Frommer’s guide that went to St. Martin with me

Google recently bought out Frommer’s – the company that creates hundreds of print travel guide books each year. And now they’ve decided to stop publishing any. Here’s the link to the story.

I love books and I love travel, so I am a Frommer’s fan. I don’t go anywhere without buying the Frommer’s and Fodor’s guides for that location.  And I do buy both guides because they have different styles and include different information. Often by cross-referencing the two I can isolate the best restaurants, best hotels, and best things to do if the books agree.

I do a lot of online research before I travel (TripAdvisor is very helpful, as are local tourism web sites), but I find that a print guidebook organizes all of the important information for me in one place. It  has small localized maps that are easy to read. Most online sites redirect you to Google maps, which is fine, but it’s nice to see a map with all the restaurants or sights clearly marked, so you can easily gauge what is where.

I like to have a guidebook in my purse or bag when we are out and about. We may plan to go to one restaurant and get there and find it’s a dump. The guidebook offers a quick way for me to find other restaurants I’ve marked in that area, rather than trying to navigate UrbanSpoon or TripAdvisor for help (and if you’re in a spot with no internet access they do you no good!).

I will sorely miss Frommer’s guides and may now have to give in and buy some other brand (Rick Steve’s, Rough Guide, or Moon – all of which I’ve tried and just don’t like as much as my Big Two!).

What resources do you use to prepare for a trip? Will you miss Frommer’s guides?