Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring

Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring, 3rd editon, 2003 – at Amazon.com »
Is it truly dead weight if you are just choofing it around in your pack?
My friend Taylor spent a few months in Europe back in 2001. She had reservations about taking along a chunky guidebook – if you aren’t using it, after all, it’s dead weight, and books can make for heavy dead weight. Desite these reservations, Taylor bought a copy of LP’s Europe on a Shoestring, and she wound up being very glad that she did.

But everyone in the hostel has one!
Last night Taylor and her boyfriend Sam came up from Eugene to Portland, and over pints she and I got to talking about this book. She’s mentioned it to me a few times before, and I don’t want to say that I’m resistant to or against buying it… but well, I dunno, maybe I am a little. Maybe it’s just me wanting to really max out talking about BootsnAll or something, but in the age of the Internet, getting a guidebook is something I’ve wondered about.
From Taylor’s standpoint, when she was in Europe she found the LP not only invaluable for finding places to go and such, but also as a way to break the ice with other travelers. “When I’d go back to the hostel at night, everyone in the dorm would be breaking out their Shoestring, scribbling notes and comparing what the book said and telling everyone else where they went,” Taylor told me.
Nothing wrong with a conversation piece that’s also useful.
So that sounds pretty cool – there’s nothing but good to be had by having another way to get to connecting with other travelers. And there’s nothing wrong with having a guidebook; they do come in handy. It’s good info to have in a pinch, even if it does add a bit of weight to your pack.
The info in Shoestring seems pretty solid from what Taylor tells me, and in February LP put out the 2003 edition. I’m starting to think that maybe I will snag up one of these. The more I ponder it – and the more that friends like Taylor suggest it – the more I think it’s not a bad idea. I suppose one book won’t hurt…
Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring, 3rd editon, 2003
Find your way around & break the ice with more travelers »