The travel guidebook scene is changing fast. Some feel it may not be long before we prepare for our journeys through donning virtual reality-type headsets to "pre-visit" certain destinations to help us choose between options. Then we will actually tour the globe with hand-held wands with a/v facilities. Soon the traditional guidebook will become a museum piece.

Perhaps. Others suggest, somewhat like the development of art after the invention of photography, that paper-based, cheaply-produced, but readily up datable tourist guidebooks will take on new forms complementing the growing range of cybernetic aids to travel. Indeed, there are signs this is already starting. Go into any good bookshop with a decent travel section and we find a growing range of attractive paper-based products on the shelves. These are usually fairly easy to stuff into a travel bag or rucksack and although they may get travel stained and dog eared in use, they do not risk the technical mal-functions of their cybernetic competitors. They can also be annotated as and when required, and passed on afterwards to other global adventurers.

However the circumstances for travel to, and within, almost all destinations are changing rapidly, and it is a hard job for guidebook publishers - and their keen competitors, to keep up. Because of this, it is often unwise to recommend particular titles, authors and publishers for guidebooks to specific countries. Rather, it is arguably much better for the traveller who wants to prepare properly, to choose their book, and then to travel, at a somewhat less than supersonic pace, to spend sometime browsing in a really good travel bookshop looking at the range of titles on offer for the places they want to visit. If, in so doing, they heed the criteria which follow, they will end up not only educating themselves in the process, and further perfecting their consumer critique, but also helping to send a message to authors, publishers and book shops to keep up a high standard of products that will encourage and inform still more people to an attitude of enjoyable and responsible, and responsive, travel.

Firstly, to pick up an earlier point, a guidebook must be fairly portable, and reasonably durable. It must also be sensibly priced. This, of course, leads into the more basic consumer question of whether you really get value for money (and this, these days, applies to tourism as will so much else.) Good illustrations in a guidebook are important, though avoid the kind of "glossy guides" strong on visuals but weak on content. Bear also in mind the vast shanty town or concrete beach strip developments that may lie just out of the frame of some of the best photographs. Who said the camera never lies?

Look carefully at the title page details (publisher, title, date of edition) and the weight of the author's biographical credentials: how well do the writers really know the country/areas concerned? Cheek the contents page layout/approach/content and see if there is a good index at the back. Any good guidebook must contain accurate travel, visa, currency, medical and hotel etc. information, and details of where to obtain the very latest updates on these, and other essentials, where especially rapid changes may occur. There should be decent general maps, and main town plans, and details of where to get hold of better/ up-to-date maps and/or further reading listed in a good bibliography. There should be clear, current information on what to do, and who to contact, in various kinds of medical, financial, political etc. emergencies. A good note on the language(s), and sets of essential phrases for greetings, a range of activities and emergencies should be included.

The guidebook should have a good, but not too "heavy" introduction to the geography, history, religion(s), customs and current circumstances of the country/region/area: preferably these should be written by a knowledgeable local person, or by an author who has excellent local knowledge and contacts. There should be a good section on local customs, traditions etc. and what is expected of the tourist as a good guest" (greetings, manners, taboos, bargaining, tipping, giving alms, photos). There should also be a clear progression from these introductory sections into chapters highlighting the main themes, places, peoples and activities of interest in the country, both from the foreigner's and resident's points of view. Aiming at both of these is difficult, but it helps to make the difference between a "tourist" and a "guest". Every tourist's - and resident s - background, tastes and interests are different, but visitors seeking better to relate to people. places and cultures in the places that they visit have somehow to live the tension implied in GK Chesterton's observation viz., "the tourist comes to see what (s)he wants to see: the visitor comes to see what is there". Disneyland undoubtedly has its place in some holiday experiences, but by no means everywhere!

Items like food and eating out, clothes, shopping, accommodation and -yes! sanitation are very important to many, if not most travellers. They should be well covered in the guidebook.

A good guide will suggest - either more or less explicitly - ways and means of experiencing the scenery, life and culture of a destination area which are a real fun learning experience, offering the pleasant delights that often come in surprising places and encounters with the people. Spontaneity is a precious element in travel. Encounters should be a mutually enriching time between hosts and guests. A good guidebook will suggest ways in which these can be financially on a fair basis and nurturing of mutually respect, or at least, avoiding the worst of misunderstandings on both sides. These last will undoubtedly occur, but they are best minimised, especially in some remote traditional, or problematic poor urban, environments. Definite "no go" areas or activities should be clearly identified in the text! Even seasoned travellers will make cultural "mistakes" from time to time mainly unwittingly, but experience for them usually brings a certain attitude of foresight and sensitivity. The author(s) of a good guidebook should show this.

It is wise to compare several guidebooks on the same country or region which are on the shelf in the travel shop. No doubt we will have recommendations from friends from time to time: look out for such titles, or their updates, and compare and contrast. If time is short, a quick skim of the shelf first time round, with a few hurried notes of some attractive titles: these can be browsed through more carefully on a return visit, before a final choice for purchase is made. In some cases, if interest desires, and money affords, it may be worth getting two, or even three good guidebooks on a destination especially if they clearly complement one another. If you are travelling with a group, and in particular, if you are a group leader, this may sometimes be a good idea: such books can be shared around the group either before and/or during the trip. However, some might consider good guidebooks worth guarding well against the chance that borrowers - with all good intentions - leave them on the restaurant table in the rush to re-board the excursion bus!

A Useful Resource

One of the best preparation manuals to have been produced in recent years is a booklet called "Safari" by Musa Njiru and Peter Batty, published by the Local Government International Bureau, '35, Great Smith Street, London SWIP 3BJ (tel. 0207 222 1636). Subtitled "Group preparation for Overseas visits between the South and the North", it is especially aimed at under 30s groups.