Same names: how many place names have you come across that are the same, but different countries? There’s Paris Texas and Paris France. Other place names include Versailles in Kentucky and Versailles in France; Naples and Venice in Florida and Naples and Venice in Italy. Do you have any favourites? Write in and tell the Beetle!

Recently, the Beetle was asked about Guidebooks – what is out there and can she make any recommendations? Below is a commentary on a selection of some of the guidebooks available:

Eyewitness guides, published by Dorling Kindersley produce glossy guidebooks with lots of pictures on cities and also countries. The city guides are especially good although a little heavy and longer than most of the others. The Beetle particularly recommends these for short city breaks as they provide lots of background detail about certain sites or attractions and exploded diagrams of the insides of churches or palaces etc. They are not so great about telling you how to get to and from some of the attractions, although the Istanbul guide was excellent and rated better in a recent trip there than the corresponding LP on Istanbul. See www.dk.com

Fodor’s used more by the North American market and for slightly more wealthy travellers than backpackers, although they do have shoestring guides too. They tend to be fairly slim volumes and are particularly strong on North America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Take a look at www.fodors.com/

Footprint guides have very good guides on South American countries. They also do Canada, (not the US), selected European and African countries, Middle East and a good range of SE Asia. At the time the Beetle was backpacking around South America, the Footprint individual country guides were a lot better than the LP guides, in particular that awful huge tome LP produces on all S American countries! For more info, see footprinttravelguides.com

Frommer’s – used more by the North American travel market and appear to be aimed at a slightly more affluent market than backpackers – unless anyone would like to write in and disagree! The maps are generally good, and a lot of emphasis is placed on reviewing pubs, restaurants, hotels, bed and breakfasts etc. A quick look at a guide on Ireland, Jury’s Court Inn in Cork is described as inexpensive at $61 and up for a room. Otherwise they offer slightly pared down info on LP and RG. Frommer’s also do portable guides that you can download onto your palm pilot or similar not to mention a magazine and an e-newsletter. They are strong on the number of Caribbean titles. For more info on Frommer’s guides, see www.frommers.com

Insight Guides publish over 200 titles, again quite glossy, good photos – more of a coffee table book than a guidebook to take with you on a trip. This kind of book may be useful for planning a trip as it has the glossy pictures, but I would not take it on a trip to use as a guidebook. For more info, see http://www.insightguides.com

Lonely Planet – see also the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree website for sources of travel information. Lonely Planet, or LP is the granddaddy of modern guidebooks. People tend to either love LP or they hate it, and if the latter, their usual choice is Rough Guide (RG). The Beetle prefers the LP because it usually has good maps, (some colour pictures!) and she likes to know about every single restaurant and hostel available at the time of writing and feels quite aggrieved when only a selection are given (as in the RG)! Whilst prices change, you can always work out the ratio of increase so that you still have a rough idea of potential prices. See www.lonelyplanet.com

Moon has been going 25 years and produce guides covering Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. They are slightly biased to the US market but do nevertheless produce good guidebooks with good maps and lots of detailed information. The Beetle finds that Moon Guide distinguish themselves on regions, particularly US states rather than entire countries, for example excellent guides on New Mexico, Kauai, Mexico City etc. If I were to visit a US state, then this is the book I would take with me – lots of good maps, and local info. They also have city guides called Moon Metro and include San Francisco, New York, Paris. For more info, see www.moon.com

Rother guidebooks are about walking. They are a very handy size, good for slipping into a pocket, they usually have around 50 walking routes per guidebook, with fabulously detailed maps, giving you all the info you need such as grade of walk, approximate time to take, refreshments available en route, how to get there and return. The Beetle likes these books very much – if you are a walker, then these are for you! Destinations covered include many different parts of the Mediterranean, and Norway and Iceland. For more info, see www.cordee.co.uk

Rough Guides – as discussed above, we tend to find that people either love these or hate them. They have just as good a range in titles as LP, and they are very popular. They are just as comprehensive in terms of information as the LP, but in a very different format. Both LP and RG publish language guidebooks and a newsletter. Rough Guide tends to place hotels, hostels, restaurants etc in price brackets, but nonetheless give you enough info to make a decision re restaurant or hotel. For more info, see www.roughguides.com/

Trailblazers a small UK based company that do excellent guides particularly on walking and trekking, so if this is your thing, then these books will give you very details routes with distance, estimated times, danger points, and a whole load of walking or hiking – even climbing activities. For more info, see: www.trailblazerbooks.co.uk

Ulysses publish two series of travel guides and are strong on Canada, the US and Central America. The Beetle bought Ulysses guides on Panama, Honduras and El Salvador when there was nothing else available, and they were really very good. They also do language guides. For more info, see www.ulyssesguides.com

Do you have a favourite guidebook, or one that was just terrible? E-mail the Beetle and let us know about it!