Travel Guides in general

This is more of a guide to the culture of the country, than to the country itself, but this still seemed a suitable category, as it's a guide to read before you travel to help you get to grips with what you should expect. I rarely need an excuse to buy books, especially at Amazon prices, but I absolutely had to get hold of this one for two reasons. Firstly, I'm investigating what would be involved in developing a machine translation system for British-English to American-English, so a book that looks at the differences between the two variants would be useful. Secondly, in June next year I'm hauling ass to the States to take up a job there when I ...

Travelnotes general comments on not being bound by the guide book are excellent. Having used Lonely Planet and Rough Guide to start with I have found that good though they are they are not always the best. On my first trip to South East Asia the Lonely Planet VIETNAM LAOS and CAMBODIA was the book to have. Two years later when travelling with a group we started to compare books and the newly published Lonely Planet Guide to Vietnam came over as horribly negative. This according to some 'Travel Vets' in Vietnam was due to the author, whose name I cannot remember. The book we all thought the best was the FOOTPRINT Handbook. Having used the Laos ...

Travel Guides are a Godsend and a tremendous amount of research has gone into them, but they can be a little patronizing at times. Don't cling to them religiously, like many travellers do. They are not the bibles that they are made out to be, and are often out of date before they are published. To get the most out of guidebooks, use them sparingly for basic orientation, then discover the towns and cities on your own. The information on museums and places of interest are great when all other signs look foreign. But when it comes to hotels and restaurants, every one to their own taste and budget. Believe me, the gems are never in black ...