Trip Guides & Tour Books Recommendations

[Avid Reader]

Though it would be useful to have a centralized thread for these things.

Anyone use the AAA TourBooks? Are they good? How do they compere to other tour / guide books?

[Dan]

AAA books are worthless IMHO.

As for other books, it depends on the place really.

In Hawaii for example nothing can compare to the Hawaii Revealed series.  It's criminal to go there without getting the books for the islands you're visiting.

I like the new Fodor's Full Color series.

Lonely Planet books are usually very good with extensive research.

You also have

Lonely Planet Discover Full Color Books

Frommer's Books

Eyewitness Books

And there are often pocket sized "City guide" books made by various publishers including lonely planet that are good for big cities like Paris, etc.

[Avid Reader]

I'm looking for books on the White Mountains area in New Hapshire. Anyone been there?

Also Niagara (Does the master thread here cover it all?).

Thanks.

[Joe4007]

What are the main differences between the regular Lonely Planet travel guides and the Lonely Planet Discover books?

[jose34]

+1, anyone know the answer?

[mordechain]

With Kindle unlimited, you can download just about any lonely planet book out there. Even with just prime reading many are available for free. Why not just try one of each?

[dunho]

Anybody have a good guide book for Israel?

[@Yehuda]

Just went through a small portion of a Rick Steves guidebook, and I was really disappointed. I have never read a guidebook other than the Hawaii Revealed ones, so I know I have high expectations, but I didn't like several things that I thought I would share. I found the order of things within a city confusing. No clear path is taken when they describe a city and they don't relate things well to the maps they provide. Also, the quality of the pages was really bad (I know that's just an external thing, but it helps enjoy the book). After a general intro in the beginning with thick, colorful pages, the rest (majority) of the book is phonebook quality - black and white on thin pages. Just returned it and am buying the Lonely Planet version.

[ponash123]

I have found Frommer's and Fodor's to be the best guide books.
Lonely Planet books are decent, but more 'backpack' and budget oriented. They're also a bit confusing and I don't come away feeling that informed.
Fodor's generally is my go to. They are very clear, easy to read and have lots of information. I like the layout and find it a bit easier to reference areas and maps than Frommer's.
On the other hand, Frommer's is very informative and will give more of a larger picture. They give very detailed information about locations which really comes in handy.
A combination of the 2 usually gives you what you need.

[ludmila]

I have found Frommer's and Fodor's to be the best guide books.
Lonely Planet books are decent, but more 'backpack' and budget oriented. They're also a bit confusing and I don't come away feeling that informed.
Fodor's generally is my go to. They are very clear, easy to read and have lots of information. I like the layout and find it a bit easier to reference areas and maps than Frommer's.
On the other hand, Frommer's is very informative and will give more of a larger picture. They give very detailed information about locations which really comes in handy.
A combination of the 2 usually gives you what you need.

I also found Fodor's very useful, I did not try Frommer's .