As you know, in just under 5 weeks I am travelling around parts of the Americas (see The Route) and in preparation for this, I have been reading up on travel guides, online forums and blogs, and have absorbed so much information that it's almost impossible to know what is worth seeing, visiting, and doing.

Although I love my Rough Guides, and won't leave the country without them, I came across something equally (if not maybe even more) valuable, after A girl, A style tweeted about it: Concierge.com's What not to do in...

These guides give a list of 10 things not to do in major cities across the globe, giving readers valuable information in what to do if you want to avoid tourist traps, queuing for hours for something that probably isn't that great, and wasting money. Instead, it gives alternatives, letting you into secrets that only the locals know about.

So while I am not giving up on my Rough Guides (they have served me very well in the past), I am still going to write down a few tips from these articles in the back pages. I hope my guide books won't be offended.