Rough Guides

In the early 1980s, according to Rough Guide founder Mark Ellingham, “I couldn’t find an interesting job, so I attempted to create a proper job for myself that wasn’t in an office. I’d traveled around Greece quite a lot during my time as a student and it occurred to me that there just wasn’t a guidebook that was aimed at someone like me. So I just tried to write a book for myself, thinking that there might be a few thousand others like me who might buy it.”

As Ellingham states, “We soon realized that all sorts of people were using [the original "Rough Guide to Greece"] and that it wasn’t actually the cheapness of the book that appealed to them, but the fact that it was opinionated and quite contemporary, and treated places in a slightly different way to tourist guides.”

In the ensuing years, Rough Guides have extended their reach beyond Greece and embraced destinations throughout the world, from Amsterdam to Venice, Alaska to Washington, D.C. They are now marketed to travelers on all budgets.

There are 50 locations currently on Gale Virtual Reference Library with nearly 100 new guides to be added by the end of the year.

By accessing Rough Guides on Gale Virtual Reference Library your patrons will not only access their rich content, they’ll cross-search other travel resources in your collection – DK’s Eyewitness Travel Guides as well as historical and cultural reference titles. The full-color images are included within the article view or users can download, view and print a PDF of the original page layout.

View all available Rough Guide titles on Gale Virtual Reference Library

Download a catalog (PDF 1.65 MB) with Rough Guide and other travel titles