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TRAVEL |
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Travel Guides: Future, Present and Past |
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Someday travel planning on the Internet will go something like this: you log onto your favorite travel Web site, enter your password, and review your previously posted "travel profile." This will include all personal preferences from your favorite airline and hotel chain to the specs for your rental car. If nothing needs to be changed, you will type in your destination, click on "OK," and wait...with luck, not for more than a few seconds. The resulting itinerary that appears on your computer screen will let you know what shows are in town, which golf courses still have decent starting times, and where the restaurants are that can serve your favorite dinner. Naturally, you can select and reserve for all of these with convenient online check boxes. If your trip is for business, you will indicate a time for a wake-up call and order a taxi to your first appointment; if it's for pleasure, a selection of side trips will be suggested, along with downloadable maps and recommended attractions, routes and lunch stops, all plotted as GPS waypoints to load into your laptop. Okay, you can wake up now! We're not quite that far along yet. Sure, all of the above is technically possible, but at present the directors and CEOs of the companies that could make it happen are still in the process of linking resources, perfecting encryption techniques and arguing over operating standards, any one of which could delay this travel-planning nirvana for years. So what do we do in the meantime? Either we give up and call a professional travel agent, or we do the best we can browsing our favorite travel Web sites, finding a flight time at one, making a hotel reservation at another, downloading an Amtrak schedule, a city map, a subway plan. It's all interesting, even fun. But once we know where we're going and how we're going to get there, how do we decide what to see and do to make our trip really enjoyable? There are, of course, plenty of online resources to give us previews of our destination's entertainments, sights, and even sounds. But until we can download and print out a compact, color-illustrated publication to carry along with us (also technically possible but not yet practical), we must be satisfied with that low-tech device which requires no battery, no phone link, and no Web browser, but which can still teach us a lot about the history of a place and the customs of its people. We can drive with it along a scenic byway, stroll with it through museums and palaces, and relax with it in parks and sidewalk cafes. And it can fit in a shoulder bag or even a large pocket! I refer, of course, to the traditional travel guide, that compact digest of information that gives us just enough to whet the appetite without serving the full meal. Here, then, are a few of my favorites, each designed for differing traveling styles, different age groups and varying budgets. Each book on the following list is currently available through the Internet's premier online bookseller, Amazon.com. Each title is accompanied by a URL (or hyperlink if you're reading this column online) that will take you directly to an Amazon.com Web page where you can find more information about the author, content, size and price of each book, and, if you wish, purchase a copy online. Also included with each are my personal comments, sometimes with a brief synopsis written by an Amazon.com editor. You will notice that all of the books listed focus on Great Britain. As the most popular destination for Americans traveling abroad, this seemed like a logical, if not perfect, way to choose books for this review. If, however, you wish to browse different destinations by the same authors and publishers, visit my personal Web site and click your way to the Travel Bookstore which will feature new selections each month and will soon include not only travel and guide books, but atlases, maps and other travel paraphernalia as well. So, after that shameless plug, let's have a look at some of the best travel resources that retrospace has to offer. Frommer's England from $60 a Day For the frugal traveler, this veteran series (now in its 22nd edition!) is the mother of all budget guide books. I took Europe on $5 a Day with me on my first European trek in the rambling '60s and have been recommending it ever since. Synopsis: "Extensively rewritten this year and boasting 12 new interior maps, England from $60 a Day offers readers hundreds of choices for cozy, comfortable accommodations, memorable pubs, and affordable restaurants. Packed with money-saving tips and complete sightseeing information, it's the perfect companion guide to both London and the countryside." Written by the same authors as England from $60 a Day, this equally comprehensive volume caters to the older end of the "young upwardly mobile" and is equally useful to the senior traveler of comfortable means. This book, like all Frommer books, is organized by city or geographical region with all pertinent information (history, sightseeing, hotels, restaurants and miscellaneous travel information) presented on consecutive pages. Synopsis: "Frommer's offers a complete sightseeing guide to England-from the picturesque villages of the Cotswolds to the haunts of the Beatles in Liverpool-plus hundreds of detailed, candid listings for the country's best hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, pubs, and nightspots. Includes a dozen new maps, plus expanded shopping coverage throughout the country." Written primarily to a younger audience by a different battalion of college students each year, the "Let's Go" guides have captured free spirits of all ages with their "wit, humor and irreverence." These books are current, loaded with information, and, though primarily text-oriented, have enough visual material to satisfy most people. For the traveler who wants to get "really close" to the people and popular culture of a country, this guide is for you. Synopsis: "From the best-selling 'Let's Go' budget travel series, compiled by a team of researchers who travel all over the globe to rewrite and rediscover each destination. Each guide offers more choices than any other budget series, with detailed color maps and up-to-date information for any traveler, including gay and lesbian travelers, the disabled, and women traveling alone. 36 b&w maps. 7 color maps." Baedeker Great Britain and Northern Ireland There are text-oriented travel guides and graphics-oriented travel guides. Baedeker's style is a successful combination of the two. This guide is also laid out a bit differently than most. Each book is divided into three main sections: the first deals with the history and overview of the country; the next lists the major sights and attractions; the last deals with hotel/restaurant recommendations and miscellaneous practical travel tips. Baedeker guides are compact, complete, easy to use, even water resistant! And the separate large map tucked into the back cover is often more useful than the usual small inserts. This is an all-around guide book which may be the only one needed for a short break or an extended tour. Discover Britain (Berlitz Discover Guides) Famous for their tiny Pocket Guides (which are excellent for quick city sojourns) the Berlitz organization's Discover series is complete enough for the veteran traveler and compact enough for your first whirlwind tour. The book's full color format gives a wonderful sense of place, capturing the "feel" of each destination, and the suggested itineraries and touring routes are especially helpful. There are plenty of city maps and town plans, together with hotel and restaurant recommendations in a variety of price ranges. Ranks with Baedeker for its highly visual, user-friendly layout. Rick Steves' Great Britain & Ireland 1998 If you liked Rick Steves' television series, you'll also like his guidebooks. Laid out in the "Frommer format," (that is, all information for each geographical area is covered on consecutive pages) the book is well organized and concise but with minimal information on lodgings and places to dine. Better take along a Michelin Red Guide or some other hotel/restaurant finder if you use this book. Synopsis: "Featuring the facts on the best sights and activities in Great Britain and Ireland, this handy guide tells travelers how to experience the British and Irish cultures, people, and natural wonders economically and without hassles. Steves includes information on London, the Cotswolds, Bath, York, Edinburgh, and other areas, offering clear directions on transportation. 35 maps" Michelin Green Guide (Great Britain) Probably the most ubiquitous tourist guide in Europe is the Michelin Green Guide. Unfortunately, the inventory of cities, countries and regions represented is limited and some are written only in French. Fortunately, the one on England is in English! There are no hotel or restaurant listings in the Green Guides; those are reserved for the companion Michelin Red Guides which have coded information on thousands of establishments. Green Guide maps are limited; companion Michelin maps and atlases can be purchased separately for the areas to be visited. But once equipped with a Green Guide, Red Guide and maps of your intended destination, it is hard for other guide books to compete with the wealth of well-organized, interlinked sightseeing attractions, and star-ranked destinations, lodgings and restaurants that can be compiled with a complete Michelin travel set. Great Britain: Eyewitness Travel Guides If your hero is Marshall McLuhan, this is the guidebook for you. The entire Eyewitness series is extremely visual with full color photos, bird's eye vistas, architectural diagrams, well-conceived map inserts-in short, a graphic designer's tour de force. Concisely written text provides an ideal blend of history, sightseeing information, accommodation and dining recommendations, as well as loads of practical travel information. This book is perfect for pre-trip planning, as it gives the reader a realistic preview of each region; it is efficient as a traveling companion as it is not overly bulky, and it is a pleasure to browse even after your trip is over as you recall and relate your travel adventures. These excellent travel guides represent but a few of those reviewed at my Web site's Travel Bookstore which is itself linked to Amazon.com's 2.5 million other titles. Add discount prices to those and what can your local book sellers ever do to entice you back into their stores? Maybe a double latte and a raisin scone? I know that always gets me. |
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Jim Crandall invites you to visit his personal Web page (http://www.vcnet.com/jcrandall), where you will find easy access to all of his WWWiz columns, summaries of all of his travel Web site reviews, and LINKS to some of the best travel pages on the World Wide Web. Email comments to jcrandall@vcnet.comare also welcome. |
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