Posted on: Monday, June 27, 2005

SAVVY TRAVELLER

By Irene Croft Jr.

The increasing numbers of colorful and specialized guidebooks reflect travelers' growing sophistication and interest in new activities and exotic, less-touristed destinations. In choosing a guide, consider a book's accuracy and honesty in its descriptive materials, the currentness of its practical information, its organizational format, its general readability, and its application to your particular travel interests.

A thoughtfully selected guide can often make the difference between a stimulating, memorable journey and an unpleasant mix of culture shock, overspending, wasted time and missed opportunities.

Following is a subjective evaluation of the most popular guidebook series among American travelers. They are available through your local book purveyor or from Amazon.com (www.amazon.com) and Barnes & Noble (www.barnesandnoble.com).

Access Guides: These concise city guides cover the essentials with little added commentary. Appealing to the highly organized, the text is color coded for restaurants, hotels, sightseeing and shopping, expediting the location of specific information you need.

Baedeker's: The near-legendary Baedeker's guides begin with overviews of history, culture and landscape, followed by alphabetically organized descriptions of premier places to visit. Practical information, including hotel and dining recommendations, appears in the back of each book. Superior, comprehensive guides for touring and sightseeing.

Berkeley: Written by University of California Berkeley students, these budget guides cater to student interests — dirt-cheap sleeps and eats, and low-cost or free attractions. Included are candid commentary on the current political and social climates of the country and tips on how to have safe, inexpensive fun while avoiding hordes of tourists.

Blue Guides: The encyclopedic Blue Guides offer information on history, art, and architecture that is unparalleled in depth and detail by any major guide series. Although the text is often dry and densely printed, Blue Guides are invaluable for background reading at home.

Cadogan: Intelligently written for sophisticated, independent travelers with strong interests in history and culture. With their expert insights and advice, these guides are excellent as both pre-trip planners and on-site resources.

Eyewitness: These intimate, highly acclaimed guides to European countries and cities show you what others only tell you. They are filled with full-color photos, illustrations, detailed maps and 3-D views of every significant landmark, building, museum, and gallery, as well as comprehensive practical information on major shops, hotels, and restaurants.

Fodor's: Widely recognized as the gold standard of mainstream travel, Fodor's guides include cogent comments, essential practical details of hotels, restaurants and shops, color photography, maps, and itinerary suggestions to satisfy a range of interests and budgets.

Frommer's: The ground-breaking Budget Travel Guide/$-A-Day Series from Frommer's has been helping travelers get the best for their money for more than 40 years. Dubbed "the ultimate guide to comfortable low-cost travel," these guides feature original content and need-to-know information, all well-organized and easily located.

Insight: Setting this series apart from the rest are brilliant color photographs that supplement the text, which includes a wealth of background information on history, places and contemporary culture. These guides are particularly useful as pre-trip planners.

Knopf: Beautifully produced Knopf guides dazzle with their vibrant photographs and maps and emphasis on history and art. Thoughtful recommendations will lead you to a destination's finest hotels, restaurants, shops, cultural sites and more. Great armchair reading.

Let's Go: Compiled by Harvard students for 35 years, Let's Go guides were originally designed for student travelers but contain enough excellent information on sightseeing and cultural activities to be useful to all adventurous travelers. Bargain-basement in price orientation, these guides are updated annually and are ubiquitous companions of the hostel crowd.

Lonely Planet: Providing comprehensive background and practical information for the independent traveler, these top-notch guides are excellent resources if you want to get off the beaten path and really explore the heart and soul of a country or region anywhere on the planet.

Michelin: Applauded worldwide, detailed Michelin Green Guides include close-up town and museum maps, touring routes, and sightseeing options. Many savvy independent travelers wouldn't leave home without one of the benchmark Michelin guides (there is also the Red guide for exceptional hotels and restaurants). These have been published for more than 100 years.

Moon: Moon Handbooks are directed toward adventurous, independent travelers on a modest to moderate budget. They are especially strong on "green travel" (ecotourism), with superb, comprehensive sections on flora, fauna, and topography for the nature buff.

Rick Steves: Good nitty-gritty material offering excellent segment-by-segment itineraries for unforgettable drives and walks, primarily in Europe. Provides outstanding lodging and dining options for pocketbooks in the modest to middle range.

Rough Guides: Opinionated, independent guides written in a journalistic style with some of the best historical, cultural, and political summaries available. These feature strong practical advice on how to really get to know a place and its people.

Irene Croft Jr. of Kailua, Kona, is a travel writer and 40-year veteran globe-trotter. Her column is published in this section every other week.