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I know that guidebooks are useful, we really can't do without them, but at the same time they can be so frustrating: if they are big and clunky, badly written, or have no pictures. I also often find that the details featured in many guide books are not the things I am interested in. Because of this I like guides that are very basic, ones that give you addresses and the barest facts and leave you to do the rest. I also have a weakness for pictures, diagrams, and illustrations. The guides that fit the bill are Eyewitness Guides by DK and Knopf Guides. An auxiliary guide can be useful for cross reference but I try to do research ahead of time (on the plane, in the hotel in the morning) so that I don't have to carry to more than one book around all day. Knopf has come out with a line of City Maps that make this even easier. The Knopf Citymaps are really useful little books. The city center is broken up into quadrants laid out on easy-to-read fold-out pages, on the back of which are listed site-seeing, shopping and restaurant highlights. Knopf Guides have great design that makes the information clear while presenting it in an attractive way. The book itself is about 6" x 7" and 1/2" thick and slips easily into a bag or purse, it also avoids looking overtly map-like so you can keep your touristy-ness to a minimum. I carried my Paris Citymap everywhere and it never let me down, it even led me to few sights that weren't mentioned in my guidebook. It is no good though if you are looking to explore the far flung suburbs of a city, that's where the trusty old guidebook comes in!