Comments on: Three Cheers for Opinionated Guidebooks

By: tim

tim — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:03:21 +0000

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.

By: Zora

Zora — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:22:35 +0000

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

tim — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:03:20 +0000

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: Steve

Steve — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:41:05 +0000

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: Marc Harris

Marc Harris — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:37:50 +0000

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: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 23:31:18 +0000

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: stuart

stuart — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 22:26:10 +0000

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: tim

tim — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:03:30 +0000

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: marina k. villatoro

marina k. villatoro — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:07:43 +0000

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: JimmyB

JimmyB — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:55:24 +0000

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.