HELP AT HAND:BUDGET AIRLINES have transformed travel, making the citybreak the most popular way of seeing the continent. Strange, then, that people still buy travel books packed with so much information they won't even have time to find out if it is out of date. Enter the In Your Pocketguides, which come as booklets or as free downloads.
Launched in Lithuania 17 years ago with Vilnius in your Pocket,the series now has 41 guides for cities in 21 countries, from Kosovo to Kiev and Dubrovnik to Dublin.
The first page is a survival guide for getting from the airport without being ripped off. Later on come listings of places to see, eat and sleep. There's also a page of history and a clear map with a street index.
"Too many guidebooks make people's lives too complicated with too much information," says publisher Craig Unger.
The secret of the In Your Pocketguides is that, unlike many expensive travel guides, they are written by native English speakers living in the city they are writing about. That can lend itself to frank, matter-of-fact advice about your destination rather than jaded impressions from world-weary professional travel writers.
The Dublin guide explains the mysteries of Irish tipping, warns about the noise in the Fallon & Byrne restaurant and describes the Clarence hotel's Octagon bar as "abuzz with excited imbibers".
The guides are funded by local advertisers, but they have no say in the content. "There have been things advertisers were not happy with," says Unger. "But we're not selling them the right to write their own review. We are selling them the audience we generate with our content."
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