In defense of the guide

In defense of the guide

My colleague picks up the two travel guides scattered on my desk. “Do you want to take these with you?” I nod. “Won’t they get too heavy?” I shrug my shoulders. “Peter will carry them.” “You could just look everything up on TripAdvisor.” “I prefer tour guides.” Her lips curl into a half-confused, half-disdainful look. “Okay,” she says, in a tone that suggests it’s not okay at all.

Unlike me, she has never bought a guidebook - a trend that seems to be increasing not only for practical reasons like hers (easier, cheaper and more up-to-date content online) but also for superficial reasons. In much of the travel press, “not in the guide” has become a lazy shorthand for authenticity. Articles and blogs make derogatory references to “guide-laden” tourists, and for many travelers, traveling without a guide has become a badge of honor.

The truth is that travel guides are invaluable when you're in a country you've never been to. Of course, there will be some "sheep" who all eat the same banana milkshake at the same sidewalk cafe because page 207 of their guide to Thailand told them to, but that doesn't mean everyone with a guide is a conformist and a bore.

Here are five reasons why I won't be throwing away my guidebook any time soon.

1. She knows more than the travel press

Travel blogs and newspaper travel stories love to talk about places that are “not in the guidebook,” but in reality most of what they cover is in the guidebook. Take National Geographic’s “Beyond the Guidebook” series. Today I looked at the 12 destinations on the first page: Acadia National Park in the USA, Zambia, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, the Bohuslän Coast in Sweden, Venice in Italy, Cooperstown in New York, the Dolomites in Italy, Minneapolis in the USA, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Bonito in Brazil, Helsinki in Finland and Berlin in Germany. All but one (Arcadia National Park) are included in the corresponding guidebook in our collection.

I then looked at one of the blog's composite articles about the best beach towns in America. Again, all but one of the 11 destinations in our USA travel guide are covered (namely Cayucos). Perhaps a more appropriate name for the blog would be Occasionally Beyond the Guidebook.

Let's take another example: Darley Newman, the host, writer and producer of the Emmy Award-winning series Equitrekking, promotes her show as covering places you won't find in travel guides, and yet in this 2012 interview she chose Turkey's Cappadocia as the "untapped destination people should know about" - the same Cappadocia Lonely Planet that is also called Turkey's most interesting site of the year 1973.

2. It knows more than other travelers

In 2013, Expedia ran a Twitter chat asking followers to suggest places that were off the beaten path. Travel writer Robert Reid analyzed three pages of suggestions from aspiring travel experts and found that a Lonely Planet guide covered every single suggestion. That's not to say you'll never come across a magical, unknown place, but the idea that "real" travelers know more than the guide is misguided and quite arrogant. Generally speaking, travel guide writers live in the country they are writing about and will be much more familiar with it than a random guy in a mischievous bar.

3. It knows more than (many) locals

This point is often controversial, but it is true. Could I, a lifelong Londoner, claim to know my city better than the person who wrote a book about it? No. I could suggest one or two good restaurants that aren't covered, but in terms of must-sees, a guidebook will do much better than I can.

When out and about I always ask for recommendations from locals, but this method of doing things is best used in conjunction with a guide rather than as a replacement. A travel guide does not exclude authentic experiences by default; You just need to be open to other sources of information and share them.

4. It can save you money

A travel guide will tell you all the tips and tricks you need to know to keep your budget low. Whether it's a cheap basement hostel, a discount you didn't know about, or a cheaper day to visit an attraction, a travel guide contains a comprehensive list of money-saving tips.

One piece of advice is to do most of your research in advance. If you plan to visit multiple islands in Vanuatu, as we will, use the guide to see if there is a cheap way to get around before you get there. This allows you to make arrangements (e.g. extra time, money, or advance booking) that you may not be able to make locally.

5. It gives you context

I appreciate crowdsourced information like TripAdvisor's, but I find it lacks deeper context. Blog posts and travel articles simply don't have enough space to truly delve into a country's history and culture. They may give you a list of cultural do's and don'ts, but they don't address the nuanced reasons why certain things aren't acceptable.

My favorite part of a long trip is curling up with a quality guidebook and reading about a country's various fallacies: for example, the fact that on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu there is a religious sect that worships Prince Philip as a divine being, or that in Tajikistan the unibrow is considered a highly attractive feature in a woman, or that in Nairobi there is a group of female prostitutes who have become resistant to AIDS. This is gold.

Mission statement: Atlas & Boots

      .