Website of the Week www.traveldk.com
Say you're going to Barcelona for the weekend. You've been before, so you know your way around quite well, and you're loath to buy another guidebook.
But you want a few recommendations for bars and restaurants, and something covering a couple of sights you missed before.
Pick out your own tailor-made guide on the traveldk.com website
Well, traveldk.com - the travel website of publisher Dorling Kindersley - may have the solution. It allows you to create your own tailor-made guides to around 60 popular cities and regions.
You select what interests you from online versions of DK's published material, then download and print it off. DK used to charge £2.50 a time to do this - but now it's completely free.
Strengths
Having registered, the process of putting together your guide is idiot proof. You flick through sections such as places to eat, bars and nightclubs, museums and galleries, then simply click on "add details to your guide".
Once you've picked out what you want, you can review your guide, re-ordering the chosen sections if you wish, and even giving it a personalised "cover" (eg a happy mug shot of you).
Maps of your destination are automatically added. Given that the whole thing is free, the final product looks pretty swish.
Weaknesses
Downloads are available only from DK's Eyewitness Top 10 series, not from its complete portfolio.
The whole create-your-own-guide process is quite a lot of faff, and given that the guidebooks cost under £5 from Amazon, I wonder if it's worth it.
While the website is keen to get comments and reviews from other travellers, it has nowhere near the reader interaction of some other guidebook publishers' websites, such as Lonely Planet's.
Ratings
Inspiring 3/5
Useful 3/5
Easy to use 5/5
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