Rick Steves' is limited, but if you are going to his places, it is quick and to the point. Lonely Planet's Andalucía is detailed and good. Try your library. I checked out at least 20 different books and finally bought two. Then I added detailes from other books into the two I purchased. Campsa sells a terrific map book which is updated each year, but I am not certain if you can buy it ourside of Spain. The front half is maps and the back is like the us AAA tourbooks.

I bought Penelope Casa's "Discovering Spain" this winter while on vacation in New Hampshire. I holed up in my tiny room while it snowed outside and read all about Spain. The book is basically this woman writing about her favorite hotels and restaurants and places to go. It is like a love story about Spain. You will also need a realistic book to plan hotels and stuff (she likes to stay at the Ritz) but the book is great.

We used both Lonely Planet & Rough Guide. They make a good combination. Also before we left we checked Let's Go out of the library & xeroxed a few relevant pages; their strong point for me is pointing out grocery stores & markets, which the other books don't do so much.

One warning about Rough Guide's restaurant maps: the #s are only vaguely where the restaurant is! We wandered around quite a bit in Madrid & especially Granada trying to find places that sometimes ended up being 2 blocks away from where the map said. LP was better for that.

The last time I bought a "Let's Go" book was in '95, and it was already grossly outdated. In my opinion (or IMHO), that series is based on name recognition and the revisions are few and far between.

That having been said, I will say kudos to them for not including a million pictures. There's nothing worse than carrying an extra 200 pages of someone else's great vacation pictures around with you. Not only is it dead weight, since you're probably looking live at whatever they've got a picture of, but also it makes you feel bad since there's no way you're going to get a picture that sweet to come out of your "Fun Saver" disposable camera!

I've also found Let's Go books to be rather outdated, especially as you venture outside of main cities--I think they recycle the information for many smaller destinations OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

I also think that I am a bit too old for them...at 32 and married, I don't need to know where all the parties are or where I can sleep in a dorm room with a bunch of 17-year-olds.

I do appreciate the info they provide for bargain travelers, but I pick and choose through it. I want to know what's worth splurging on and what's not...though I don't always feel that my priorities line up with ANY guidebook's!!

Really, though, there's a need for a MadridMan's Guide to Madrid (and surrounding area), to be followed by a series of MadridMan's Guides to other parts of Iberia! I would like to know more about who's doing the recommending--isn't it nice to know that the person whose hostal or restaurant recommendation you're taking is around your age, or working on a similar budget, or interested in the same things?

I found Nelles Guide To Spain: Pyrenees, Atlantic Coast, and Central Spain to be particularly useful for northern spain. But,I got a lot of good information here at MadridMan's All Spain Message Board, and the Internet, of course.

I have yet to find a single, comprehensive guide for all of Spain; but for cities and regions such as Madrid, Barcelona, Costa Brava, etc. I have found Baedeker's guidebooks to be about the best you can find. I've tried 'Let's Go, Spain,' and Frommers and Fodors and they just can't cover everything.

I'm glad i'm not the only guide book shopaholic here. :o
I like Time Out guides for specific cities, like Madrid and Barcelona, because it focuses in on nightlife, shopping and restaurants, and not just for the 20 somethings.
I agree with Tara on the Lonely Planet thing, i'm 35 and want more luxury than a youth hostal, but can't afford the Ritz (yet, ).
DK has great information on regional history, but not much as far as lodging.
I once found a walking guide of Toledo at a tabaco kiosk in the city center there. It was published by a British press, and had about 4 hidden walks of Toledo. It was so wonderful and full of detail, even had stories/history about little balconies and wells, etc..., along the way. I loaned it to a friend and never got it back, so I don't remember the name, but it was the BEST "guidebook" I had ever read. I believe they had these walking guides for other cities in Spain, but can't remember the name of the them. Sound familiar, anyone?

I have use "Lets Go" on two occasions in Spain. I have found them to be a GREAT HELP. Easy to use straight forward. Plus, like someone else said, I don't need a guide book loaded with pictures.
If I do some of France in the same trip (which I always do) I also buy "lets Go France". I CUT the sections I need leaving at home the sections that I will never need. With some tape I make a new cover and...adelante!

I'm sorry to disagree with the majority, but I love the lonely planet guides. I have the ones for Madrid and Shanghai, and they are both written by an Aussie guy, and i LOVE the Australian sense of humour!