Travel guidebooks: A comment

Country-specific guidebooks I have carried during my travels.

I think most tourists who travel overseas lug along a travel guidebook, I carried three, plus one for just Patagonia which included parts of both Chile and Argentina (thanks Kevin, Jon and Holly). I cannot tell you how many times I would see tourists (and I was very often one of them), sitting at some hostel, restaurant, or bar, pouring over their guidebook, translated of course into German, French, Dutch, even Madarin I suppose. Books are heavy, and can be bulky, though with my van, this was not really a problem, but what about all those trekkers, backpackers, or bicyclists, is it worth to carry a guide book? Well, the short answer is, based on my experience, no (sorry Kevin, Jon and Holly). I think most of these books are written for a tourist who is different from me. I am interested in camping, hiking, and biking, observing nature and natural habitats, and I will occasionally stay in an inexpensive hostel, though it seems like these books mostly target the 3- to 4-star tourist.  For example, I carried travel guides produced by Fodor'sTravel, and while I loved the maps of towns and small cities, and the interesting introductions to some areas, they were really not of much help to me in terms of places to eat or stay. If you go to Puerto Natales, Chile, you are most likely heading up to Parque Nacional Torres del Paine 80 km north, so you are most likely a trekker/backpacker, an overlander like me, or just someone who wants to day hike and take in the amazing scenery and wildlife which define the park. Yet when you look at "Where To Eat", Fodor's lists seven restaurants and cafes, two are $$, three are $$$, and two are $$$$. The "$" denotes how expensive an establishment is, whether a restaurant or a hotel, hostel, and the scale runs from one $ to four, with these obviously being the most expensive places to eat and stay. And when you look at places to stay, you see the same thing, four $$, three $$$, and one $$$$. Where are the less-expensive places? Fodor's does not list any one-$ restaurant or hotel in Puerto Natales, a town mostly filled with the outdoor types, people who are more likely to sleep in a tent than in a four $$$$ hotel. This pattern is very common, whether you are visiting San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile (though they do list many more one-$ hostels there as that is the most common overnight accommodation there) to Ushuaia, Argentina down south.  Now, having said this, I do want to add that while I found the guidebooks for the individual countries to probably not be worth carrying (I had books for Peru, Chile and Argentina), I did really like the guidebook produced by Footprint, on just Patagonia (thanks Kevin, Jon and Holly!). It has a hard cover, is smaller and more compact, and it seems to cater more to the outdoor type than Fodor'sTravel. I realize that there are a number of other companies making travel guidebooks, and maybe some of them are great (I saw lots of Lonely Planet guidebooks), but for me. The Patagonia guidebook was worth it to haul around and use, the others, not so much. And remember, there are a million of online sources of travel information, and I am sure many guidebooks can be downloaded, so there is really no reason to haul all that paper around with you. Bring a pair of binoculars, or extra pair of socks (or two), but leave the guidebook at home, most just do not seem to be worth it, at least not for me. Happy travels!

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