Top Hiking Guide Book Reviews 2022

We have been on many great adventures but we always insist on having a hiking guide book with us. Before we commit to buying a good guidebook, we research them like crazy, maybe it’s us being stingy or just the fear of being lost due to having a poor guidebook but we like to know we have the best information to hand.

For us, the best hiking guide book would need to have plenty of good quality maps similar to Ordinate Survey maps. The maps should have some form of contours and longitudinal sections showing the possible elevation ascents and descents for the trip days. The hiking guidebook should also have lots of photographs of awkward little intersections of tough to describe hiking sections. Obviously, the hiking guidebook should have clear concise directions that translate to the map in some form.

The below Top hiking guide books are all guidebooks that we have used on our hikes previously. Gina always says that when we are hiking, I will always have one hand on the guidebook, keeping an eye on our progress on the trail.

Tour du Mont Blanc Guide book Review

We used a guidebook by Kev Reynolds called “The Tour of Mont Blanc: Complete Two-way Trekking Guide” to do our 10-day hike around the great mountain of Mont Blanc. If you want to see the guidebook in action just flick through our blog post on Tour du Mont Blanc here, we have it in numerous photographs, this book never left my hands.

The Tour of Mont Blanc: Complete Two-way Trekking Guide Review

Initially, we slightly struggled with this guidebook as the descriptions are quite detailed and if you are trying to read a few days ahead of yourself it becomes quite confusing.

On our first day of hiking, we took the scenic route by mistake and we quickly realised the value in this book’s detail!!

The book gave us step by step instructions that were reinforced by the maps and TMB signposts scattered along the hike. The timings in the book are very optimistic, bare this in mind when you are planning to cram 2 days itinerary into the one day.

This book is essential for the Tour du mont blanc and we wouldn’t have dreamed to do it without it.

Pros:

• Detailed maps
• Tonnes of information and phone numbers
• Gives multiple routes for the same stage

Cons:

• Complicated to follow at times
• The scale of the maps are too large at awkward sections

Final word:

I wouldn’t even dream about hiking the TMB without this book. Yes, it is possible as the signage on the route is extremely good but it’s very comforting to know the hostel phone numbers and the location of the next coffee shop.

Camino de Santiago Guide book

The Camino de Santiago was our first hiking adventure and by pure luck, we brought John Brierley’s “A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino De Santiago: St. Jean – Roncevalles – Santiago (Camino Guides)” book with us. When we first started the Camino in St. Jean we quickly realized how good this book really was. The book gives realistic walking durations and distances between towns/cafes & hostels. The maps on the book are very good with all the important information highlighted on the map and its easy to follow and understand. 

Pros:

• Very detailed description
• The best map of all guide books
• We never needed to refer to the internet to look for missing information

Cons:

• It doesn’t cover Finisterre or Muxia (additional book required)

Final Word:

This book fits perfectly into my hiking pants pocket, which is essential because I would usually refer to it every 30 minutes.  Like every other walker that completes the Camino, they all want to walk to Finisterre but this book doesn’t cover this section.

When we walked to Muxia and Finisterre after Santiago we had to buy John Brierley’s other book Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino Finisterre: Santiago * Finisterre * Muxia. This is another good book but we felt that he could have easily included this information in the Camino de Santiago guide book. Still, this is a good book with great information. 

Ireland’s County High Points: A Walking Guide

In 2016, we had our first child. This put a stop to our long-distant walks. In 2017-2018 we purchased a baby hiking carrier to carry our daughter on our next adventure up Ireland’s mountains. Kieron Gribbon wrote this wonderful resource of a walking book, which covers Irelands County high points. We found this book to be amazing on our adventure to every high point. It gives coordinates to park the car and very informative descriptions on the routes, along with maps and expected walking times.

Pros:

• Provides coordinates for each mountain
• Full of pictures and maps
• Detailed maps and descriptions

Cons:

• None really- Our book fell apart but I think that’s more to do with overuse

Final Word:

This book has become a big part of our family hikes. When we pack our hiking bags we always bring this because we never know if we’re going to be far away from a high point. The format of this book is perfect. We highly recommend it.

The Wicklow Way Guidebook

We are lucky enough to live at the end of the Wicklow Way. The Wicklow Way is Irelands oldest waymarked trail and was established in 1980 by J.B Malone. The Wicklow Way is 127km long and it spans from Dublin through the heart of Wicklow and finishes in the small village of Clonegal in Carlow. The Wicklow Way is one of Ireland’s best hiking trails.

We shamefully didn’t know much about the Wicklow way before we started our hiking adventures. We gradually walked the Wicklow way over a number of weekends throughout the summer months. It’s quite a tough little hike but the landscape is spectacular and it provides some of the best walking scenery in Ireland.

We bought Barry Dalby’s book “The Wicklow Way Map Guide” in a local shop but the guidebook can also be ordered from Amazon or from Barry Dalby’s website direct. The book provides necessary maps of the route along with little snippets of history and local facts.

Pros:

• Very detailed maps
• Interesting local knowledge

Cons:

• Not much information about supplies
• Additional information about close towns would be helpful

Final Word:

The Wicklow way passes through one of Ireland’s top tourist attractions, Glendalough round tower. There are some nice walks and historical tours in this area. Make sure to stay one night here to explore the area.

Mountain Man by James Forrest

Having followed James on Instagram for a few years, we instantly bought this book about his amazing adventure. Every time we look at James’s stories on Instagram we always have a good giggle and he has brought that sense of humor to documenting his hiking achievements.  He really inspires us to hike higher and longer. His honest approach to not being trained and getting lost makes it feel like lots of our adventures.

Be careful, because after reading this book you will feel that you will want to do something adventurous with your life. This is an inspiring, uplifting book and should be in everyone’s top 10 hiking guide books.

 

Hike it baby

If I am to be totally honest, when I first considered hiking with a baby this was the first book that I bought. After some initial research, I found the Hikeitbaby website and social media sites. It was a natural progression to buy the book, which proved to be super useful in answering my novice questions and insecurities of hiking with babies.

The book gives 100 outdoor adventures and hikes in the US. Obviously, this is not much help to our family, as we live in Ireland but the book is really smart in its layout because each hike gives great inspiration and also an idea of the type of hikes that is possible with babies.

This book is more than just 100 baby and toddler adventure stories. There are sections in the book on gear, ambassadors, inspiring stories and lots of useful tips.

Pros:

• Inspirational
• Full of baby hiking information
• New hiker tips and tricks (Very useful)
• Seasonal hiking tips

Cons:

• The walks are only applicable to the US
• No individual gear reviews
• Majority of the book is about US hikes

The hikeitbaby website is a useful resource with a very active community.

The National 3 Peaks: Taking Up The Challenge

We received the “The National 3 peaks: Taking up the Challenge” guide book for a Christmas present in 2018. Due to family commitments, it took us a few months to eventually get over to the UK to hike the three peaks. We didn’t take part in the challenge, even though we found the challenge of it interesting. When we hike we love to take in the surrounding areas and cultures. Because of this, we hiked the UK three peaks over three days. It was great fun and a great experience.

The book proved to be a great resource and we found the estimated times and accommodation recommendations very helpful.

Babes in the Woods

The best way I could possibly describe Babes in the woods is a book of 187 pages which provides wonderful baby hiking advice. This is an amazing resource that is obviously written by a loving parent and an avid hiker. The book is an easy read and is broken into very easy to navigate sections.

One of our constant worries while hiking with babies is the weather and if the babies are warm enough. Babes in the woods cover the baby’s clothing, weather conditions, and some great general little tips and tricks.

This book covers food for babies and toddlers like no other hiking book that I have read before. There is a six-page table covering all foods to take on all types of baby adventures. This is a great idea because food can be the main reason many babies start becoming irritated on the trail and it can be a quick fix to get the baby back happy again.

Pros:

• Wonderful tips and tricks
• Cost-saving advice
• Covers other activities, not just hiking

Con:

• The main focus is on camping
• Orientated around Alaska

Final Word:

This is a great read and a very encouraging book. If you are on the fence regarding hiking with Toddlers, this is the books for you. The book is full of great advice wrote by an expert passionate about the outdoors.