When you go to pick out a guidebook, there's always a risk. While you expect to be getting a fantastic compass to help you navigate your travels, you could end up with a poorly-written, out-of-date, or worse, completely fabricated disaster. Luckily, travel writer Andrew Evans, who has written several guidebooks, is here to um, guide us through the buying process.
In his recent book “Do Travel
Writers Go to Hell?” a very smug Thomas Kohnstamm confesses to accepting bribes, plagiarizing text, and not even
visiting the countries he was covering for travel publisher Lonely
Planet. One man’s publicity nightmare is another man’s
royalty check, yes, but where does this leave the traveler? How
reliable is any one guidebook and how can travelers avoid buying
fiction when they’re looking for facts?
For starters, the popular conception of
the travel writer is a myth. We do not run around the world with
limitless corporate credit cards getting free spa packages and
business-class upgrades. How does it happen? For a new
title, I usually travel for at least two to three months in the country,
spending 10-12 hours a day doing intensive research. Everything is
research, whether I’m noting how long it takes to walk from the
train station to the beach or remembering the cleanest bathrooms.
Obviously, it’s impossible to see and do everything, but I try
my best since nothing beats writing about a place firsthand. As
backup, I collect every scrap of paper I can find on-site: tourist
brochures, café menus—even phone books. The Internet is
a great secondary source once I’m home and writing things up.
No (gasp!), guidebooks are rarely
fact-checked—at least not in the way that magazines and
newspapers get fact-checked. Authors are contractually liable for
the information they submit so the onus is on us to get it right the
first time. Proofreaders and regional experts will review the
manuscript to check for inconsistencies and blatant misrepresentation
but they can’t vet every phone number or hotel review.
Instead, sections of the book are spot-checked to get a sense of the
overall level of accuracy. If it passes the test it goes to press.
Enter you, the savvy traveler in search of the
perfect guide. Here’s a few tips to help you find what you’re
after:
Be a Picky Eater: Guidebooks are like restaurants—sometimes the better ones are harder to find. Resist the temptation to grab the first thing you see. Before you head to the bookstore, check online to see every title that's available.
Check the Sell-By Date: Start with today’s date and
subtract one year. That’s about the last time the author was
in country for any given title, even the ones with next year’s
date on the cover (e.g. France 2009). Always check the date of first
publication on the inside cover and verify if subsequent dates
represent actual updated editions of just reprints or partial
updates. A quality guidebook has a lifespan of two to three years,
after which it usually needs to be fully updated.
How Many Travel Writers Does It Take
To Screw In a Lightbulb? Just one, sometimes two. Generally,
the more writers involved in a single guide, the lower the quality.
Varied experience and different voices mean that a separate editor
has to massage the text into a single book and risk losing
authenticity. The exception to the rule are multi-author books to
huge countries like Russia, China, Brazil, or Indonesia—in
which case you should really consider buying a region-specific
guidebook. Avoid the thick, 1,000+ page tomes that are too
“all-inclusive” to carry any sustenance. Most of these
are cut-and-paste jobs gleaned from smaller guidebooks.
Useful phrasebooks can be found in the back of any decent guidebook, but for foreign-language phobes like me, roman spellings and pronunciation guides can only get a traveler so far. Rosetta Stone is great, except it requires a computer and selling my right arm. I don't usually carry my laptop when traveling abroad, and generally, I like my four limbs where they are.
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