Travel Guides

There is the often discussed to death issue on which guidebook is the best - Lonely Planet or Rough Guides.
Personally I prefer Lonely Planet. It is more organised and more detailed. More options on accommodations and food are given. Personally though, I don't trust the food section too much. It is easier to find out how to get to one place to another using LP. Maps are more detailed and better too. Rough Guides are, like the name implies, a rough guide. Not enough details and all too brief descriptions of well, everything.

Apart from that, there are Frommers, Moon, Footprints, the very atas Luxe, Bradt, Timeout, AA Travel guides and Insight. Not forgetting photography books. There are some Japanese and Taiwanese guide in Kinokuniya. Full of colour, a lot of details that some of the ang mo guides might have left out and so cute! We can though, forget completely about ahchi pariah Let's Go..Those guides suck. Did I miss out anyone?

That said, I don't rely just on guide books when I travel. I go through travel and food forums to sniff out the best deals, the out of the way places where locals go to eat (admittedly, not often since I am always too lazy unless I am with fellow foodies, it is a solely food trip or I have a local friend to bring me around.) I drill friends who have been to the places that I want to visit. (Great annoyance much to their dismay) Sometimes I read the online local paper to get a feel of the place. I have a habit of buying the local paper to read when I travel. The English ones of course! I can't possibly read Le Monde or La Republica can't I? Hello, I have problem even reading Lian He Zao Bao already!

Apart from that, now that I have a new found interest in history, I might read up about the history and culture of the country. In comes the history books. I might read famous authors from the country I will be visiting, or books inspired or set in place. I read Passage to India while I was in Chennai. I read Oscar Wilde in UK. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway before going to Paris. In some ways, this is to get me to read more, since, although I adore books, I still do get lazy when it comes to reading. There are travel books too, like Bill Bryson's. I have not read any of his books, but they are quite light to read, having flipped a couple before. Even Ewan Mcgregor has a book on his biking round the world adventure.

Then of course, there are films. I intend to make it a point to watch all three Lord of the Rings movie closer to my trip to New Zealand. Bless my husband. Actually, our first movie date was the second LOTR movie - The Two Towers.

In the end, guide books are well, just guide books. Giving you a general picture of the place with very general information. Go to a large bookstore like Borders or Kinokuniya, grab as many as you can, browse through them and decide which is the best and most comfortable for you. If you want to know a country more intimately, lose the guide book and get lost. That is the best way to get acquainted with a country!