Finding Free Travel Guides
With the information explosion that has occurred in the past couple of decades, free travel information is easier to get than ever before. You can get free travel guides in tourist bureau centers, on the Internet, and even in bookstores from time to time. Separating the wheat from the chaff, however, can be difficult. A lot of this free travel information is there for the purpose of attracting you to a particular destination.
The solution, of course, is to look at as many free travel guides as possible. There is plenty of free travel information available, and it is easy to see what is biased once you learn to look for the signs. Usually, Internet discussion groups are a great place to start. When you are looking to take a vacation to some new destination, you can ask any question you want. There is likely to be a whole community of friendly people there to answer any questions you might have. They can point you to the most reliable free travel guides, and tell you what to avoid.
There are some organizations that have very good free travel guides, but only give them to members. One of the best examples of this is AAA. I have been a AAA member for about four years, and every time I go on vacation I pick up a free travel guide. They have guides to regions, states, and even cities. They are well researched, comprehensive, and put together quite professionally. They are the kind of books that you expect to pay 20 or 30 dollars for, but they are available for free.
If you aren't a AAA member, that doesn't mean you can't find a free travel guide book. Vacation guides are some of the most frequently discarded books, so if you keep an eye out you should be able to find them for little or nothing. Look in used bookstores, free boxes, garage sales - anywhere where books are given away for little or nothing. Chances are, if it is a popular destination, you will be able to find a free travel book which tells you all about it. It might not be completely up-to-date, but most of the information was probably still be good.
Lately, some travel companies have taken to giving out free travel guides to anyone who registers with them. Next time you're making an airplane registration, you should ask. You might be surprised by how much free information is available.
