AAA Issues Flashy New Guide Series

It’s not your father’s AAA book.

The venerable AAA, formerly the American Automobile Assn., is going head-to-head against Frommer’s, Fodor’s and other guidebooks with its flashy new Spiral Guides.

Unlike its TourBooks, which rate lodgings and restaurants with one to five diamonds and list attractions with encyclopedic detail and dryness, the Spiral Guides offer blunt opinions, suggest driving itineraries and are studded with colorful photos.

In the Spiral Guide to Australia, we’re told that life there “can seem quite unbearable without beach side locations . . . and full air conditioning” because of “searingly hot” temperatures. Further, “the vacationer deserves better” than the “functional” roadside motels in the countryside, it opines. Favoring in-depth reviews over mere listings, the guide suggests only eight places to stay in Sydney.

AAA spokeswoman Janie Graziani says the guides are more “user-friendly” than TourBooks and are designed to be used in conjunction with them: TourBooks for pre-trip planning and the compact, 4 1/2-inch-by-8-inch Spiral Guides as take-alongs. One big difference: TourBooks are free to AAA members, but Spiral Guides cost $13.50 for members in Southern California (the price varies by club) and $16.95 for nonmembers.

So far, only the Australia and Paris Spiral Guides are available from the Automobile Club of Southern California, a spokeswoman said last week. Some Kmart stores also carry them, AAA said. There are Spiral Guides to Ireland, London, New York and Florida; New England, California and the Vancouver/Canadian Rockies area are planned for fall.