Buzz
While smartphones, Wi-Fi, and GPS have made travel more convenient, a good old-fashioned guidebook remains an indispensable asset for globetrotters. Both Lonely Planet and Fodor’s have earned their place in travel history, but which one should you pack for your next adventure?
The Competitors
There’s something comforting about not relying on Wi-Fi or battery life when exploring new places. A guidebook can be your one-stop resource to navigate, understand local cultures, and uncover off-the-beaten-path gems. Despite the rise of digital tools, guidebook sales are thriving, proving that traditional travel books are still in high demand. Today, we compare two of the most iconic and comprehensive guidebook brands:
Lonely Planet: With over 40 years of experience, Lonely Planet has sold more than 120 million books, becoming the world’s leading travel publisher. Their collection includes around 500 guides covering 195 countries. Each book is crafted with a blend of local and expert writers. Lonely Planet guides typically cost around $22 for city and small-area guides, and $25 to $30 for country guides.
Fodor’s Travel: Fodor’s has been providing travel insights for 80 years, with a focus on hiring local writers who reside in the destinations they cover. Their catalog includes over 300 guides detailing more than 7,500 global destinations. Fodor’s guides are priced at approximately $20 for city and small-area books, and $25 for country guides.
Lonely Planet guides are updated with new editions approximately every two years, while Fodor’s guides follow a similar update cycle of two to three years depending on the region. Popular destinations tend to get updates more frequently.
Layout and Content: Lonely Planet Focuses on Planning, Fodor’s Immerses You in Culture
Lonely Planet’s guides feature double-column pages with fine print, which can be challenging to read, especially if your eyes are tired or you don’t have glasses handy. On the other hand, Fodor’s guides use larger, single-column text, making them easier to read, though this means less content compared to the in-depth detail packed into every page of a Lonely Planet guide.
Lonely Planet structures its guidebooks into four main sections:
Plan Your Trip: This section provides all the essentials to make your trip happen. It includes cultural and etiquette tips, a country map, popular sights, a calendar of key events, sample itineraries, budget-saving advice, and tips for traveling with children. There’s also a section for first-time travelers and an update on new attractions for repeat visitors—something you won’t find in Fodor’s guides.
On the Road: This is the heart of the guidebook, covering every city and region of the country in detail. For each area, the book lists sights, activities, events, nightlife, shopping, restaurants, and accommodations, along with addresses, phone numbers, websites (if available), pricing, and brief descriptions. Some areas also include maps.
Understand: This section offers an in-depth exploration of the destination, including current events, history, people, cuisine, arts, architecture, traditional accommodations, sports, and natural landscapes. While the Plan Your Trip section offers a quick cultural overview, the Understand section provides a comprehensive course on the country and its people.
Survival Guide: True to its name, this section serves as a quick reference for practical travel info, such as transportation, medical care, electrical outlets, and toilet details. There’s also a small section with useful phrases for when you’re in a pinch or need assistance.
Fodor’s guides offer much of the same content as Lonely Planet, but they take a different approach to organization. Their guides are divided into five key sections, which are as follows:
Experience [Country/Region]: This section mirrors Lonely Planet’s Planning section but with a more concise approach. It covers current events, top attractions, cultural etiquette, money-saving tips, and planning ideas. Fodor’s uses a more streamlined format compared to Lonely Planet’s packed pages, and it also includes plenty of full-color photographs, something Lonely Planet’s guides lack.
A [Country/Region] Primer: Equivalent to Lonely Planet’s Understand section, this part dives into the region’s arts, pop culture, sports, history, food, environment, and even religion, all with lots of visual aids to help bring the culture to life.
City/Area Chapters: Like Lonely Planet, Fodor’s includes detailed mini-guides for each city, listing the best sights, events, shopping, dining, nightlife, and accommodations. Each entry is accompanied by essential details like addresses, phone numbers, websites (where applicable), pricing, descriptions, and even maps for select areas.
Understanding [Country/Region]: This brief section gives further insights into the culture, alongside essential phrases and menu-reading tips to help you get by.
Travel Smart: This section offers practical advice on transportation, accommodations, healthcare, safety, and emergency info. It's a more condensed version of Lonely Planet’s Survival Guide section.
In the end, both guides cover similar topics, though their approaches differ. Fodor’s prioritizes cultural context up front, immersing you in the region’s vibe with plenty of photos before diving into travel logistics. Lonely Planet, by contrast, assumes you’re already familiar with the culture and gets straight to the practical details, saving cultural insights for later in the guide, which is ideal if you want to arrive and figure things out along the way.
Appearance and Build Quality: Both Are Durable, Attractive, and Ready for Travel
Both Lonely Planet and Fodor’s guides are available in paperback, and their visual styles are quite similar. The layout of the covers follows a standard travel guide pattern: the publisher’s name, the destination country, a mention of a pull-out map, and an image of a key location. Their covers also share a similar shade of blue, making it easy to confuse the two if you're not paying close attention when browsing in a bookstore.
Fodor’s edges out Lonely Planet when it comes to overall quality. Their current editions are printed on glossy, full-color paper that’s similar to textbook material, ensuring durability even on the roughest of trips. In contrast, Lonely Planet’s pages are thinner, more like newspaper print, which could tear easily. Despite these differences, both guidebooks feature strong covers and bindings that can withstand the rigors of travel, even when shoved into a packed backpack. Both are also fairly easy to handle with one hand, though they can get heavy after a while. While Lonely Planet books are generally thicker, their pages are lighter, balancing out the weight difference.
Digital Versions and Mobile Apps: Access Both Guides on Your Favorite Devices
If you prefer not to carry a physical book (though I still recommend it), Lonely Planet guides are available in EPUB, MOBI, and PDF formats for your favorite ebook readers and tablets, with color versions available where supported. All guides can be found on Nook and Amazon Kindle, and many are free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers. Fodor’s guides are also available digitally, in full color where possible, but they can only be purchased on Nook or Amazon Kindle.
The Guides by Lonely Planet app (shown in the video above) is free to download for iOS and Android devices and covers 38 cities worldwide. The app includes offline maps, destination bookmarking, and other useful features. It's a great complement to their physical guidebooks. Similarly, the Fodor’s City Guides app offers guides for 22 cities globally, with insights from Fodor’s local writers, maps, and the ability to filter searches by price and category. However, the Fodor’s City Guides app is only available on iOS devices.
Lonely Planet Caters to Adventurers, Fodor’s is for Those Seeking a More Curated Experience
Both of these guides are solid choices for any traveler, but each suits a different style of exploration. Lonely Planet offers an overwhelming amount of information, which can be a bonus if you like to have all the details at your fingertips. Even though they tend to be pricier than Fodor’s, you’re definitely getting your money’s worth. However, the sheer volume of info means you’ll have to sift through it yourself to map out your trip. It gives you all the places to visit, but it doesn’t necessarily walk you through them. Consider it a collection of suggestions rather than an immersive guide. If you’re okay with doing the legwork, Lonely Planet is hands down the better choice.
Fodor’s guides, on the other hand, offer a more curated experience, ideal for the traveler who wants the path laid out for them. They’re also much more enjoyable to read. Although they provide less information overall compared to Lonely Planet, it’s all the essential stuff you need, and you can always look up the rest online. Fodor’s excels at fueling your excitement with photos and lively descriptions, making it feel like you’re already on the trip. While Lonely Planet is more of a DIY approach, Fodor’s takes a guiding hand, offering you a more structured journey. This works well for those looking for a planned trip, but for some, like me, it can make things feel a bit too “touristy.”
If I had to explain the difference to a friend, I’d say both guides are like a box of LEGO bricks. No matter which one you choose, you’ve got all the pieces to build an incredible trip. The only difference is that Fodor’s comes with an instruction manual, while Lonely Planet leaves you to figure it out on your own. Which one sounds more fun to you?
