Three Cheers for Opinionated Guidebooks
April 21st, 2009 Posted in Cheap North America Travel, Destination reports, Travel books
Have you ever used a guidebook that was downright blah? One that felt as it it were written by committee, or by an editor who seemed strangely detached from the place he/she was covering?
I get that feeling far too often, actually, and it seems to have become more frequent in the past few years. As many of the big guidebook companies have slashed pay and royalties for writers—in many cases in response to the fact that there are just way too many guidebooks competing for shelf space and attention—the material seems to have suffered. There’s more trepidation, softer language, and a seeming reluctance to call a crappy place crappy.
I’m always glad to be pleasantly surprised and I find that I’m most often surprised by the Moon guides, today’s case in point being the Santa Fe, Taos, and Albuquerque guide I just used in New Mexico. The full disclosure here is that I know the writer: Zora O’Neill has done some writing for Perceptive Travel and another site I have a hand in, so I already knew her work. The thing is, she’s from Albuquerque, she’s an experienced writer, she knows how to research well, and she’s not afraid to point out the good and the bad about a place.
The result is somewhere between the insider’s scoop and the digging supplied by someone who wasn’t trying to learn everything there is to know about a place in a few weeks of dropping in. I did some research on the web before leaving, but this book trumped it—as most of the good ones do. I had some tips from current and former locals, but they dovetailed well with the recommendations in here. The result was we ate great meals at the best places, found our way around fine, and even knew where we could go find some pinball machines on the nightlife strip. All in a compact little package that was easy to carry and didn’t require booting up or recharging. Imagine that.
That doesn’t mean every single Moon guide is the best for your destination, but most of them do tend to be authoritative, well-researched, and yes, opinionated. When you know a place inside-out, you tend to be more confident. There are certainly some travelers who don’t like this approach. This writer doesn’t like chain hotels, so the Hilton right in the center that I scored on Priceline wasn’t even in here. But so what? Who needs to know what a Hilton looks like? Omission for a good reason beats a dutiful rundown of the same 20 hotels that everyone else is including.
10 Responses to “Three Cheers for Opinionated Guidebooks”
By JimmyB on Apr 21, 2009
In the good old days, the Lonely Planet guidebooks used to be like this too, especially the ones like Thailand that were written by someone who spent most or all of the year there. Now it has six authors so of course it feels like it is written by a committee, as do most of them. They’ll do the job, but not much personality in them anymore. Apparently that’s what people want though. They didn’t get to be #1 by accident.
By marina k. villatoro on Apr 21, 2009
i soooo prefer guides that say it like it is. not to go along with what everyone ‘wants to hear’. I actaully really like moon. I’ve been using them for a while, they have a great line for central america.
The Travel Expert(a) – Living and Traveling Central America
By tim on Apr 22, 2009
JimmyB, you are right that there has been a noticeable dilution there and the other problem is that so many people blindly follow their lodging advice—which is not their fault really—so every place listed is jammed while the ones a block away are empty.
Having said that, there are some really great, dedicated guidebook writers still working for LP, including Perceptive Travel writers Robert Reid, Leif Pettersen, and Richard Sterling. If nothing else, LP covers the places nobody else does and they have been ahead of the game with their pick and mix downloadable chapters.
By stuart on Apr 22, 2009
Agreed Moon can be a bit eratic, but as you point out, it really helps if the author knows a good amount amount about the place before they parachute in.
Writing by committee can work — if they’re all on the same page, know the place well … and leave the parachute at home.
By Lisa on Apr 22, 2009
A guidebook doesn’t cost very much really, so I get annoyed with people talking like they’ve been ripped off by buying the wrong one. It’s been a long time since I’ve come across one that was really horrible. At least the fact-checkers seem to be doing their job. As you say though, the more there are, the more boring they seem to get. Time Out ones are not boring, but they’re maddeningly unhelpful at times too.
By Marc Harris on Apr 27, 2009
We love the classic guide to Tanzania and Zanzibar published by Cadogan Guides – it is pretty useless on any timetables or good travel info, but read it for some excellent insight and classic place history… if you want a guide to bring a place to life, and you fancy East Africa as a subject, then Cadogan Guides are superb.
By Steve on Apr 27, 2009
Agree completely with Marina – the Moon Nicaragua book was very, very helpful (written by 2 guys, but didn’t feel ‘written by committee’).
For breadth of selection for hotels and restaurants though, you can’t beat Footprint – and when a place is listed as ‘highly recommended’ you are assured that a great many people endorse the place.
I just bought the Moon Argentina book by Wayne Bernardson, and hope it will give some tips/insights not found in my giant (and heavy) Footprint S.A. 2009 book.
By tim on Apr 28, 2009
I like the Footprint guides too and carried one along on my first Peru trip, but they seem to take their good ole time updating them. If you can catch a new one, great, but the current Ecuador one for instance came out in June 2007, which means the bulk of the research was done in 2006. Ancient history.
By Zora on Apr 28, 2009
Thanks for the kind words, Tim! And glad you appreciated the pinball recommendation! (At Anodyne, it must’ve been?)
FWIW, I occasionally write for LP too. It is interesting to see the different ways of working at each publisher. Moon is about the only publisher (and I guess maybe Bradt?) where all guides are written by a single author (or a couple, who know each other and work together). I like to think it makes a difference, particularly in the consistency.
By tim on Apr 29, 2009
Yes, it was Anodyne. We played pinball (the cool Adams Family one even), shot some pool, and drank good local microbrew on tap. My kind of place.