Guiding Hand

By the time Maureen and Tony Wheeler undertook their overland trip from Europe to Australia via Asia in 1972 — which led to the founding of the iconic ‘Lonely Planet’ in 1973 — guidebooks had been in existence for about 150 years. Today, if you go looking for one, you will find a helpful guide on every conceivable travel experience: from trekking, camping and road trips to culinary adventures, spiritual retreats and wellness getaways.

But then, the smartphone and social media have completely transformed the way we approach travel. A gob-smacking number of planning, organising, searching, recommending and booking sites as well as apps offer everything, from reviews to deals on flights and vacation homes. Some thoughtful ones also help you locate the nearest ATM, restaurant, fuel station, or restroom. Just as many travel blogs flood the web with detailed personal experiences.

Where does that leave the trusty, dog-eared guidebook? Is it still relevant in a highly digital world? “Extremely!” says Akanksha Singh, Destination Editor, Central Asia & the Indian Subcontinent, ‘Lonely Planet’. “Paper guides cut through the noise of the digital world — there are just so many opinions and reviews out there. There’s an incredible burden on travellers to work out what’s honest, correct and unbiased. Our classic guides have evolved past being solely review-based to experience-based — we don’t want to inundate travellers with more detective work of what’s good or not; we want to inspire them by providing information that’s fresh, trustworthy and candid.”

Ariadna Garreta, Chandigarh-based architect and founder of Altrim Publishers (Barcelona), a platform that promotes architecture and urban planning in India and Southeast Asia, expresses similar sentiments. Her company has come out with a series of pocket-sized, city-specific and architect-penned architectural travel guides, including one on Chandigarh, written by well-known architect/urbanist and historian Vikramaditya Prakash.

Packed with interesting nuggets, the guide also draws attention to the valuable contribution of architects, aside from Le Corbusier, engaged with the Capitol Complex Project. Chandigarh is where Pierre Jeanneret flourished as a professional, and is an important venue to view Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew’s signature tropical architecture. It is also where the first generation of Indian modernists — Aditya Prakash, Anant Prabhawalkar, Bhanu Prakash Mathur, Harbinder Chopra, Jeet Malhotra, Manmohan Sharma, Shivdatt Sharma et al — cut their teeth.

The guide includes 11 well-designed itineraries that showcase the splendid body of work they collectively produced throughout the city. “This is an exceptional guide,” says Prof Iain Jackson of the University of Liverpool (UK). “Surely the best companion to learning more about the fascinating city of Chandigarh. The level of detail is extraordinary, whether you’re exploring Le Corbusier’s brutalist palaces or humble housing. And it is all beautifully designed into a travel-sized format.”

The Altrim guides include building plans and architectural drawings hitherto mainly found in monographs or coffee table books. A little too niche, perhaps? “From an architect’s perspective, such travel guides are a good travel tool because generalist guides don’t delve deep enough into buildings; their focus is on monuments and tourist spots. For an architect, designer or urban planner, travelling is part of our education as we can experience the structures in person, not just in books or on our laptop screens,” says Garreta.

The guides, she points out, are aimed at students of architecture and can be of great interest to the traveller who wants to explore a destination beyond popular tourist attractions. “I say this from experience as our guidebooks on Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Udaipur and Auroville and Puducherry have resonated with both domain professionals and leisure visitors. I was encouraged enough to begin work on a new collection, of heritage architectural guides, that includes Lucknow. We are bringing them out in tandem with conservation architects and historians.”

Gen Z, for sure, begs to differ, nurtured as it is on a steady Internet diet. It generally scoffs at the idea of paper guides, even more at the thought of seeking guidance or perusing through pamphlets at a tourism office (the insides of which it has very likely never seen). “Everything has moved online,” says Adiraj Singh (26), programme officer at Innovation Mission Punjab. “For the most part, I rely on word of mouth, and sites like MakeMyTrip, AirBnB, and StayVista. For reliable reviews, I scroll through the comments sections of places or experiences of interest on Instagram.” Isn’t that time-consuming, sifting through the chaff? “It will probably be less than it takes to read an entire guidebook!”

Thirty-something lawyer Sadeev Kang says his starting reference can well be popular travel magazines — the online version — but Instagram is what helps clinch the final decision on things to do. “I subsequently switch to a Skyscanner or Google aggregator for flight deals, and Booking.com allows me to narrow down stay options in a neighbourhood of choice.”

There is yet an in-between demographic that deftly straddles both worlds. One of them is translation professional and travel writer Alka Kaushik. “Call me old school if you will, but I like referring to all kinds of paper guides, and will continue doing so unless they become prohibitively expensive. At the same time, I subscribe to online newsletters of my favourite travel companies to stay updated. I use Google flights to compare costs, and for train journeys, I turn to the IRCTC website.”

Japan-based Ruchira Shukla, a voracious reader and avid traveller, says she prefers guidebooks and pamphlets to apps. “I also rely a lot on travelogues. There are many places I have travelled to after reading a book because I was fascinated by the way the writer described them.”

Clearly, there is no one right way or answer. And while the jury stays out on this one for a long, long time, the world is already planning its next trip.

— The writer is based in Chandigarh