Increasing numbers of colorful and specialized guidebooks reflect travelers' growing sophistication and interest in new activities and exotic, less-traveled destinations. In choosing a guide, one should consider a book's accuracy and honesty in its descriptive materials, the currentness of its practical information, its organizational format, its general readability, and its application to your particular travel goals and interests. A thoughtfully selected guide can often make the difference between a stimulating, memorable journey and an unpleasant mix of culture shock, overspending, wasted time and missed opportunities.

Here is a subjective evaluation of the most popular guidebook series among American travelers. They are available through your local book purveyor or on the Internet from those incredible electronic resources, Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble, www.barnesandnoble.com.

Access: These concise city guides cover the essentials with little added commentary. Appealing to the highly organized, anal-retentive traveler, the text is color coded for restaurants, hotels, sightseeing and shopping, expediting the location of specific information you need. www.harpercollins.com.

Blue Guides: The encyclopedic Blue Guides, published since 1918, offer information on history, art, and architecture that is unparalleled in depth and detail by any major guide series. Although the text is often dry and densely printed, Blue Guides "hold the cultural high ground" and are invaluable for background reading at home. www.blueguides.com.

Cadogan: Intelligently written for sophisticated, independent travelers with strong interests in history and culture, with their expert insights and advice these guides are excellent as both pre-trip planners and on-site resources and particularly loved by folks traveling on wheels. www.cadoganguides.com.

Eyewitness: These intimate, highly acclaimed guides to European countries and cities "show you what others only tell you." They are filled with full-color photos, illustrations, detailed maps and 3-D views of every significant landmark, building, museum, and gallery, as well as comprehensive practical information on major shops, hotels and restaurants. An invaluable city companion. www.traveldk.com

Fodor's: Widely recognized as the gold standard of mainstream travel, Fodor's guides include cogent comments, essential practical details of hotels, restaurants and shops, color photography, maps and itinerary suggestions to satisfy a range of interests and budgets. www.fodors.com.

Frommer's: The ground-breaking Budget Travel Guide/$-a-Day Series from Frommer's have been helping travelers get the best for their money for more than 45 years. Deemed "the ultimate guide to comfortable low-cost travel," Frommer's books feature original content and need-to-know information, all well-organized and easily located. www.frommers.com.

Insight: Setting this series apart from the rest, brilliant color photographs supplement the text, which includes a wealth of background information on history, places and contemporary culture. These guides are particularly useful as pre-trip planners. www.insightguides.com.

Let's Go: Compiled by Harvard students for 40 years, Let's Go guides were originally designed for student travelers but contain enough excellent information on sightseeing and cultural activities to be useful to all adventurous travelers. Bargain-basement in price orientation, these guides are updated annually and are ubiquitous companions of the hosteling crowd. www.letsgo.com.

Lonely Planet: Providing comprehensive background and practical information for the independent traveler, these top-notch guides are excellent resources if you want to get off the beaten path and really explore the heart and soul of a country or region anywhere on the planet. www.lonelyplanet.com.

Michelin: Applauded worldwide, detailed Michelin Green Guides include close-up town and museum maps, touring routes and sightseeing options. The Red Guides evaluate hotels and restaurants. Many savvy independent travelers wouldn't leave home without one of the benchmark Michelin guides that have been published for more than 100 years. www.michelintravel.com.

Moon: Moon Handbooks are directed toward adventurous, independent travelers — backpackers — on a modest to moderate budget. They are especially strong on "green travel" (ecotourism), with superb, comprehensive sections on flora, fauna, and topography for the nature buff. www.moon.com.

Rick Steves: Good nitty-gritty material offering excellent segment by segment itineraries for unforgettable drives and walks, primarily in Europe. Publishes two categories: country and city/regional guidebooks. Provides outstanding, subjective lodging and dining options for pocketbooks in the modest to middle range. www.ricksteves.com.

Rough Guides: Opinionated, independent guides written in a journalistic style with some of the best historical, cultural, and political summaries available. Feature strong practical advice on how to really get to know a place and its people. www.roughguides.com.

Irene Croft Jr., of Kailua, Kona, is a travel writer and 45-year veteran globetrotter. Her column is published in this section every other week.