macrakis@harvard.ARPA (Stavros Macrakis) (01/07/85)
How To Use Travel Literature The national travel bureau literature is 90% trash, but 10% useful. Be ruthless in throwing out the trash. Agreed that: > > Though...worth getting,...remember that it's sales brochures.... But the photos are sometimes suggestive (sometimes deceptive). The country survey brochures are sometimes useful for getting a general idea. The Greek one is especially good, as it has map symbols telling you where sites of various periods are (e.g. columns for classical, church for byzantine). > > Maps are laughably useless for serious motoring. In general true, but for Turkey the road maps are very good (since the roads are so bad, knowing which are better and which are worse is crucial). The Turkish one also has a quick cross-index of site periods. > When contacting tourist bureaus ask for complete listings of lodgings with > prices and detailed maps. ... I find the lodging lists occasionally useful, but no substitute for good guidebooks. Remember that the national bureau is not allowed to make ratings of quality, only `class' (which is sometimes meaningful, sometimes not). There is often a low-end cutoff on class, as well. National restaurant listings are almost invariably useless, except perhaps for Scandinavia. > ... books are designed to make money,... to appeal to a specific audience, > contain unguaranteed 1 year old material, only comment on places they have > had time to visit, miss many if not all small but nice places. Hotels and restaurants are also designed to make money. The appeal to a specific audience can be helpful if you fit the target audience: a banker from Omaha who speaks only English and is taking his first European holiday will probably be very satisfied with Fielding. Nothing is guaranteed, although an article by McPhee (I think) on Fielding in the New Yorker many years ago described his vigilant protection of his readers. I would hope they only comment on places they visit! And of course they cannot possibly be comprehensive. Some are useful, some aren't. Last summer, in Italy, I carried about 6 guides, all of which were useful, and all of which I used selectively. > In some places like Northern Europe, I have never found a place that was not > clean. The only choice is price and convenience. Well, if cleanliness, price, and convenience are your only criteria, I suppose you don't much need a guidebook in Scandinavia. If you care about quality or travel elsewhere, I suggest you get a good guidebook. -s