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The Future of Travel Guidebooks

Pauline

Forums Admin
The Cadogan travel guidebooks were considered by many to be the best Europe travel guides, but they were sold twice (I think) in recent years, and the current owner New Holland does not plan to update them. In the Arrivals forum, Dana Facaros co-author of many of the Cadogan guides, said that she and Michael Pauls were getting the rights back to the guides they wrote and plan on publishing them as e-books. They are considering removing hotel and restaurant recommendations since they think most people get those from the web and no longer rely on guidebooks for that.

There has also been discussion recently about the Frommers guidebooks. They were owned by Wiley and sold in 2012 to Google. Now Arthur Frommer has bought them back from Google and he and his daughter Pauline plan to start publishing them again, but with a different focus - smaller, more specific guides instead of large books. They will publish Easy Guides, smaller guides (256 pages), and Day by Day guides with itineraries and walking tours for 1 - 4 days of travel (180 pages).

Arthur Frommer says, in the Washington Post article, "the print guidebooks are still outselling the e-book 8 or 9 to 1".

Read more on these two articles:

I used Frommer's Europe on $50 a Day in the late 80s when Steve and I spent a year traveling in Europe. But when we started traveling in Italy in the mid 90s, I switched to the Cadogan guides.

Personally, I still like a printed guidebook. And I rely on guidebooks more than travel blogs. But when trip planning, I like to talk to other travelers (forums, facebook, friends). I travel with a Kindle and an iPad, so I will probably switch over to e-book travel guides (eventually).

I don't use guidebooks for hotel or restaurant recommendations. I used to, but now I use reviews online.

What does everyone else here think?
  • Do you still use guidebooks?
  • If so, e-book or printed?
  • If not, where do you get travel information?
  • Where do you get your hotel and restaurant recommendations?
 
Thanks for starting this tread, Pauline! Would love to hear what people think- not only re print and ebook, but also apps. I have a half finished app on Venice art and culture that's sitting there, but our current app company is going through some changes as well, so it's on hold.
 
I still use guidebooks but for the history and sightseeing part and not really for the hotel and restaurant recs. I either buy a used copy of a guidebook and leave it behind, or make copies of the pages I need and leave the copies behind in the vacation rentals I rent. I've also does what Rebecca does and tear pages out of old editions, but I would never do that to my Cadogan guides. :) I usually do that for books I pick up at yard sales (hello Mr. Steves.)

I have downloaded a few books on my IPad, but I don't want to talk around with it.

For restaurants, I'll ask the owner of the rental I am in, or the guy behind the bar, use a friends recommendation or use my eyes and nose. Plus I'll check out reviews from time to time.
 
I use guidebooks for research before a trip, but I never bring them with me. I much prefer ebooks or apps to take with me.
 
I love guidebooks, too, and I used to lug several of them with me on trips. Now I read them beforehand, and any reference materials I take are apps or ebooks. I keep the books both on my iPhone and on my iPad Mini, which is small and light enough to go into the purse I usually carry.

Before a trip I compile lists of places to go, things to see, recommended restaurants, etc., which I keep as text or pdf files on my phone and iPad. Recently I have started making Google Maps of those places as well.

I also generally get restaurant recommendations online (or locally). It's really handy to be able to get online while traveling and find recommendations for restaurants nearby.

I would also love to have the (former) Cadogan books as ebooks, so I could read from them while we are driving from one place to another, or the night before we head out. (My husband drives and I read!) They have so much great information, but they are rather heavy to pack along.
 
I still use guidebooks but for the history and sightseeing part and not really for the hotel and restaurant recs. I either buy a used copy of a guidebook and leave it behind, or make copies of the pages I need and leave the copies behind in the vacation rentals I rent. I've also does what Rebecca does and tear pages out of old editions, but I would never do that to my Cadogan guides. :) I usually do that for books I pick up at yard sales (hello Mr. Steves.)

I have downloaded a few books on my IPad, but I don't want to talk around with it.

For restaurants, I'll ask the owner of the rental I am in, or the guy behind the bar, use a friends recommendation or use my eyes and nose. Plus I'll check out reviews from time to time.
Well, there was a year when Cadogan's printers used really cheap glue, and the pages fell out all by themselves–boy did we hear about it!
 
I love guidebooks, too, and I used to lug several of them with me on trips. Now I read them beforehand, and any reference materials I take are apps or ebooks. I keep the books both on my iPhone and on my iPad Mini, which is small and light enough to go into the purse I usually carry.

Before a trip I compile lists of places to go, things to see, recommended restaurants, etc., which I keep as text or pdf files on my phone and iPad. Recently I have started making Google Maps of those places as well.

I also generally get restaurant recommendations online (or locally). It's really handy to be able to get online while traveling and find recommendations for restaurants nearby.

I would also love to have the (former) Cadogan books as ebooks, so I could read from them while we are driving from one place to another, or the night before we head out. (My husband drives and I read!) They have so much great information, but they are rather heavy to pack along.
A techie friend of ours is convinced that not only should we make apps, but they should have an audio option —so you could listen in the car too! Also he thinks it's much better to look at a church or monument and hear a description instead of having to look away and read about it. We're not entirely convinced, though... there was talk of doing a trial one for in and around our local area in France, but as usual we never had the time or money. In Barcelona (and other cities) you can hire a Go Car where the audio description is pegged to the GPS, which is another possibility.
 
Interesting article in the Toronto Star - Asking the crowd can help cut the costs of your trip - about new travel websites where you can ask "travel experts" for advice.

From the article:

"Some sites, like Flightfox.com, aim to deliver savings on flights, hotels or activities. A consumer submits a proposed itinerary and the company’s pool of 900 researchers compete to find the lowest fare. The winning expert is awarded 75 per cent of a finder’s fee, paid by the consumer, which ranges from $24 to $500. The fee is determined by the complexity of the trip."

"... newly launched San Francisco-based Pilots Expert Travel Network which arranges phone consultations with vetted travel professionals."

"For those wanting advice from actual friends, Tripbirds.com and Gogobot.com integrate people’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter accounts to find hotels and activities recommended by their associates."
 
Interesting sites. Everything is changing so quickly...everyone trying to think of the next big thing.

Speaking of which, here's another, Secret Earth. The new website launched today after two years of work, and is designed to especially help plan a trip, if you want to travel but not sure where to go—there's a recommendation tool where you can put in your criteria, and presto! it offers suggestions—with content by experienced travel writers (full disclosure: including Michael and me!). It's invitation only, but since you all love to travel, you're all invited:
http://www.secretearth.com/invite/I..._medium=email&utm_campaign=friends_and_family
 
Shannon got me started reading "Insight" guides - the Normandy book caught my interest immediately. They remind me of Blue Guides, but more in depth on society and culture. Like others, I read up beforehand on my destination, and make notes to take with me or yes, tear out pages!

I usually travel with a DK guidebook - all those lovely color photos remind me of what I want to do and see. I did, however, recently buy a bunch of DK ebooks, so maybe next time I can leave the paper at home!
 
I don't think online travel sites such as TA and even ST replace guides. I often go online and check Frommers to just get an overview when planning a new trip. I agree they don't have to contain hotel and restaurant reviews anymore. I don't know about using travel apps instead. What apps? I downloaded TA's app for NYC and have a couple of older small books I'll take.
I find the Insight and DK guides too detailed. Maybe for fun to look at in advance. Mmm maybe I'll check out the DK ebooks Colleen mentions above.
One of the neg thing about guidebooks is their cumbersome weight. Altho I hated to do it, I tore out pages pn a recent trip.
 
I'll always want a hard copy of some info, whether it's something I've printed myself, or pages ripped from a guidebook - and yes, I too cringe when I do this, but I still do it. I love the Insight Guides, and DK, but when getting ready for a trip I like to make a trip to the bookstore to see what's available. Unfortunately I think bookstores are carrying fewer and fewer choices in-store, maybe because you can see all their choices online and just order. Of course I'm not very techie, and altho I do have an ipod, I only use it for back-up info, not for every day reference. Perhaps if I had something larger, but then size/weight comes into play.
 
We did some work for DK a couple of years ago on a family guide to France and then updates of big chunks of their France and regional France texts in preparation for their release as ebooks and apps. Because there is such a long time between the writing, fact checking etc and their release (DK translates their guides into I don't know how many languages), I wouldn't be surprised if some of the restaurants we added may not be as good or even closed with the current economic crisis—in France, no one can afford to hire anyone, and restaurants in particular have suffered. Now that all their info is digitalized, it will be fairly easy to update though, especially on their apps (the question always will be, though, will they get someone to do it?)

We turned one of our Cadogan guides, the city guide to Barcelona, into an app, which has done okay and which we try to update every few months. For little guys like us, though, it's becoming increasingly difficult to compete—not really against big companies like DK (of course they have the name, the advertizing clout, and we just have word of mouth or itunes/android reviews, but that's always been the way with Cadogan) but against all the free apps out there—a whopping 94%. Many of these apps are just about worth that (a lot have text copied straight from Wikipedia) or are sponsored somehow and try to earn revenue from ads. Of course one guy complained that our app had too much content! Suspect most people just want to be told the top ten, and be done with it. But at least with an app you don't have to feel guilty about tearing out pages.
 
This is a great topic. I tend to use everything. But I find that what and when I use depends on the stage of my trips. When I'm in the looking for inspiration stage I am drawn to the general internet. I'll watch YouTube videos, read travel blogs and internet articles, look at photos, read what wikipedia has to say, read community forums and follow links and follow up leads on what I learn.

Once I have an idea of where I want to go, I then look for guidebooks and interesting books about the location. These days I prefer books that I can find on iBooks / Amazon Kindle. I'll purchase several on line. The benefits are huge for me. They don't take up space in my luggage, I can take them with me when I travel (without the added weight) and just the features alone. The ability to highlight pages for quick reference while on the go. Sometimes the information I find useful is sort of spread out on several books so to have the ability to highlight my information and organize them based on use and sightseeing information is so handy. I'll get a printed book if I can't find the e-book version or if the eBook version doesn't include photos/maps like they do on the printed version. If the book is offered in both print & e-book, the deal breaker for me in deciding between the printed/eBook versions is whether the eBook versions include the photos/maps. One of reasons I like the DK books are for their photos. Also, certain activities really requires the printed version. Like a hiking book or something specific like that where it's more convenient to have the printed version.

I also like to use apps as well. Really great travel apps are hard to come by but when you find one they are very useful. I like apps for their utility/reference purposes and appreciate the apps that gives me that and more. The apps that I like are the ones that have photos/maps, easy to navigate and provide useful, practical information for a traveler on the go. for example, once I couldn't figure out a subway line I needed and remembered I had an app for it. Another time, I was at a restaurant and didn't have the translation of the items on the menu, luckily I had an app for it. Very handy.

I use the internet information highway (internet articles, travel forums (word of mouth), blogs, reviews, hotel website, Google maps) when choosing my hotels and also for dining recommendations. I'll also check with the hotel staff and/or vacation rental manager for dining recommendations.

For my most recent trip to Peru, I bought 8 e-books, 2 printed books (took only one on the trip) and 2 apps.
 

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