Taking the Online Route: A Lighter Way to Get Guidebook Advice

Since Frommer's put all its content online in 2004 (a four-year process that started in 2000 and requires constant updating), the company's market share has grown, sayd editorial director David Lytle. In 2004, its market share was 17.75 percent; last year it was 19.8 percent. "The Internet and travel were made for one another," he adds.

Lytle says enabling travelers to counsel one another on message boards is a key element. "It's about letting the story take place with multiple voices," he says, "rather than having just one expert."

* Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door. Steves, the charismatic voice behind the Europe Through the Back Door guidebook series and host of popular PBS shows about Europe, has carved out a niche online. Beyond posting guidebook advice on the site, Steves has a monthly travel newsletter, guidebook updates and archived radio shows. A forum called Graffiti Wall allows travelers to share tips with one another.

In "Blog Gone Europe," Steves engages in spirited discussions with his readers: At press time one of his top posts was a response to those who said they'd never buy another one of his guidebooks because of Steves's liberal political outlook. Travelers who want free info sent to them can sign up for the monthly newsletter, a guide to Eurail passes or the 64-page Best Destinations brochure that's sent by postal mail.

Steves says his Web site ( http://www.ricksteves.com) has become popular because of its connections with the books and his PBS television series. None of these elements would be as successful on their own, he says. The TV show, and now a radio show, drive traffic to the Web site and help sell books, and the site gives Steves an immediate two-way connection with his followers.

* Moon Travel Guides. Rather than place the entire content of its print guides online, Moon, a guidebook series targeting independent travelers interested in history and culture, puts highlights from its guidebooks online at http://www.moon.com.

From the home page you can click on "Grand Canyon" and get advice and itineraries with such titles as "If You Only Have One Day" and "2-3 Days."

Moon's site also connects readers with authors; for instance, in the Q&A box on the home page there's a conversation with Moon's Guatemala author Al Argueta. He has answered questions about his favorite festival, the best places to shop for indigenous crafts and what he considers the country's best street snacks. This feature is available only online.

Perhaps Moon.com's best feature is its Travel Planner. Click this link to access free advice from 19 of Moon's top-selling handbooks. Use the clickable map to zoom in on your destination for must-sees such as Argentina's Parque Nacional Los Arrayanes in Patagonia.

* Rough Guides. Rough Guides, best known for its guides to European destinations, started out as a rough-and-ready reference for intrepid travelers but now targets a more mainstream audience and publishes guides on worldwide destinations.

Today, the series concentrates more on getting the best value and less on dirt-cheap deals, and provides abundant background on the arts, a valuable asset for destinations such as Italy. A worthwhile feature found in the online intro to some country guides is "things not to miss," which for Italy ranges from the Vatican Museum to truffles. Each entry has a couple of descriptive sentences; for more information, click the entry's link. In some ways the online guidebook is almost easier to navigate than the print tomes, as you can use the contents bar in the left column of each country guide to home in on your destination. For example, in the Italy guide, under "Contexts," you'll find a section on the vernacular architecture of the hill towns.

Publishing director Martin Dunford says the London-based guidebook company places the full text of about a third of its guidebook titles on its Web site ( http://www.roughguides.com).

The abundance of guidebook advice online "paradoxically works in our favor, because I think people gravitate toward a tried-and-trusted brand," Dunford says. The one thing that hasn't changed, he says, is that "no one is ready to pay for online content."

Yet if Lonely Planet's Pick & Mix model of buying single chapters for download takes off, Dunford and his colleagues may see a new way to cash in by providing guidebook content online.

Michael Shapiro last wrote for Travel about Web sites worth bookmarking.