It's been years since I bought a guidebook to JA.
Which guidebook would you recommend to a newbie who is planning on visiting multiple locations, including Negril, Treasure Beach, Ocho Rios, maybe other places.
It looks like the Lonely Planet guide has the most recent publication date of Nov 11.
Suggestions?

There is only one guide book worth having and yes you got it right LONELY PLANET !
The bible for indenpendent travellers.
ONE LOVE !!
Mike

For Jamaica traveller I favor the Lonely Planet Travel Guide and make sure to make use of their website and the forum there

My personal favorite is Rough Guide.

MOOOOON!

MOON (Oliver Hill )is good,too

So sorry, yes the Moon Guide written by Oliver Hill is also very thorough.

Can't really knock Rebecca's choice of Rough Guide, since she's been everywhere, mon*...but, if you want to feel something close to a personal connection to Jamdown from two travel authors who have dug deep into the culture and geography, you can't go wrong with:

• Christopher Baker: Loney Planet Jamaica
www.christopherbaker.com/html/body_treasure_beach_jamaica.html

• Oliver Hill: MOON Hanbooks: Jamaica
www.moon.com/books/moon-handbooks?apage=J

--Jamaica's Best with Oliver Hill (#7:Treasure Beach)
www.moon.com/author-q-a/jamaicas-best-oliver-hill

A good little test of whether a travel guide speaks to you might be whether it serves your particular interests...no matter how specialized or arcane...whether it be music, art, food, geology, spelunking, diving, whatever...or when when a travel writer covers people, far-off ("secret") places and events you know particularly well, and get it "right".

For example, Christopher Baker (Lonely Planet) ventured off-road to the "thickly forested limestone cliffs around sugar cane country of Barbecue Bottom (Trelawny Parish) breathing the freshest air with nary a soul in sight, racking his brain to make comparisons to places he'd slipped into Cuba.

Oliver Hill (MOON) has the good sense to supply some of the best mini-maps of the Island. You want to get to Mayfield Falls by "alternate" routes...MOON has mapped it. (there's even a map for Treasure Beach)


*She's been everywhere, mon.
She's been everywhere, mon.
Crossed the desert's bare, mon.
She's breathed the mountain air, mon.
Of travel I've had my share, mon.
She's been everywhere.
• Apologies to Johnny Cash

Plus Oliver Hill lives in JA - that helps.

Taking exception to Oliver Hill's depiction of hoteliers in Treasure Beach?:
Unfortunately some hotels actually actively discourage visitors from interacting with the surrounding communities with scare tactics. These are not to be heeded, even if visitors should always keep their head and use common sense.

Essentially, are there more than 5 or 6 hotel-hotels in T-Beach? (Jakes; Treasure Beach Hotel; Mar Blue; Sunset Resort; Taino Cove; Southview) where everybody knows one another and buys into the concept of community tourism.
So where does Oliver Hill or his editors get over ascribing a tactic linked to the All-Inclusives about "not interacting with the surrounding communities"? Doesn't sound like the Treasure Beach vibe at at all.

Thanks everyone. I went with the Lonely Planet guide in part because it was the most up to date. Fortunately the local Barnes and Nobles actually had the guidebooks in stock so I could look through them.