bosque on June 30th, 2008 10:31 pm

   Yikes, I didn’t read that very carefully - meant to say that a certain number are required to be CHANGED with each edition.

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