Guide to the guides

Traveling this summer? Looking for a travel guide to help plan your trip or take with you? Well there are plenty to choose from: Fodor’s, Frommer’s, Lonely Planet, Insight, Access, Rough, Rick Steve’s, National Geographic and more! But which would best fit your needs? With so many travel publishers out there we could use a guide to the guides themselves. Book Buzz this week skims through some of the travel guide selections, loosely organizing them in a geographical hierarchy.

Happy reading and bon voyage!

Continent Guides

From Rough Guides

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Guides to continents, Europe or South America for instance, are useful for those doing extensive touring to multiple countries in one trip. If you are visiting Ecuador, Peru and Argentina you will be covered by a single South America guide. You could also use the guide to research which countries in that continent you would like to visit. Rough Guides give a full range of travel information neatly arranged in three color print. The only illustrations are well-done three-color area and detail maps.

Regional Guides

From Fodor’s

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Some publishers produce regional guides to multiple countries in a general area that people often visit together. Scandinavia, Southeast Asia and the South Pacific are examples. Island hopping in the Pacific takes you to multiple countries, different languages, currencies and customs for each one. A good regional guide will provide all the information a traveler needs to navigate the South Pacific’s rich diversity. Fodor’s Guides are also full service travel guides rendered in three color print on bright white paper. Illustrations are limited to maps. Accommodation and dining are suggested for all budgets.

Country Guides

From Rick Steves’

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The familiar country travel guide format covers an entire country with a little about every place in the nation. These comprehensive guides usually give an overview of the country, suggesting what cannot be missed, general travel information like how to get there, how to get around, currency, customs, sample itineraries, history and the like. Chapters cover each region of the country with background information, maps, descriptions of attractions, and lists of hotels, eateries and services. This classic travel genre is loaded with publishers. The popular Rick Steves’ Guides include a separate full-size folded country map. Bradt Travel Guides cover countries some others don’t, particularly in Africa. Eyewitness Travel, Insight and National Geographic Traveler all produce very attractive full-color and guides littered with photographs, illustrations and sidebars but offer less information on any one topic or area. These are not as good for planning purposes but are fun for reference or light reading while touring.

Area Guides

Provence and the Cote d’Azur: From Hunter Travel Guides

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Guides to states, provinces or other areas within a particular country are useful for focusing a visit to a favorite local region or a particular state. Some examples are Tuscany, Tasmania or Texas. Area guides can provide more in depth information for the traveler. The introduction may include history, climate, economy, flora and fauna, language, arts, people, adventures, shopping, food and drink tips as well as logistical information. There will be more extensive information on what to do and see in more places. Hunter Guides are fully black and white, sprinkled with photographs and include a few pages of color images.

City Guides

By Richard Saul Wurman

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Finally, at the local level, there are city guides to oft-visited municipalities around the planet: New York, London, Paris, Shanghai, Maui. Most of the travel publishers put out city guides updated every year that not only give background and logistical information about the city but also cover almost any sight or experience you can think of. Frommer’s Day by Day, Pulse Night & Day, Eyewitness Top 10 and Lonely Planet Best Of all put out spiffy pocket sized guides, some with pull-out maps that cover city highlights. Among them are walks, tours, museums, churches, hotels, shopping, dining, brunches, night clubs, design, gay scenes, historic sites, live music or outdoor markets. Descriptions of listings are a perfunctory one or two lines.

World Guides

By Michael Bright

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A number of guides help travelers plan their traveling bucket lists: places to see before passing out of this world and into the next. Lonely Planet puts out the Blue List, National Geographic, The Ten Best of Everything, and Firefly, Unforgettable Places to See Before You Die. Where To Go When by Joseph Rosendo is also a useful resource to determine the best times of year to visit your destinations.

Special Interest Guides

By Donovan M. Dela Cruz

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Perhaps the most interesting of travel guides do not follow geographical boundaries but focus on travelers’ interests. Try for instance Guidebook for the Scientific Traveler: Visiting Astronomy and Space Exploration Sites Across America by Duane S. Nickell, Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves, The Great American Attraction: Two Brits Discover the Rollicking World of American Festivals by Rich Smith or Creepy Crawls: A Horror Fiend’s Travel Guide by Leon Marcelo. For the natural world try America’s Best Zoos by Allen W. Nyhuis, or Destination Wildlife by Pamela K. Brodowsky.

Specialized

New York City with Kids: From Fodor’s Family Guides

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Some travelers have special circumstances that beg for a specialized guide book. Take children, for instance. The unique needs and interests of children are addressed in guides for families with kids. There are guides for wheelers and slow walkers such as 101 Accessible Vacations by Candy B. Harrington and guides for sailors such as The Voyager’s Handbook: The Essential Guide to Blue Water Cruising by Beth A. Leonard. Outdoors enthusiasts would find National Geographic’s Guide to the State Parks and Guide to the National Parks of the United States useful and the cruise ship set would want to reference guides to cruising and cruise ships from Berlitz and others.

• Carolyn Larson, head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library, brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.