Carry a Frommer’s travel guide down the Champ lyses and you might as well wear a t-shirt that says “volez-moi.” Instead, keep in hand a compact, fine-looking little book that could be a diary or a design book, but is really a cosmopolitan guide to the city you’re in. We’ve stacked up the best-designed and most tasteful of these, bound to make you the coolest travel guru amongst your friends.
Louis Vuitton City Guide
Definitely the swankest of our travel guide picks, the Louis Vuitton City Guide features 31 European cities in a box set of nine books (one of which is, of course, dedicated to Paris alone). Almost purely textual with a handful of neutral-coloured illustrations, the City Guides are for the bourgeois, not backpackers. You won’t find cafs here; they’re artists’ cafs. They’re not restaurants; they’re distinguished restaurants. You get the point. If you want to be seen as much as see, this is the travel guide for you. Sold at Louis Vuitton, 111 Bloor St. W, 416-983-3993.
Knopf Mapguides
Cute and compact, a Knopf Mapguide divides cities into section-by-section maps you can unfold at whim, making it the most practical item on our list. The Mapguide also packs a surprising whallop of information, including addresses to cookery classes, tea rooms, hammams and worlds more. Currently there are 44 different city books, from Amsterdam to Washington, D.C. $13.99 each at Type Books.
Wallpaper* City Guides
Phaidon-published anything gets graphic designers wet, making their Wallpaper* City Guides like porn on your iPad. Although not the most comprehensively informative of travel guides, they have full-page visuals and are definitely recommended for the design-seeking traveller. There are over 80 different City Guides, each in a different Pantone hue, and each slim enough to slip in a pocket or clutch. $11.95 at most bookstores.
Hg2: A Hedonist Guide to The World
The New York Times calls this UK luxury travel guide a minor bible. First launched in 2004, Hg2 claims they don’t just search for the most expensive places the world has to offer, but rather the best it has to offer. The last few pages are equipped with some important information, such as the city in questions’ drug policy. What does it have to say about Toronto? “As treasured as cannabis is by many young Torontonians, it is still illegal by law.” $21.95 at Type Books.
