Insight Compact Guide Scotland

For those of us in the category of visual learners, this travel guide reigns above most others. Each page contains a picture. In fact, most pages have multiple pictures and there are also a large number of full page and two page photos. Surprisingly, the Insight Guide to Scotland is part history book and part travel guide. Many guides highlight the historical significance of a few high traffic monuments but the Insight Guide will leave you genuinely enlightened regarding Scotland's long, colorful and sometimes unbelievable tale. Once you've thrown in the obligatory highlights on whiskey, Guinness and Burns; Insight's Guide produces one of the best overall travel guides I've ever reviewed.

Best for background research before you go, the Insight guides are strong on giving a feel for the culture and people. For me, the short chapters on hunting, fishing and golf were not as interesting as the very good essays about how the Scottish church moulded the temperment of the people, and the bit about Scottish painters. A variety of topics like these are covered in the first 150 pages, the next 160 or so goes into the various locations, with a sense of the area combined with acutal landmarks, their description, location, hours of operation. The books are jammed full of photographs of decent quality. A different approach than the Eyewitness guides, worth looking at both before you go.