One for the road

Have you ever been on holiday and struggled to choose a guidebook? I mean, where does one start? I imagine in a bookshop. But, if anything, that makes the task even harder. The choice is just too wide. Waterstones sell around 12 guidebooks per major city — far more if you want a whole country (there are a staggering 23 on India, for example). So I asked around. Which guidebook, if any (young travellers are increasingly turning to the web and online travel forums for advice whilst others are too mean to buy a guidebook and rely on friends’ recommendations, a hotel map and a good concièrge), did they choose when heading off on a mini-break? Were they faithful to a particular brand or did they judge a book by its cover? ‘I take the Times World Atlas,’ said one. ‘Heavy and a bit short on words but gives a great sense of perspective.’ Not very helpful. ‘I don’t bother,’ said another, ‘but always wish I was the kind of thorough person who did.’ One suggested Lonely Planet but then said ‘they’re rubbish for city breaks’. No two people proffered the same book and I was getting nowhere.

There is certainly a generational divide when it comes to guidebooks. Younger folk seem to rely on Wallpaper City Guides (‘Never heard of them’, the literary editor said, rather proving my point). They are colourful little tomes that look wonderful on your bookshelf and single you out as cool and trendy. Trendier still are the Hedonist guides (the clue is in the title), in which there’s a section called ‘Play’ and culture comes after both ‘Snack’ and ‘Party’. The blurb says they are designed to appeal to a more urbane, stylish traveller; ‘to make you feel like a well-heeled local’ and take you to ‘seriously chic bars’ and ‘the most fashionable places in town to rub shoulders with the local glitterati’.