When ever I am planning a trip I start to do my research just as most people do. Flipping through the many guide book options that tell everything and anything there is to see and do in a given destination. The thing I always find problematic about print travel guides like Lonely Planet for instance, is that their information is almost two years old before it even hits the shelves. There are other options that make more sense and are constantly updated. A travel guide that is web-based and has writers always going back and making changes as they happen in the real-world. The other great advantage to this type of travel guide is that it doesn’t waste paper.

Now to get more to the fun part of my post, where I am going. Italy and I have decided to do the majority of my research on the web to cut down on obsolete information and to save some paper in the process. The Italy travel guide is something that I have found very useful to point out my touristy options and some of the less beaten path options. If this had of been a LP guide I would be showing up to a place I thought was going to be quiet, but in reality had been overrun because everybody else had read the same thing over and over for the last two years, bummer. Instead I know that a location has only just been discovered thanks to the date being shown when it was last updated. Also I can find out from reviews if the hotels in Italy are all they are cracked up to be and not some shady motel type of place. Bed bugs and dirty sheets are no fun.

So not only am I getting up to date information about Italy but I can get links to booking my hotel right on the website, so I don’t have to show up and guess if they have rooms available. I know before I ever get there. Man, this is sounding better and better as I write this. One last thing I have liked about using an online travel guide is if I need to have the information on hand as I travel I can download and print only the pages that I need. It is lighter than the whole book and uses way less paper in the process.