Which Guidbooks?

Tiffany, for just 4 nights in Paris, either the Paris City Guide or the Pocket Paris would probably work. When I went to Paris for a month I just took the Pocket Paris to save on room in my bag and it served me well. You might want to get the Italy book rather than the Rome City Guide as it would have both Rome and Siena.

Rick Steves' book on PARIS is wonderful for people going on their first trip to Paris.

I agree with Nancy and Ron, I would get the Paris book, and the Italy book.

Also suggest you google the top ten sites in each city, can give you some good info.

If your library has the different RS guidebooks, you could take a look and decide what suits your needs best.

Tiffany, As you'll only have two stops in Italy and one in France, you could use the Snapshot: Hill Towns of Central Italy ($9.99) along with the Pocket Rome ($12.99). That would be slightly less expensive than buying the larger Italy Guidebook, and will provide the information you need for the two places you're visiting. For your stay in Paris, you could either use the Pocket Paris book ($12.99) or the larger Paris book ($19.99). One advantage of the "Pocket" books is that they're smaller and lighter, so will be easier to carry for reference during day-to-day touring. One thing to consider with the purchase of ANY of the Guidebooks, is whether you'll be travelling to Europe again in the next year or two. If you'll be covering a wider area on subsequent visits, the larger and more complete Guidebooks might be a good idea. The other aspect is of course your budget. Many of the Guidebooks are now also available as E-books in a variety of formats (Kindle, iBooks, Kobo, etc.), so if you have an iPad or other reader, that's an option too. One important point to mention though - the E-books are typically released about three months after the print versions. If you buy an E-book, be sure to note which edition it is, as you may be buying last year's version. Happy travels!

Go to the library and get all they have - other than that use tripadvisor for things to do and hotels

Thank you all so much for your thoughts very helpful!

I would get the smaller guidebooks for Rome and Tuscany to take with you. The Italy book is quite large and heavy. I like the smaller guidebooks as they are easier to carry around and saves tearing out pages.