Someone needs to invent customized travel guides...
 

...if they haven't. Wouldn't it be so cool if you could plan an Italy trip to Rome, Orvieto, Siena, Florence, and Amalfi and you could order relevant components of a guidebook so you're getting everything you should know but without the weight of carrying info on regions or cities you don't plan to visit? And there can be custom covers, too, like at mypublisher.com. Quick, someone create one and let me know because I'll be first in line to buy one! Sorry, just a completely random thought...

Not exactly what you're looking for, but if my trip is pretty much planned out, I will visit the sites official website of the places I plan to see and print up the Visitor's Information page. It contains all the relevant info (directions, opening times, costs, etc...) I take those pages with me instead of the whole guidebook.

I make my own, ripping apart my travel guide, taking along only the sections I'll need. I like to make the guide work best for me and am little concerned about keeeping the guide pristinely perfect. I'll probably buy the new edition for my next trip anyway.

<b>The year is <i>anno domini</i> Two Thousand Five.</b>

Lugging around dead trees with printing on them is sooo 15th century!

I carry all of my travel data (plus maps, itineraries, plane and train schedules, music, scans of brochures, route finders and positioning device) in a little computer in my pocket. The weight of one guide or 500 is exactly the same.

I just finished creating my own personal travel book for my upcoming trip to Italy in May.

Purchased an inexpensive photo album with 20 pic. slots for $1.97 at Target. Found this advise on the internet from another traveler.

I insert a 4x6 picture of the city we are staying in on the left-side (downloaded from internet in color) and insert different travel articles I have found interesting for the sights we will visit on the right-side. Also print on scraps of paper 5x8, along with photos of city maps, any info from the city.

Tuscany drive articles from slowtrav.com I've printed, other Fodorite, slowtrave travelers, etc. suggestions, favorite restaurants, and other info.

Also, have all train schedules on 4x6 that I intend to take. And my hotel confirmations on 4x6.

This book has a cute cover on front and back. Also made a book for the other couple traveling with us.

I over plan, but then I don't have to worry when I get there. This book is very light weight and easily packable.

Hi miss_tom,

Karen Brown does this, sorta. You can download itineraries from her website for a fee, like $5 each. I downloaded the one for the Champagne region a few years ago but never used it. I thought it was a pretty cool way to go.

BTW, I got better information &amp; routes from the local tourist office -- like Kayb95 notes, tourist offices are a motherlode of info.

s

Travelocity has custom miniguides that you can create and print out to your own specifications.

virtualtourist.com allows you to make a custom travel guide from the tips posted by their members. It's kind of cool actually as you can pull together different opinions on various sites and restaurants.

While the idea sounds good on paper, nobody would want to pay the cost of such a custom book. Fodorites want their info quick and cheap and I doubt if they would pay for such a thing.

Mini Gudes would be a great help for info when you arrive vis plsne,train,ship

It's really easy to make your own customguides. You just tear the book into sections and then take only the parts that you need. It takes abut 5 minutes per country.

It's true - no one oculd afford such a customized guide. Considering the hours and hours I spend with all sorts of different and enormous resources for our travels, I cannot imagine any wanting to pay enough to make all that time worthwhile.

And, I'm with Robespierre. I download everything to my PDA. With RepliGo everything is beautiful and readable. On this last trip to Paris, I had more than two dozen individual bus routes for reference. In addition to documents, I had a French/English dictionary, my French Food Glossary, converter (money, temps, clothing sizes...), PocketMoney (handy for compiling a list for Customs), along with the usual datebook, phonebook, memos. ThoughtManager is an excellent program for lists/outlines, while planning and while out and about. Fabulous for listing sights, museums, restaurants, shopping (all cut and pasted from the web), then prioritizing, because there's never enough time.

Why not make your own? Either tear up a guidebook, download from the internet, xerox pages at the library, pick up maps &amp; info from the tourist office upon arrival, like that. I never travel with a whole guidebook.