Has the iPhone Made the Guidebook Obsolete?

This interesting article comes via the London times which posits the question – if you have an iPhone will you ever need a travel guidebook again?

From the article:

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life — said a fellow who clearly hadn’t spent the entire day road-testing the latest travel apps for the capital on his iPhone.

For the uninitiated, “apps” are applications for Apple’s iPhone (although other phone companies, including BlackBerry and Nokia, are now getting in on the act).

Apps range from the useful (recipe cards, mortgage calculators) via the educational (works by Shakespeare, photography guides) to the downright pointless. Do you really need an app that turns your phone into a virtual pint of beer?

One of the fastest growth areas is in travel. From phrasebooks to guidebooks, museum-finders to cab-finders, the options are limitless — and most cost only 59p. But are they any good? And could they ever replace the traditional guidebook?

Read the rest of the article here.

As much as I like relying on my iPhone while traveling, it can’t completely replace a really good guidebook. So, it’s safe to take a multi-pronged approach – bring iPhone apps and good guidebooks when traveling.