I found this blog piece about the age old (well a few years anyway) debate over which is better - a guidebook or TripAdvisor and such like?
The TripAdvisor Experiment: Crowd-Sourcing Vs Lonely Planet | Travels with a Nine Year Old
For me I obvioulsy prefer a guidebook but I do use TripAdvisor as a way of reconfirming my personal opinion on a hotel if I'm not sure about it (ie - if its a new place that seems fantastic but I'm not sure then I like to check what other people say). Would I go away without a guidebook - no, no and no!
It would be interesting to hear other peoples opinions on this.
Oh yes and before we go down that path. Yes, we do go to the place we write about, no we don't get paid to write good reviews and so on. For example I have been to Iraq for Lonely Planet this year - not exactly a lot of tourists there but still they send me and shortly I am off to the very remote far west of Ethiopia - again very few tourists there but as normal we go out and cover it.
