This sounds like a shameless plug, but *honestly* I don't have anything to do with Eyewitness Guides. However, having dragged home amd read about 30 of the 37 travel guides from the public library over a four-month period, I have learned a lot about what it would feel like to *be* there. Enlarged street maps, cutaway visuals of buildings and other objects--even pictures of food plates that tell you what you're eating--give an atmosphere which few text-oriented books can match.

I've never taken an Eyewitness guide on holiday, only Lonely Planet, but would certainly give it a go to see how useful Eyewitness really was. I'm just reading the brand-new Thailand guide, and, having been to that country, can testify that the graphics and text do capture much of what I experienced there.

Anyone out there who takes Eyewitness with them? How useful and up to date are they? Is it best to capture the atmosphere from an armchair and take another type of guide on vacation?

Cheers, Mary Anne