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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Guidebooks- Kindle/iPad version vs. actual hardcopy?
I really need to get the Rick Steves book (most likely Italy and Med Cruise Ports) guidebooks. I flipped through a copy of his books and saw there are some maps in there. (Not full blown-out details maps, but concentrated maps by specific areas.)
I know I'm going to want to reference his guidebook while we're traveling- should I get the iPad/Kindle version or the hardcopy?
I like having the hardcopy (even though I am struggling to figure out why right now), but I like how light the iPad is and I can just reference it without having to lug around a book.
What say you, Travel board?
Re: Guidebooks- Kindle/iPad version vs. actual hardcopy?
We're opting for hard books for our trip. We don't want to have to carry the ipad around with us during the day. I like the hardcopy books and putting tabs on items for quick reference. I'm pretty sure you can do bookmarking or use the highlighting tool on Kindle, but I don't have much experience with it.
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I would say...go with the book. If you can't charge your ipad for some reason, you are outta luck. Plus reading in the sun is a problem. Plus the thing is heavy IMO (I have one for work). Maybe make a copy of the maps so you don't have to lug the whole book around?
I have a Nook and took it with me on my last two trips. I forgot my wall part of my charger - but thought I could just use the cable to charge it through my computer (which normally I could, except the USB port decided to go kaput mid trip). So it was useless for me for most of my trip. I can't read it in the sun which is problematic sometimes.
Plus - the thing is expensive - would you rather a book get stolen (unlikely) or the iPad? It kinda...draws attention to itself if you whip it out in a public space I would think.
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Hard copy. I'm like the least worried traveler ever when it comes to crimes of opportunity. Still there are many many many places in the world, including my own city, where I wouldn't whip out an iPad. Hell people where I live are violently assailed for their iPhones on the regular
I also like books because I can tear out a page or two or a few sections and carry them with me. I very rarely carry an entire guidebook, but I would hate to be trying to "find" the map of a particular neighborhood on my kindle. It would take forever and I wouldn't be able to mark it with a pen.
At least one hard copy guidebook per location. I bought a Kindle specifically for guidebooks and was very very disappointed. Using them on my iPod touch was okay (speed is so much more important than eye-strain with a guidebook), but I still wished I had paper books. I'm sure an iPad would be better, but I wouldn't want to be pulling an iPad out all the time. Also, if there is anywhere in the world you don't want to whip out your iPhone/iPad/kindle in public, it is Naples, Italy.
Last I checked, Rick Steve's was only selling city guides rather than country guides for the kindle. I used several brands of guidebooks on the kindle/iPod, and the Rick Steve's ones worked the best by far from a technical standpoint. I expect at least part of that was because they were shorter books. If you plan to bring multiple books, I'd consider Rick Steve's kindle guides to go WITH something in hardcopy. DH and I did enjoy being able to do the walking tours separately from one another at some sites, and for that the e-version was totally fine. Then again, for Italy you will probably want the Rick Steve's podcasts to do them as audio tours.
I don't have a Kindle, but I sometimes by the PDF versions of LonelyPlanet chapters and use them on the iPad in the GoodReader PDF app. (I would probably never buy a Kindle version of a guidebook, just because the Kindle format doesn't have the flexibility I want.)
There are definitely advantages to the PDFs:
- I can mark up the maps and highlight sections of the guide in the PDF reader. I hate writing in books (even guidebooks), but with the digital copy, I can insert notes, use multi-color highlighting, and mark things on the maps. This is really nice when I'm trying to plan what I want to do/see.
- With LonelyPlanet guides, I can buy just the chapters that I want if I don't need the entire book. If I'm just visiting one city or region, I don't have to buy a book for the whole country.
- It weighs less. I carry the iPad around anyway (to use the (cached) maps with the GPS, to read when I have downtime or a long wait, to check email or post pics from WiFi-enabled cafes, etc). With the guidebooks on the iPad, I don't have to carry around an extra book. And if it's a trip where I need a thick whole-country guide, that can be some pretty nice weight reductions.
- It works in low light.
- If the maps are created in the right way, you can actually zoom in on crowded areas to better see where marked positions are (e.g. which side of a small street it's on).
But there are also disadvantages:
- In developing countries, it's very awkward and potentially dangerous to have the iPad out whenever I want to consult a map or read something in the guidebook.
- It's nice to be able to read the map at night, but I feel like even in relatively safe cities the glowing iPad is like a neon sign saying "Potential Target Here!"
- I've had some issues in the past with some of the detailed PDF maps crashing the iPad's PDF support. This seems to have been fixed on later versions, but it really sucked to be in a foreign city only to find out that I couldn't view my map!
In general, if I need the whole guide, I'd rather just buy the hardcopy of the guide. It's just simpler. Even when I buy PDF chapters, I have a tendency to print them out booklet-style at work before I leave, so that I have a hardcopy just in case.
And lastly, I like to keep my old guidebooks on my bookshelf as a kind of "trophy case."
It's fun to glance through the spines and remember all the places I've been.
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