Sometimes, guidebooks just don’t provide all the information a traveler needs. Information can be vague and outdated. By the time the information gets to you, it is at least a year old. Moreover, those large multi-country guides just don’t have the depth of information you need many times. I keep a guidebook with me when I travel as a reference guide so I can look up information or see a map but for the most part, I get my travel information from other places on the internet.

There are many good alternatives available out there for travelers to get up-to-date information from:

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 and maintain robust message boards. You can post messages and get responses from other travelers and experts. The most robust of these boards is Lonely Planet’s Thorntree. The information on all of these will be much more up-to-date and more specific to your needs than anything you’d find in a guidebook. Active members and regular postings ensure that people correct misinformation. You’ll be able to get a general consensus on your questions (I recently used them to figure out some of the finer points of the European Schengen Visa zone). Added bonus: each board has a meet up section so you can find a traveler partner or two if you need one!

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. There are so many travel bloggers these days that you can get information on anywhere in the world from someone who lives there or has been there recently. I usually always read some blogs about what to see, do, or expect when I’m planning a trip. You never know what travel gem or experience someone has found out that might appeal to you. Check out my travel blog links section for more.

Citysearch/Yelp! – Online city and restaurant guides can help you find 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, and what events and activities are going on from the people that know the area best. I like to use this a lot to get advice on places to eat. I find the selection in guidebooks pretty limited and food changes so much that what is good when they printed the guide book, might not be good today.

Hostel booking sites – Sites like Hostelworld, Hostelbookers, and Hostelz will have much more accurate, up-to-date, and in-depth guides to hostels around the world than guidebooks. Moreover, you can read traveler reviews of all the hostels to see how good they still are. Hostels are also rated by a number of metrics on these sites, so you can find out what’s good right now, not what was good last year. This is a much better resource for finding accommodation than a guidebook section. Hostels and quality change too quickly.

Twitter – Twitter is actually a great source for information. Not only can you use the search feature to find people talking about the place you are going, there are thousands of travel experts on the site (including me!) who you can ask questions to. Moreover, using the hashtags #travel or #tbex will usually get your question answered in a relatively short time, even if you don’t have any followers. People will see your question and help.

Travelers – Travelers are the BEST resource you 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 helpful traveler is worth a million guidebooks. Before I use any of the above resources, I turn to the other travelers in my hostel and ask them about where they have been and what it was like.

If you haven’t been to a country before and are looking to get some practical information, a guidebook is still worth buying. It will give you a good overview of where you are going. But remember the limitations of them – they are not bibles, and don’t hold all the information. Use them for a basic overview and reference while using alternative sources to find out where to stay, where to eat, where the best party is, and what’s hot right now,.