Travel is . . .

. . . Research

Some 40 years ago, when my husband and I were making our first trip to England, I went to the library and brought home an armful of guidebooks. I selected a variety of books about England, Scotland and Wales and researched the areas we planned to visit.

Twenty-odd years later I was writing and contributing to guidebooks about the Caribbean and cruising. Doing that early research was largely responsible for my decision to write about travel.

In the interim the concept of guidebooks has altered considerably.

Today, someone contemplating a first trip to England - or outer space for that matter - can log on to the Internet, hit a few buttons and voila! all the information you can imagine about restaurants, hotels, sightseeing attractions, local transportation, sporting events, etc. is at your fingertips. (Okay, I don't know about the restaurants in outer space.) Hit print, and you've the material.

Of course not all sites are reliable, but sites sponsored by the country, hotel chain, cruise line or other verifiable sources are sound. The bottom line is while guidebooks can still be found at Barnes & Nobel and Borders, there are fewer today -- and fewer people use them.

Today's hottest technology is to use an "app," on an IPhone (or like electronic device) that serves as a guide to wherever you are visiting. You pay a fee and the material is updated and whether you go to Seattle tomorrow or in three months, you'll have the current information.

(That was always the problem with guidebooks. Often by the time the book was published, the information was outdated.)

But now a new form of travel information has arisen. A personal experience, so to speak.

A friend has a grandaughter at school in Italy. This young woman has taken several trips with school friends around Europe and has blogged her experiences. My grandson is at school in London. He plans a trip to several of the cities my friend's grandaughter has visited. I forwarded a copy of her blog to my grandson who was thrilled to get the information. (What a 20-something chooses to visit in Paris is not necessarily what grandma recommends, so he now has a new "guidebook.")

But guidebooks and guidebook authors still exist, but today they are more often than not Internet based.

Like my friend's grandaughter's blog.