Top Five Travel Guides

I travel a lot and sometimes I choose out of the way destinations to visit. This can either be called foolhardy or inventive. Here are the top five travel guides and why they are worth their weight in gold.

1. Lonely Planet. Far and away the most comprehensive and inclusive guide to travel, Lonely Planet is the first destination for me before planning any trip. There are not only great articles by editors and fast and important facts, but also a travel tree that posts experiences from travelers who have visited your destination most recently. It is also a great read if you are traveling or not, as you can get up to the minute information on just about any spot on the planet. For more, visit. www.lonelyplanet.com.

2. Escape Artist. If you want the lowdown or the down low on your travel destinations you must read the Escape
Artist. It is everything your travel agent does not want you to know and everything you must know before you book.Completely up to the minute and packed with news bites you would not otherwise think about Escape
Artist is a must for the savvy and safe traveler. No new or novice traveler should book a trip anywhere before seeing this site. For more information check out www.escapeartist.com

3. Michelin Travel Guides. I like Michelin because they regularly update their guides and use customer polling for accommodations, restaurants and attractions. The Michelin guide is valuable because they rate destinations and this gives me a sense of what is worth my time and money and what is not. The Michelin has been around for quite some time and I trust their publications. For more information see www.michelintravel.com

4. Fodor. Fodor has been around for some time and they give a concise and up to date assessment of most of what every traveler is looking for and at. There are reasonably good summaries about what to see and do, and definite heads up for troublesome tourist spots. A great guide for visting oft visited spots and also handy for a traveler who has done some traveling. www.fodor.com

5. Frommers. Another guide that has been around for a while and serves up a weatlh of intormation.
This was a pretty dull guide just a few years back but the editors have fleshed up the information quite a bit and it is now a very informative and useable guide. These people have been in the biz for a long time and know what they are talking about. Check them out at www.frommers.com

My rule of thumb is to read as many guides as I can before I take a trip. Use these guides as a blueprint for your next trip. Enjoy.