Lonely Planet Travel Guides are among the best, so whenever there’s an offer for a free download, I try to take advantage. The Apple iTunes bookstore is offering free downloads of a number of Lonely Planet guidebooks, including several specialty guides to travel in Britain.
The best free guides include:
- Recession-Busting Britain — Best Free Experiences
- Culture Vulture Britain — Best Cultural Experiences
- Tasty Britain — Best Eating Experiences
- Ye Olde Britain — Best Historical Experiences
- Mini Britain Britain– Best Experiences for Kids
Free on iTunes
These guidebooks to England, Scotland and Wales are full length 100+ page books, though there is a fair amount of overlap between them. A number of the other books are merely teasers for the full-priced version of the guidebook. Hat tip to Miles From Blighty.
The USA Best Trips free book includes excerpts on road trips to three regions — the Pacific Coast Highway, Highway 101 Oregon Coast, and Coastal New England.
One other full-featured free book worth mentioning is Discover the Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel.
The iTunes bookstore is also running a sale on the Lonely Planet “48 Hour” travel guide series for a number of American cities. The title is an amusing allusion to the New York Times travel column — 36 Hours in ___.
All of these guides are excerpted chapters from the book “USA’s Best Trips.” The guides include information on local activities, accommodations, and food.
City guides for these 12 popular destinations are $.99 for a limited time:
- 48 Hours in Austin
- 48 Hours in Boston
- 48 Hours in Chicago
- 48 Hours in Denver
- 48 Hours in Las Vegas
- 48 Hours in Los Angeles
- 48 Hours in Manhattan
- 48 Hours in Miami
- 48 Hours in New Orleans
- 48 Hours in St. Louis
- 48 Hours in San Francisco
- 48 Hours in Seattle
The best thing about these e-books is that they include hot links to all the attractions’ websites — very convenient for checking current information.
Who wants to lug around a bunch of guide books when you’re traveling? Load these on your computer or iPad and you’ll be good to go!