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HotelChatter Discounts / Reader Deals / Hotel Guidebook Picks / Luxe City Guides / → All Tags

Need More Advice on Where to Sleep? Keep a LUXE City Guide in Your Bag

We know, we know, guidebooks are on their way out and pretty soon, the younger generation coming up will ask us what it was like to travel with guidebooks once.

But we've always been a fan of LUXE City Guides for their slim, very portable design and fun accordion-style fold-out pages. Oh, and also their witty prose which tells you both what's in right now and what's way, way, out. These guides are perfect for the traveler who gets the shakes at the sight of a Visitor Welcome Center. As their tagline reads, "Stylish, Brutally Frank and Sometimes, Frankly, Brutal."

Check out their overview of London for a taste of their wit:

Hey there Georgie Girl...what's with the Russian accent? She may be gripped by masspiration, new monied affluenza and a serious outbreak of chainstore-itis but fret not this dolly hasn't been around for over 2,000 years and not learnt a trick or two.

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Mr and Mrs Smith / Dopplr / Hotel Guidebook Picks / → All Tags

Hotel Guidebook Picks :: Mr. and Mrs. Smith Are Working for Dopplr Now

If you haven't already joined, Dopplr is like a Facebook of sorts for your far-flung or frequent travels. Here you can upload all your trips and write about where you went, what you did, who you saw, what you ate, etc.

Now, Dopplr has partnered up with Mr and Mrs Smith a premiere guide for design and boutique hotels. In each city on Dopplr, the Smithies have given their recommendations which are titled, "Smith for This City."

We checked out their Las Vegas hotel picks since we're headed this way in a few weeks. They recommend THEhotel and as they should since it's the only non-cheesy hotel on the Strip. Too bad we're already booked in at the Wynn.

In New York, Smithies recommend Hotel QT, Gramercy, Chambers, THOR, The Library, The Bowery, 60 Thompson, and the Soho House.

Next we tried a more far-flung exotic destination like Dubai.  Sadly no Smiths tips for this city, but we'll keep our eyes on it. For the full list of Mr. and Mrs. Smith picks on Dopplr, go here.

Hotel Guidebook Picks / LUXE City Guides / Manhattan Hotels / → All Tags

Hotel Guidebook Picks: LUXE City Guides Recommend Only the Hotels du Jour

LUXE city guide: Don't leave your cab ride without it!

There's a new guidebook on the scene called LUXE City Guides. Ok technically, it's not brand-spanking new as the LUXE guides (yes, all-capped) were a little-known secret amongst travelers headed to Asia.

But now LUXE has gone mainstream and they have just released city guides to London, Los Angeles, Chicago, Barcelona, Berlin and Florence. The plan is to have a total of 28 city guides available online and in stores by the end of the June.

LUXE guides are different from your usual travel guidebooks. For starters, we wouldn't call them a book. These guides are sleek and compact with an accordion-style pull-out of information. They were designed to fit inside your purse or pocket so you don't look like a typical tourist. Each cover is also artistically designed instead of using a photo of a well-known city landmark that was taken in the 1980s.

There's also no maps or pictures of any sort throughout this guide--just witty prose that appeals to hipsters and fashionistas alike. As their tagline reads, "If it's 'in', it's in here."

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