Travel Guides for Europe
Good travel guides help you plan your trip to Europe. I usually get a large travel guide for the whole country and use it to figure out where I want to go, then get guides for the specific areas I am going to.
There are endless online resources - travel websites, travel blogs, apps for your iPhone - but I think a printed guidebook is best for planning and traveling in Europe. They are written and edited by professional travel writers, all the information is in one place, you don't have to spend days organizing and printing out web pages. Supplement your travel knowledge with things you find on the web, but always get a guidebook for the area you are going to. (As a compromise between paper and digital, some printed guides are now available on the Kindle.)
Online Resources
Rick Steves Europe Video Clips (Free Podcast) - Short video clips about various European destinations taken from his Public Television series. They also produce printed guidebooks.
Simon Seeks - New online travel guides written by local experts.
Lonely Planet Europe - Online travel guides for European destinations with links to popular travel blog posts. They also produce printed guidebooks.
Rough Guides - Online travel guides. They also produce printed guidebooks.
Printed Resources
My favorite series of guidebooks for Europe was Cadogan. The best authors in this series are Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls who wrote many of the Italy, France and Spain guides. Cadogan ownership has changed recently and future guides may not be as good as the current guides - so keep your old copies! Older guidebooks are fine - only the hotel and restaurant recommendations may have changed.
I also like The Rough Guides and Eyewitness (DK Travel). The Eyewitness guides are glossy with lots of photos, which is great for planning but not as great for carrying around (they are heavy). Cadogan and The Rough Guide books are light and you can easily tear out the pages for the places you plan to visit each day. (At the end of your trip your guidebook is a mess, but it is worth it to have less to carry around during the day.)
I don't like the new Footprint series of travel guides from Globe Pequot. They are a superficial look at a region.
Recommended Guidebooks for Italy
The Rough Guide - Italy
The Rough Guide - Rome
The Rough Guide - Tuscany and Umbria
Cadogan - Rome and Central Italy
Cadogan - Tuscany
Cadogan - Umbria
Eyewitness - Italy
Italy for the Gourmet Traveler
Recommended Guidebooks for France
The Rough Guide - France, 2009 (available for the Kindle)
The Rough Guide - Paris
The Rough Guide - Provence & the Cote d'Azur, 2010
The Rough Guide - Dordogne and the Lot
The Rough Guide - Languedoc & Roussillon, 2010
Cadogan - Provence
Cadogan - The Dordogne, Lot & Bordeaux
Cadogan - Gascony, the Pyrenees & Toulouse
Recommended Guidebooks for the United Kingdom
The Rough Guide - England, 2011
The Rough Guide - London
Recommended Guidebooks for Spain
The Rough Guide - Spain
The Rough Guide - Barcelona
Slow Europe shows you how to find vacation rentals in Europe - villas, houses, cottages or apartments that you rent by the week.
What are Vacation Rentals?
Travel with the Amazon Kindle