How do you decide on a travel guide?
Honestly every traveller is different, every trip is different. We all want different things, so how do you chose the right travel guide… I was asked recently about my preferred travel guides.I’m not sure there is an easy answer to the question on how you decide on one, but here’s what I prefer to do before going on a trip:
The Age Traveller. Every newspaper has a travel section, there are some particular writers in the Age Traveller (a Melbourne newspaper) that I particularly like (there’s some that really frustrate me too). So I am on the mailing list for it, and I save articles of interest – including ‘the cheapest Michelin star restaurant’ and ‘what not to do in Las Vegas’. Some of my clients will have seen me add these to their documents, sometimes for fun, and sometimes because I think they offer really great suggestions that are missed by the bigger books.
The great thing about The Age Traveller is that you can go back and search. If you are going to Greece go to http://www.traveller.com.au/ and there’s a search box, type in Greece and I got 10 pages worth of articles (about 8 articles per page). Not everyone is going to have information that would interest you, but if you can’t find something of interest in there then we have issues.
Conde Naste Traveller. This is my big secret, I’ve been giving these to clients for ages. They are fantastic, and go through where to stay (I usually don’t give this to clients with their documents, by that stage the decision has been made), where to eat, what to see, where to shop and so on. They cover a range of budgets, they are online so can be updated, and give a reasonable amount of information without being a massive book to carry around.
Lonely Planet. I’m not sure why I started out with Lonely Planet, probably back when I first started travelling it was the best known ones, and covered my budget (or lack thereof) at the time. And I’ve stuck to it since. From I have a pretty little collection of them from Fiji and Vanuatu, to the big US one and some smaller European country guides. The US one definitely came in handy when I did my big road trip across the states, we booked most of our accommodation as we were driving into a city from the book. Vanuatu I think is good as well as it is easy to get around town no matter where you are staying on Efate (the main island). Fiji is a bit harder if you are out on the islands, but for those staying in Nadi or Denarau it has some good information. I’m yet to try their online/app versions, but I would like to as the books aren’t small.
Finally, Luxe City Guides I think these are great for people who have travelled a bit and don’t want to be carrying around huge guides, but want to know some basics of what’s new in town. These guides are not the easiest to get a hold of and for the size they don’t necessarily feel good value. But I still like them, I think they are good quality, easy to carry and full of good info, and really that’s what we want in a travel guide.
I know it’s cliché coming from a travel agent, but one of the best things you can do is book with a travel agent and seek their recommendations. If the agent is worth their value then they’ll have places, hotels, restaurants, tours all kinds of info to recommend. This particular question to me came from someone going to Portugal, they went on to ask me more about where I recommend, and I was able to send them a hotel that my colleague recommends, and that I’ve sent clients to. Not every recommendation is going to match each traveller, but I spend my life looking at hotels, talking to people about their trips, and travelling as much as I can. So I do have some cool places/ideas rattling around in my head…
By the way, here was the recommendation for Portugal - http://www.conventodoespinheiro.com/en