Pick a travel book. Which one do you like? Which to you think is the most useful? If you had to choose a single book for your backpacking/hostelling/whatever trip, which would it be?
I’ve only used Let’s Go: Europe and Let’s Go: California. (Cheating on the latter since I lived in CA at the time.) I found Let’s Go to be fairly useful. Some of the information was out of date. (IIRC the articles are published like a year after a trip is taken.) And since we basically hit an area without any plan (which I think is more fun) we missed out on some of the hostels we wanted. The great thing about Let’s Go was that on the way back to the States I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and I could totally relate.
My favourite line in Let’s Go was in the California edition in the mid-'80s:
They toned it down in later editions, calling it ‘a remarkably bad idea’.
I’m fond of Let’s Go because they do yearly updates (as opposed to 3-4 years for Lonely Planet) and because they’re much better on public transportation and other practicalities. LP generally has better information on culture and attractions, though.
I prefer Lonely Planet. In my experience they’ve had more accurate maps.
I took both to Eastern Europe several years ago, but by the end of the trip was only referring to LP. Have used LP for trips to Spain, Peru, Ireland, France and The Netherlands.
It depends what kind of travel I’m doing. I composed a long reply itemizing this, but it has been eaten. Suffice it to say that Let’s Go is good if you’re traveling on foot or by bus; Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, and Footprint are good for an on-the-ground with slightly more money experience; Rick Steves for middle class hotel and restaurant recommendations. Fodor’s is good for museum times and cost, and DK has pretty pictures. I usually look at several, then take Lonely Planet with me when I go.
Although “Let’s Go: Spain and Portugal” was serviceable last year, I found the “Lonely Planet: Spain” guide I had taken in 2002 to be much more thorough and entertaining, as well as heavy on context. It also seemed to have better maps. I mostly chose the former because it contained Portugal.
I found Fodor’s very overrated except for providing good walking tours.
It really depends where I’m going.
I really like Let’s Go’s layout. Rick Steves’ breezy, humorous style is engaging.
But I really really like Rough Guide’s comprehensive look at destinations.
OTOH
I like Lonely Planet’s pocket sized books.
I’ve experienced more than one error in LP, though, also with Steves–that was kind of a bummer.
To sum up: most of these books have come from the library, and Rough Guide is the book I’ll most often spend money on.
When I was a poor starving student, Let’s Go and Rough Guide were my choices.
Nowadays, I find myself in the situation where I don’t have to find the cheapest lodging or restaurant, and I tend to like Fodor’s and Frommer’s a little more. Let’s Go really breaks down in the “find me a great restaurant” category as opposed to the “where can I get cheap and good falafel” category. I like Lonely Planet and Moon guides as well - Lonely Planet especially tends to be better at finding out-of-the way non-touristy but interesting stuff to see.
Overall, though, I find myself relying more and more on recommendations and talking to people on the web. Fodor’s message boards, though difficult to use, are a great source of information. I had pages and pages of print outs of forum threads and hand-written guides I’d found on the Web last time I was out of the country, and those were better than any of the guides.
I’ve used Lonely Planet when backpacking in the 3rd World and found it to be pretty good but a little naive on occassions .
Out of curiosity checked the entry for my home town in the U.K. edition and I’m fairly certain that the entry was not written from first hand experience but from asking a 3rd person for the info.
My first choice every time though are the Rough Guides which I’ve used in many countries around the world.
It depends on where I’m going -
When I went to NZ, Lonely Planet was far and away the best of the guides I looked at before and during the trip. On trips to other places, the Lonely Planet guides were not good choices.
I’ve always found Let’s Go a bit trite. I have a huge shelf of Lonely Planets, and I do use them as a default, but the best guidebook I ever used was the Footprint guide to Malaysia - but you just can’t find them in the stores.
I like the Rough Guides. Rick Steves is ok but his oversimplification of cultural history and art and such grates on me, although it might be great for someone whose “thing” that wasn’t.
I’m also a fan of the Rough Guides. The Rough Guide to Brazil was pretty good, though a few phone numbers were wrong.
Rought Guides tend to be up-to-date, and they cover a wide variety of places to stay, places to eat, things to do, and stuff to see in a pretty wide variety of price ranges. They seem to do a good job of picking the best of everything, and they often cover out-of-the-way places that some other guidebooks miss.
I like the “Lonely Planet values”, and the fact they include so many small town destinations. But their city sections often have a very small selection of places to stay, and some of their info is embarrassingly out of date. I own a lot of them, though.
Rough Guides are sometimes better, and sometimes are not.
The Lonely Planet guide to Colombia is piss poor. Very few city maps, like the travel writer was worried about leaving the hotel.