RS Spain Guidebook/ what do you do?

I count the book as part of the cost of the trip, and, figuring that at least some of the information would be outdated the next time I needed it and I would need a new book, anyway, I don't feel bad about tearing it apart.

I tear my pages out. I bring them back home, and put them back in the book to keep the book afterwards. It's hard to destroy a book, but the benefit of having the information with me without the weight of the whole book helps me decide to do it.

Keep the book intact and usee tabs to quickly find the most desired pages. We once tried the deconstruction method, but ended up with added up, out of order and then wet pages.

I understand your hesitation on tearing the book apart. I would take the entire RS guidebook when traveling independently. So much info that I had to use for decisions. But after taking my first RS Tour I only took part of the book as the tour has already planned transportation, dinners, etc. You also have the guide to ask questions of that would be in the book We carry a RS backpack only. So we don't want extra weight of the book.

Hi Priscilla. I am taking a Best of Spain tour this fall. I will carefully cut the book into pieces so that I carry only part of it in my purse for daily travel. I may bring the whole book, in parts, as I have a few days after the tour that are not completely planned yet. I too go carry on only but will check my bag to return home.

One year, I cut off the cover and replaced it with colorful scrapbook paper and used wide clear packing take to make it more sturdy. I could sit at a cafe and look in my guidebook withhout everyone knowing Imhad the Blue book out! For some of the other cut out bits, a piece of wallpaper from one of those sample books was the cover. I did use a lot of the packing tape to keep the portions together. That worked for me.

Most of the time I do bring my book parts back home. Other times, I leave it with the front desk.

On another RS tour, I did see one couple use only a few pages torn out and stapled together, for each day.

The Spain book is quite large and I do like to have information with me in paper form daily. I do have my cellphone in my bag only to be used in emergency for a phone call or on one occasion I used the compass as my travelling companions and I had a poor quality map from the hotel and little direction on how to return to the hotel.

Have a great trip.

Rip and put back. I toured Spain using RS guidebook in 2007 and only carried the pages for cities we were visiting, liked how that worked. For later trips to France and Italy I kept the cover and unused chapters at home and put the used sections back in when I returned; this way I can look at new places and check references to places I visited.
For future extensive trips I expect to buy updated copies and rip them as needed. But for a place I am revisiting for only a few days I might just look at the update section on this site to see changes to my old guidebooks.

I carefully tear out the pages I need for my trip trying to get has much as the gum from the book spine as possible. Then I staple sections together by the town/city I will be visiting. Finally, I put all the pages in a ziplock bag where they are safe until I arrive at my destination. I really like being able to carry around just one slim packet of papers while I'm out sightseeing.

I have the spine cut off and, then, have only the pages I'll need spiral bound. I discard pages as I go and come home with nothing from the book. It's amazing how much of the book I'm able to leave home - every ounce counts!

I buy the paperback, but take my kindle on the trip. So, yes, I'm buying 2 copies, it's worth it. As far as tearing things out, haven't been able to bring myself to do it, so I print the street maps out using the Kindle PC version, much better on illustrations than the e-ink kindle. Frankly, I like the streetwise maps a little better, and buy those as my primary map reference.

Several times I've had the book cut at a printers, and spiral bound into sections. This worked really well - not only to see maps that are close to the spine but also to turn the pages right underneath, and view only one page at a time.

We leave shortly for Ireland and I bought the RS mini-binder so I will experiment with that to see how I like it compared to spiral binding.

I always read about people who don't want to tear up their books as they consider books sacred. I work at a public library and we have a dumpster in the garage that fills up with garbage books and needs dumping at least once a week. This happens even though we send many unwanted books to the Friends for their sales, then Better World Books, and in the past sent Children's books to Canada's north (for school libraries in Inuit communities).

Last year in preparation for my trip to Spain I bought a copy of RS Spain tour guide. I also needed to purchase another popular guide because I was spending several days in the beautiful city of Zaragoza - a place Rick chooses to completely ignore. It simply didn't make sense to carry two complete, heavy guides with me to Spain. Therefore I cut out the pages I wanted from both books and had a local print shop spiral bind them into several city packages. It worked great. I brought them home with me for help in sorting out my trip pix.
BTW, I tried one year to travel with the Spain ebook on my IPad, but that was a flop - it was a mess that I'll never repeat ...

Thank you all for your responses!

I like the idea of having the sections spiral bound.

I'm still thinking about what to do...

Hi Priscilla,
We tear the pages as close as possible to the spine and take them to Office Max. We end up with a nice spiral bound book with only the pages that we need.

Christine, how did you tear the pages? Did you use a utility knife?

Nancy (Oregon), where did you take the book to have it cut apart?

Andrea, where did you buy the RS mini- binder? I just searched the RS online shop & did not see it.

Roger, the OfficeMax in our community recently went out of business, so I suppose I can try Staples or Office Depot?

Thanks again for your replies!

Hey there Priscilla! FYI, I have in the past cut up the binding of an RS travel book with a sharp serrated knife, not hard at all. The small book binder is in the RS online store under Handy Extras, priced at $2.99. I tried one once and found it did not hold up very well. I believe Office Max and Office Depot recently merged, so if you've got either one, you've got them both. My own new strategy on this issue, given the new $100 store credit for RS tour travelers, and since I already have a surplus of RS gear and stuff, would be to order 2 copies of the relevant travel guide(s), cut one up for travel, discarding parts as I go, and keep the other for the longer-term travel library. Either that or get the hard copy to keep and the kindle version for travel. That exhausts my knowledge and opinions on this question. Be well and travel often!

Hi Larry,
Thanks for the information!

Since I will only be needing about 20% of the book, I may just tear it apart & go to Office Depot for the spiral binding.

I see you're planning a trip to Spain! Enjoy!