When heading out on holidays, there is always that ever present question of whether or not to carry a travel guidebook and, if so, which one to choose? With the prevalence of the internet these days, and blogs like these and many other wonderful travel sites offering tidbits and information to sojourners for free, what role does the traditional travel guidebook play in the modern traveller’s life?

This is a question being hotly debated within the travel writing industry, but one not so interesting for regular travellers like you and me, who, at the end of the day, still can’t decide whether or not those lovable but bulky books are worth their weight in luggage!

Here is my opinion about the matter, based on the experiences of both using and writing traditional guidebooks. The usefulness of a guidebook is entirely dependent upon its context. What I mean is… if you are going to Berlin for a city break weekend and you purchase the huge Rough Guide to Germany, or worse, the entire Lonely Planet Western Europe Guide, you have done yourself a real disservice and probably wasted a whole heap of quid in the process.

Despite what some people like to say (and what I used to believe, myself), a travel guidebook is not a good investment. Places change, shops go out of business, restaurants change hands and all of these items are updated on a regular basis in a guidebook – usually every 2 years. So, buying a guidebook with the intention of using it for the next 15 years is just a bad idea. It won’t work.

That said, I firmly believe that travel guidebooks do still have a place in the traveller’s accessory bag. Travel guides have a lot of handy information in them and are usually written by normal, unbiased people who know their way around the places that they’re writing about. Most importantly, a travel guide is condensed and transportable and it fits nicely into your purse for a day of sightseeing.

Here is my advice for purchasing a travel guide:

a) Only purchase big books for long trips to places that you have never been.
b) Consider that, if you’re a seasoned traveller, you might only need a guidebook for more “exotic” or far away locales where the local language and culture are quite extraordinary to you.
c) Don’t buy a full country guide for a short city break. Instead, consider a smaller city specific guide or, if you’re into the 21st century, a guide for your smart phone, iPad or other mobile device!