Guidebook Experiment

Our modern-day, multimedia, information-obsessed world has fundamentally altered much of what we do on a day-to-day basis, including the ways we shop, communicate, and learn. There are more tools telling us how to spend our free time than ever before, telling us not only where to go but also how to get there, what it will look like, and why we should go in the first place. This proliferation of guidebook material, this "guidebook evolution," has clearly changed the way we travel. By tracing the complete evolution of the guidebook, from pilgrim manuals and Baedeker's to Yelp reviews and Google Maps, and by identifying the three primary pillars of the guidebook structure, The Guidebook Experiment explores the effects this growth has had on the overall state and perception of the genre. Then, by using some of the world's greatest explorers as inspiration, the author sets out without a guidebook to a destination he knows little about, launching an experiment that determines how the guidebook has fundamentally altered the nature of travel. The Guidebook Experiment encourages readers to attempt their own guidebook experiment, in an unknown neighborhood or an unknown country, to discover the joy of travel on their own.