Jean

I've just filled three bags with old printed travel guides, intending to donate them to my local library for their quarterly book sale. But I'm wondering... Do people still like to read/collect old guides, or am I just handing over junk the library will need to toss? A few are high quality Eyewitness and Knopf which I (foolishly?) think are beautiful even to just browse and dream. Most are more specific to their date of publication with restaurant and hotel recommendations, etc.

I did come across a locally published pamphlet to The History of Lahaina... It's a keeper. It made me a little misty-eyed.

HappyTrvlr

I would read them but think few others would. Sadly, I’m guessing the library will toss them.

Jean

Darn.

HappyTrvlr

I would read them but think few others would. Sadly, I’m guessing the library will toss them.

Dayenu

Can you call the library and ask? If they don't want the guides, maybe you can take them to a senior center?

janisj

Don't know about tour library system -- but here locally, the library would not take them but the Friends of the Library (the volunteers who run fund raising book sales for the branch) would be very happy to take any hard cover travel guides etc. They have two sales a year and get hundreds of customers. Each Branch library has its own Friends group. Plus the local SPCA has a HUGE annual book sale that gets literally thousands of customers.

Jean

I guess every library treats donations differently. Here, we drop off the books, CDs, DVDs, etc., at the library. The library passes them on to the Friends of the Library which sorts everything by media, genre, etc. Inside the library, the Friends maintain some permanent shelves of used books that can be purchased on the honor system for $.50 (paperback) or $1.00 (hardcover). The quarterly sale is huge. I think I've seen old travel guides at the quarterly sale but not on the shelves inside the library.

Sassafrass

Whenever I have posted free old travel guides on Nextdoor (my local sale, local events, help wanted, etc. internet website) or Freecycle, they have been quickly snapped up. Just a few weeks ago, I gave away about twenty, now have a wait list. So, people do enjoy them still and find them handy. Our secondhand bookstore also takes them and sells them.

zebec

Those 'Jetlag' guides were funny as hell, satirical send-ups of Lonely Planet, Fodors et al. Apparently, they were the brainchild of a pair of Aussie comics. One might possibly want to hang onto those rare books for their chuckles.
Phillippe Miseree was one of their fictitious author names, and he only touted the most difficult travel circumstances (see below) as 'authentic'---hilarious.

I am done. the cheap hotel next to the abattoir infested with bedbugs and rats

KTtravel

My library still has relatively recent travel guides on their shelves and I did check one out that I didn't want to purchase. Our Friends of the Library group would also accept guides that aren't too old.

cigalechanta

I have a collection of Fodors only because my quotes. are in them. The not so old ones I give to my vistors are here for the first time otherwise they are useless as most hotels and restaurants no longer exist. The Paris and france ones are stiill useful if you have never been , to locate the sites you should see.

Bokhara2

I have an old travel guide to London, published about 1920 from memory. It was amongst my Grandmother’s things, presumably from a trip they took in 1925. It’s a lovely little hard covered brown book with some illustrations, a fold - out map and interesting details about long gone / changed beyond recognition buildings and places.

Not quite a travel guide per se, but I was given HG Morton’s “ A Traveller in Italy” for a school prize in 1965 - and I think it’s a treasure trove of information & anecdotes.

I also have a 1910 wall map of Commercial trading routes, which is fascinating as the various Empires’ colonies are coloured, and of course the old country and city names are shown.

Melnq8

Those are definitely keepers Bokhara. Wow, a treasure trove indeed.

crellston

In his BBC TV series, Great Railway Journeys, Michael Portillo the one time UK Defence Secretary travelled around the railway networks of Great Britain & Ireland usingBradshaw's Guide first published in 1840. Possibly the oldest guidebook currently being used? Worth watching for anyone interested in travelling the UK and for an insight as to how the various destinations have changed. Spoiler: the rail system has got a lot worse since then!

Underhill

I have an old Baedeker for Egypt. It's fun to read what was required for a month's visit: just the bottles of port alone would require several servants to carry.

Bokhara2

Haha Underhill! One of my great Aunts apparently took copious quantities of gin on her jaunts “ to the Continent & the Orient”. Allegedly to clean her teeth with as the water wasn’t to be trusted 😂

katherineallen0185

Some might love those guides for nostalgia or research. High-quality ones, like Eyewitness and Knopf, offer more than info—they're treasures to explore.