I'm a a tad obsessed with travel and travel guides. I usually pick up a Lonely Planet or Rough Guide, but I check first to see which one is better and which one is more recent. I get just as much help from the internet and travel forums these days, but I find I need a book to flip through as I plan a trip.
I find it more important to seek out other books for information on culture, cuisine, etc. -- for example, the Blue Guide to Tuscany or the Food and Wine guide to the Italian Riviera. Cookbooks are a huge part of my planning. Natural history books are also part of the process.
You can't depend on one publisher or "brand" these days--too much inconsistency and it depends on what you are looking for.

which ever has the best review on Amazon. lol

I have some by Frommers, Let's go and Lonely planet. I have been disappointed with Rick Steve's though...but i love his tv shows.

i am actually visiting south of france this Fall...can anyone recommend me a good travel book?

Let's go is a little tough to use once you have passed your "stay out all night drinking local beverage at dance clubs and after parties" phase. It is still fun, but less of a complete guide to the slightly older traveller.

Rough guides are great for the more outdoorsy and slightly older traveller.

I have taken to using local blogs to supplement my pretravel reading (it may be a little tougher if you are trying to learn about a place that speaks primarily Portuguese), but it has been the best source of Festival info and restaurant suggestions that I have found.

I lived in Buenos Aires for a year - you're going to love it. Definitely wander around Palermo and San Telmo! The only travel book I could ever recommend is Lonely Planet. The have a new edition for BA too!

I'll generally pick a Rick Steves book for travel in Europe.

I do Rick Steves, but end up ditching the book after a while and asking the locals where to go, etc. Always ends up better that way! :)

tripadvisor.com is pretty solid and has steered me away from some great 'deals' at hellholes...I recommend looking at reviews of hotels especially.

agree that local blogs are also a good source of info.

I like lets go and rough guides the best, though I find it annoying they have so many listings for hotels...don't most people make their arrangements beforehand? i do and resent carrying the extra weight.

My favourite (travel) books are from Dorling Kindersley, a UK based publisher. I really love there drawings and graphics and the way they make their books.

They are available in the US, too: http://traveldk.com/

I like Rick Steve's books, but I always always check Tripadvisor to make sure I am not missing any cool attractions.

I wanted a travel guide for our summer trip to NYC and looked at several different ones - we're very happy with the Lonely Planet one.

The basic travel books like Lonely Planet, Frommers, Wallpaper' City Guide
see Buenos Aires
http://www.phaidon.com/store/travel/wallpaper-city-guide-buenos-aires-9780714846842/

are a good start to get the lay of the land logistic and so on.

I really like to dig further and find the gems, the non touristy spots, where the locals go. Travel books typically do not have the places I like to explore. I get inspiration from cookbooks, Gourmet Magazine (RIP), Architecture and Design Magazines and going to a travel bookstore are great for non travel guilds. I like to learn about the cultural aspects of an area so I am respectful and have somewhat of a clue.

I go to the library and hit the magazines take notes then do search online, make bookmark folders for my trips.

Then I start to make copies of the pages and write down places I want to see, eat and stay or other interests put into a notebook and get a map. I use my notebook on my trip to make notes and rate places, make comments and when I come back I store my travel notebooks so I can reference them or share with other. Its a little obsessive but the research is the fun part.

You can see Gourmet's- Diary of a Foodie vis podcast all three seasons and a great way to discover regional cuisine and discover places to see..this is pure food and travel porn
http://www.gourmet.com/diaryofafoodie

Now that its a blog world there are lots of ways to learn about places.

I love the Frommer's Day-by-Day series, if they are available for the city I need. They are small and portable and have great maps.

My favorite travel agent in BA is Daniele Gonzalez, she owns ushuaiaturismo.com and is based in BA in our summers and Ushuaia in our winters. She knows the city like the back of her hand and can get you anywhere. If you want to focus on nature she can get you there, too. Her English is impeccable.
Be sure to take a side trip to Iguazu Falls...a must see! Can't say I have a fave book for Argentina, I use a combination using sometimes 3. Rough Guide, Lonely Planet and another depending on where I'm going, usually Fodor's but not always.
Local blogs are fantastic, too. Got me to the right places in Carilo, Argentina when other books had no listings.

No one has mentioned Eyewitness guides -- my first impression was negative, but after traveling with someone who had the London version, I found that there were surprisingly helpful. Beyond that, it depends on the trip and how current the books are, but I have used Frommers, Fodor's, Lonely Planet (very good for Argentina) and Time Out (used for Barcelona and Madrid last year -- it was excellent). Web, too, of course.

Inside Out travel guides are the best:
very small, fits in your pocket, with fold-out maps, even has a compass and a pen:

http://www.hilary.com/travel/insideoutguides.html

Also Yahoo Groups are a good way to get answers to your questions. I had joined one for Morelia, Mexico and one for Quito, Ecuador. Both were extremely useful in getting the insiders and some expats advise.

Just be sure to use a yahoo email account because you will get a tone of emails daily.

Since I am such a food person Chowhound is another good source.

I Google.

Cities and Countries always have online tourist bureau websites where you can find sights, get up-to-date info on hours of operation, maps and dates of special events to either see or avoid (Festivals, Street Fairs, etc)

Although it's geared more towards ex-pats, argentinepost.com has a lot of great tips for current events in the city! I second the Iguazu Falls trip, if you have 3 extra days or so (definitely go over to the brazilian side for the panoramic view- you don't *really* need a visa, just tip the cab driver a little more). also, there are 1 hour ferries from BA to Colonia, Uruguay. It's a pretty cute town, way slow paced.
Again, depending on how long you'll be there, think about taking a trip to Menoza. Take the bus 1st class - it's cheaper than flying and busing in Argentina is quite the experience (complete with bingo, champagne, cocktails, movies, et al).
And since you're probably into design, this being apartmenttherapy, pick yourself up a US$100 cow rug at this little shop near Plaza Serrano in Palermo. They sell for $249 at Ikea and they look like mierda compared to the ones you can get in BA.
Que disfrutes mucho!

For European travel, Rick Steves is my go-to. I like his writing style, the pace of the guides, and his focus on history and culture. I'm not the most affluent traveler out there, so I like his money-saving tips and practical suggestions on how to get from A to B. Overall, his guides align the most with my personal preferences.

I tried DK (Eyewitness) series too, upon the recommendation from my best friend. While I like their colorful pages and maps, I find that the information on each sight is too brief. I generally want to know more than the opening hours, admission prices, and when the site was built.

For the other travel guides like Timeout or Frommer's, I have to agree with the other commenter that it's annoying for them to include so many hotel listings. I generally book all my accomodations before the trip, so these pages are really wasteful and only add weight to my luggage.

For my recent Japan trip, however, I cannot rely on Rick Steves and had some trouble finding a suitable guide book. I stumbled upon http://www.japan-guide.com/ and couldn't be happier. This site is LOADED with useful information. The only problem was that I couldn't bring the website with me!
I ended up printing and copying all the maps and tips on every destination, and pasted them onto a little pocket notebook. I brought it everywhere with me and frankly couldn't have gone far without it. My boyfriend was so impressed with it. The notebook is a perfect keepsake that documents our trip as well.

The DK Eyewitness travel guides, hands-down.

http://traveldk.com/files/08_may/dk_brandpack_200dpi.pdf

I feel pretty strongly about this, as we travel a lot through Europe, and have tried many, many guides.

I am a visual person, and the DK guides are geared towards that; none of the others come close. It is frustrating to be standing in a city reading a text-heavy guide -- really slows down the travel. Plus, a picture is worth a thousand words, and lets me more immediately plan my itinerary than a text-heavy edition. It has much better maps than any other guide, covering more areas.

When we went to Barcelona last October, we wound up with every imaginable guide EXCEPT DK, and boy was it frustrating (they weren't available here in Geneva, and the shipping took longer than expected). We had Frommer's, Lonely Planet, the Rough Guide, and a couple of others which I forget -- none of them were anywhere near as useful.

The only other guide we rate highly are the Guides Routarde, but they are in French. The French are really into food, and so (surprise, surprise!) the Guides Routardes have the best restaurant recommendations (we usually get the 2 guides when we travel -- DK and Guide Routarde).

Rick Steves has a nice series (we bumped into him once in Paris, as he was leading a tour group), but not stand-alone; I would always get DK as well.

For hotel recommendations, we check out tripadvisor (it has the unvarnished truth).

Lonely Planet- all the way. Got me around the world for 20 months, I depended on their books daily... and recommendations of locals and other travelers.

My favorites are the Access series by Richard Saul Wurman.

Instead of having separate chapters on "lodging", "food", "places of interest", "shopping" and such, the Access guides are arranged by neighborhood/district. So let's say you're in London and are visiting the Tate; you can look up nearby restaurants instead of plowing through a whole chapter of restaurants hoping to find one nearby.

This series is a little less well known than some others, but is well worth seeking out.

Travel guide? Someone's more organized than me :}

I love my fellow traveler for information. The South American Explorers Club will be a great resource for you:

http://www.saexplorers.org/clubhouses/buenosaires

I've always done it by the seat of my pants. Many cities have excellent tourist centers, or the best is to be with a knowledgeable friend for a bit. As long as I have my accommodations sorted and a good map I'm happy.

Lonely Planet!

For longer trips, I tore out regions after finishing there, to make the book lighter. Torn-out chunks usually were given to fellow travelers.

I like the Eyewitness Series too, particularly if your travel if focused on a major city. But I also am a big fan of Lonely Planet and they cover a lot more places. Those two are the best for giving good background information on museums, historical sites, gardens, etc.

I avoid using these kinds of travel books for making lodging and resturant arrangements. There are much better resources on line.

I usually pick up the Lonely Planet guide, but then I rely more on my facebook friends to give me pointers. Found the best little hotel in Paris that way.... and it wasn't in any of the guide books.

Lonely Planet and Rough Guide like everyone else here. Time Out for the city stuff. And the web for all the "off the beaten" path stuff. Seriously, thanks to everyone who goes off-road out there then writes about it online so I can, uh, copy what you guys did. I love finding out about places that aren't even on maps. YUMMM!!

I have found Let's Go to be especially useful for spontaneous hopping of buses & trains wherever. They really seem to know the score on where the bus stations are, etc.

I like Fodors for medium priced hotel recs. I'm not into the hostel scene anymore though I used to be quite the user of YWCAs!

Rough Guide seems to have the skinny on interesting sites that may not make the more mainstream guides.

Lonely planet is a good guide, though I use more tips I find around the web, specially some travel websites. You can check it out at http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/turismo/home/
It´s the tourism part of a government website they have, it´s good specially the map parts, where you can see each neighborhood with details, etc. The website it´s in english too...
They have a good and small (pocket size) map of the city at the Tourist Information kiosks, don´t forget to get one at the first day, I used a lot.
I really love Buenos Aires, I went there for the first time in 2007 to spend a week, I fell in love with the city :) It´s time to go back there soon (it´s just 2h30mins by plane from São Paulo, where I live). If I could, I would live there easily :)
Don´t miss Palermo neighborhood (a lot of nice and well designed restaurants, bars and stores), walk through the beautiful parks through the city, museums, etc; don´t forget to try Freddo dulce de leche ice cream for me :)
Have a nice trip!

Lonely Planet is usually pretty good, of course combined with online research. I had a horrible cross-country experience with Let's Go USA (we drove from Delaware to San Diego) and I vowed to never buy one again. There were so many errors in the book that I started keeping a list and sent it to them when we arrived.

I love Rick Steves. He's a local boy, too. He is very opinionated but he's never steered me wrong. The only downside is that you might run into 3 other American couples carrying their Rick Steves books in the recommended guesthouse in a sleepy German town that was supposed to be off the beaten track.

*Frommer's* never fails me. I've traveled extensively and all those other guides (Lonely Planet, Fodor's, Let's Go, etc.) have always disappointed me in one way or another. Their suggested itineraries are very well thought out. Frommer's suggestions are not for budget travelers, however, you can make work for your budget. For example, my husband and I never stay in their suggested hotels and save, but we do go to their suggested restaurants, and, if you are a foodie, this is the guide for you. Another validation for me: The New York Times travel section usually posts Frommer's suggestions.
*National Geographic* is my runner up. Their maps are accurate. The information on places, monuments, history, neighborhoods, etc. are almost encyclopedic, without being heavy. These guides are beautiful. All the information is accompanied by the gorgeous photography for which National Geographic is know for. A tip for amateur photographers: When you get to the places shown in the guidebook, try to copy their photographs with your own camera. You will get some awesome travel picture trophies and you will impress everyone back home. =)

I like to browse the Eyewitness Guides b/c they have the most photos, which really gets me excited about the upcoming trip. But I don't buy them b/c I realized a long time ago that you get better/more up-to-date info online.

Not to be a curmudgeon, I'm a huge travel addict, but what does this topic have to do with Apartment Therapy?

berkeleybabe: next time you search for a cow rug in Buenos Aires, go to the Boedo neighborhood, just blocks away from the "Tango Corner" (not a fancy tourist location as Palermo, but with old leather shops where rugs cost even less!)

Jess: if you come to BA and you like nature, I recommend a trip to el Delta del Tigre, you can visit the place in a "boat-bus", a private boat tour, or stay for the night in the islands. Very close to the city.

If you have more time to travel, I second the suggestions above: Iguazu Falls, the rainforest jungle and Jesuitic Missions. Also Mendoza (high Andes mountains, wine and a lot of snow and ski), northern Salta and Jujuy (amazing paradise), and even my beloved Cordoba Hills in Traslasierra (sierra, hills and rivers). In fact, the country is endless, I live here and still have so many places to visit ...

Good luck!

This is a different kind of guide I recommend, for anyone who wants to stay a little in Argentina and plan a trip through natural reservations, National Parks, and know about native flora and fauna:

http://www.albatros.com.ar/collection?collectionId=50

A beautiful collection.

I rely on the LUXE City Guides.

I like Frommer's as they often put in some offbeat places to see, and also the Access guides are great for maps and easy to use. The internet is good if you need something specific like museum shows or certain types of restaurants - just googling that can help find great things.

Frommer's all the way. The main reason I prefer them is because they break everything down by budget. We all have certain things we like to save and splurge on, with them it's easy to find exactly what you're looking for. They've helped me enjoy many cities while living in Europe and now Alaska.

I also use tripadvisor.com for restaurant reviews.

Lonely planet and just wandering around

I have lived in Quito for over 16 years, I am happy to help with any questions you might have about the country. bullock0005@yahoo.com

I love the Rick Steves' books...they always have an easy to read map, good tips on travel-on-the-cheap, and even have deals if you bring the book into places with you. He also has an entertaining way of writing, so it's fun to read, even if you aren't going to travel!

An amazing amount of the Frommer, Fodor, and Michelin (http://travel.viamichelin.com/) guides are on their websites allowing one to assemble personal guide solely of the parts one needs. For pre-trip orientation the Dorling Kindersley and Insight guides are good for visual types (Apartment Therapy demographic).

I really like Rough Guides, but the New York Times travel section is always good for advice. Looking forward to hearing a bit about your trip - I'm headed there in January!

I really like the Moon guides-especially the ones for Maine.