QUICK QUICK Best area guidebooks?

Bes · 22 Oct 2007 at 21:29

I want to buy a guidebook for Spain... Should I buy Lonely Planet, Rough Guides, or some other brand?

And no "Guidebooks FTL" or "Stop being a tourist" comments please

DarkShadow · 22 Oct 2007 at 21:30

Tourist guides for the lose. Going on holiday is all about exploring and getting lost

Haircut · 22 Oct 2007 at 21:33

I've always found Lonely Planet to be good and very comprehensive.

Bes · 22 Oct 2007 at 21:34

dark_shadow said:
Tourist guides for the lose. Going on holiday is all about exploring and getting lost

Not when you go somewhere for a weekend and dont have a sodding clue where you are and miss the last train home and miss all the good stuff cause you don't know where it is...

Muban · 22 Oct 2007 at 21:40

DK Eyewitness Travel Guides - Always found them to be really good and are regularly updated. They do ones for cities, areas or countries.

eddie101 · 22 Oct 2007 at 21:52

Another vote for DK here

Matt · 22 Oct 2007 at 21:53

I have a shelf full of well thumbed Lonely Planet guides and find them to be by far the best. Rough Guides are great as well, but Lonely Planet are aimed at a younger group in my opinion.

Bes · 22 Oct 2007 at 22:04

Muban said:
DK Eyewitness Travel Guides - Always found them to be really good and are regularly updated. They do ones for cities, areas or countries.

But it's full of pictures & looks like a kid's book- I'll look special carrying it around!

Haircut · 22 Oct 2007 at 22:12

Bes said:
But it's full of pictures & looks like a kid's book- I'll look special carrying it around!

And it's nowhere near as good as a Lonely Planet guide either IMHO. When I was in Oz earlier this year we had a DK eyewitness and a Lonely Planet. The DK one got chucked in a bag after a couple of days and we relied solely on the Lonely Planet.

Bes · 22 Oct 2007 at 22:24

But lonely planet only got 3.5 *'s on the rainforest site...

Ah well I shall ordereth and see.

Thanks!

SiD the Turtle · 22 Oct 2007 at 23:19

I bought the Rough Guide to New York. A lot of the information in it was just plain incorrect. Avoid!

Bes · 22 Oct 2007 at 23:25

hmm I have the rough guide to South East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, 'Nam, Cambodia, and the Phillipines) and it was OK but the prices were all wrong!

GarethDW · 23 Oct 2007 at 00:44

Have a look at www.wikitravel.org - not looked at the pages for Spain, but some of the places I know and have looked at were well written.

Vixen · 23 Oct 2007 at 01:14

I have several rough guides and found them really useful. I've never used anything else to compare them to though.