Leaf Through Some Guidebooks Before Leaving

When family or friends ask for holiday gift suggestions, a guidebook can be the ideal answer because a well-researched book can be as helpful in the planning stages of your trip as it is on the road.

Buying a cheap, out-of-date guidebook or skipping the purchase is poor economy. A good guidebook can save you time and disappointment by directing you to the right hotel in the dead of night. It can save you money by helping you select a hotel of good value in a town where hotels are in abundance.

The best guides for independent travelers don’t just cover what to see, how to get around and where to stay. They also include maps, suggest what to carry with you, tell you about tickets that can only be bought before you leave home, warn you of medical problems in the area, give positive and negative reviews on lodgings, warn you of common tourist rip-offs and tell you who to contact in an emergency.

Fortunately, there are suitable guides for independent budget travelers for most areas of the world. Start your search in a bookstore that specializes in travel, and try to get advice from the owner or buyer.

The following three publishers have earned good reputations for producing guides suited to independent, student-style travelers:

--Lonely Planet, started in 1973 by Australians Tony and Maureen Wheeler, now publishes 60 titles, including guides for Asia, Australia, the Pacific, Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East and parts of North America.

Lonely Planet’s Oakland, Calif., warehouse was damaged in the recent earthquake, but the stack of books that ended up buried under bricks turned out to be limited to “China--A Travel Survival Kit,” the book in least demand this year.

The Travel Survival Kit series is designed for independent travelers in all budget categories. New and recently revised editions include: “Australia,” 880 pages, $19.95; “Israel,” $13.95; “Argentina,” $10.95; “Brazil,” $13.95; “Rarotonga and the Cook Islands,” $10.95, and “Hong Kong,” $12.95.

Lonely Planet’s “On a Shoestring” series is specifically for budget travelers. New and recently revised editions include: the 1,124-page “Africa On a Shoestring,” $24.95; “South-East Asia,” $14.95; “North-East Asia,” $11.95, and “Eastern Europe” (which may already be out of date, due to recent political changes), $14.95.

One drawback to these guides, and the guides by Moon Publications, is that they are not updated annually. So it’s wise to check the publication date inside the front cover and adjust for inflation, when calculating prices.

--Moon Publications has been producing its Handbook series for independent travelers since 1973. It has 25 titles covering Asia, the Pacific and the Americas.

Updated and new Moon Handbooks include: “Egypt,” $14.95; “British Columbia,” $11.95; “New Mexico,” $11.95; “Nevada,” $10.95, “Hawaii,” $14.95; “Kauai,” $9.95; “South Pacific,” $15.95; “Micronesia,” $9.95; “Tahiti-Polynesia,” $9.95, and “Bali,” $12.95. Early next year a revised 512-page edition of the “New Zealand Handbook” will be available for $14.95.

In addition, the 30-year-old Let’s Go travel series, by Harvard Student Agencies, is updated annually by a team of more than 50 traveling student researchers. It’s published by St. Martin’s Press.

The two multi-destination guides for 1990 will be “Let’s Go: Europe” and “Let’s Go: USA,” both priced at $13.95. For $12.95 apiece there will also be Let’s Go guides to California and Hawaii; Mexico; the Pacific Northwest, Western Canada and Alaska; Britain and Ireland; France; Greece; Israel and Egypt; Italy; Spain and Portugal and Morocco.

A gift certificate is a good alternative if a title is unavailable or sold out.

If the newest edition of a guide is not available when you begin making plans, you can usually get some good guidance from last year’s edition, which is free at the library.