Guide Books - rate em or hate em

So which guide book(s) do you shove in your pack before boarding the plane?

I've always been a fan of Rough Guides myself. I like the tone and have used them happily in Europe & Asia - never been sent wrong by them, have I just been lucky?

Lonely Planet guides have always been low on my list. It's those smug pictures of the authors that put me off to start with. And I got totally shafted by the advice in their edition covering Hungary - ended up sleeping in Sopron station with the tramps as all the hostels they listed had shut down. Have heard libellous mutterings about their poor research for the South America edition also - another reason to buy the Footprint book! Now I only buy them if there is no alternative.

Or do you think they are all a waste of time - poorly researched and out of date before they're printed? I've seen hotels in India which advertise that they appear in L.P and inflate their prices accordingly - not a good sign.

What is the alternative - just make your own way?

I look at how up-to-date or relevant the LP or RG is B4 I buy. For example, for last year's visit to Tunisia and the Saharan bits, the RG was better, it specifically covered the areas I wanted to see in depth. For some destinations the LP is more current. Plus you can get updates from their site.

The Lonely Planet guides to South America, in my experience (hands on) suck. If you're heading out that way, the South American Handbook and its individual country equivalents published by Footprint are a much better option. For trekking I like the Trailblazer guides.

There are an awful lot of rather sad walking guidebooks written in strange, clichéd guidebookese jargon that I can't be doing with. Cicernone publish a lot of them, you know the stuff: 'A steep haul up some challenging terrain leads to a magnificent cirque which is surmounted to reveal a magnificent vista spread out ahead... '

I also hate the bits when guidebook writers try hard to fill you with dread at what is to come. Wainwright started that one off with all the bs about 'fearful declavities' and 'steps so severe that the normal walker will be wise to retreat' etc. It's almost never as bad as they tell you.

We have a terrible tradition in outdoor writing in particular where the authors - mostly men - try to impress you with how tough they are, lots of macho summit conquest etc. And guys, if you can't climb one really big one, then make up for it by bagging Munroes and boasting about your stamina.

What's that? I am a bloke, oh, er, yeah, but it still does my head in. It's the difference between people who do a particular climb just so other people know they've done it and those who do it for their own satisfaction and don't give a stuff who knows. I've met people who have said they wouldn't bother climbing certain mountains if no-one knew about it. I reckon it's the other way round, you should climb mountains because they're beautiful and for being there, not because you're out to impress.

Blimey, how did I get there. Rant off, have a good weekend.

Jon

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OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

ps: Trailblazer Guides are great where they exist, really well researched, nicely written and well organised. The ones for Nepal are the best I've seen:
www.trailblazer-guides.com

But do you need a guidebook at all?

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OutdoorsMagic Editor | jon@outdoorsmagic.com 

Sometimes they have useful drivel in - like in Southern Tunisia last year we stayed one night in Nefta, which was alleged to have been founded by one of the sons of Noah as it was the first place where they managed to boil water after the great flood. An interesting little market town we passed through was seized by Libyan guerilla troops fairly recently and several people were tortured and shot. I find such snippets very interesting and it makes me realise just how far from what we consider 'normal' some of these places are and makes me respect the people and culture more.

As a woman it is also useful to know how I should adapt my dress or manner to suit local sensibilities as I don't want to cause offence in a culturally insensitive way.

I find very little of real use in most guidebooks. I'm quite big on planning, so I tend to read everything I can before I go, but these days I get as much if not more off the net, or from tourist information offices, as I do from the guide books. I photocopy what I need rather than take a whole book away with me, but usually it's only a few pages.

City guides I find a lot more useful than the outdoorsy ones, especially the Blue Guides (not as racy as it sounds) series.

The only walking guide I've ever got any real use from is the Kummerley and Frey 'Hiking in the Jungfrau Region'. Simple, factual descriptions, topographic diagrams and a broad spread of routes all packed in a tiny phrasebook-sized package make it 10x more useful than any other English language competitor. Unfortunately this is the only area they do an English guide for. I agree that the Cicerone-type guides, including the Lonely Planet 'Walking' series, are pretty awful. For Europe generally, I find German-language guides are generally far better than their English equivalents, but obviously the language barrier prevents most of us getting the full use from them.

When it comes to further afield, the Footprint South America Handbook is the only one I'd bother repurchasing. Apart from the scarcity of genuinely factual information, I think the big failing with most of these guides is their insistence on structuring their content by region, which necessitates far too much dull repetition. Sparsely populated areas, like most of Nepal, I think would lend themselves far better to a thematic treatment.

I don't think guidebooks are the necessity they set themselves out to be, anyway. On my first trip outside Europe, to Thailand at the age of 18, we had no books, maps or remotely suitable gear. Not a conscious choice, this was due entirely to ignorance and stupidity. Nevertheless, we not only survived but enjoyed ourselves for two months (including a month in the jungle), and unbound by guidebook 'don'ts' had many experiences we perhaps wouldn't have been open to otherwise. Of course, this sort of approach isn't always viable, but neither should it be ruled out, especially if you've got a relaxed schedule and an open-ended timetable.

Joan, where do you find German guidebooks? Do you have a URL?

I agree on the Lonely Planet Walking Guides. The Italian one certainly wasn't worth the money. Of course with a guidebook that covers a whole country, it's going to be spotty.

Anyway, I've used the Landscape guides by Sunflower books in the past and the routes they recommend tend to be pretty and walkable. But their timings are optimistic to say the least. I've never completed one of their rambles but luckily they usually include shortcuts to make the walks more managable. The maps tend to be useless, though. Hard to tell if that's Sunflower books' fault or the original map materials'.

I've bought all my German guidebooks abroad, mostly in Austria and Italy. Book shops there seem to have a far wider selection of outdoorsy titles than British ones do. I like to check the text isn't too hard for my appalling German before I purchase, so I haven't dared to buy online yet. The main publishers of walking books are Rother and Kompass, and you can find more at www.mountain-bookshop.de and www.amazon.de.