Guidebook Culture by Martyn

So we set out from Gatwick all those months ago with only a few things in our hand luggage: money, phones, some of the hand sanitiser stuff and a bit of sun cream, oh and our trusty Lonely Planet India book.

Once we left Dharamsala,  we hit the tourist trail and looked to our guidebook for handy advice about hotels, restaurants and the prices of trains and taxis.

We met many tourists in bars, hotels and restaurants, all with their copies of Lonely Planet - in French,  German and Hebrew, amongst others.

We soon realised that so many tourists and travellers spend their time with their nose in the guidebook, looking up what you are *supposed* to do in a town. We've been guilty of it as well.

Here's am example. In Jaipur, on MI road, the main road in/out of the tourist area there are maybe 25 restaurants, 10 lassi shops and countless small dhabas serving food. In LP, it suggests you visit 1 restaurant and 1 lassi shop on this road in particular. There are scores of tourists walking past restaurants and shops working out whether "this is the one in the book" or not.

This is good in some ways- the string of lassi shops only exists now because of the one original, made popular by guidebooks. More people are able to open businesses because of the increased footfall.

I also understand that people travelling to unknown places will want recommendations for places to eat.

But. It is such a shame that so many tourists seem to be blind to all of their senses,  and use their LP book as their Bible, Torah, Koran or Ramayana (delete as appropriate).

So many restaurants trade off their mention in the guidebooks that standards slip in other areas. We've been to places recommended by LP with awful food, service and it often feels as if now they've got in a guidebook, the food doesn't matter so much.

The best food we've had on our trip has been in small Dhabas in and amongst the chai stalls, fabric shops and jewellery shops.

Ok, I know I am ranting about restaurants on the internet, and moaning about a book I chose to buy, and could get rid of. I suppose I'm cautioning other against not looking beyond their guidebooks, and missing out on experiences that you only get by taking a chance. Going to the same air-conditioned restaurant as every other tourist isn't taking a leap of faith.