How many do you have on your shelf? I have a fantastic collection of guide books, most of which I haven't used. Don't get me wrong I always have at least a guide book per country with me when travelling - but the one's that go with me often don't make it home - the get swapped along the way or sold to make room for the souvenirs!

Back in the PI (pre-Internet) days I used to buy or borrow guide books to get ideas for trips. Now I tend to use on-line forums and on-line resources at that stage. However, most times, as I step on that plane, I have a guide book, or 2 in my luggage! Why? At the end of the day I prefer to travel independently, I do take tours but only a day tour at most a couple of days. I like to plan and research and understand a destination. I often now take a page or 20 of notes from forums and webpages but the book is at least reliably indexed - which can be very useful.

The key word here is "guide" - not "Bible" or "Must use or will be sent home immediately". Too many travellers become completely guide book dependent - if the book says Cafe Expresso is the place for lunch - that's where they eat. If Hotel Barato is the best deal in town then that's where they want to stay. Unfortunately Guide Books kill the their own recommendations - typically it's at least 18 months from research to a published or updated guide hits your favourite on-line book store. In those 18 months a particular business: hotel, restaurant, may have changed ownership, been demolished, been re-named. However in parts of the world dependent on the tourist dollar I can pretty much guarantee that a business recommended by a well-known guide book will have gone up in price and probably down in quality. In countries weak on copyright laws there will be 3 or 4 pretenders with the same name in the same general location too. It will probably also be booked out! What to do?

• Read between the lines; browse your favourite bookstore: does every guide book mention the same 10 hotels? Odds are there are about 10 hotels: booking looks like a good idea However if find a different selection of hotels in each guide -there is clearly lots of competitionis a range of hotels, go with the flow.
• If a recommended business really does appeal: check with the on-line travel forums - has anyone been there recently - what's the current price, is it still good? Check out tripadvisor.com or other review sites for a feel on the current state of yoru preference too.
• Use a guidebook to choose the general area of town you want to stay in and then head there to see what you can find on the ground. Just because a hotel is not in the guide doesn't mean that its no good.
• Apply the guidebook's recommendation's to your lifestyle: if you hate partying and loud music don't book for the area described as the "centre of the action". If you feel comfortable surrounded locals, and to be honest a lot of tourists do, don't take the recommended trek to "villages that never see tourists".
• Be particularly careful of relying on guidebooks for information on exchange rates, visa rules and transport schedules. Fortunately all of these are readily available on-line or from your travel agent.
• Instead use the guidebook to give you useful information: where is the main bus station, how to book a train ticket, which is the most convenient way to see the famous Basket Weaving Villages.

• Compact room with natural air conditoning.

• Fantastic central location: walk to everything. Live it up in the centre of the action.
• Rustic cottage, back to nature ambience

A Quick Guide to some of the famous Guidebook Series I not going to attempt a comprehensive list of guidebooks: this is just a personal selection, most of which I have used at some stage in my adventuers.

Frommer's Flagship Guide used to be "Europe on $5 a Day", a ground-breaker in 1957, showing Americans how to travel Europe on budget and now re-printed to mark its 50 year anniversary. Frommer's no longer puts the actual $ value on its Europe guide but its Ireland Guide is up to $95 a day. Oh and those figures only include food and lodgings.

Dispite their heritage of budget travel today's Frommer's guides are firmly aimed at the middle level American tourist. Hotels tend to include English speaking staff and familiar bathroom faciliies. If find their price point is mid-range to high because of this. The Frommer's range now includes Cruise Guides, Road Trips and Rail Guides. Frommer's is only irregularly updated, most up to date are the American, Caribbean and European destinations. There is a particularly strong selection of guides to American states and major cities.

Rick Steves is a more recent Guide Book empire, but thanks to Rick's well-known TV shows very high profile with American readers. Unique among the guidebook series reviewed Rick Steves only concentrates on one region - Europe. He's been published and running tours to Europe for 25 years so he does know his topic. His book now include not only general "Thru the Backdoor" series but also specialist guides to specific towns, countries and regions.

Uniquely though he still publishes is excellent Europe 101: History and Art for the Traveler. Designed for those of us who slept through Art History, this excellent book covers 5000 years of Western history, art, architecture and pretty much everything else. Academic? No. Complete? No. Readable and an excellent introduction - definitly. Most of Steve's books are based around finding small hotels and planning itinearies around a 21 day vacation. Many of us have different length vacations and the small hotels will invariably be booked solid, but his the background information can be useful.

Lonely Planet's publishing empire was started by 2 Brits on the classic 60's hippy route from the UK to Australia the cheapest way possible. I have a soft spot for them - I owned a copy of the original 1975 guide; "Across Asia on the Cheap". The Lonely Planet empire is still based in Australia and covers practically every country on the planet. I still believe that their Asian guides are the best. They still do the off-beat and non-commercial. They publish the only travel guide to East Timor, They publish phrase books for the common languages such as Spanish and German but also include Hebrew and Lao. They also publish a number of travel fiction and traveller's tales under the Lonely Planet imprint.

The DK Eyewitness guides are little different. They are gorgeously produced, full of wonderful photos and far too heavy to carry with you. However they are a high quality souvenir which you can buy before you leave home and have excellent information on history, culture and other background information.

I hope this quick guide has been a bit of help through the the Travel section. Drop me a comment below and let me know your funniest/best/worst guidebook moment!