There are two of us at Guide to Travel Guides: Greg Hayes, a public health physician and long-time associate professor at the University of Nevada (now retired) and Joan Wright, a still busy attorney practicing in Carson City, Nevada. We've always been busy travelers and 25 years ago we realized there was a definite problem when it came to finding the best travel guides: The travel book sections at most bookstores were simply not comprehensive enough to offer all the best choices. That meant that travelers were often left unaware of some excellent guidebooks, especially those from smaller publishers. Plus choosing from the books on the shelf was sometimes little more than a confusing game of potluck--unless you were lucky enough to be assisted by a travel-savvy salesperson.

To help address these issues, we published two guides to travel guides. In 1985, we self-published Guide to the Guides and Travel Books of Europe. And in 1989 we expanded our work in the much more comprehensive Going Places: The Guide to Travel Guides, published by a respected Boston publisher, Bruce Shaw at The Harvard Common Press. Praise was immediately forthcoming:

• "Going Places is a handy reference worthy of any traveler's bookshelf." Rick Steves
• “This book, truly, is vintage stuff.” Jack Severson, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Chicago Tribune
• “The most comprehensive bibliography of travel guides that can be imagined…” Robert Scott Milne, Travelwriter Marketletter
• “To help customers and staff choose wisely from the massive travel guide market there is now Going Places: The Guide to Travel Guides.” Elizabeth Szabla, American Bookseller
• “Choosing a travel guide is the first challenge most travelers face….Going Places: The Guide to Travel Guides should simplify matters.” Steve Silk, Hartford Courant
• "Travelers who do appreciate the value of doing their homework now have the ultimate weapon: Going Places: The Guide to Travel Guides.” Jack Schnedler, New York Post
• “It’s an invaluable resource to find out what’s available before you go.” Peter Manston, International Travel News
• “Quite simply, it is the first book any traveler or travel writer should consult.” Elaine O’Gara, Travel Publishing News
• For several full reviews, click More About Our Books above..

Bookstores still face the challenge of being comprehensive enough, of course, but the Internet has added an obvious new wrinkle: Instead of too little information available, there is, at times, simply too much. Go to your favorite online bookseller and type in a book search for, say, "Travel Paris." The number of references you will find is mind boggling. But which is best for you?

Over the years since Going Places was published, we've helped people answer that question on a one-on-one basis. But now that one of us has reached retirement, we've decided it would be fun--and helpful!--to share our knowledge with others through the World Wide Web. We hope you find our efforts worthwhile.

We're starting small (to maintain our sanity) but will be steadily adding more and more as we get used to using the Web as our primary vehicle of communication. If you have other worthwhile books to suggest for our review, please click Contact Us above. And thanks.