Are Travel Guidebooks Dead for Backpackers?

They used to be referred to with extreme reverence. Lonely Planet, Fodor’s, Frommer’s. Every independent traveler had a guidebook in their backpack, like a gunfighter had a gun in his holster. It was as if the prices and places listed between the covers were stamped with the approval of the travel gods.

But what has happened to the institution of the guidebook?

Lonely Planet is now part of the BBC empire. Backpackers are using the pages of their Let’s Go guides as fire starters or rolling papers.

They are asking the same question: Why lug around a five pound book when you can get the most up to date information off of a web site? Why trust one guidebook writer when there are travelers’ forums online with tens or hundreds of different opinions on a country’s sites and sights?
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