Leslie's answer could have written by me! Exactly!

We used National Geographic's guide for our trip to Greece and found it to be excellent. We'll always buy National Geographic from now on, as well as Rick Steves. These two guides are way far apart in style but we like what each has to offer.

Sue,<BR><BR>The Rough guide to Ireland, now in its sixth edition, is quite excellent - well written, candid. <BR><BR>An underrated guide to Ireland is Footprint, now in its second edition. It doesn't quite rate with the Rough Guide, but it remains far better than Fodor's, Rick Steves (way too skimpy), Frommer's, and the vastly overrated Eyewitness (slick but rather superficial).<BR><BR>

Lonely Planet always seems to get me to the kind of places that I like, not too mainstream. Their maps are pretty good.<BR>

Rough Guide almost always<BR>(double checked against Fodors, Frommers, Cadogan, Lonely Planet, etc. when doing background research for trip)<BR><BR>Footprint Guides occasionally (used it for South Africa and it was fantastic). <BR><BR>My preference for guides is: Wide range of hotel choices from cheap and cheerful to quite posh. (Fodors tends to have listings only on the pricey side.) Good restaurant recommendations for those first nights when I'm too tired to look for myself. Good history/sights guide. I tend to use guide books as reference for where I'm going to go/stay and what I want to see, but I usually don't like carrying heavy books with me on my daily outings. <BR>

Eyewitness guides are great but if you find them too bulky try their new Top 10 Guides which are excellent for a short visit to a city or region.