The first Lonely Planet guide we ever bought – and how you can save 30% on all (current) titles this July

We suspect that anyone who’s ever owned a Lonely Planet guide can remember the first one they bought – ours was Mark Honan’s first (1994) edition of the Switzerland book (which is now, as of May 2015, on to its 8th update).

Back then branded as a ‘Travel Survival Kit’, the book lived up to its promise, guiding our travels further afield – as well as our choice of Romandie nightspots – during a year’s work placement in Geneva, the first occasion that we’d ever travelled abroad on our own.

Since then, picking up the Lonely Planet guide for wherever we’ve been travelling to – from Scotland to Slovenia – has become a pre-holiday ritual.

Sure, we’ve dabbled with other publishers, but it’s always the Lonely Planets that we come back to for their clear, impartial and occasionally droll insights. The chunky volume, the reassuring logo – they’re as much a part of the annual holiday as EHIC and aftersun.

Of course, times move on and these days you can pick up all the Lonely Planet guides as ebooks, or even just buy the chapters that you need.

That latter option was particularly handy last year when we were visiting Italy’s South Tyrol, when we wanted the chapter for that region but had no need for the other 90% of the hefty 900-page Italy book covering places we couldn’t hope to visit in a fortnight.

Slovenia, at least – which we’re heading back to this summer – is sufficiently compact (at about the size of Wales) to warrant buying the whole book. At a ‘mere’ 264 pages, you can also afford to take it on your day trip from Kranjska Gora to Ljubljana without the need for a reinforced rucksack.

The good news is that whether your preference is for print guides, ebooks, individual PDF chapters, or even print-and-ebook bundles, the Lonely Planet shop is offering 30% off all in-stock titles during its July Sale. So, wherever you’re off to, the chances are that with 500 travel titles covering 195 countries you’ll find at least one guide that’s a must-have.

They may not be called ‘Travel Survival Kits’ any more, but we certainly wouldn’t go off travelling without our trusty and well-thumbed Lonely Planet squirrelled away in our suitcase.

What was the first Lonely Planet book you ever bought? Share your memories and experiences below!