Your guide to guidebooks

PHRASE BOOKS

(Lonely Planet $14.50)

For those PC types who don't believe in the travellers' lingua franca of English and want to say more than "Bula," Lonely Planet continues to add to its list of pocket-sized language guides. Now you can say, "G'day mate, where's the dunny?" whether you are in Vietnam or Nepal.

HEALTHY TRAVEL

health guides (Lonely Planet $11.75)

The package of books arrived bound with a crepe bandage and included a sticking plaster, a condom and a press release noting that the World Health Organisation claims up to 80 per cent of travellers will get sick overseas. Maybe. Most travel bugs are international, which is why these guides are mostly repetitive with little on specific destinations. Good for hypochondriacs.

EUROPE BY VAN AND MOTORHOME

By David Shore and Patty Campbell (Shore Campbell Publications, $US13.95)

A guide to buying cars, campervans and motorhomes in Britain and Europe. The authors have done 12 van trips around Europe so their 250-page guide has heaps on planning, documentation, driving laws, best campgrounds, shopping, and so on. It's written for an American audience and you'll have to e-mail shorecam@aol.com to order a copy.

BACKPACKERS, THE NEW BREED

By Alec Goldsmith (Benton-Guy Publishing, $24.95)

Alec Goldsmith decided that life begins in your 60s so after retirement he put a pack on his back and became the oldest backpacker in South-east Asia. For 15 years he has spent several months a year in Penang and Thailand. He's still going.

HONG KONG, FODOR'S 2000

Edited by Christine Cuipriani (Random House $34.95)

Newsweek calls them the king of guidebooks. Perhaps. With their plain paper and absence of illustrations, they are certainly not the classiest. But the Hong Kong guide does contain all the maps you are likely to need and a lengthy list of restaurants. There are better guides to the Territory.

SYDNEY, EYEWITNESS TRAVEL GUIDE

(Dorling Kindersley $36)

This British series is resplendent with illustrations, maps, diagrams and graphics. It helps you to understand the layout of places and how things work. There is even a photograph to show what potato wedges and a Balmain bug looks like. Great when used in conjunction with a guidebook with more written information on the Olympics 2000 city.

HOLY ROME, FODOR'S MILLENNIUM GUIDE TO THE CHRISTIAN SIGHTS

(Random House, $45)

Everything you want to know about Holy Rome. Nearly 500 Christian sights, from the Vatican museums to the many churches, are featured, district by district. It is a guide for those on a pilgrimage and includes a city atlas that contains keys to the sights described in the text.

DIVING AND SNORKELLING GUIDES

(Lonely Planet $33.95)

Whether you intend to stick your head underwater at Australia's Great Barrier Reef or explore the wrecks of downed Japanese aircraft in the lagoons of Micronesia, the Lonely Planet dive guides will be useful pre-trip reading. Colour photographs help to identify the particular features of each dive site.