Job Discussion Forums

[skye]

What are the best guidebooks?
Lonely Planet tries hard to corner the shoestring/young traveller market but locals scoff at them and they come with a reputation of offering wannabe backpackers a false sense of 'cool.'

personally i appreciate their friendly layout and have gotten used to the sense of security i get when i have a lonely planet. i've learned to mostly avoid their restaurant suggestions. also i resent the price which is very un-shoestring like.

i've recently purchased a 'moon handbooks' guide and have not decided yet. i do not like that its written by only one author (unlike lonely planets team of writers) and is rather dry.

how are the 'rough guide' series? frommer and fodor are a bit too stuffy/high class for us esl-ers.

clearly nothing is perfect, but what do you guys suggest?

[Guy Courchesne]

I've always liked the Let's Go series...I found the info spot on, with good general suggestions on sights, transport, etc.

Funny...I bought a Let's Go guide to the US and Canada when I first took my Mexican wife for a tour of my own home region. Found a lot of things I'd never seen before.

[Stephen Jones]

'Lonely Planet' is fairly reliable for all countries I have visited.

[matttheboy]

Time Out city guides are far and away the best guides if you're going to a particularly city.

I've found lonely planet to be the best of the country guides for accomodation and activities and rough guides' country info tend to be the most insightful.

Rough Guides' accomodation info is incredibly frustrating as they don't mention a real price just a number which is linked to a 'pricing key' found somewhere near the back of the book.

Let's Go, especially for South-East Asia but also here in South America, is probably the worst of all (except for city maps for which Lonely Planet holds the crown for most confusing and/or plain wrong) with wrong information, places that don't exist and a worrying propensity to suggest brothels as enjoyable places to lay your head (so to speak...)

[VanIslander]

Google

Guide books seem second rate compared to info one can get online these days.

But I like taking notes. Some don't like doing research.

[dmb]

Who needs guide books. you can get all the info here on Dave's from fellow posters

[Guy Courchesne]

Let's test that...

Best places to get a latte, a massage, and a copy of Jane's Defense Weekly in Turkey.

You have 30 seconds dmb...tick, tick, tick...

[dmb]

[Guy Courchesne]

we have a winner.

Mexico?

Latte...Coyoacan burrough, south Mexico City, a litte place called Finca de Veracruz

Massage...I'm told anywhere on the strip in Tijuana.

Jane's Defense Weekly. Skip it. Head to a Ghandi bookstore or any Sanborn's in the land. Chilango is a better read.

[dmb]

Seriously though. The Turkish forum is afriendly forum. People are always giving advice about places to stay, places to eat, where to buy foreign food items, best local markets etc. I think the Turkish forum is what Dave intended when he set this place up. Foreigners abroad helping other foreigners abroad(We also have some valuable locals who join in)
I even met my girlfriend through Dave's. (Ok he maybe hadn't intended it to be a dating agency )

[Guy Courchesne]

and that's the way it should be. I think most of the forums are like that...friendly, helpful. Mexico certainly is. Think there's a correlation between happy friendly forums and happy friendly countries to work in?

My wife is jealous of this place though...like the forum is a mistress of some sort.

[dmb]

[ls650]

[Perpetual Traveller]

[Guy Courchesne]

I haven't seen them all, but I found the Let's Go Mexico version to be good. The Let's Go USA and Canada is goof for the states, but yes, lacking for Canada. Not sure if they have one dedicated to just Canada.