'Post' Reporter Compares Travel Guides to Italy

Denver Post reporter Ricardo Baca, who usually covers Colorado beats, spent a month in Italy last summer, heroically hauling around nine travel guides to compare them in situ. Today's travel section feature called "By the Books" is his compare-and-contrast commentary. Since the whole idea behind guidebook series is consistency, you can extend a similarity between the Italy book and that of other countries in any of these series.

For each book, Baca evaluated the "Reader Demographic" (age group, level of travel experience, budget), "It's All in the Name" (what users expect from that particular series, both in terms of information and illustrations), "Known For" (why they expect what they do), "Map Quality," "Usability" (organization, readability, graphics and design), "Depth" (level of detail, backstory, history, local recommendations, practical info) and "Price." There's a bit of blurring between "Usability" and "Depth," but since each is covered in one paragraph, it's no big deal to read both.

The Italy books that Baca compared are Lonely Planet Italy, Rick Steves' Italy, National Geographic Traveler: Italy, Let's Go: Italy (the cheapest at $15.99), The Rough Guide to Italy, Fodor's Italy, Frommer's Italy, Italy: DK Eyewitness Travel Guide (the glossiest and, at $30, the most expensive) and MTV Italy (like Frommer's guides, published by John Wiley & Son but for a younger, hipper travelers).

If I had been doing this story (or, in fact, if I were going to Italy) the book that Baca didn't take but that I would is the appropriate Michelin Green Guide. There's one that covers all of Italy from boot toe to cuff (right), plus separate books to Rome, Sicily, Tuscany and Venice. I don't know of another series that is more concise, more accurate and easier to stick in pocket, purse or pack than these tall, skinny books that focus on thumbnail history, museums and other enduring attractions and natural sights. The maps are good and clear -- not surprising since the books were created to encourage people to drive around Europe on Michelin tires. Since they don't cover hotels or restaurants, theaters or nightspots, rail or air transportation, they don't really become obsolete -- other than in identifying specific highways and roadways between cities and towns. I still use my tattered, taped-together Green Guide to Austria and the Bavarian Alps that I bought new a lifetime ago for $3.50 -- a student-budget travel investment that has lasted into my middle years.