Africa Trip Part 4: The Guide Book Comparison

During my trip I used 5 different guidebooks.

For general safari planning, you can't go wrong with Fodor's THE COMPLETE AFRICAN SAFARI PLANNER which covers Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Victoria Falls. For each country, the guide covers the gateway city, the must-see parks, the if-you-have-time parks and beach escapes. It also gives you great tips on the ins and outs of safaris including what to expect, what to wear, what to bring and more. It was thanks to this guide that we decided we must go to Ngorogoro Crater and Lamu. Though I didn't end up using any of the eating or sleeping listings, I enjoyed the wealth of cultural information presented throughout. Definitely a keeper. It may even inspire me to go on more safaris!

As for day-to-day guides, we used the Lonely Planet's EAST AFRICA as well as country guides from Footprint covering Kenya and Tanzania. All three offered a good mix of both affordable listings and more upscale locales. I found the Lonely Planet to be more reliable in general, although current phone numbers can be a problem in both publisher's books. Your best bet is to check the listing's website for the most current contact details. We had a devil of a time finding the number for Robert's Camp in Baringo, though it didn't turn out to be a problem since we ended up being the only guests.

Footprint's KENYA HANDBOOK is current as of March 2009 but some of the information didn't get double-checked when they printed the new edition. For example, the guide claims Diamond Village (where we stayed) has pit latrines, but they've had en-suite flush toliets since 2005. Oops! What I do really like about the Footprint guides are the hard covers and the excellent maps.

The book I used the most during my trip was Lonely Planet's WATCHING WILDLIFE EAST AFRICA. Not only is it full of excellent color pictures and detailed information about species you are likely to encounter, it also has a whole section covering each national park in East Africa and what wildlife you may find there (and in what areas specifically). Whenever our guide would point out a new bird (for example), I would pull out the book and read all about it. The only think I was really missing was a checklist so I could keep track of what I'd seen and what I still needed to track down.

What guidebooks do you like to use when you travel?

New York City in Books

I still have a couple more NYC posts in me, and today I wanted to give a quick shout out to some of the books I used as reference for my trip.

First up, the full color New York City guide 2009 from Fodor's. I didn't get this in time to actually plan my trip with it, but I did browse through while I was there. It is organized by area and provides a great overview of things to do as well as places to stay, eat and shop. There is a nice balance of information and entertainment in the writing and I especially enjoyed the "close up" features such as the one on the history of Times Square. I will definitely use this to plan my next trip!

At BEA, I grabbed a copy of Lonely Planet's New York City Encounter, which claims to allow you to discover twice the city in half the time. It is a small format, 280 pager that can be easily carried with you when you are out and about. Organized by neighborhood, it presents a few must-sees as well as some "hidden gems". No listing for The Strand bookstore, so it loses some points with me. I liked the interviews with NYC residents and would have like to have seen more of these.

Speaking of The Strand, we picked up a copy of the classic children's picture book This is New York by M. Sasek. It give a lot of fun stats about NYC then and now such as how many elevators operate in the city, how many churches there are, and how many miles of streets need to be policed (6,000 miles). I love the illustrations - especially of the squirrels in Central Park.

We also bought a copy of the recently released A Walk in New York by Salvatore Rubbino. In it, a father and son spend a day in Manhattan starting in Grand Central Station and moving downtown visiting The New York Public Library, The Empire State Building and Union Square Park (all places I visited as well). It's both fun and full of interesting trivia.

What are your favorite NYC guidebooks or books set in NYC? I'd love some recommendations!