Besides being aimed at different target audiences, they are weaker or stronger by destinations...

For example, "Let's Go" was perfect for a 1st trip to Amsterdam, though it is not a series I would normally read. Moon Handbooks has one that is extremely accurate for Puerto Vallarta Mexico and the coastline north and south.

I too find the LP guides useful, especially in the public transport area. Like a couple of you, I rely almost entirely on public transportation. I'm not generally impressed with their recommendations on hotels, however I DO compare their picks with a few other travel guides. My biggest complaint is that they don't update their guide books as often as a few others do. They are one of the 3 or 4 guide books I use when researching for a trip.

Julies: Actually, Mrs. Charles and I always buy Rough Guides, Lonely Planet and when we can find them, Moon guides when we are exploring a general area with many not-so-visited destinations in mind. We have found their ultra thin pages to be great for the "ripped-out" pages binder we assemble, and their information on things like laundromats has been a godsend.

LP is always the first guide book I look for when I've a new destination in mind.

The maps are excellent and the level of detail is generally what I need when I'm travelling around a place.

I don't use them for restaurants but that's because I generally just stop when I'm ready to eat or see somewhere I like the look of.

The most popular guide books which I really don't like are DK Eyewitness ones.

I've traveled throughout Europe and find that Lonely Planet is the best. Their "Europe on a Shoestring" is nearly encyclopedic. It's the only guidebook I brought on my recent circuit and it certainly paid for itself.

Michelin green guides are the most useful for detailed sight/site seeing.

Fodor's are thorough and well written, but too wordy for me.

Rough Guides are prone to errors. Rick Steves also packs mistakes because he does not update everything every year as he claims. Steves is also too limited and opinionated, ignoring some of the best of Europe. Let's Go also fails, even though it is written by Harvard students.

DK Eyewitness is superb, if you can carry the weight. Knopf is similar.

I use LP as well as Rick Steves. I think RS books are more geared for the people who may never go back again so it's like he is saying if your gonna only go once here are the highlights and must see stuff and skip the other time consuming stuff. But for people who like to go back again and again or for longer periods of time I think LP is the best book.

RS does not do a book on Greece where I went last year and I learned that LP and RS are working together on that particular book.

I started this thread, and I have to say that just having read last night the LP book on the area we will be visiting this summer--the Baltics--once again I am impressed. I have the current edition out from the library and will be purchasing the new edition as soon as it is out in June. I have also read the Rough Guide to this region, and I have the Bradt books on Lithuana & Latvia. I found a lot of new information in the LP book that I had not found in the other series.

I am a little sad that some of the LP books have gotten a little thinner in material with this last revision (where they no longer have the band at the top and bottom cover). Compared old and new Morocco and Cambodia books and they have trimmed some stuff in those. Maybe for the best though.

Anyway, I like LP books and Rough Guides about equally and find them similar. Sometimes one is better, sometimes the other. I like DK Eyewitness, but in reality, I don't consider them a travel guide. More like a learning tool. They're great for getting up the interest level up, but not so great as a guide except for walking routes in cities.

I mean, LP has a breakdown of the Black Forest, for instance that includes info on many of the towns and villages within it. DK's version of it is a "3" position marker on a map, listing the entire Black Forest as a single attraction. With picture, of course... of trees. I like that when we get to this area, we'll have the LP or RG with us and we'll have some actual, useful, specific information on, say, Gengenbach.

I'll qualify my position though and say that we rarely get hotels or eating recs from a book, unless we're off the track and need a quick answer. We've probably did some internet research if we know back at home that we were going to stop someplace. I don't get a lot of historical perspective out of travel guides either. Usually that comes from other books, which is why I began thinking of traveling somewhere new anyway.

I too like the LP guidebooks, especially the condensed guides for carrying around. The eating sections are ok. I do not find their hotel recs very useful as they tend to be very budget oriented. I came across an example of this yesterday while browsing Argentina guidebooks. No mention of the 4S as a possible choice in either the LP, Rough or footprint guides. I do think the LP guides are more dependent on their writers than Fodors, Frommers, Dk etc. I also think their Asian books are a stronger suit than their European books. The LP guidebooks are also more diverse in the areas they cover outside mainstream tourist areas. What guidebook one tends to like or use is very dependent on what you need from the guidebook. Best to browse and decide for yourself.

I used to buy the lp books but have stopped. Planning my first trip to Poland several years ago, i found that they were very limited on Jewish historical sites in Poland. During my visit there, I took an Orbis tour, and found in their exclusion of Jews and lumping everyone together as Poles was what lp was doing. By omission, they were perpetuating the myths that the Polish communist government had done. The myth that the Jews were not persecuted for their religion, rather because of being Poles. Compare both lp and Rough Guide and RG comes out to be historically more accurate and more sensitive to Jewish travelers, who may be interested in the past.

I have used numerous LP guides, but my last trip to Morocco really disappointed me. The prices were way way off (sometimes even a quarter of what was being asked) and the tone was cautious to the point of inciting fear. For example, they said "it is easier to get from Algeciras to Morocco via Ceuta. Tangier is too much for the average tourist." Well, that is a load of bunk if I ever did hear one! In Ceuta there are no buses that connect with Morocco, so, I ended up taking a local bus to the border, walking across, and as I was the only woman and had been told "do not catch a cab alone or with only men" (sound advice given to me by a securit guard), I ended up hitch hiking into Tetouan. There were no buses from the border to Tetouan because only complete dolts cross it on foot!

I did not like their tone, and they sort of brush over a lot of really beautiful things by saying "and here is this such and such. Don't let them overcharge you."

I loved their Amsterdam guide, and had a succcessful trip to Iceland thanks to the LP. My Norway guide was really excellent, too, but then again, I took those trips when I was just a budding traveler. I think that when one gets more experienced, the LP seems to be a little basic.

"I don't care for Lonely Planet, find them too limiting and too focused on the young, low-budget traveler."

Ther's been complaints to the effect that LP have gone up-market & don't concentrate on the young low budget traveller anymore

laclaire, interesting you mention problems you found in the LP Morocco. It's the one I happen to have sitting in front of me right now.

I know this is getting off topic for the Europe board, but do you by any chance, have a guide you prefer over LP for Morocco?

Clifton- I forgot to mention: I bought that one in Spain and it was in Spanish. I had it out on a table in Fez and a fellow traveler took hers out and it was different. I did not study it too closely, but the pictures were different and hers had more maps. So, perhaps it was a translation thing. .

As for Morocco guides, I actually found that once I was in the country, I only used the guide for phone numbers, and after 2 weeks, not even that. Tourism there is nothing like I had ever experienced. There are very few museums, and as for architecture, well, the trick is to get inside, which is impossible in some cases for women (mosques) and in other cases (domestic), much easier.

I found that once I got to a city, pretty much everyone was down to tell me what to see and how to get there. Of course, there are tons of illegal guides, but if you ignore them, they get the picture pretty quick.

Have an amazing time and do not miss the Sahara!

Thanks laclaire. We actually like doing a lot of our "planning" or really, lack-of-planning on the ground so I like the way you went about that.

I like the chance to get to know the people whereever possible, but that guide has proven to be a nice backup for us - like in Bangkok and Phnom Pehn - when those same kind of faux human guides (in the form of tuk tuk drivers) try to convince you something is closed as you walk by them. lol. Gotta love 'em for trying though.

Clifton:

I really liked the Cadogan Guide to Marrakesh, Fez, and Rabat for my last trip to Morocco in 2001, but I've always liked Cadogan for its realistic, straightforward, humorous approach to traveling. Got some great restaurant tips from it as well as practical info for getting around.

Thanks StCirq. I've heard a lot about Cadogan but don't recall ever looking through one. Could be that the local B&N hasn't carried one for the places we've been planning. I know I didn't see one for Morocco when I was up there again the other day. Well, actually there was all of 12 books for the entire continent of Africa. But it's always a little iffy to order a guide online without seeing it and without recommendations. But I think I'll have to check it out.

Cadogan are also some of my favorite guidebooks. Never been to Morocco, but I assume this one wuld be as good as the rest.

My $0.02: I like the LP books. Have used San Francisco, Paris, Hawaii, among others. I find their maps to be excellent, and easy to follow. I also have used RG, RSteves, Fodors, and find them all to be useful in their own way. I usually read several in a bookstore for the area I'm traveling to, and decide which one seems to fit that particular bill for my taste. I'd say I'm not brand loyal, in that respect, but take the one that works for me. I've never been disappointed with LP, though.

Hi
I used the Cadagon for Turkey and Rome, found them well written, informational with some humor. Blue guides are also good especially if you're looking for history, art etc. Not many hotels or restaurants.