For the Moment

Next month the young budget-conscious traveler browsing through the "Travel" section of the bookstore will be faced with two choices of student travel guides.

There's the mother of budget travel guides, thirty-three year old, Harvard-produced Let's Go. And then there's "the new kid in town," the Berkeley Guides. Published by Fodor's, the new series is being promoted as the fresh, politically aware, soybean ink alternative to stale musings by Harvard's "snotty little rich kids."

That, at least, is the image of Harvard's Let's Go writers that Berkeley is trying to establish, according to Pete Deemer, publishing director of the 1993 Let's Go series. Deemer says that Andrew R. Barbour, executive editor of the Berkeley Guide series and an editor at Fodor's, would like the public to believe that Let's Go is run "by a bunch of snobby Harvard bluebloods."

Barbour acknowledges that the Berkeley Guides series, individually titled "On the Loose in...," are intended as a direct challenge to the Let's Go series, which has dominated the market for much too long, he says.

"There's no doubt that Let's Go has become tired. They've been resting on their laurels," he says.

Barbour explains that Cal Berkeley seemed the perfect university to "go head to head" with Harvard. As a west coast public institution, Berkeley offers an alternative to a series coming from a "very expensive private school" like Harvard.

Scott A. McNeely, a writer and editor for the Berkeley Guides, says that Fodor's may have chosen Berkeley to illustrate "the epitome of East-West coast differences." He admits that much of the guidebook rivalry is based on stereotypes. At Berkeley, students may be "more politically aware, more aware of what's going on around the world, than at other schools."

Yet the Berkeley guides' political correctness "is not our raison d'etre," Barbour says. Berkeley is a liberal university, he says, and the student writers' sensibilities will come through. "We are socially aware. Fine. That's all we are," he insists, saying that the PC angle has been "overplayed" in the media.

Once readers get beyond stereotypes, however, both Deemer and Barbour are confident that their guides will be successful. Barbour says that the Berkeley Guides will present "fresh, contemporary copy" to travelers who are trying to avoid the "layering effect" of Let's Go Guides.

Let's Go resembles a porridge of different styles all jumbled into one mishmash," he says.

But that "porridge" is actually better than what Berkeley will be serving, Deemer says.

"I think Andrew Barbour may call it `fresh.' We call it `subjective,'" says Deemer. Let's Go guides are "well-rounded" books, he says, since the average book is compiled from the travel experiences of 10 to 15 different researchers. Each chapter of a travel guide, he explains, ought to offer information, not "one person's very subjective experience."

Let's Go is not too concerned about the Berkeley Guides' arrival on the book shelves next month. If would-be travelers compare the books side by side, says Mark N. Templeton, the publishing director for the 1994 Let's Go series, "we're confident people will choose us."

"We like the idea of having a new competitor that we can trounce," says Deemer. "That's the biggest thrill of all."