Lonely Planet Travel Books

By Jennie

Whenever I pick a new place to travel to, there's always one thing I do first: pick up the Lonely Planet travel companion book (on Amazon too!) for the location in question. I do this before polling Twitter for tips, perusing the internet, or downloading a new location-specific app (all things I get around to doing).

(Photo from shop.lonelyplanet.com)

Once the book arrives, I spend the next couple weeks reading every last word of the book I can. I doggy-ear, I highlight, I make notes, I basically dive down a travel research black hole. This sounds pretty horrible if travel research isn't your thing, but it's my favorite thing to do besides, you know, traveling.

There are all sorts of travel guides out there, of course, but I've found Lonely Planet to include the best recommendations, most straightforward tips, and up-to-date information.

What about you, though? What's your favorite travel book? Or favorite way to prepare for a trip?

Comments

[rebecca]

are you finally going to Alaska?!?

[Colleen]

I loved the Rough Guide travel books. Having traveled to some places that were way off the beaten path, I found the Rough Guides had a slightly less biased opinion, and more accurate information. They were pretty good at giving a much wider spread of budget options too.
This might have changed, since the last time I left the continent was 2008, but I did spend most of the eight years previous overseas.

[Danielle]

Lonely Planet is great for general info and information about different sights, and usually has solid recommendations for food and lodging. I've been using Trip Advisor a lot lately for restaurant recommendations and hotels, and it helps with places that are slightly less frequented by tourists. We used it to find all of the hotels on our upcoming honeymoon and used it last year to find restaurant recommendations for Reykjavik and ended up in a great Philipino-Icelandic restaurant!

[christina]

My favorite way to plan a trip is to email my travel agent. I just don't get into it they way I should- I do the research after we choose a place to stay or like in our vacation last week, we just didnt leave the resort. can you even imagine?! :)

[Erica_H]

I'm a Rick Steves kind of girl.