Travel Deal of the Day (April 1, 2008)

I enjoy reading travel guides when researching a potential vacation destination. Guides such as Fodors, Frommers, Lonely Planet and others provide useful information about a destination. But, these days there is no reason to actually buy the book – you can legally obtain most of the information for free from a variety of channels.

The Deal:
Here are some convenient ways to obtain travel guide information for free:

(1) The most obvious place to look for such information is on the website of these travel guides. Most of the travel guide websites provide a majority of the information provided in their books for free on their websites.

(2) Check your library. You can often find the most recent guide for a destination at your library. My local library provides full-text versions of the guides online – you do not even have to go to the library to get a copy of Fodor’s Florida 2008.

(3) Check ITunes. Many of these travel websites now offer free podcasts regarding popular destinations. They are great tools for researching your proposed destination.

(4) Check out your local American Automobile Association (AAA) branch. AAA provides free travel guides for many destinations for members.

(5) Use tripadvisor.com, which is a great source of traveler-provided reviews of hotels, restaurants, attractions and destinations.