Tim Leffel’s Cheapest Destinations

Online Vietnam Guidebook

Robert Reid, a guidebook author who has written about Siberian mustaches for Perceptive Travel, has just released an online guidebook for Vietnam. Reid is no newbie when it comes to guidebooks. He has updated a dozen Lonely Planet guidebooks (including Southeast Asia, Trans-Siberian Railway and New York City) — and still works for them (the tricky Myanmar guide is next up).

Reid has a lot of good reasons why an online guide to Vietnam makes more sense than a print one, so I’ll just use his words here.

• It’s free. Guidebooks cost $25. Even illegal ‘pirate’ copies of guidebooks in Vietnam run about $6. Even online city-guide downloads by travel sites like TravelFish.org cost money. My guide offers just as in-depth details of Vietnam’s highlight areas.

• It’s fresher. Unlike a guidebook, turn-around time is immediate. I was checking Nha Trang beach hotels and trying out Hue motorbike guides a little over a month ago. When I discover something for a guidebook publisher, you won’t be able to read about it, often, for over a year.

• You can customize it. The most common complaint guidebook users have is having to tote around 400 pages they’ll never use. With my Vietnam guide, you can print what you want – just the Saigon map, or the Hoi An chapter, or the whole thing.

• It’s more direct, personalized. With my site I can ‘tell it like it is’ in a way that I can’t if writing for big-boy, bigger-audience guidebooks like Frommer’s, Rough Guide or Lonely Planet. The sort of advice I’d tell my friends – eg ‘the Church Hotel in Hanoi is the best $40 deal in the country,’ or ’skip the grueling DMV bus tours from Hue – you get much more out of it by going with DMZ Café from Dong Ha’ – is all over my guide, something guidebooks like Lonely Planet’s have to soften.

• Anyone can talk with the author. Hit ‘Contact’ and ask me about itineraries or the best beach resort, and I’ll get back to you with my first-hand experience.

Vietnam is one of The World’s Cheapest Destinations and has a lot to offer from top to bottom. Go check it out and see for yourself at ReidonTravel.

[photo copyright Tim Leffel, from Transitions Abroad.]