how many guide books do you take with you?
 

From friends, etc. I have probably a dozen guidebooks for an upcoming trip to italy and france. How many guide books do you take with you? And which guides do you find to be most helpful? I have the blue guides but they are way to comprehensive to help me on a day to day basis.

Being partial to DK Eyewitness guides, I take it in addition to a little folder of things I've printed out from the internet.

Be sure your guide books are current. I tear out the pages of the areas I'm visiting so as not to take heavy books. You could also xerox the pages you need. For overviews with specific city information, I like Rick Steves.

I often take a couple of guidebooks but soon discover which is the "one" I'm willing to carry around all day. I like Lonely Planet and Rough Guide (oops, just remembered what site we're on) but with all these companies remember that different people are writing books for different countries.<BR><BR>I agree that the Eyewitness guides are really good for some things, especially where graphic illustration is involved. Other books (like the blue guides) have a lot more depth of information.<BR><BR>Here is my best tip: go to the public library and check out a lot of guidebooks on an area. Even though they will not be the latest edition, you can get a good sense of whether you like the style and organization of the book before you go out and spend $20 each on the ones you want to take on your trip.

just bring one. and if you need more buy it there.. overpacking is a sin...

I usually take two. Fodors, and Let's Go. The Let's Go for important information like laundromat locations with prices and other info,internet locations, and exactly which bus and where to get it to go to a certain locations. I only carry one during the day with me and leave the other in my hotel room. The one I carry during the day is Fodors for the good site info and good itinerary walks. If only one guide book had it all, it would make my suitcase more lighter!

It depends on where I'm going, and the number of locations. I usually take one general guidebook, and often another re restaurants. If I'm spending a significant amount of time in a particular city, I might take a book that focuses on that place in detail. I try to pack light, so although I enjoy the DK and other glossy picture books for research, I find them too heavy to carry around.

One. I make copies of pages of the various guide books for sites and lodging that I might be interested. Cut and paste into my own notebook and carry that. I make notes in the book as well, and it becomes a journal.

I do what jb does in a sketchbook which I use to sketch in while on the trip and later keep notes from this and other websites for future travels.

When we travelled through Germany, France, Austria, The Netherlands and Belgium in September we brought 2 travel books. Both were from Fodors. One one Germany and one on Europe. They were nice to read on the train as we headed to a new town/city so we could find out what to do there.<BR><BR>We always stopped at the local tourist info office. They have all the info on hotels and sites. Even without a travel book we would have been ok.<BR><BR>Cas