Selecting the appropriate travel guide is key to a successful trip. While some travel guides detail historical and cultural information, and photographs, others emphasize on lodging, dining, transportation facilities and different route maps. An ideal travel guide is a combination of these two types.
Types of Travel Guides
1.Some travel guides cater to upper class travelers who don’t have much time for researching about a particular destination. These types of travel guides provide suggestive tour plans for vacations from 1-3 weeks for selective destinations and the best available lodging, food, and transport options.
2.Other types of travel guides help those who have less money and more time. They provide exhaustive lists of destinations and different types of lodging to choose from.
3.There are also specialized travel guides that provide information on special travel interests such as art, history, trekking, etc.
Selecting a Travel Guide
Travel Objective: Before selecting a travel guide it is better to be clear about the purpose of the tour. If history, culture, and art are the main reasons for traveling, travel guides providing adequate information in these areas will be more appropriate. Travelers who are looking for an offbeat and challenging destination may search for a guidebook that will help them to find such places.
Easy to Use Format: Good travel guides must have a pleasant layout with easy to read typeface. There should be an index, list of local attractions and the important points must be in bold to draw attention of the readers. Important information should be easily found while navigating through its pages.
Adequate Maps: A good travel guide should provide adequate number of user-friendly maps of the destination city, areas of tourist interest, transportation options and detailed roadmap. This is particularly important for tourists who are traveling alone.
Comparison of Accommodation Rates: Some travel guides provide accommodation rates in broad price range that are not quite helpful. So, it’s better to look for those guides which state exactly how much a particular hotel room will cost. This is more important when a person is traveling independently on a fixed budget.
Travel Plans: Depending upon the travel plan an individual may decide to buy a city guide, a country guide or a multiple country guide. If special interests are involved such as hiking, trekking and eco-tourism, the main travel guide may be supplemented by specialized travel guides.
Penny-Wise: A trip may or may not cost thousands of dollars but spending a few dollars on the right travel guide won’t be a bad investment. A good travel guide should not be rejected just because it is costly. Whether it serves the purpose or not should be the only consideration for purchasing it.
Half the fun of a trip is in its planning. Therefore, it’s wise to select an appropriate travel guide while planning a trip. Nowadays, there are various websites that provide travel related information free of cost. Those who are interested may visit such websites for additional information and homework. This would help them to select the travel guide that would best suit their needs, and in turn, would help them to make a successful trip.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/how-to-select-a-travel-guide-1229800.html
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