Planning Your Travels by the Book

By Lisa McLaughlin

With more than 30,000 travel guidebooks on the market, it can be hard to keep up--especially when new entries keep coming and old ones keep changing. Budget-travel stalwart The Rough Guide has left a bit of its backpacking image behind with a stylish revamp and now includes some upscale activities, such as wine tasting. Its budget-travel competitor, the Lonely Planet series, currently features downloadable upgrades on its website that contain changes since the last edition was published. And for the more upscale traveler, two new guidebook series are creating a buzz:

--The exclusive Nota Bene series (NB Publishing) is the splashiest--and snootiest--entry in the guidebook field. Available by subscription at a cost of $300 for 10 issues, the skinny, sorbet-colored "destination reviews" are devoted to seeking out the hippest hotels, the trendiest bars and the hottest restaurants in places from Courchevel to Marrakech. Reviewers tell you not only what to order on the menu but also the right table to sit at. "We en* Adure the duds so you don't have to," promise the authors in the Paris issue. "Read NB assiduously and your travel itinerary will consist of jewel after jewel." But not everything is a jewel: the Hotel Meurice, they decree, is a "shrine to bad taste...We loathe it."

--A more egalitarian but still trendy guide is the sleek new Moon Metro series (Avalon Publishing), which explores cities--so far, New York, Paris, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, London and Amsterdam--by neighborhood, with highly individualized but not snarky descriptions written by local correspondents. The guides send travelers to traditional tourist spots as well as chic shops and clubs. The chapters include detailed foldout maps that are discreet enough that you can open them on the street without looking lost.