Travel Books for trip planning

Planning a trip takes a lot of work and when you are a perfectionist person like me, it takes twice the time. For me, it’s essential to have a well-defined travel itinerary in order to not waste time or money. I do my research on websites and blogs on the internet, travel videos on youtube but also through books . I will now share the books I use to plan my trips.

All bookstores continue to have a section dedicated to travel books although I consider that buying this type of books is beginning to fall into disuse (do you agree?). I guess that I’m old-fashioned in these things because I keep buying them whenever I take a big trip. I don’t buy one for each trip that I go on (I was already poor if I did!) but for the biggest and most “important” I like to invest in books.

Why buying travel books?

That’s a good question. On most blogs or websites, there are several photos and texts telling the experience but the history and the framework parts that I really like is missing. But travel books have that part! It’s because of this but also because of the city foldout pocket map (usually comes at the end of the book) that I continue buying them. The city map it’s really useful to understand the streets organization and the location of the main attractions. Of course I know that I can use Google Maps for that (and I use too!) but it’s not the same thing of having a physical map to handle and point.

What travel books do I buy?

I already have several travel books but the ones I like the most are CityPack and the DK travel guides. The CityPack books have the top 25 best places (one page per place with photos, tips, history and information such as schedules, how to get there and other things), itinerary proposals, places to shop, to eat and to sleep and other essential information for anyone visiting the city. The DK Travel Guides are great too and have so much information to read, a lot of photos and illustrations to see, maps of some attractions, aerial views of the main areas, itinerary proposals, etc. Both have the city foldout pocket map I talked about above.

After traveling what do I do with the books?

I lend to friends and family who are going to travel and I will use them again if I return to some destination. On the other hand, the books are always useful to decorate the book shelf!