Travel books: Instant insights

A new series of guides reveal some of Australia's best-kept secrets.

Into the already crowded market of travel guide-books comes another series, Insight Guides, which has launched four titles specific to Australia. The series now has guides to Perth and Surroundings ($29.99); New South Wales ($34.99); Tasmania ($34.99); and Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef ($34.99).

The colourfully illustrated books, which come with lift-out touring maps and street guides, are the work of writers who know their region intimately and who often bring a wry humour to the project.

The writers of the Tasmania guide, for example, note that the Pub In The Paddock in the Island's northeast is probably the only establishment with a beer-drinking pig (Priscilla, who is getting on, so a successor is being quietly groomed), and that the Weldborough Hotel prides itself as being the worst pub in the world.

With typically Australian hyperbole and tongue firmly in cheek, the writers also say that without overstating it, the Freycinet Peninsula must be one of the most beautiful places in the world. The colourful photographs however do support the assertion.

Insight Guides have been published since 1970 and the series features 450 titles. They present the character of the people and their opinions alongside a wealth of the customary and useful travel information (hotels, restaurants, sights, parks, and so on).

Tasmanians, for example, are described as astute and politically aware, and while the state was notorious for its repressive and archaic anti-homosexuality laws only a decade ago, today many are predicting it will be the first state to recognise gay marriage.

Such comments make a travel guide which presents a more rounded view of the place you might be passing through.

With local history woven through the text, quirky places given as much space as the famous sites (nice to see pie carts being recommended alongside fancy restaurants), and stunning photographs designed to appeal to the armchair traveller as much as those on the road, the Insight Guides are useful travelling companions.

In addition, Insight Guides in co-operation with HotelClub.com has published the inaugural edition of Australia and New Zealand's Best Hotels and Restaurants (Including the Pacific Islands) at $44.95. This is one of those envy tourism books, where you flick the pages in awe at the settings of some of these extraordinary hotels, lodges, retreats and resorts.

This guide was based on consumer reviews and comments conducted in an online survey out of which HotelClub shortlisted the 300 hotels in eight countries.

HotelClub also includes a loyalty card with this edition which allows members discounts and free stays in various hotels, and members earn HotelClub dollars each time they use it to book accommodation.

And it has to be said, that infinity pool at the Tokoriki Island Resort in Fiji looks mighty tempting, although it is over $US400 a night.