Richard Saul Wurman access guides makes information useful…ie. instead of asking what’s in this town to do, that presupposes you know where you are in relation to the place(s) of interest, not alway’s easy when you are traveling in “foreign areas”.

The better question answered in the access guides (after you determine your location) are what choices of food/resturants$$, entertainment, site seeing, etc are close by that I can walk to from my immediate location.

You did make some interesting points though regarding what i’d consider as trivia, such as Tarzan noises and late night beers, rather than a book designed to be carried around to aid a visitor as opposed to a quick read on the plane.

Nigel – The rough guides are good to give local insights and especially traditions and local culture. I used a Rough Guide to Fiji whilst travelling there a few years ago, it was both useful as a “where the hell am I know” kind of book and also it was a pretty good read. But, like you say, the design isn’t that great.

The question is, do they give you a true insight to a city? The sort of questions I would want asking is Who’s that bloke that makes Tarzan noises on Great Portland Street in London? Where’s the best place to get a late beer without being fleeced? You know that sort of thing.

Unfortunately guidebooks to date are far more concerned in the advertising space they can sell than give you the ‘real’ information you would find useful.

However that is changing with the emergence of books like London By London. The Insiders’ Guide

http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=firebox&action=product&pid=996

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/asin/0954831802/026-2262187-1556464

At last a book packed full of the collected knowledge of hundreds of people living and working in London, and covers all the things that really matter.

Go buy it now and find out information which you won’t find in any other so called guidebook.

Lovely design too I may add :)