Indian Guidebooks

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"Most travel is finest of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage." - Regina Nadelson

[www.theindiaphile.com/the-best-indian-guidebooks/ Indian guidebooks] appear to have a difficult time to be honest about places which suck. Possibly they don't want to offend the inhabitants? Anyway here is a short guide to decipher what they honestly mean

If you have a bulky guidebook like Lonely PLanet it could be awkward to lug around once you are walking around town. Make photograph copies of the maps of the cities you will visit & bring the copies along instead of the guidebook (or in case you don't care so much about the guidebook you could tear out the map pages). Put the maps in a protective plastic sheet to defend them against rain.

Place a rubber band around your guidebook & use it as a bookmark to essentially find your way back to where you were last. You could also get nominal colored plastic stickers and use as bookmarks - place them on pages you want rapid access to.

If you're planning on going to a variety of countries the Indian guidebooks can take up a significant part of your luggage. One choice is to get them as you go & get rid of the ones you do not need any more. A drawback to this approach is that the guidebooks are not accessible everywhere. In a number of countries it could be tricky to find domestic guidebooks (such as Argentina in 2004). The charges can also differ quite a bit between countries so it could be cheaper to acquire it once you're there. Swapping Indian guidebooks with backpackers going in the opposite direction could be a clever trick.

In India, like countless countries, the Lonely Planet reigns supreme. Backpackers from everywhere follow its guidance, & inevitably stay in the same hotels & hostels, visit the same sites & eat at the same restaurants. Publishers claim that their guides are definitive, & this allows us to feel that our experience of a place has been, in many ways, complete. Those who have done most of what the Lonely Planet advises will more often than not say - to my horror - that they have 'done' a place.

There is a World wide web project called Wikitravel where men and women from around the world join forces to develop an online zero cost & frequently updated [www.theindiaphile.com/the-best-indian-guidebooks/ travel guide book to India]

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