A guide book is a book for tourists or travelers that provides details about a geographic location, tourist destination, or itinerary. It is the written equivalent of a tour guide. It will usually include details, such as phone numbers, addresses, prices, and reviews of hotels and other lodgings, restaurants, and activities. Maps of varying detail are often included. Sometimes historical and cultural information is also provided. Different guide books may focus on different aspects of travel, from adventure travel to relaxation, or be aimed at travellers with larger or smaller travel budgets. Guidebooks can have factual problems, information may be out of date (especially for regions undergoing rapid development), the author may have a hidden agenda (for example free meals or rooms in exchange for inclusion in the book or a favorable review -- compare tout). Guide books are generally intended to be used in conjunction with actual travel, although simply enjoying a guide book with no intention of visiting may be referred to as "armchair tourism".
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Origins
The first modern tourist's guidebook was separately invented by Karl Baedeker in Germany (1835) and by John Murray III in England (1836).[1] Baedeker and Murray are responsible for the impersonal, objective guide - works prior to this were what would be seen today as a strange combination of factual guidebook and personal sentimental reflection.[1] In fact it was Baedeker and Murray who unwittingly helped sharpen and formalize their texts opposites, the personal travelogue, which was freed from the guidebook burden.[1] The Baedeker and Murray guidebooks were hugely popular and would have been found with most travelers well into the 19th century. As William Wetmore Story in the 1860s said "Every Englishman abroad carries a Murray for information, and a Byron for sentiment, and finds out by them what he is to know and feel by every step." Eugene Fodor wrote mid-20th century travel guides that introduced English-reading audiences to continental Europe. Arthur Frommer, with his Europe on $5 a Day (1957), introduced readers to options for budget travel in Europe.
Internet guide books
With the advent of the Internet, much of the content traditionally included in paper guide books has also been made available in digital format. Websites such as Tripadvisor and Schmap, as well as traditional guide book incumbents Lonely Planet, Frommers and In Your Pocket City Guides are now offering travel guides for download in a digital format on the Internet. There are also a number of wikified travel guides published where content is contributed by both named and anonymous editors, including Wikitravel, World66, Travellerspoint and World_Wikia. A wikified version of Google Maps can be found at WikiMapia. Digital guides have also been formatted for viewing on an Ipod by companies such as Rough Guides. This list is a select sample of the full range of english language guide book publishers - either contemporary or historical.
- Avant Guide
- Blue Guides
- DK Eyewitness Travel
- Footprint
- Frommer's
- Fodor's
- In Your Pocket City Guides
- Let's Go
- Lonely Planet
- Open Road Publishing
- Not For Tourists
- Rough Guides
- Schmap
- Time Out
- The Travellers Guru
- Word Travels Travel Guide
Notes
- ^ a b c James Buzzard. "The Grand Tour and after (1660-1840)" in The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (2002). Page 48-50.
