The kind you buy in a second hand store

[venta]

When venturing off to foreign parts on holidays, and planning your own routes, accommodation, etc, guidebooks become invaluable. Unless you're on the way round the world, staying in the sort of hostels which operate unofficial exchanges as people swap countries, you have to pop down the shops and buy one yourself.

On the day ChrisC and I chose to venture to Blackwells, they were sold out of Rough Guides to New Zealand. The Landmark Visitor Guide we'd had in Iceland had proved really useful as a driving companion (having various suggested things to stop at and side quests to undertake for each major road route), but doesn't seem to extend as far afield as NZ. Having riffled through the selection Blackwells did have, we opted for the Footprint Guide as seeming like the best of the bunch.

Mainly we were checking for layout of information, and making sure it avoided a particular issue. Previously, we've occasionally encountered city guidebooks which (for example) list restaurants by type, not by area. I think it may be Time Out guides that do this, I'm not sure. Which is fine if, on holiday, you often think "I wish to eat the best Chinese food this city has to offer", but useless if you more commonly think "I'd like a reasonable meal close to where I am now".

Although the Footprint Guide seemed to contain a good bunch of useful information, once on holiday I rapidly became disenchanted with its incompetent indexing and cross-reference. It's no good saying "see also page 698" when you actually mean page 705. And surely, with today's publishing packages, it's trivial to get references correct even for home-produced documents, never mind commercial products.

In addition, it doesn't have a very extensive index. For example, White Island is a major tourist attraction, but doesn't feature in the Footprint Guide's index. If you read the entry for the coastal port from which boats to White Island depart all the information is there, but that's no good if you're not aware you have to look it up under Whakatane. Many other things were covered, but proved hard to find without index entries.

However, we met guidebook Waterloo in a place called Wanaka. Setting off on a hike (The Rob Roy Track, which was great and will hopefully feature in a report all of its own when there are photos) we were told by the guide book to drive (or arrange transport) to Raspberry Creek Carpark. Which was fine, except it didn't tell us where Raspberry Creek Carpark was, other than "about an hour" away from Wanaka.

Fortunately, Wanaka doesn't have many roads, and there was only one going in the right direction, ie into Mt Aspiring National Park. A handy tourist map we located did show us the exact route and, beyond telling us that it was 54km and about an hour's drive (a suspiciously long time for the distance), left us to it.

Now, if I was a guidebook aimed at people who may well, for example, be driving hired cars, or camper vans, I'd mention that the last 33km of the road is gravel, not nice friendly tarmac. I'd probably mention the eight fords, as well, particularly since they rapidly become impassable to ordinary cars in wet weather. I'd certainly mention that there are road signs up warning you of severe risk of damage to your vehicle (about that big shiny hired car we had...).

So, while trying to persuade Ngaio (the aforementioned shiny Nissan) to drive through fords to which she wasn't terribly suited, we had a good shout at Mr Footprint. I'm aware that they're trying to pack a lot in, but a couple of extra adjectives could surely have been squeezed in ?

Later, when there was four of us, I challenged other's guidebooks to provide better information. quantumboo's Lonely Planet again offered merely that it was an hour out of Wanaka. Frances' Rough Guide was the closest to useful, stating that it was an hour's drive up the unsealed Mt Aspiring Rd. Given that it was easily the worst road we drove on - and is clearly used by tourists, not just hardy locals - I'm genuinely surprised that no guides think it worth mentioning.

So, a question to all guidebook-purchasing travellers:

[Poll #942323]

Those mentioned in the poll are the only ones I'm aware of as "known brands", but that may be my travelling ignorance. If anyone's got reasons for their choice, I'm curious to hear them.

Comments

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

I always get the Eyewitness Travel Guides from DK Books as they are full of pictures and arange things by area. BUT got very annoyed with our one in Germany for not having any decent city maps in (which meant we were looking for a restaurant they named, we knew we were in the right city but all we had was a street name). have come to the conclusion that their guides to individual towns / cities / areas are great but the ones that attempt to cover entire contries are rather rubbish.
Need to find decent guide book(s) to Las Vegas, San Francisco and Seattle before this time next year!

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

Ack early morning spelling mistakes. Sorry!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ah, now I tend to go for books that *don't* have pictures, since I regard them as wasting space that could have useful information in it! I guess the best thing to do is have several guide books, as they all have different strengths, but then that gets a bit heavy...

Need to find decent guide book(s) to Las Vegas, San Francisco and Seattle before this time next year!

You do ? How exciting! Planning a big road trip ?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Nice icon choice there :)

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

sleep_er's Dad is getting married in Las Vegas. Very tacky!
While we have to go out there anyway we figured we may as well see some of the country and San Francisco and Seattle where the two other places that side of the country we wanted to see.
Still need to book it all so not certain yet.

[ebee.livejournal.com]

My mum swears by the berlitz guides..cant say I ever really used them much but anything in a strage city with a DECENT CLEAR large map to fold out at the frount and 'handy phrases' near the beginning gets my vote.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

My brother's working on the latest Rough Guide update for China, so I should recommend that.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

The best combination I found for Chicago was a Lonely Planet and a Streetwise map.

As I got to know the city, the Streetwise map became my A-Z and went with me everywhere. It's laminated, pocket-size and just about perfect for navigation in the city.

Of course that's no help when looking for the road to Raspberry Creek.

[Heh, just glanced at the Streetwise site for their London map: "Londoners are charming and helpful, and their city operates on such a high dosage of civility that it could be considered an art form."]

[erming.livejournal.com]

Eyewitness guides (to second Catt's recomendation) but make sure you also have a proper map.

The piccies are useful for finding your way around and recognising the places they talk about. The things like say the main cathedral it's useful to have a map/diagram with all the important bits highlighted on it.

I also find they make a good thing to keep after the trip to reminice about.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

In truth I don't have any particular loyalty -- I go on holiday rarely enogh that before each one I spend time looking at as many as I can find, reading reviews, etc -- but I thought I'd flag up Let's Go as a series that I've used a lot in Europe -- dunno if they're as good for more exotic stuff. Like Footprint they tend towards more on the architectural / artisitc / cultural stuff, at the expense of so much coverage of wonders of nature as LP / RG, but then so do I.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, forgot that, Berlitz city guides are good and fit in the pocket nicely. Not so good for non-city holidays, obviously.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

We found the San Francisco LP pretty good (combined with an ordinary street map).

Timeout

[thefon.livejournal.com]

I found the Timeout Guide to Shanghai to be very good. It was concise and useful. So this could be an option for guides to a city, not just country or region.

I also bought the equivalent in Beijing ("Insiders Guide"), produced by the same people who publish the "What's on in Beijing" free magazine.

[glittertigger]

I use the Berlitz guides for city breaks, because they cover all the basics and as mentioned, fit in the pocket easily.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

The internet before I set off, and other scientists' willingness to be helpful when you visit their country. Admittedly I don't take many holidays that don't have a conference or a relative's birthday party attached to them.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

BUT - learn the word 'map', or how to write the word 'map', and ask for it as soon as you arrive!

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

My mind boggles at the idea of a world where people have favourite travel guides. How is it possible that people have been abroad enough to have developed a preference? Peculiar.

[casilda.livejournal.com]

I'd have to admit to buying _both_ rough guide and lonely planet guides when traveling, especially if you are going to a place that you don't know much about. Buying both gives you the best of both worlds (as they deal with places to go, stay, eat etc slightly differently). Plus, good maps, local phrases and bus timetables can be invaluable.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

and their city operates on such a high dosage of civility

"Excuse me there young fellow. If you would be so good as to give me your mobile and your wallet? Or I'll f*ckin' stab yer."

[voratus.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

I'm ashamed to admit that "The Dummy's Guide To New York" is one of the best tourist guide books I've bought.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, in one holiday I've developed a preference, purely by seeing three guides for the same place. Besides, because people in general don't do proper statisticial significance testing on their opinions I'm prepared to believe many people would think "well, I had guide A to place X and it was rubbish and guide B to place Y and it was great, therefore guide Y is better".

Anyway, you don't even need to be out the country - I consult the Rough Guide to London reasonably frequently.

I went out of the UK three times last year, which I regard as high by my standards but quite low by some people's. Twice guidebooks were involved (the third time I was visiting friends, and the abroad was a tiresome inconvenience rather than a feature).

[(Anonymous)]

I come from a background where people don't go out of the country. In fact they barely leave Cornwall. Going abroad is something other people do. So even though I'm now grown up and have been to all kinds of places, having a preferred guidebook sounds to me like the most jetsetteerish thing ever!

It's probably at least partially that my attitude when I am abroad is less exploratory than most. For example, over Christmas I went to Amsterdam, and I had my lunch at Subway every day. (We fear change.) I'm a hopeless case.