We got three guidebooks for the trip: Rick Steve’s, Let’s Go, and Frommer’s. I ripped out the chapters for each city we were visiting and had them spirally bound at Kinko’s. That cut the weight from almost four pounds down to a pound and a quarter overall, plus made it even lighter in my day pack as I only had what I needed for each city. After we left each city, I ripped out pages that weren’t useful to make my roller bag even lighter. (I scanned the covers of each book, cropped, added the name of each city and printed on sticky back paper for personalized cardboard covers.) I think Rick Steve’s book was the most helpful of the three. I appreciated the step-by-step instructions for how to navigate in and out of cities, his descriptions of sights, and quirky humor. His maps weren’t the best, but we picked up city maps along the way, so it wasn’t that crucial.