When it comes to checking out potential travel destinations and first-hand information, many of us turn to the handy dandy World Wide Web. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s free. More often than not though, you’d be surprised by the travel words from the wise found under the cover of a book or a good web guide.

A treasure to any traveler, “City Secrets” is a wonderful series of books dedicated to uncovering the hidden gems of the world’s largest cities. Each book is a compilation of snippets from architects, artists, historians, filmmakers, novelists, gourmets, actors, critics, and poets that reveal their favorite unknown landmarks, shops, restaurants and hole in the wall places in their favorite big cities. So far, the series touches on Rome, Italy, London, and New York City. This year, 2012, the latest version of the Rome edition became available to the public with its most up-to-date “secrets” yet.

A different type of travel reference source, “The Yellow Book” is for the adventurous traveler in us all. Created by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the book (officially titled “CDC Health Information for International Travel”) is written for both health professionals and the general public. It lays out the most important things you need to know about international travel and the health precautions necessary when leaving the country. These include vaccines, travel precautions, infectious diseases etc. You can’t miss the bright yellow cover, and for good reason. It is crucial that international travel isn’t taken lightly and this book makes sure that its readers are prepared for whatever their adventures throw at them.

Travel guides on the web can be overwhelming....so much information it is hard to determine what is useful and what is not. We think the best source for cutting through the clutter on where to go, where to stay, where to eat and what to do, is our own BestWeekends.com. The BestWeekends Advance Team researches each destination by scouring the guidebooks, articles, blogs, reviews and rating systems. Then we visit the destination and stay in the properties, eat in the restaurants and experience the activities. Finally, we talk to the locals to be sure we didn’t miss anything. The result: the “best” of everything in a destination. No shotgun approach listing everything available, just the best of what we experienced. The traveler can book with confidence knowing that “we’ve been there” and that no one pays us for a review.
Ellen Studer
Bestweekends.com

 



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