The more popular long-distance trails, including the National Trails and Scotland's Great Trails, all have several guidebooks – how do you know which is the right one for you? Here’s our short guide to guidebooks for long distance trails.

The first consideration is mapping. Most of us don’t want to get lost. Some guides include sections of Ordnance Survey maps or other mapping, some have separate map booklets, and some have hand-drawn sketch maps. Cicerone guides include small sections of Ordnance Survey (OS) 1:25,000 scale maps, but in addition many Cicerone guides have a separate map booklet. These use the OS 1:25,000 mapping, the walkers’ perfect map base that shows field boundaries and public rights of way. These booklets fit easily into a pocket and are, in our mind, the perfect navigation aid. These booklets can be bought separately or bought with the guidebooks. 

The Birlinn Long Distance Guides (official guides for Scotland's Great Trails - The West Highland Way, St Cuthbert’s Way and Deeside Way) include a 1:40,000 scale full colour folding map.

For all guides, whatever type, we advise having an alternative navigation aid with you. If you wander too far from the trail you may struggle to find your way back unless you have another map, either a traditional paper map or a digital version.

If you want a paper map we recommend either the A-Z Adventure Atlases, Cicerone map booklets, Guidemaps or Harvey maps. You can see all our maps here. If you prefer to have a digital back up there are lots of options, but don’t reply on Google maps as in rural areas there is little information, certainly not enough to navigate with. We like the Ordnance Survey app.

The best guidebooks provide interesting information on places that you pass along the way in addition to navigation advice. All of the guidebooks we stock have a good mix of information. The style varies with the author, so if you enjoyed a particular guidebook it might be worth looking to see if that author has written any others.

Including Ordnance Survey mapping increases the cost of producing a guidebook, so ones that don’t include this are usually lower cost, for example Trailblazer and Rucksack Readers.

Cicerone National Trail guides vary between £12.95 for a guide with no map booklet to £16.95 for a guide with a map booklet. Aurum Press books cost £14.99. Trailblazers are £12.99, Rucksack Readers between £10.99 and £13.99. Birlinn guides are £16.99.

We sell Aurum Press guides with an A-Z Adventure Atlas map at a 20% discount.

The shape and size varies between guides. The Cicerone guides tend to be the smallest, and easiest to fit into a pocket, some have a waterproof cover, for example Thames Path and Cleveland Way & Yorkshire Wolds Way. Trailblazers are slightly taller. Aurum Press guides are taller still, and slightly wider, more of a typical paperback and less pocket-sized. Rucksack Readers are larger, but have a user-friendly format and are printed on waterproof paper. Birlinn Guides are the largest and come in a waterproof cover which also holds the map. 

Despite what you might think trails do change over time. National Trails in particular change when the trail managers negotiate improved lines to avoid busy roads or other hazards and of course coastal routes change due to erosion. Because of this is it worth buying the most up to date guidebook you can.

Trailblazer guides are regularly updated – keep an eye on the edition number. The publishers don’t like old versions being sold so you should be able to buy the latest edition. We always sell the most up to date editions. Rucksack Readers also use edition numbers. If you can’t see an edition number it will be a first edition. Birlinn Guides use issue numbers.

With the other guides it can be a bit tricker to see when they were last updated – in our description of each book we say when it was last updated, but not all stores do that. If you see a book being sold cheaply check that it isn’t an old edition.