I don’t know what it is. Though I use the internet pretty extensively for research, a guidebook is still my security blanket and so I always feel compelled to buy one even if I’ve researched all my destinations to death. :p

There is nothing like getting the advice/ feedback from a fellow traveller who’s been there. I’m a big fan of doing all my research up front before going on trips so that I can completely deviate off plan after talking to people once I arrive.

thaks for all the comments!

You and the folks making comments offer great ideas and I would suggest a few more considerations when it comes to guidebooks and alternatives for trip planning.

As we have differing “travel styles,” finding someone who consistently hits the mark on their suggestions is important to me. While maybe not for all your readers, Rick Steves has pointed us to places that were exactly what we were looking for. (Plus, I like his political views in Shapiro’s “A Sense of Place.”)

Also, some guidebooks seem to never find a place they didn’t like. (Gee, I wonder what the writer got for it.) We appreciated the honesty in Maui Revealed (if someplace was bad, he said so) and they offer online updates for the price of the book.

Finally, maybe not as adventures as some, when we went to Italy for the first time, we paid a few dollars to have an Italy travel planner suggest an itinerary, including places to stay. We took the suggestions we liked and then set up our own successful trip. We may have not otherwise “discovered” Cinque Terre, one of my favorite places on the planet.

Travelers, internet and locals say this is a good place, or this, or that. In a guidebook like LP you can find little maps with most hostels.

I like it when I arrive in a town, to just take the map from LP and check the suggestions, just by walking to them.

Hostels and hostel sites are all over the web. I want to great the best and biggest hostel search engine, with al contact info, hostel videos, all reviews and maps from all hostels in the world. As a start I bundled all hostels from Hostelworld, Hostelbookers and Hostelsclub.

I have also become quite a fan of wikis. Even very general ones like wikipedia will be able to tell you the really cool sites in a city as well as explain the history of certain monuments. But, I also enjoy wikitravel.com.

That said, it can still be hard to beat an old fashioned printed travel guide when you are away from electricity or don’t really know the language.

For researches before hitting the road, everything is on the internet..
The experience of other travellers are the most reliable information.. we just have to be careful, because there are too many different kind of travellers and not always we’ll like the same stuff that someone else likes.

Travel boards are good, so are ESL boards. Travel boards are full of posts by travelers, while ESL boards contain info from people that have lived in countries for a good length of time.

@Malena (and christine): You are both right. Locals are a great great resource. However, one of the ironic things about backpacking, is we go for the locals but many times we don’t meet any except for the receptionist at our hostel.

@Julie: Your welcome

@Tanya: I’m not a fan of Let’s Go. I don’t like the layout…but Rough Guides is really good for historical information too and if I don’t use LP, I use them.