India Guidebooks

In my highly subjective opinion and experience, the LP is more comprehensive in its coverage than the Rough Guide, but the reviews in the Rough Guide are more helpful. If you intend on travelling on a strict budget, than the Rough Guide will be more than enough for your needs. That being said, I always carry my well-worn LP when on the road ;-)

i think they each have their strengths and weaknesses.

i have the Rough Guide, which i like because it devotes more space to background information (which is obviously vital and not going out of date anytime soon), and less to things like restaurant recommendations with exact prices of entrees, which will become outdated probably by the time the book is even on shelves.

however, the LP guide is more jam-packed with the nuts and bolts of bare logistical fact. which, if you're one of those people who likes to plan things very intensively and have it right on paper how much that lassi is supposed to cost, might be important.

they both also have their flaws, including factual errors and omissions in both.

I would agree strongly with the above. Personally, I carry the LP and Footprints. The LP does the mechanics of the main trail well. Off the beaten path Footprints shines. For shorter hauls I now carry the DK despite its god awful weight (for some reason they send me that). I find it well written and "inspirational". Information is the best thing to carry..

At the end of the day, a guide book is nothing more than that. It's a guide, not a rigid list of must see/must do.

As Edwardseco points out, the LP is good for people who want to go on the main trails (ie. the standard tourist cities).

So, I guess the question is what are you wanting to do in India - follow the cow-trail and see the monument sites or get off the beaten track and see some of the hidden India ?

Cheers
Zoltan

Borrow a few different ones from a library and make your own decision. Personally I read a few and take notes on the main things and use those notes.

Take both. And toilet paper.

i prefer rough guide. sometimes the LP is better for practical info, but the rough guide reads more intelligently and has better historical information.

but whatever guide you chose (and i do think a guide is a handy thing to have) one good trick is to chop out the pages you aren't going to use. for my trip to china last year, this eliminated about 2/3 of the book. and then once you get there, rather than lugging around the guidebook when you are out seeing things, just tear out the pages that you need for that area and carry them with you.