A Guide to Travel Guides

In May of 2001 I left the North American continent for the first time, a three week trip to India with 23 other Georgia university faculty. It was overwhelming but fabulous, and I've travelled quite a bit since then. Driving, flying, with friends, alone ... Guide books are useful to orient yourself to a place, and find out where you want to go. Which ones will suit you best is very much a question of personal temperment. These are observations from my use of some of them. As you'll see, I prefer Rough Guides.

AAA Guide Books: If you're an AAA member, don't overlook their guidebooks to individual states and regions. These aren't fantastic books, but they're free and not bad. They give a passable overview of the region, what sites are like, what they cost, and a basic history of the region. They're okay for hotels, but they'll never list anything unusual or super-cheap. Their taste in restaurants is fairly mundane and relatively expensive. The maps in the books are pretty limited, but if you're an AAA member you get free and excellent maps as well. So - best for the sites.
Fodor's: Mostly printed on newsprint, very cheap paper. I hate the feel of it. Not good if you want to choose your own itinerary, because they prescribe routes through areas or neighbourhoods and only tell you about sites in that context.
Frommer's: Heavier concentration than usual on where to eat and sleep than most, and at that expects you to be pretty affluent.
Eye Witness Travel Guides (Dorling Kindersley): Eye Witness books are better than any other travel guides at letting you know what things look like. They're fantastic for that. But like Fodor's, they prescribe paths through neighbourhoods. They have the mixed blessing of skipping over lesser sites, so you can look through a neighbourhood in the book and see what you like relatively easily even if you're not following the route. One thing that drives me crazy about their guide books is that they tell you if a site cost money - but not how much. And their listed hours are frequently wrong.
Lonely Planet: The hip, poor traveller's guide. Lists cheap restaurants as well as expensive ones, and mixes listings for youth hostels in with the hotels. Definitely the best if you're looking for cheap places to stay. Goes off the beaten track some. Good at local history and customs. My problem with Lonely Planet is that they have too much attitude for their own good, and they claim authority in areas they aren't actually authoritative in (ie. "You must do this while in a bar in San Francisco," inviting you to make a fool of yourself).
Rough Guides: My personal favourite. The Mini-Rough Guides have been good too. They strike the balance (for me anyway) between the more traditional guides (ie. Fodor's) and the overly "hip" guides (Lonely Planet). They list cheap restaurants and hotels with the expensive ones, and they go easy on the attitude. Good at local history and customs. Descriptions of sites are usually extensive and quite accurate. Not many pictures.