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.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Best Travel Book (Italy)
My parents always talk about traveling, but never actually do. They always have an excuse and I feel like life will pass them by and they will never have done anything they dreamed about doing.
I know they would like to go to Italy, and I want to buy them a book to help encourage them. They don't know much about traveling abroad, nor much about all the possibilities of what to see in Italy. Is there a travel book you found helpful in planning out your trip (whether Italy, or elsewhere). The choices are overwhelming (Frommers, Lonely Planet, Fodor's, etc). It doesn't have to be the best one to carry with you, but one that they could plan out what cities they would see, transportation, tourist sightseeing must-dos, lodging etc. They need every detail of a trip set before leaving. Recommendations?
Re: Best Travel Book (Italy)
As you mentioned, there are a ton of options. For my recent trip to Italy I used Rick Steves, Lonely Planet, and DK Eyewitness. Rick Steves has great info on planning the trip, logistics, itineraries, etc. Lonely Planet features more out of the way destinations within a country, along with the popular places. And finally, DK Eyewitness has great color photographs and illustrations which are great for helping you select which sights you want to see within each city.
IMO, Rick Steves is a good one to buy, because it has a lot of the nitty gritty details. It's a good one to take with you when you go, and to use to plan logistics. It's not necessarily inspiring though, and can be dense to read.
Some of the other ones are better for brainstorming. I like some of the fluffier ones with pictures, when I'm initially figuring out what looks like fun to me, where I'd like to visit, etc. Those I borrow from the library since I don't use them for long and don't take them on the trip.
I like Frommers country guide and day-by-day. For our upcoming trip to Italy I bought the Frommers Northern Italy (we are spending part of the time in Milan and visiting Lake Como) as well as Frommers Venice (spending the rest of the time in Venice). I like the background info, sample itineraries and daytrips, and the star ratings on different attractions.
For other trips, I have used Rough Guide and Lonely Planet. I know my mom mom likes Fodors.