Guide Books

The type of Guide Book you buy before a trip tells a lot about your style of travel. Can you get away without buying a guidebook? Sure, wikitravel.org is a great place to start, as well as travel blogs like ours. Do I recommend it? Not at all. You really miss out on important places, restaurants, tips and tricks that make for a more memorable adventure. Its helpful to have the book on you for plane/train/bus/car rides. Some guidebooks delve into history and cultural information to the same degree as if you’d hired a local personal tour guide.

My #1 favorite are Lonely Plant Guidebooks. They are for the independent travelers who abhor all-inclusive, tour bus rides, sheeple timed nonsense that chugs the mindless masses through destinations without getting their feet wet or immersing themselves in the culture.

Pros. Detailed descriptions, itineraries, maps, range of accommodations from five star to hostel, history, culture, tips, tricks and pretty much everything worth experiencing updated continuously by a large group of contributing writers who live/work/adventure regularly in the area of coverage.

Cons. Few photos, making it hard to know what you’re supposed to be looking for sometimes!

DK. These are Kristin’s favorite. I personally think it spoils the adventure to have photos of what you’re looking for in your hand and then looking up to see the real thing, but sometimes it helps to know what you’re looking for. DK’s are light on words and focus on the art, artifacts, monuments, etc, room by room so you can make sure you don’t walk past the start attraction

There are plenty of other Guidebooks out there, Fodors, Frommers, RoughGuides, RickSteves, none of which I’d recommend paying for, if someone hands them off to you then ok!

There are also many iphone app guidebooks, but remember your data is extremely expensive and hard to regulate overseas. It can be very dangerous if your phone turns on and background data starts going wild on accident.

The Vegan Passport is also a must have for travel.

its a small book the size of your passport that has a polite translation of vegan and how to prepare food in every language. It doesn’t hurt to hand over to the chefs at your local internationally staffed restaurants either!