The Best Travel Guides for Your Dollar

Top Five Guidebooks for Your Trip

Alexis Devan
Alexis Devan, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Nov 21, 2009 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
The top 5 travel guides
  1. Lonely Planet. This guidebook series win hands down for the wide range of locations they cover. There is literally no place in the world to which you can travel that lonely planet doesn't cover. In addition to their books, they have a comprehensive website with a large online community posting on a forum called the thorn tree after a once obscure expat meeting place in Nairobi, Kenya. Lonely planet was started by a young couple traveling together in Asia and now dispenses advice for backpackers of all ages and even families with small children. The guidebooks are updated the most frequently and are the most common to see other travelers reading.
  2. Let's Go. This series mostly only covers the western world with such as American, Europe, and Australia, but it does done very well. Written by Harvard University students the books are written to cover budget friendly travel and occasionally points out hotels and restaurants for those traveling on a mid range budget.
  3. Rick Steves. The independent, European travel expert has travel shows, which frequently run on PBS, and dispenses very basic advice travel guides. In addition to this he sells all types of travel gear and even runs small travel groups. He advocates the need for Americans to travel in order to shed our ethnocentric attitudes and beliefs.
  4. Wiki travel. Just like wikipedia anyone can add or edit their personal advice for hotels, restaurants, how to get around, areas to avoid, and basic city or country information. Since natives to the area or expats living post much of the advice or presently living there it is often more relevant than any guidebook and at the very least is an excellent supplement. Bars, nightclubs, and restaurants frequently come and go in certain cities so even the most frequently updated guidebook cannot always keep up on the scene. The best part: it's absolutely free and accessible on the web.
  5. Frommers. I can't say I personally read or own Frommer's, but Arthur Frommer has over fifty years of experience and is a more family friendly pick. These guidebooks over greater options in terms of mid and high range travel options. In many regions for a family with small children it would not be wise or safe to consider budget travel options. These guidebooks tend to favor the developed world as well although in recent years they have begun to publish books on China and Mexico including driving tours for various destinations.

Published by Alexis Devan

Alexis is a vegetarian and a world traveler. She has been to 20 countries on 5 continents so far, all before the age of 28. Alexis obtained a BS degree in paralegal studies and is currently a graduate studen...  View profile

  • Lonely Planet is the guide book you are most likely to spot while backpacking.
  • Lets go is independent, budget travel advice written by Harvard University students.
  • Frommer's has been dispensing travel advice for 52 years.
The idea of a guide book dates back to the medieval Arab world, with the establishment of treasure hunting as a major industry from around the 9th century.

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