What travel guides are you guys using?

[Imagineer]

Ok, so on April 13th we're embarking on the Regatta from Roma to Venezia with all those marvelous port stops in between. I want to know all about these various places. I've already got a copy of the DK eyewitness guide on Italy and also 'Rick Steves' Italy'. I was looking in my bookstore the other day and saw another new one called 'Pauline Frommer's Italy' that looked really good...

...do you guys have any thoughts or recommendations? Has anybody else seen this new book by Pauline Frommer?

 

cheers,

 

the Imagineers

[CateW]

We're doing Insigna 6/17 Venice to Barcelona and are doing 2 days pre and post. I have Frommers Italy and the another little book on Venice specifically. I also just ordered Chow Venice - I've been reading the forums on Trip Advisor and there's a lot of talk about restaurants in Venice and if you are spending any amount of time there Chow is a must read to avoid tourist traps. They also speak highly or Rick Steves book. I have also checked out the Samantha Brown Europe series on travelchannel.com and have watched her shows. There is a lot of good information out on both of those websites that you might want to check out. The forums on trip advisor (when you go to the italy forum) that break them out by city which is very helpful. Pauline and Arthur Frommer do a weekly travel show on Sunday for 2 hours in our area. If you give them a call and ask for advice, she might send you a free copy (she does send free books out every week).

[DaytonGirl]

I go to my local library and check out everything they have. They'll also order books from other branches if they don't have it.

 

I will then buy my favorites. :) (Or just photocopy the good stuff :o )

[digby]

We rely on both Fodor's and Frommer's. We find them very useful.

[dbh62ark]

We like Frommers guides a lot too. I haven't tried the Pauline Frommers series yet. Rick Steves guides are a mixed bag in my opinion. Some of his chapters are very good, and some are just pitiful (bad). He covers the areas visited on his tours very well, so you'll see good information on areas such as the Cinque Terre in his guides. I use his but only along with another guide. Also, his walking tours are not as good as the ones in Frommers in much of Italy.

 

Have a great trip,

Donna

[lahore]

I like Lonely Planet and their accompanying website Thorn Tree. Mostly attracts budget travellers and has a really good micro-level knowledge. Can then adjust to fit our slightly higher budget these days. It's an Aussie publication so I guess I like it because it suits Aussie culture.

[Aussie Gal]

We also like the Eye Witness Guides. They are a lovely publication with lots of maps, photos etc. We always take one with us when visiting a new city or country.

 

Jennie

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I too like the Lonely Planet guides. But for Italy, if you want to know about culture, art and history, nothing can beat the Michelin Green Guides. Not about restaurants and hotels, but about museums, churches, art, etc.

[Jancruz]

there are so many good books out there, it usually takes me a year to go through them

Jan

*****

[drwong]

We like Dora Kinderling's Eyewitness Guides - good color illustrations, simplified text, fold-out maps. But then again, it all depends on your style of travel. If we're doing Rome in a day, the DK guide provides just enough substance so that we're not spending all our time with our noses buried in a book and missing the actual sights themselves. Lonely Planet and Rick Steves are great if you're a independent traveler with more than a day to kill or seeing the city on foot and in need of detailed recommendations. For us, we had little use for lodging or dining recommendations because we were overnighting aboard the ship and eating wherever the ship's shore excursion stopped.

[ClaudiaF]

even easier is to google the ports/ tourist agency..example Rome tourism..you will find WAY too much info at the touch of your fingers ..;-)

and not have to deal with Barnes and Noble..:D

[caribbeansun]

Another vote for the Eyewitness guides here - took them to New Zealand, Australia, Greece and Turkey - excellent information, amazing photos and they are relatively small and compact for traveling.

[scdreamer]

We spent three days post-cruise in Venice last month and used Frommer's "Venice Day by Day." It has lots of ideas for making the most of the usual attractions, as well as off-the-beaten-track sights to see and things to do. In addition, it's compact enough to carry around without much trouble, and has great user-friendly maps.

[Imagineer]

...thanks everyone for your input. We now have three guidebooks, "Rick Steves Italy", the "DK Eyewitness", and we've now been reading through the newest addition, "Pauline Frommer's Italy", very nice book, easy to follow, and made from LIGHT WEIGHT paper - wheras the DK guide is truly a heavy weight book but will be thoroughly memorized before we leave, so it looks probable that Pauline's book will accompany us on our trip as we'll hardly notice its weight...

 

cheers,

 

the Imagineers