Hi!
We're 4 college graduates going on a backpacking trip in europe.
We're looking for a clear, informative travel guide. We've looked at:

Lonely planet: Europe on shoestring travel
Rick Steeves: Europe through backdoor 2009

We dont know which one to pick.
Any recommendations? or other guides that you think would be help us plan a fun trip for young backpakcers like us?

Thanks!

For the planning phase, use several guides from the library.

I find Lonely Planet - Germany - a good combination of sights to see and practical information, so its the one that I carry.

Rick is good on the places that he covers but those places are a very limited sample of what is available. I do like his room recommendations if he has covered a town that I am visiting.

Regards, Gary

For backpacking or budget info then the guide to get is, without a doubt, Let's Go. I've been using these guides for 25 years and they haven't failed me yet. Often Let's Go and Rick Steves have the same info on accommodations. The difference in the guides is that RS will give info on the places he likes and will ignore the rest. Let's Go is a comprehensive budget guidebook that is particularly geared to the younger traveler and those on a budget. It contains tons of advice on the places and the history, accommodations, restaurants, etc.

I also think Lonely Planet Cadogan, and Rough Guides are good.

I suggest individual country guides rather than the Europe guide as you will get more information on each country that way. You can borrow the books from your local library to save money on buying them and each person can carry 1 book as you're going to 4 countries.

I live in Italy and I'm often impressed by how thorough Lonely Planet is with Italian cities, and how often they recommend unusual, fun sights, bars and destinations. They are really more aimed at your age group and budget than Steves. I've been less impressed with the Rough Guides.

Some other good resources I've found have been the travel sections of British newspapers, available through their websites: The Independent, Times UK and the Guardian.

Although I think Steves deserves his reputation for providing accurate information regarding the cost of tickets, opening hours, etc for sights and museums, I think his sensibility is so much geared toward the safe and the packaged quaint idea of Europe, it's downright misleading.

I have a Let's Go Europe book and then Lonely Planet Italy and Germany books. I am using these books to plan a month trip backpacking Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands.

I much perfer my Lonely Planet books. I like the layout, maps, and activity recommendations. They also seem to be written for 20 to 30-year-olds that are backpacking. Let's Go Europe is okay but its maps are really lacking and it feels/looks really cheap.

Frommer’s and Fodor’s-Good on restaurants and hotels, poor on history and culture, small town recommendations non-existent. Both have improved a great over the years

Rough Guide and Lonely Planet-Opinionated and edgy, good on history and culture, terrible on restaurants and hotels

Cadogan-specialized for a specific areas. Quietly helpful

Eyewitness and National Geographic-Like stereotypical models nice to look at but little else.

Rick Steve’s-I would rather be lead by a blind man

Michelin Green-probably the best for sites.

I agree with Gary. Start at the library. Check out a bunch, read some of each and decide which best fits your travel style. Then buy the latest edition of the guide that suits you best.

When I travel, I prefer to spend money on sites and entertainment. I'm happy in hostels, pensions or anything that is safe, clean and quiet. I don't mind bathrooms down the hall. I hope to be able to do some hut to hut backpacking in the Alps and use only campgrounds on future trips. My favorite eating is from the grocery store either cooking in or picnicing.

Others want at least 4* accomodations and gourmet meals.

You can tell pretty quickly which books cater to which travel style.

I would get two books one for accomodations and one for sights.

i like the eyewitness books as a souvenir because of the pics

but i go for lonely planet when i buy or borrow
i only take the eyewitness tho as a guide to the architecture

what i do though is make heaps of notes
this time i have poured through all the old threads on various forums and noted down randomly under general headings
now i am in the process of writing these notes out -discarding what i know i wont use ( destinations no longer on the list etc)

i like to hand write notes- using different colour- typed notes leave me cold...

i will staple these notes in bunches relating to the city im visiting and on the day just take the notes i need ( walks to do , cafes , bus numbers that kind of thing)
then ill leave the old ones in my suitcase and have them as reference notes to go hand in hand with my journal entries )

i like to get an idea from guide books but it's the forums that i particularly value

another very valuable source has been the actual tourist information centre of the city im interested in - voss in norway was very fulsome in its reply after i emailed them..

and bergen had its own forum- cant get better information than from the locals on those forums

i also like to get some dvds out on the country
some sites have videos
i look up the archives of local travel shows to get a feel for what i want to see


have fun researching- it can get very frustrating but what an education!

Rick Steves is very good on nitty gritty detail, like laundromats, how to get to Burg Eltz, how to call different countries. And especially on rail passes vs. point-to-point tickets.

He's also opinionated, which I find useful when planning a trip. So is the Michelin Green Guide.

I'm appreciating the Lonely Planet series as I plan a trip to Croatia and Sicily.

But I'm finding guidebooks very limited when it comes to places to stay in Croatia. No sobes or not very many. For acommodations, I use the Internet more than guidebooks, especially www.tripadvisor.com and www.slowtrav.com.

Mimar _ dont want to hijack the thread but dont worry too much about booking accommodation in croatia unless youre going in july or august
lots of sobje around roadside or just go into the town's tourist bureau and ask - someone will have a studio or apartment for you

Another vote for the Michelin Green guides - very useful.

I love Michelin Green Guides and Michelin maps. I like the DK Eyewitness guides for the pictures. but it's too heavy to carry around.

I also suggest the same as others...going to the library and checking out several of the different guidebooks and persusing them to see which one fits your style. Then you can purchase the one you like best. I don't know that I would want to take a library book on a trip (knowing me, that would be the one I'd leave behind or lose).

I find that I keep most of my guidebooks forever for research but I rarely use their restaurant and hotel recommendations because they quickly become out of date; instead I use the internet to search for places to stay.I find that forums are the best place to ask for accomodation and dining recommendations. I just wing the food portion of my trip as a rule. And by far the best trip planning (routes, rail passes, etc.) are people who live where you are going, so take advantage of travel forums.

I hope you have a lot of fun on your adventure.