Can you access guidebooks online?

Not without buying them again as ebooks from a source like Amazon--unless you purchased from a source like Amazon and electronic access was advertised as part of the original purchase. It's worth checking Amazon for the ebook version, because it sometimes has some of Rick's books (or another good series) available in electronic form for $0.99 or $1.99 each. You might be lucky.

As acraven said, not likely unless you purchase them again. You might also see if your local public library has an e-book equivalent to check out, but you'll have a due date of course.

Both Rough Guides and some Lonely Planet guidebooks offer free ebooks if you buy the print version. With Rough Guides, you can get a link to download the e-from the print version but with LP books, you must purchase them from their website to have access to an ebook.

What I would do is check out the ebooks you want from the library for free. If you have a library card, just download Libby and connect to your library there. Then you can check out ebooks for free for up to 3 weeks. I get most of my guidebooks this way. When you are searching on Libby, filter/sort your entries so that the most recently released books show up first.

In addition to Libby, my library is also part of the hoopla digital content service. I frequently find guidebooks there with a 21 day download period. Hoopladigital.com