To make the most of your holiday, we suggest you do a little background reading before you go away. A travel guide can really help get the best from your time. You don't have to buy one (although we do), there is a lot of information available online.
Reading a travel guide is a great way of getting valuable tips and suggestions about places to visit (or not), where to eat (or not) and how to get around. Many travel guides also include a local map and street maps of central city areas.
Check out the free information available on the following websites.
Web Travel Guides
Most of the well-known travel guide publishers have websites that provide very detailed information on holiday destinations. These sites offer information on hotels, restaurants, nightlife, local customs and a few handy phrases in the local language.
Rough Guide - provides comprehensive and up to date coverage of around 200 destinations worldwide. The country and regional guides include in-depth information covering a range of budgets. City guides provide comprehensive coverage, including where to stay, eat and places to visit.
Insight - weighty books containing beautiful photographs and a strong focus on local culture, politics and attitude. Go to their website and click on the 'guide to places' link to get a whole host of information free (with a 'printable pages' link). Great books, great website.
Frommers - an American content-oriented travel site aimed at the cost-conscious traveller, it covers a wide range of cities and countries. The 'Destinations' section is easy to use and contains one of the most comprehensive 'city guides' we have found.
Fodors - another American site but has a less formal feel than Frommers. It concentrates more on providing travel information than Frommers. The 'Expert Advice' and 'Resources' sections are especially useful.
Time Out - not so much a travel guide but more of an in-depth review of entertainment in over 30 major cities around the world, with the main focus on Europe and the USA.
Lonely Planet - aimed at younger 'travellers' rather than tourists, this site has plenty of useful features and information that will help you plan your trip.
Footprint - used by Michael Palin on his various adverntures, footprint produce 'handbooks' and pocket city guides. Read excerpts from their eighty titles.
London guide - 4london.info is a new london travel guide. If you're going to london, it can help you plan your trip to make the most of your time there.
Where to buy your travel guide?
There are two schools of thought about buying a travel guide. The first says that you should buy a travel guide before you travel then read as much as possible before you go. This gets you in the 'holiday mood' and, when you arrive, you 'hit the ground running'.
The second says that you should wait until you arrive and then buy a local travel guide and map since they may be more up to date. We go with the first, in part because we've been to a few places where we couldn't get a decent guide when we got there.
If you're about to go on holiday, we suggest that you invest a few pounds to buy a good quality travel guide and a map to get some background information and advice on your destination before you travel.
Each of the companies listed above publishes its own travel guide that you can buy, in addition to maps, phrasebooks and even music on their sites. However, are they the best places from which to buy your travel guide? The answer is, from our experience, 'No' - you can buy them at up to 50% off at Amazon.
Amazon - provide a comprehensive listing of travel guides and maps on almost every destination at prices averaging 20% cheaper, and sometimes up to 50% cheaper than the publisher's own websites.
Use the publishers websites to get some background before you spend your money then, once you've made your choice of travel guide, check buy via amazon.
Or, if you would prefer to download a digital guide onto your pocket PC or PDA, visit map and guide to download a city guide including a map, route planner and travel guide.
For london visitor information, try this london visit guide website.
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