Foo - Travel Guides (i.e. Lonely Planet, Rough Guide) do you use them? Which do you prefer?

I travel a lot (part of the job) and haven't bought a travel guide for years. Normally that's not a problem, because I usually get taken to see what's worth seeing by my 'hosts'.

My question: which guides do you prefer (Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, Time Out, etc) and why?

Used to buy Fodor's. But that was probably 15 years or more ago. Don't know who the real travel-guide leader is today. You can probably find a travel site that rates the travel guides....

Stay safe, have fun, post pics! :)

I like the Lonely Planets, but their popularity can mean that you end up in an unofficial Lonely Planet tour group. That can be good or bad... You can sometimes end up at a restaurant and find every other person has a Lonely Planet on their table, but I'd say that their recommendations are usually pretty good.

My favourite restaurant in Beijing was revealed to me by a Rough Guide, and received no mention in the Lonely Planet. On the whole, however, the Lonely Planet for Beijing seemed better.

If you do use Lonely Planets, however, buy a real map when you get to wherever you're going. Lonely Planet maps often leave a lot to be desired. This seems especially true in China.

I have backpacked over seas and around the country several times and I use a combination of lonely planet, couchsurfing.com, travelpunk.com/boards, and the good old "HEY YOOOO i aint from here, ya'll speak 'merican"