Rough Guides

Rough Guides is a travel guidebook and reference publisher. It was started in the summer of 1981 by Mark Ellingham, a recent graduate from Bristol University. While traveling through Greece, Mark and a small group of writers set about creating a guide to Greece that aimed to combine a journalistic approach to description with a practical approach to travelers' needs. In 2002, the company was sold to Penguin Books.

The Rough Guides range includes travel guides to more than 200 worldwide destinations, dictionary phrasebooks to 22 major languages, history guides, and maps printed on waterproof Polyart paper. The guides include recommendations from shoestring to luxury travel. Their ever-growing team of authors and photographers is spread all over the world. The Rough Guide series has attempted to diversify beyond the area of travel, as is seen by the publishing of the Rough Guide to World Music, Rough Guide to Classical Music, and the Rough Guide to the Internet. The range also covers Sports guides and Pop culture books covering everything from Lord of the Rings to Cult TV.

The Rough Guides is primarily targeted at budget-conscious backpackers, but also caters to a much broader and older clientele that enjoys their enthusiastic, critical approach. The guides contain "rougher" information about hostels and low-budget listings, along with details of restaurants and quality hotels that independent-minded visitors on any budget might expect.