In this post, we are going to compare the advantages and disadvantages of using a paper or app travel guide for organizing a trip. For those of us who are already an age, the role will always have that special charm. But, on the other hand, mobile phones are already an extension of our body that we use for everything, so why not use apps to organize trips. In addition, with the mobile, at any time we can consult other blogs or tourism pages of the destination to see what to see and what to do. So let’s go on to analyze the pros and cons of each one.
Paper guides
Advantages
Let’s start with the paper guides. We love the Lonely Planet guides and the Aguilar Country guides. As we have said they have that special charm. Walking down the street of any city with the guide in hand is the quintessential symbol of the traveler. In addition, they are written by professionals who explain the curiosities and some secrets of the destination. The photographs it contains are excellent and the main points of interest are explained in detail. Stop in front of a place, take out your guide and read a short explanation about its construction, its history, what happened in that place, etc. And being sure that the information is true is a great feeling. The price may seem high, but you have to consider the option of buying second-hand guides or selling them when your trip is over. Although it must be recognized that they are very good at decorating the traveling corner of the house.
Disadvantages
On the other hand, paper guides also have their drawbacks. As we have said before, its high price may be one of them. Of course, its “expiration” or lack of update is another problem. It is clear that the Cathedral of Burgos will continue to be Gothic, but the schedules, ticket prices, even in many destinations, new places, new museums, etc. can be built. that will not appear in our guide if it is not recent. And the one that for us is its main problem, its size! If you travel to Milan, do you have to go walking with a heavy guide from all over Italy? Many guides use part of their size to recommend hotels and restaurants when what we are really looking for are monuments, museums, tours, and other points of interest.
And, from our point of view, they also make the mistake of writing a lot about the main destinations and forgetting a little about less touristy or crowded areas. For example, on our car trip through France and on our car trip through Austria we lacked a little more detailed information on some of the less frequented towns and areas we visited, and there we had to turn to the Internet. That is to say, from our point of view to improve them we would have to remove the pages of hotels and restaurants, that nowadays we all use an app to organize that part of the trip, such as Booking. And add a little more of the little known.
New Alternatives
Our admired Mola Viajar travel bloggers, who are super cracks, are daring to create their own travel guide. Made by themselves, with their photos, their comments, their opinions, and also combines QR codes to visit their website or YouTube videos if you are looking for more information or want to consume that information in another way. We have already bought them in your store and who knows, perhaps one day we will dare to make our own guide and if other bloggers also dare little by little, we will have alternative guides of all destinations.
Mobile App
Here we are not going to enter the apps to organize that part of the trip of transport, accommodation, etc … We want to focus on finding a good travel guide. That we can carry easily, that helps us plan what to see and what to do and of course, that it is light, economical and up-to-date. As we have said, nowadays the mobile is one more part of our body. We do not go out without our phones and of course, we do not go on a trip without our phones. So why not use it as a travel guide. Today with roaming, Wi-Fi, and buying SIM cards of the destination country, the mobile continues to work without problems. In the application stores we can find different apps to organize the trip, get to a place of interest and be able to read a few lines about who and when built it, its history, etc. It is a fantastic feeling for anyone who likes to travel and see the world.
Google Travel Planner App
Previously, the giant Google had an app called Google Trips that we liked a lot, although it lacked a lot of content. Now Google has turned it into google.com/travel which, although it takes a lot of the information from Wikipedia and googles maps, lacks a bit to develop that guiding aspect and they have focused a lot on trying to sell flights and hotels. But it still offers possibilities to mark the places we want to visit and learn more about them. And at the end for those less frequented trips, we have the MyMaps tools from Google. In the end, it is nothing more than creating your own personalized map with the places of interest that are of interest to you. In our case, we then share them on our blog to try to help other travelers. You can gossip a bit here.
App To Organize Trip To Part Of Google
Obviously, not only Google has an app to organize trips. There are other apps such as Sygic Travel, Lonely Planet Trips, visit a city but in the end they are nothing more than paper guides adapted to mobile phones, with a lot of information on large cities and crowded destinations. In addition, they have the paid version that it is not clear that it will satisfy our needs. So for those of you like us, a bit adventurous. We have no choice but to simmer our own trip to adapt it to our style of travel.
Conclusions.
In short, at the moment we have not found the perfect solution. But for us the least bad option is to prepare for our own trip. For some, it can be a tedious job, but without a doubt, it is a way to start enjoying the trip before taking it. And of course, sharing that information is very rewarding. Like us, we “take advantage” of the information that others have posted on their blogs. Who knows, one day we will learn to program and create a perfect travel planning app. Where we can all share information about destinations around the world. We need to travel !!!
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