Thinking about one final vacation before winter arrives? A travel guide would certainly help. With
these highlights, you can quickly sift through the best travel
books and bookstores. After all, you want to spend your
time on vacation -- not planning it.
Of the numerous travel publishers, these are some of the biggest.
- Europe Through the Back Door
Rick Steves, possibly the best-known authority on European travel,
has written 21 guide
books and been leading group tours for more than 20 years. His site
also offers a wealth of free information, including travel tips and a
monthly newsletter.
- Fodor's
Create your own mini-guide for 99 worldwide destinations. Also
search hotel, B&B and
restaurant recommendations; research parks of North America; price airfares;
and browse the Resource Center. (Interesting observation: No overt ads for
their guide books -- and they publish hundreds.)
- Frommer's
Research world destinations, then book your airfare and lodging --
all from one site. Also check out Arthur Frommer's Hot Spot of the
Month and his Tip of the Day. Books include
Frommer's Complete Guides and $-a-Day Guides, which are dubbed the only
budget travel series for grown-ups.
- Let's Go Travel Guides
One of the most popular guide series for the college and
twentysomething set. Each of their 28
books, which cover cities, countries and continents, are revised
annually. New books for 1999 cover Greece, South Africa and Turkey.
- Lonely Planet
Publisher of more than 200 titles. Series includes Shoestring guides,
walking and trekking guides,
travel literature, and phrase books.
- Rough Guides
These guys publish travel and
music reference guides -- plus a few specialty titles like "A Rough Guide to
the Year 2000" and the best-selling "Rough Guide to the Internet." Search
thousands of destinations and read their online travel magazine.
Travel Bookstores
Sure, Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com carry a large selection of travel
guides. But why not go to a store that specializes in the genre?
- Adventurous Traveler Bookstore
This store, based in Burlington, Vermont, boasts the world's most complete
source of outdoor travel books, maps, videos, CD-ROMs and posters. Check out
their rare and out-of-print collections.
- Traveler's Bookcase
This Los Angeles-based travel bookstore carries travel guides and
travel literature. They
specialize in authors of obscure armchair literature and hard-to-find guide
books.
- Wide World Books & Maps
This Seattle-based store has the distinction of being the first travel-only
bookstore in the U.S. They currently carry more than 14,000 map and book
titles -- search their catalog by title, author, country or topic.
- 4DiscountTravelGuides
The behemoth of the travel bookstore world -- they claim to
have the largest selection of travel and geographically-categorized books,
music and magazines on the Internet.
--- R.M.
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