Best Travel Books: Travel Books That Are Better Than The Lonely Planet
So, yeah, I’m guilty. I’ve often bought the Lonely Planet travel books as a guide to where I’m going. But, I’ve often become disheartened by them. Places recommended to stay at have turned into absolute disasters. Many of the restaurants recommended are mediocre at best and tend to be crowded with hordes of tourists. I usually use my Lonely Planet to decide where not to go!
Travel books from Tuttle
I was recently contacted by Tuttle Publishing and asked to review some of their travel books, and what a breath of fresh air! First of all, the books are beautiful. The full-color pictures are beautiful and I would never be tempted to tear pages out of the book like I do with the Lonely Planet travel books. I specifically looked at the Bali and Lombok and Indonesia travel books. I am very familiar with Indonesia and, I have to say, I wish I had these travel books when I was in Indonesia. Yes, these books cover the touristy sites that you don’t want to miss, but they also detail some of the more hidden spots like Lake Bratan, cycling on Nusa Lembongan, and Papua’s Baliem Valley. The books also have a few suggestions for places to stay and eat, shopping, and nightlife. There aren’t many suggestions, but I mainly use my guidebooks to know what I should see and do in an area. These travel books are easy to carry around and aren’t loaded with a lot of information that I don’t need. I also like that both guidebooks come with very detailed folded maps in the back. This makes getting around so much easier.
Tuttle also has beautiful picture books if you just want to dream about a place and do some armchair traveling. You can also order language guides, cookbooks, wall maps, and pocket dictionaries from them. I have to say, I’m impressed with the quality of their materials and books. Now, I’m going to have to go back to Bali and discover some of the places that I missed!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received Tuttle Travel Guides complimentary from Tuttle Publishing in consideration for review publication.
photo credit: . Entrer dans le rêve via photopin cc
I love travel guidebooks! I really think the right guidebook depends on the place you are traveling and the type of travel you want to do. I am not sure these are better than Lonely Planet as all guides essentially send you to places where you are bound to find tourists if the guidebooks have a good readership. Instead of declaring the “best” travel guidebook, I think a person needs to sit and compare across a bunch of guidebooks before buying one or two for their trip. I currently have a stack of guidebooks on my desk for our upcoming trips to South Korea and Vietnam.
Really helpful information to plan a trip.thanks for the sharing your best views. all are so much nice…
I love travel guides! Keep them in a drawer in the bathroom and love staring at maps while in the pottie. Hope that’s not too much information 🙂
Frank (bbqboy)
There language books look interesting, definitely something I’ll keep in mind whenever I get back to Asia. I really like that they have english-tagalog books.
I long ago gave up on guidebooks. I don’t like carrying them around and generally what is in them are the main tourist haunts.