what RS guide books to buy and when ?

Gerard Check the 2012 RS Italy guide out of the library so when you get anxious, you can begin your preliminary planning. The 2013 version will come out at the end of 2011, I think the last quarter. Bobbie

The guides don't change that much from one year to the next and updates are listed on this forum. I say buy the paperback so you can tear out the sections and carry them with you. Things like the night time walk would be cumbersome with an Ipad. All you need is the Italy book.

Thanks for the replies.

2013 books will most likely start coming out in the Fall. There will probably be an announcement on the website.

Gerard, As someone else mentioned, the new 2013 Guidebooks will be released in the Fall, probably starting about September. I don't know exactly when the Italy or Tuscany 2013 versions will be available, but the dates will be announced in the "Books" section of this website. New editions of the E-Books ( Kindle, iPad) are typically about three months behind the print versions. I've used a few of the Kindle Guidebooks on an iPod Touch and a PC (they have MAC versions of the Reader also) and that worked reasonably well, once I figured out how to navigate from one section to another. The Maps are presented as a complete page as well as split into four parts. They're a bit awkward to navigate but again not too difficult with practice. The Kindle editions seem to only be offered in black & white, whereas I believe the iPad versions are in colour. Again as previously mentioned, there likely won't be a lot of changes from one year to the next. I wouldn't use a Guidebook that's four or five years old, but the 2012 edition should be fine for travel in 2013. The "Books" section of this website has a "Guidebooks Uppdate" section which will list any changes. If you'd prefer the ease of an E-book, you'll probably have to wait until at least Christmas to get the current edition. If you don't mind a print version, that should be available in Sept. / Oct. I'm not sure if there are any local dealers for RS Guidebooks in Australia. If you want the print version, you may have to order from this website. Happy travels!

Ken Many thanks for the advice. I haven't yet found a seller in australia and thought it was simpler to just order an ebook online. I realised the e versions this year lagged behind so was looking at getting the current version that would allow us to complete of program, and forward bookings. I'll have a look over the next few days.
I had already looked at purchasing a book off the the RS store but got stuck when entering in our Australian postal address. I'll have another go. regards

Gerard, Just to confirm, are you going to be travelling with a Kindle, an iPad or both devices? Check the Australian version of Amazon and iTunes to see what's available at the moment. The Amazon store in this part of the world DOES have the Italy 2012 book currently listed. Unfortunately, iTunes seems to just have the older 2011 edition. They do appear to ship outside the U.S. and Canada, but state that delivery could be 3-4 weeks. You could send them an E-mail for specific details on shipping to Australia. Cheers!

Ken We have an ipad, with an app for kindle either one will be no problem. I also have a pdf viewer app, photo editor so plan on using it to its full extent rather than taking a laptop. While Kindles books are available , I understand these are Black and white, someone may advise if RS ebooks are colour.
As it happens I have looked on a number of occasions on the i-tunes store for the RS books. I haven't found any though there's lots of Lonely Planet guides, (I have their ITALY guide anyway). Perhaps someone may enlighten me on what I'm doing wrong. As always I appreciate the advice this forum provides, I'm looking at this more frequently now as we get the final stages of where we will be going in Italy "locked in". regards

Gerard, I had a look at a sample of a RS Guidebook in Apple format, and some of the maps seem to be in colour but some of the photos are in B&W. One disadvantage of the Apple versions of the Guidebooks, is that there seems to be fewer of the current Rick Steves editions available. The Kindle versions seem to be released in a more timely manner, which gives them an advantage. If you want a newer Guidebook in E-book format, you may have to settle for the Kindle version. It's possible that the selektions available in iTunes stores in each country are different, and that's why you haven't been able to find any copies of the Rick Steves books in Australia. There doesn't appear to be an Amazon.au website, so I'm not sure what the status is with Kindle books. You should be able to download those from the U.S. site? Good luck!