We think they are invaluable
Visiting a new city without a good travel guidebook is akin to starting out without a clear destination in mind. You’ll eventually get somewhere, but more likely you’ll get lost.
We have been big fans of Rick Steves’ Travel Guides* for many years – they provide plenty of detail to help us plan our trips. Once there, his self-guided walks of cities and major attractions have helped us navigate new locales. Rick combines colorful descriptions with input from local experts – all of which help us to appreciate what we’re seeing.
We used to feel awkward about carrying a guidebook. “We’ll look like tourists!”, we told ourselves. Then we realized that we were going to look like tourists no matter what, so to heck with it. Grab the book and let’s go!
When we were in Athens recently, we used Rick’s new “Audio Europe Travel App” that features audio versions of many of his walking tours.
These are our “go to” books for travel in Europe, but there are plenty of other options – Lonely Planet*, Fodor’s*, and Rough Guides*, to name a few. Find a series that fits your style and your destination.
Tear it up and take it with you
Some people, including Rick Steves, recommend that you cut up your guidebook and only take the sections that cover the areas you’ll visit. We did that once with a copy of our other Guidebook – 1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die– and it saved us some bulk in the suitcase.
Having a good travel guidebook in hand has helped us find our way around new cities and added to our understanding and appreciation of the places we visited and the things we saw. If you don’t carry one, try it on your next trip and let us know how it goes.
Until next time / Até a próxima vez
Mary and Mike
The Cook and The Writer
What’s your go-to travel guidebook? Let us know with a note in the comments below or via the Contact Us form. We’ll add it to the list and give you credit for it.
* This link is direct to Amazon.com. At the time of this writing (August, 2023), we receive no affiliate payment if you buy a copy. If that changes in the future, we’ll let you know.
