Publishers Release New Guidebooks for Budgets : There’s lots of helpful information out there, but be sure to match your text to your style of travel.

One of the most important investments a budget traveler can make is a good guidebook. Fortunately, much of the world is now covered by guidebooks geared to travelers on a shoestring, and revised, updated editions are hitting the market continually.

It’s important to pick the book best-suited to your style of travel. Seek advice from friends who have traveled in a similar style or bookstores that specialize in travel.

Here are some other tips to remember when shopping for guidebooks:

- Before you buy, check the inside cover for the publication date and keep in mind that the book was likely researched and written the year prior to publication. Expect prices to be higher than those published.

- If a guidebook is so heavy as to be impractical to take along each day while touring, remove and staple together the pages of each chapter as you need them, so you can just slip them into your pocket.

Three of the most popular series of guidebooks for U.S. budget travelers are “Let’s Go,” Moon Handbooks and Lonely Planet publications. Though all three publications are geared to independent, economy-minded travelers, both Moon and Lonely Planet tend to include information for a broader range of budgets than “Let’s Go.”

The popular 15-book “Let’s Go” series, produced by Harvard Student Agencies, is researched and written annually by students. Teams head off across North America and Europe during the summer holiday season to recheck and collect information for the new editions, which are released around Christmas each year.

A direct competitor to the “Let’s Go” series, the Berkeley “On the Loose” Guides, published by Fodor’s, are scheduled to make their first appearance in November. Researched, written and edited by University of California at Berkeley students, the initial titles cover California, the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, Mexico and Eastern Europe. In the works are numerous Western European books, plus Central America and a city guide to San Francisco.

Moon Publications of Chico, Calif., produces 42 guidebooks; most cover western North America and the Pacific Rim. Recently released editions include: “Thailand Handbook” by Carl Parkes ($16.95); “Bangkok Handbook” by Michael Buckley ($10.95); “Micronesia Handbook” by David Stanley ($11.95); “Tahiti Handbook” by David Stanley ($11.95; due out next month), and “Tibet Handbook” by Victor Chan ($24.95; due in November).

The most popular series of guidebooks for budget travelers is published by Lonely Planet. The Australia-based company now produces more than 80 titles packed with cultural and historical background information plus details on where to stay, how to get around, what to watch out for, and where to get help in an emergency.

Two important mammoth editions released earlier this year could be of great help to travelers in an area of the world that is rapidly changing. They are the 832-page “USSR--A Travel Survival Kit” by John Noble and John King ($21.95), and the 908-page “Eastern Europe on a Shoestring” by David Stanley ($21.95).

The big news with Lonely Planet is that it is finally going to cover Europe. Three new European guides should reach bookstores by January: the 1,300-page “Western Europe on a Shoestring” by Tony Wheeler ($24.95); the 1,150-page “Mediterranean Europe” by Daniel Robinson ($24.95), and the 550-page “Scandinavian and Baltic Europe” by Glenda Bendure and Ned Friary ($17.95).

Other new Lonely Planet guides scheduled to be in bookstores this fall are: “Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay--A Travel Survival Kit” by Wayne Bernhardson and Maria Massalo ($16.95); “Cambodia--A Travel Survival Kit” by Daniel Robinson and Tony Wheeler ($12.95); “Arabian Gulf States” by Gordon R. Robinson ($15.95); “Trekking in Greece” by Marc Dubin ($12.95), and “Finland--A Travel Survival Kit” by Markus Lehtipuu and Virpi Makela ($15.95).