With a zillion guidebooks flooding on to the market every year, it's hard to choose. If we take a guidebook with us at all on our travels, it's likely to be a nineteenth century Baedeker. If pushed to choose a modern alternative, chances are we'll opt for a Bradt Guide. Super range - even Turkmenistan, Kosovo and Eritrea (happily not combined in a single volume!). _

A very handsome series of guidebooks, prepared mainly with hikers in mind, that - at their best - nicely evoke the landscapes in some of Europe's most beautiful rural regions. A growing list that now includes the High Tatras, Romania, Montenegro, Crete, Croatia, Malta and Slovenia's Julian Alps. Decent maps, some good photographs and a well crafted text combine to give a very appealing small format book. _

Well, they don't stock hidden europe, so not quite perfect, but this really is the travel bookshop of first choice. Based in central London's West End district, with branches in Bristol and Manchester. Superb website. _

Atlases are wonderful things. At their best, fine atlases are simultaneously objects of beauty and invitations to travel. Our favourite is The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World. The 12th edition of this benchmark atlas was published on 3 September 2007. Follow this link to find out more. Extracts from various editions of the atlas regularly feature in hidden europe, by kind permission of Collins Bartholomew Ltd. _