Rather than long lists of hotels and restaurants, the guides are full of "cool stuff" - in adult speak, that means unusual, weird and very often gross facts. So forget about being told where the highest mountain in the world is and get ready to learn which country has banned plastic bags and cigarettes.
Or what the world's stinkiest fruit is.
Or where you can find the world's most poisonous snake.
The books are subtitled "not for parents" but on that point, I beg to disagree.
All are so stuffed full of the mad and interesting that anyone with the smallest amount of wanderlust will find them hard to put down.
Sharp, colourful graphics and pictures and high production quality complete these classy books.
In the end, the only thing missing was what I'd originally most feared: reviews and travel advice.
As the books really only deal in country-wide "cool stuff", there's little about actual places.
So for child travellers who actually pack the guides as they set off around the world, it would be hard to read about the specific city, region or attraction they are visiting.
A small number of the world's larger cities do get their own guide, but for the rest of the planet don't expect to use the guides as, well, guides.
So what were our favourite discoveries?
My youngest son went for the skewered guinea pigs - a popular snack in Peru apparently.
The older son was intrigued by the villages in the Philippines where people recreate the Crucifixion by nailing themselves to crosses.
As for me, well I kind of liked the goliath bird-eater - a 28cm spider that kids in the Amazon fry up for a tasty afternoon treat.
Yep, fried insects - a winning kids' book formula since well before 1973.
