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Guidbook - "Best of" or Full book?

Posted by (Jupiter, Florida, United States) on

We are going to south & west Ireland for 10 days in September. I have always used Rick's guidebooks (with others as supplements where his didn't cover locations) for my Europe trips. Usually I have used the full guidebooks but occasionally got the snapshots where they made sense (e.g. when we went to Milan and the Italian Lakes).

I am trying to decide whether the Best of Ireland covers enough for what I am used to with Rick's books. It has all the locations we are visiting (Kilkenny, Kinsale, Kenmare/Ring of Kerry, Dingle), but I don't get the feel from looking at a preview of it as to whether it covers enough restaurants and places to stay as the full guidebook (we have never had a bad restaurant recommendation from a Rick Steves' guidebook so I rely upon those heavily).

Does the "Best of" cover the locations mentioned above as fully as the regular guidebook? This is about space & weight (yes I'm still a book person) more than cost; I just want to make sure I'm getting enough coverage for where we are going.

And as to the supplemental guides - is there any preference between Fodor's and Rough Guides if you are going to pick one or the other?

Thanks for all suggestions/comments.

Posted by
1172 posts

Sounds like we may have a similar itinerary and I bough the full book. Felt it was more complete.

I don't usually buy more than one book but supplement with notes that I make from internet research including other travel resources like lonely planet, Fodor's etc.

Have a great trip!

Posted by
2980 posts

We've found that the major guides cover essentially the same things in different formats. Several years ago we discovered the "Back Roads" series of guide books from DK publishing. The one for Ireland is quite good - in fact it's the only guide we bring with us besides the RS book.
If you're at all interested in off-the-beaten path excursions that you won't see in the other guides then it might be of interest to you. Have seen them for sale on Amazon (used) for less than $2.
Safe travels

Posted by
23 posts

Thank you both for your suggestions. I will check out both Lonely Planet and Back Roads.

Posted by
16895 posts

Among Rick's guidebooks, Ireland is a smaller book to start with, so more of the original content (especially number of destinations) remains in the "Best of" book than will be the case for other countries. I just looked over the Dingle dining and sleeping options and all were the same, except for a couple out-of-town options that were omitted in the "Best of."

If you're already used to using the regular format, that would be reason enough for some people to stick with it. There is no weight difference, since the color book has fewer pages but requires heavier paper.

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