New DK 'Eyewitness Travel' Guides Make Great Stocking Stuffers

If you know someone who is planning a trip in the coming year to New York City, Paris, or London, here's a stocking stuffer to add to your holiday gift list: an updated DK Eyewitness Travel guide.

For the uninitiated, DK is the U.K.-based publisher that publishes lavishly illustrated, site-intensive guides that often make you feel as if you've already visited a  place even before you go. For example, the 2015 Italy guide contains 48 detailed maps, 322 illustrations, 1,521 photos, and is almost 700 pages.

The re-designed guides are geared to better integrate in-depth DK information graphics with normal tourists activities:

• Itineraries based on lengths of stay, regional destinations, or themes.
• DK Choice listings highlighting special recommendations for dining and accommodations.
• Country guides itineraries ranging from two to 14 days.
• Restaurants plotted on maps and listed with adjacent sights.
• More detailed street maps with subway stops and viewing points.

The guides sell for about $25, although the thicker Italian guide is $30. The books are quite hefty as well, so be sure there's no hole in the toes of the stockings.